Slashdot Mirror
Telepresence Via Matter Imaging
Qa32 writes "Computer scientists in the U.S. are developing a system which would allow people to convey a solid 3D recreation of themselves over the Internet. From the article: 'When you watch something created by claymation, it is a real object and it looks like it's moving itself. That's something like the idea we're doing... in our case, the idea is that you have computation in the 'clay', as though the clay can move itself.'"
From the article:
If someone could make this work, I could see it being a useful improvement over traditional video-conferencing technology, albeit, maybe a bit eerie and weird to get used to.
I worked for a large corporation, and they continued to pump large sizes of dollars into each successive generation of new televideo conferencing equipment to the promise of it "like being in the room with your Denver peers" (putting aside for the moment I have no peers). And, while each generation was an improvement, the experience never even approached like being in the same room for so many reasons, but like the article points points out, maybe one of the biggest reasons was the permanent glass barrier.
I found no matter how "good" the quality got, it was always an annoying way to communicate and I finally opted for any of those meetings to participate from my desk via phone, no video.
However, for those who have seen Revenge, I found the "pseudo" conferencing whereby remote participants (at this point that line becomes blurred) existed as holograms, sitting in a chair in the room with everyone else. That may be eerie, but I think the biological nature of man would quickly overcome that weirdness and it could soon seem as if the person were really there.
Or, this could just be a bunch of hoooie.
I wonder if it would be possible to edit my 3D representation to make me look better.
Really change the future of net sex!
to being the real thing sans the nagging.
Monstar L
Great! Just what we need. A bunch of fat, bald, "claymation" old men running around in their underwear on the Internet looking for dates. It's bad enough they are already stuck behind the bright light of their computer screen doing this. Now they can practically "enter" the Internet for all to see!
Kind of reminds me of that Futurama episode where they all used VR gear to enter the Internet -- with an overall TRON-like feel. You had to love the chat rooms, with all of the guys cowering in one corner.
Don't doooo it Daaaaveeeey!!!
H.
I wonder what would happen if I were to touch the replicated object and attempt to mess around with the inner parts of it.
Or what kind of disaster would I end up with if there was some serious lag in the information? How about corrupted info?
Could this be used from crime sprees? Dress up in all black and then project yourself in a bank and steal the money. Or use your projected self and start beating people up on the streets, it's the perfect crime. If the comes up you just turn the thing back to dust.
Wouldn't creating a copy of another person be a form of piracy? Yet another technology that the movie/record industry will try to eliminate. After all, why should anyone be allowed to have a personal duplicate of Michael Jackson at home.
Sounds like some strange combination of the T1000 from Terminator 2 and Gumby.
Professor Goldstein has envisioned that, eventually, the objects will be built with "nano-dust" - tiny objects that can be programmed to bind to each other and move - but currently they are trying to build at a much larger scale, working with objects the size of table-tennis balls.
If he's going to try and invent "nano dust" (whatever that is) I think we're in for a long wait.
A fellow slashdotter told me about the boob mouse a few weeks ago. Since getting two, I haven't left the house. With this new innovation, I may never move from the computer chair.
1) Take old idea
2) Pull some nano-clay out of your ass.
3) Profit!!
omg, the thoughts of demolition man style sex make me wanan find whoever is doing this research and SHOOT THEM NOW BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!!
Ok... keep Pamela Adersons "consciousness" to yourself and just give me her body ;)
well here is a brief summary (from amazon):
Just about everyone's had a day when they've wished it were possible to send an alternate self to take care of unpleasant or tedious errands while the real self takes it easy. In Kiln People, David Brin's sci-fi-meets-noir novel, this wish has come true. In Brin's imagined future, folks are able to make inexpensive, disposable clay copies of themselves.
COUGH COUGH
I wonder what thoughts would have been conjured up in my head had I not known that 'Demolition Man' was a movie :)
I'm assuming this device could create objects other than human beings. What are the dangerous of being able to project custom objects onto someone's desk? Could I for example stab someone when they came near the device? It will be interesting how they create safeguards.
I hope these claythings are self cleaning. There's going to be lot's of Windows (exhibitionists), BSD (necropheliacs) and Linux (afraid of girls) fans wanting to get their hands on this technology. (I'm an equal opportunity offender) ;P
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
...Access Grid.
....the money wouldn't be laid down if it didnt' work.
Peep in on it; needs work, but works.
Get down on it for real 'edge work"
Money talks and AG has plenty from uni's all about.
This is more like that episode where Fry gets a robot copy of Lucy Liu. we just have to insert a blank robot in the drive and copy the information over and BAM!...a robo-mation copy of Gillian Anderson.
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
...projecting Braille dots so blind people can read machine text instead of having it read to them by some text-to-speech program?
Braille terminals have been available since, like, forever. It's only modern GUI systems that have excluded blind users with inherently visual interfaces.