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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."
I'm guessing the technology to pull this off is more Virtual than Reality. Maybe before I die (I'm only 24) we may see this, but I'm about as hopeful as I am for the success of Cold Fusio.
-kaplanfx
Visualize Whirled Peas
And so the sun sets on a great nation. Farewell Japan, I will miss your innovation after you finish building this device.
-Colin
How long until the porn industry picks up on this one? "Touch my virtual objects, baby."
(first post?) Yes, clearly this is literally the Holodec. And I am Captain Kirk.
Currently hooked on AMP
until it can... function... like a real person there is no way you could get away with calling it a holodeck ;)
This is a legitimate continuance of the idea of the TV. Why limit the media to two senses?
Some other time I might mention about the limitation of bandwidth demand based on my inability to "sink" more than about 280 MB/sec.
information is shared smoothly and intelligently regardless of location or language
These initiatives are usually well intentioned (Japan has a vested intererest in understanding what the hell every other English speaker in the world is talking about), well funded (Japan has more money than you think) and utterly doomed to failure.
Wait another ten years. Move along here.
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
Smell and touch? I'm waiting for the day that I'll be able to taste it.
die444die
Why it's vaporware.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
How would you know when you'd actually left the holodeck? Maybe "real life" is just a simulation! Maybe Slashdot is actually all just a simuation! Argh!
And I, for one, welcome our holographic image overlords... Except they aren't here and the Japanese have no idea how they're going to do it. You can talk it up all you want. I want a holodeck as much as the next person (can you imagine the 'adult' selection?) but come on. So, in conclusion, I, for one, welcome our new hyper-optimistic big-talking money-receiving overlords, and remind them that as an American teen, I really really want a holodeck. ASAP.
This is not the holodeck.
Flickering see-through projections and little puffs of smelly air trying to convince you that you're experiencing a real horse simply can't compete with standing next to an actual, farty horse.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
In light of the direction that every medium has been used for since the invention of cave drawings, this was the first thing I thought of also.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Kinky. I can see this would be a new frontier for the porn industry.
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.
In the beginning the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and is widely considered as a bad move.
was when the author started pointing out uses for such a thing (i..e home shopping and "feeling the texture" of a handbag before buying it.)
If they were trying to get me to invest in this, I don't think they would need to make much of a case as to whether its useful. They should concentrate on trying to convince me that they could actually implement this kind of technology. (which I doubt very much - how do you get holograms that you can feel?)
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
And the best we can come up with how to combine it with watching football/other_sit_on_your_ass passive event? :/ Shit, I mean at least imagine playing in the superbowl......
Personally, I'd rather simulate being in space, other cool adverture, etcetera.......
they will make a law as to whom, what, and where you can have 'virtual reality sex' with...
Imagine getting busted cuz you was pretending to be a VR prostitute for a while just cuz you felt sleezy...
I Don't know... Ive seen Lots of porn that I DEFINATELY don't want to smell :-(
0xB315AA8D852DCD3F3DCA578FD2E0BF88
What they give a damn however are all the cool spinoff techs it hopefully creates.
It's like the Apollo project: landing on the moon is nice from a propaganda viewpoint, but ultimately a very useless thing to accomplish, at least the way they did it. The real benefit was all the tech that was developed to get there. THAT was the real payoff of the whole thing. Same with this attempt to create a holodeck.
I think this technology is really cool, but one part of the article that really cracked me up was the statement:
...
Can you imagine hovering over your TV to watch Japan versus Brazil in the finals of the World Cup
While not imposible, it is very unlikely to happen anytime in the near future. On the other hand, who knows, in 18 years, they might be actually be able to field a world cup winning team. There is usually a lag between hosting a world cup and a vitalization of a strong football program. While not strong yet, the United States football is much stronger that what it was only a decade ago.
for the first Corrs concert broadcast this way!
I could throw a virtual teddy bear on stage for Andrea! That way she wouldn't get clocked in the head with one like she did in Montreal last year (she said, "Okay, who hit me in the head? Thanks, anyway!")
And she wouldn't have to put it in her luggage!
Especially since the next time they come through the Bay Area, I'm gonna get her a huge stuffed gorilla - enough of this teddy bear shit! I want Jim to be able to say he always knew she'd end up in the arms of a gorilla.
