Ever been in a telepresence meeting and found yourself wishing that instead of just viewing a flat webcam image of the person you’re talking to, you could actually have a 3D projection of them in the room with you? Your answer’s probably no but this is still a cool hack anyway and something you may want to check out as it is something that seems to have leaped straight out of a sci-fi movie.
Telehuman is a “life-size telepresence pod” that utilizes the Kinect’s tracking and imaging capabilities to create a 3D model of a remote user and project’s it into a cylindrical display, creating a “pseudo-holographic image.” Here are the details from their website:
“a queen’s university researcher has created a star trek-like human-scale 3d videoconferencing pod that allows people in different locations to video conference as if they are standing in front of each other. ‘why skype when you can talk to a life-size 3d holographic image of another person?’ says professor roel vertegaal, director of the human media lab.
“The technology dr. vertegaal and researchers at the queen’s human media lab have developed is called telehuman and looks like something from the star trek holodeck. two people simply stand in front of their own life-size cylindrical pods and talk to 3d hologram-like images of each other. cameras capture and track 3d video and convert it into the life-size surround image.”
Be sure to check out their website to learn more about the hack using the link we’ve included below. The video will also allow you to see this amazing tool in action!
