Are we any closer to a holodeck?

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.uk
BCS Animation And Games Development
Thursday, 21 March 13

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

epredator’s workplace


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

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?


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_laZUrA04

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 walking
http://virtusphere.com/index.html

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 show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg8Bh5iI2WY

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 projection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4anRxHHP2k

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.

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

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

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 removal

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 removal

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/20120223885

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.

Illumiroom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re1EatGRV0w

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

Lots of questions still before we get to Star Trek’s time
Can we 3d print/feel virtual things around us?
Do we skip this for direct brain interface?

We will get there before that I am sure!

Photo from Helen Storey

http://www.southcoastckd.co.uk

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 :)

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.uk
BCS Animation And Games Development

Are we any closer to a holodeck?

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