Seriously, I can't imagine how the porn will work - do I get a virtual blowjob? If I grope the porn star's tits, do I feel flesh or does it feel even more like a boob job? I gotta tell you, I had Amber Lynn take a five-dollar bill out of my mouth with those tits, and fake or not, they sure as hell felt like real velvet to me!
If 3D can work that, I'm up for it.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
This is just Emeril Lagasse's Smellavision
Now I can actually have a real virtual GF. lol
Their policy is to announce "it'll be done by 2020", then wait, while paying out ever more Japanese corporate welfare, and claim the credit when the inventors produce the tech sometime during the next human generation.
Meanwhile, Toshiba's already got one. A little one, but 15 years ahead of schedule.
--
make install -not war
Well, Japan is known for these sorts of long-range projects.
They figure even if it ultimately gets nowhere near the desired goal, the spin offs will be profitable and useful.
Remember the Fifth Generation Computer Project? They got absolutely nowhere near what they wanted with that - but it did boost their IT industry.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
If history repeats itself we can expect interesting research and innovation, none of which actually produces a holodeck.
You said it. Just check out the this Wikipedia entry or google fifth generation project for information on an earlier ambitious Japanese projec with somewhat somilar lofty goals. There were books, committees, conferences, committees, research, comittees, and lots of output. Although some interesting technologies trace at least some of their roots to the fifth generation project, the actual project didn't reach its goals.
... will this be the same blazing success as Fifth Generation Computing?
Not meaning to be disrespectful, but I always love it when Big Government tells us what toys we will be playing with in ten years.
And while I love the Holodeck as the lazy scriptwriter's friend in every other TNG episode, this is one of those technologies that has to be perfect (or at least 99.9%) to work. Total immersion in a Doom-like Game - Hell, yes. Smelling a TV set designer's idea of a football stadium while sitting on my couch - thanks, but no thanks.
China is rapidly developing their 'reverse tachyon' technology, to keep the Japanese in check.
I sense a marketing opportunity for my ScatBlocker(TM).
Exactly.
They did the same thing with the Fifth Generation Computing Project back in the eighties.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Have you ever seen such a good burger you wanted just a nibble, and your mouth started watering?
Now you will surely go buy that burger because you smell it too!
And, on a side note, im going to touch cheerleaders and it wont be sexual harrasement!
On the other hand, this is not your Father's (or at least younger uncle's ) Japan. Japanese research, as based upon checking the names in the journals I read, has been becoming more innovative and forward thinking in the last 15 years. They've also shown no fear towards hiring American researchers who have been 'right-sized' by short-sighted native corporations (NEC picked up a lot of researchers from various NJ chemical and materials firms). As RAH once put it, "there is intelligent life in Tokyo."
This probably won't produce a holodeck, but given CAVE technology (works), haptics (works), and some of the newer innovations such as microvoltage stimulation for motion effects, you may actually get something this time, even if it won't be the Trek 23rd century version.
I personally look forward to virtual clothes shopping, at least for other people whom I generally have to follow around and critique during the process.
the more accurate the calculations became, the more the concepts tended to vanish into thin air. R. S. Mulliken
Your post advocates a
(x) technical ( ) legislative ( ) market-based ( ) vigilante
approach to fighting sex addiction. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea.
( ) Violates amendments to Constitution
(x) Christians would object
(x) Technical limitations
(x) Gives a whole new meaning to sexually-transmitted virus
( ) It will slow hormones and then we'll be stuck with it
(x) Prostitutes will not put up with it
(x) Microsoft will not put up with it
( ) The police will not put up with it
( ) Unsustainable business model
( ) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once
(x) Many brothels cannot afford to lose business
( ) Pornographers want to keep people coming back
( ) Detrimental impact to society as we know it
Specifically, your plan fails to account for
( ) Laws expressly prohibiting it
( ) Lack of centrally controlling authority
(x) Mail-order brides
(x) Asshats
(x) Jurisdictional problems
( ) Unpopularity of local franchises
( ) Public reluctance to accept weird new sexual deviancy
(x) Huge existing investment in dildos, lotion and porn videos
( ) Susceptibility of protocols to attack
(x) Unwillingness of users to install birth control patches received by email
(x) Armies of worm riddled broadband-connected Windows boxes
(x) Eternal virtual-penis-length race involved in all approaches
( ) Extreme profitability of porn
( ) Identify theft
( ) Technically illiterate politicians
( ) Extreme stupidity on the part of people who do business with the sex industry
( ) Dishonesty on the part of pornographers themselves
(x) Bandwidth costs
( ) Windows Media Player
and the following philosophical objections may also apply:
(x) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever been shown practical
( ) Any scheme based on opt-out is unacceptable
(x) Malfunctions suck
( ) Forgetting your BSDM safeword sucks
( ) It's bad enough reading Viagra email, now I have to see it around me
(x) Devaluing real relationships
( ) Why should we have to trust you and your servers?
