Are we about to get one step closer to a Holodeck?

Ian Hughes/epredator Metaverse Evangelist

Taking a bite out of technology so you don’t have to

www.feedingedge.co.ukBCS Animation And Games Development

Thursday, 21 March 13

Are we about to get a step closer to a holodeck.

epredator’s workplace

Thursday, 21 March 13

Me, I live and work online in all sorts of virtual places. I would love to be able to interact with a lot more than screen and keyboard. Not everything I do is virtual I am an Assistant Instructor in the martial art Choi Kwang Do.

http://issuu.com/flushthefashion

Thursday, 21 March 13

I write a regular tech column in Flush Magazine. Recently I wrote one on how close we are to a real holodeck. Other features have been virtual worlds, 3d printing, sports training with game tech and electric superbikes.

What is a holodeck?

The holodeck is depicted as an enclosed room in which objects and people are simulated by a combination of transported matter, replicated matter, tractor beams, and shaped force fields onto which holographic images are projected. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodeck

Who Invented it?

Thursday, 21 March 13

The Holodeck is great piece of science fiction. It provides plot narrative opportunities in what goes on and also what goes wrong with it. It is apparently really the idea from Gene Dolgoff a holographic expert and and inventor who also invented digital projection (which becomes relevant later on) He had a chat with Gene Rodenberry the creator of Star Trek and the holdeck was born.

CAVEs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb_laZUrA04Thursday, 21 March 13

CAVE - Cave automatic virtual environment has generally been a cube of rear project screens that help immerse the user in an experience. This video is CAVE2 where many more screens and some 3d positioning has been used. Again a Star Trek influence :)

Haptic feedback and walkinghttp://virtusphere.com/index.html

Thursday, 21 March 13

Being stuck in a cube means we don’t get to walk around very much, but there are potential solutions to that. This is one bit of game tech that puts the player in a “hamster ball”

Gadget showhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg8Bh5iI2WY

Thursday, 21 March 13

The Gadget show built a high end simulator for battlefield 3. It has surround vision, detects the player and the gun and has a rolling floor to enable walking in all directions. It had the added fun of haptic feedback with high velocity paint ball guns actually shooting at the player. 9:49 into the video is best

Digital projectionhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4anRxHHP2k

Thursday, 21 March 13

With a normal light projection if the surface being projected on is shaped and not smooth the image gets distorted. Understanding and 3d scanning the surface then using digital projection the image can be adjusted to deal with the surface. So we get lots of very large projections and animations on buildings, such as during the Royal Jubilee on Buckingham palace. This video though shows the effect on a persons face. It is very cool.

Kinect and Choi Kwang-Dohttp://code.google.com/p/tryplex/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmwIXpgTadI&feature=share&list=UUzggIACzASKJWRqd-gbqnXA

Thursday, 21 March 13

Know and understanding where a human is is important for a Holodeck. As you can see here there is information being captured as Choi Kwang Do movements are made, importantly it knows what is background and has removed it.

Digital removalThursday, 21 March 13

This can be used the other way around though. If it knows where someone is, then is can also potentially ignore that person. Kinect Party/Happy Action Theatre on xbox plays with this effect. Predlet 1.0 gets to see herself dissapear on screen. She is stood in the same place on both screens.

Digital removalThursday, 21 March 13

A similar effect but this time not just overlaying onto a human AR style, but actually removing them and drawing something else.

http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20120223885Thursday, 21 March 13

This patent application from Microsoft appeared published september 2012. It describes a potential system where you entire play space is projected into. It needs to scan the room, understand where the player is and project accordingly. As with Kinect Party knowing where the person is means it doesn’t have to project onto them, but instead around them. Understanding the surface shapes and also the reflectivity of each surface is also described. All possible with the Kinect today as we have seen.

Illumiroomhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re1EatGRV0w

Thursday, 21 March 13

Here is their concept video. Notice it keeps the screen as the highrez focus but uses the walls for atmosphere

Can we 3d print/feel virtual things around us?Do we skip this for direct brain interface?

Lots of questions still before we get to Star Trek’s time

We will get there before that I am sure!

http://www.southcoastckd.co.uk

Photo from Helen Storey

Thursday, 21 March 13

Pil Seung! Means Certain Victory. Whilst I look forward to Choi Kwang-Do training on a holodeck with force feedback. But we can simulate with real things ? Will it ever beat being in RedMan body armour? as I am in in this photo :)

www.feedingedge.co.ukBCS Animation And Games Development

Are we about to get one step closer to a Holodeck?

Ian Hughes/epredator Metaverse Evangelist

Taking a bite out of technology so you don’t have to

Thursday, 21 March 13