HoloVizio 3D, Holodeck 1.0 to Some, Makes Its Debut

TaeKwonDood writes to tell us that another step towards Star Trek's Holodeck technology has been taken with the advent of HoloVizio 3D. Allowing users to see and manipulate objects in 3D without the assistance of goggles, this distributed system shows a lot of promise. "The HoloVizio is a 3-D screen that will allow designers to visualize true 3-D models of cars, engines or components. Better yet, gesture recognition means that observers can manipulate the models by waving their hands in front of the screen. The function offers enormous scope for collaboration across the globe."

Comments

Isn't it just a multitouch flat panel?

[PC and Sony Fanboy]

Well, this looks interesting, but isn't it just a multitouch 3D flat panel? .. sure, you don't touch the screen directly, but it doesn't seem to be projecting anything.

Also, it sounds kinda lame...

CRS4 also developed rendering and visualisation software that may reveal the artistic secrets of the great masters, like Michelangelo. A scan of his famous David revealed that the eyes diverge. You can see the same effects if you look at a picture taken from the right angle. It isn't revolutionary, it sounds an awful lot like an awful lot of hype!

Re:Isn't it just a multitouch flat panel?

[mikael]

Depends upon the way the system is working. Does it track the position of a single person and adjusts the view accordingly? Or are there multiple GPU's rendering the scene from different angles and having these different views projected in different directions using vertically aligned lenses? In the latter case, projecting a view "outwards" should be possible. It certainly looks the case in the gears video

I wonder if this technology would scale into a laptop display?

We're not even at the goggles stage yet

[MrSteveSD]

I've been waiting some 20 years for home virtual reality and yet I still can't go into a shop and buy an immersive virtual reality games system or even a decent Head Mounted Display that has anything like human field of view. I'd like to be able to walk around games like Oblivion and look up at a huge castle by tilting my head back, giving me a real sense of how small I am in the world. I could buy a HMD now, but the FOV is like tunnel vision and so is hardly immersive. In fact FOV rather than stereo viewing is probably the most important thing for immersion since your binocular vision breaks down quite quickly over distance.

I wonder how many more years we are going to have to wait. It's really annoying since we have the computer power now (Compared to the Dactyl Nightmare cube graphics days) , but the visual hardware is lagging far behind and there doesn't seem to be much will to bring VR to the masses.

Home virtual reality is here.

[morgan_greywolf]

Close your eyes. Now imagine that you are on the balcony of mountaintop villa in Italy. The scenery is breathtaking-- the snowcapped peaks off in the distance, the hustle of the beautiful, palm-tree-lined streets below. The ocean pounding the cliffs to the west. Standing beside you is Cindy Crawford. She's pulls your head toward her, and kisses you full on the mouth, reminding you that you need to be looking at her and not the village... Now let your imagination carry you away.

There. Home virtual reality. And it was FREE even.

Wiimote + Lightsabers!

[StCredZero]

Heck with all that Star Trek sex rubbish! The true geek-gasm these things should give you is the potential for the Ultimate Star Wars Lightsaber game! Construct something like the Wiimote controller, but with lightsaber designs from the Star Wars movies. Throw in some gesture recognition for some force powers, and you have the ultimate geek game. Imagine it -- immersive 3D effects with physics, you holding a lightsaber, or gesturing to telekinetically deflect objects.

Dave & Busters would make a killing on those! I wonder how many Jedi would show up in costume robes?

Re:2D presentation of 3D screen

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Or ads for HD TVs that get broadcast in SD.