( ) Incompatiblity with open source or open source licenses
(x) Feel-good measures do nothing to solve the problem
( ) One-nighters are cumbersome
(x) I don't want pervs sniffing my connection
( ) Drugs are not the answer
Furthermore, this is what I think about you:
(x) Sorry dude, but I don't think it would work.
(x) This is a stupid idea, and you're a stupid person for suggesting it.
(x) Nice try, assh0le! I'm going to find out where you live and burn your house down!
Take off every sig. For great justice.
This brings a whole new 'angle' on the pay per view concept.
Imagine this (seriously - think about it (it may make you rich)): The amount you pay would get you a better veiw of the action. X amount puts you at the 300 foot level. Y gets you on the 50 yard line, Z puts you on the field.
Football (despite its popularity) isn't the best choice for this. I think motion sickness for all the camera changes would be a bit much.
However, auto racing is a good choice. It already enjoys multi camera (car) angle (one per channel) access on cable providers. Now you could really be in the car with the driver.
Golf is another logical possibility. Stand there at the tee. See the swing and watch the ball go.
Umm.. Swimming, or diving shows may prove a bit of a hard sell. Think of it this way: Ever watch a show with an under water segment (Posiden adventure?) - did you hold your breath, or become very concious of your own breathing while the poor actor seeming had to swim much too far?
Pron: Yeah what ever. Probably the first market segment to leverage the technology, but probably not to its true abilities. But there will be a lot of sales.
Which brings us to the next question: What do you think the band width requirement is going to be. Will your puny little HD-DVD (or BluRay) be enough to drive that kind of display?
If this lets me smack a ref for a stupid call then sign me up!
A holodeck would be, at best, sharing experience. Sharing information (especially "intelligently") is, in some ways, a more durable puzzle... if only because each new instance requires a new solution...
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
The Japanese government essentially just announced that they were going to subsidize the porn industry. How long will it take for pornographers in the rest of the world to sue?
Why are the Japanese years ahead of the rest of the world in the field of virtual reality porn? Or does anybody honestly beleive this technology has other applications? If we had a president with vision, he would immediately declare it the highest priority mission of the United States to close the VR porn gap! Instead, all he does is promise a mission to mars... sigh.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Researchers are looking into ultrasound, electric stimulation and wind pressure as potential technologies for touch. Such a TV would have a wide range of potential uses.
It has really only one use that most users would care about, and for those users, there are also low-frequency ("vibration") versions available.
Other than that, I think most people are grateful that they don't smell the smells at a football game with a zoom lens.
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
Thereby eliminating the primary advantage of watching a football game on TV.
The introduction of the Holodeck on Star Trek ruined the show. No Captain would have allowed one of those on there after the first time the damn thing took over the ship or trapped most of the crew in some bizare setting.
If the holodeck becomes a reality (pun intended) once it comes down in price where almost everyone can have one, similar to computers, all high tech countries in the world will collapse within a few years. No one will want to leave the holodeck to do anything real. Services will start to fail as people stop going to work. As things get worse more and more people will withdraw into a holodeck environment to escape. There will be a brief increase in home delivery type services, pizza places will experience a boom cycle. But slowly other services will start to fail. Power outages will result in massive riots as people are forced out of their holodecks to search for generators and inverters to keep the holodecks working. More and more people slow starve to death trying to exist on holodeck generated food.
The few people that manage to evade holodeck addiction will be forced to flee the major cities as most power, water, sewage, and other services are in complete disrepair.
When holodecks become a reality the world will end.
But there *is* no spoon.
