The virtual teleportation of people is one step closer to becoming a reality, with the introduction of Microsoft’s latest developments in 3D capture technology called ‘holoportation.’ The technology allows life-like 3D models to be reconstructed, compressed and transmitted in real time to anywhere else in the world.
The technology has been developed by Interactive 3D technologies (I3D), a division of Microsoft’s research dedicated to researching 3D graphics, computer vision, machine learning, novel hardware, AR and NUI.
The team experimented with the Microsoft’s HoloLens AR devices to develop holoportation, which allows users to see, hear, and interact with remote participants in 3D as if they were in the same room. Communicating and interacting with remote users can reportedly be as natural as face-to-face communication.
A user wearing a HoloLens device is tracked via multiple 3D video cameras at separate angles. The data is then fused together to construct a ‘temporally consistent model’ allowing them to ‘holoport’ to another location in 3D.
Microsoft states that holograms can be played back later with HoloLens or another device and made smaller to suit different environments.
HoloLens headsets will ship from March 30, 2016 onwards. Microsoft’s I3D team will present multiple papers at SIGGRAPH and CVPR 2016 this summer.