Is This the Holodeck?

WillCodeForRaisins writes "CNET News is reporting that Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is planning to create "virtual reality" High-Definition 3-D TV which will allow you to smell and even touch objects in the 3-D space. This national research project is meant to be part of a larger vision under which Japan aims to promote "universal communication," a concept whereby information is shared smoothly and intelligently regardless of location or language. Imagine watching a football game on a TV that not only shows the players in three dimensions but also lets you experience the smells of the stadium and maybe even pat a goal scorer on the back. How are they planning to do this? Ummm... looks like wait and see."

Comments

That'd be nice...

[wyldeone]

Well, they seem to have just discribed the panacea of display and interface technologies. While a true 3d display probably could be made in the next 15 years, allowing users to physically interact with 3d objects without a huge haptics setup would be considerably more difficult, probably requiring some sort of interaction with the brain, making it think that those areas are solid. Smell doesn't seem nearly so difficult (there are already devices that will allow you to produce smells digitally), and not nearly as useful.

So basically they said that, yeah, we'd like to make a super futuristic display device and have it ready in 15 years. Meanwhile there has been really no progress in any of these fronts. Pretty much all 3d displays are just stereoscopy, and nothing terribly interesting seems to have happened with haptics in the last five years.

So yeah, that'd be nice, but you have to have some of the building blocks before you can make the grand vision.

Re:That'd be nice...

[ben_white]

Smell doesn't seem nearly so difficult (there are already devices that will allow you to produce smells digitally), and not nearly as useful.

If the intention of the device is to immerse you in an experience such as a football game, smell is much more important than you might think. The brain's emotional and memory systems are intimately tied to the olfactory system and olfactory input. Just a fait smell of the stadium could do more for "putting you there" than higher resolution displays and even more sound channels.

What occurs to me is that if a system like this becomes commonplace, and the majority of humans never actually go to the ballpark, then the typical smell of a stadium or ballpark becomes arbitrary (the "tasty wheat" paradox).

cheers, ben