I have no idea how far they'll get with this, but I say go for it!
Even if they don't get the ultimate goal, they'll probably come up with a lot of awesome stuff along the way. Who knows? It might even be better than what they were originally looking for!
If you reach for the impossible, sometimes you'll surprise yourself and actually get it.
I never really understand the "it's impossible" tech crowd. Of any group of people, we should be the first to know that our livelihoods and hobbies were 'impossible' fifty years ago. Such cynicism from such a young crowd. Eesh.
as opposed to all that physical work I'm doing now by driving to the office every day and sitting there for hours, then driving home and sitting for the rest of the night?
Though I guess you have a point- we dont have simulated smells.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
why haven't tractor beams been researched on? so many technologies would be possibles with tractor beams. holodecks, space elevators, etc.
One good fart could ruin the Superbowl for millions of viewers!
"you may actually get something this time, even if it won't be the Trek 23rd century version."
Why bother speaking at all? Everyone knows Holodecks wern't invented until the 24th century!!!
"The ministry plans to request a budget of more than 1 billion yen to help fund the project" More than a billion yen! That could pay for... the airfare of bringing in specialists to work on the project. A billion yen is 9 million dollars. If the US President said he was committing 9 million to developing a tacticle holographic television it'd be the biggest joke since "I did not have sexual relations..." Are we forgetting this is in a country where people regularly pay more than a million in their currency for a car?
Rex is 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
'Vagisil Commercial'
Whole new meaning to the words feminine itch and odor.... (heh - scratch and sniff)
Actually, in a 1944 Bugs Bunny cartoon, The Old Grey Hare , a newspaper headline from the future reads, "Smellovision replaces television? Carl Stalling sez, 'It'll never work!'"
A guy who goes by the user ID 'eno2001' on /. plans to build a time machine. This device will be able to travel backwards and forwards in time. It will also protect the person being transported from the time changes so that he or she won't age beyond normal time. How he plans to do it is... well... wait and see.
/. on having at least three meaningless claims posted in a single day.
Congratulations to
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Didn't RTFA (of course), but it sounds like another one of those over-ambitious ideas that the Japanese are known for. Don't get me wrong - I think this kind of imagination is what propels us into the future. However, what they're talking about is obviously beyond our current capabilities.
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
Maybe Slashdot is actually all just a simuation!
After thorough observation, I must concur. Beam me up, Scotty--there's no sign of intelligent life here.
The Small intestine! Favorite part, by the way.
You'll never find out if it's the holodeck or not unless you say, "Computer: Is this the holodeck?" or "Computer: Arch!" Then, assuming alien spirits haven't possessed the computer core or whatever the crisis is this week, you'll find out.
You write like Ali G talks!
Although I agree that every form of media has been used for porn since, has anyone actually seen pornographic cave drawings?
^^vv<><>BA
Do we really want to smell that football locker room?
-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+ *** http://www.mountainfort.com *** +-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-
I'm experiencing 3D visuals, subtle smells, and high fidelity audio right now. And it's mobile!
I'm glad their looking ahead but this will be more newsworthy if they actually manage to pull it off.
**insert favorite profound quotation here**
But if a malfunction sucks, is it really a malfunction?
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
So NASA's great failure was to not have a large expensive project that had a spinoff technology related to porn.
Because our computing experience cannot be complete unless we get to smell and taste goatse.cx
> which will allow you to smell and even touch objects in the 3-D space
Let's hope they finish before Nina Hartley reaches the age of 59 1/2.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
3d hdtv? great, thats good thinking. smells? yeah, just what I want. To be able to get upclose and personal and smell some football player's smelly nutsack. and how do they intend on "extracting" the smell? i think that has gone a little too far.
not to be confused with Smellovision and Aroma-Rama
welcome our new Virtual Reality overlords, what with their ability to virtually enslave me while smelling the virtual stink of my virtual slavepin....
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
HDTV in 3D. That's volumetric pixels. 1080 x 1920 x 1080? That's 1000x as much information coming at you. 2.2 gigapixels/frame x 30fps = 66 gigapixels/sec in 24? bit color means 200 gigaBYTES/sec of bandwidth. Guess I need to start saving up for a new router...
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
You got that one right, friend.
How many beans make five, anyhow ?