We Live In The Future

Holograms are a definitive staple of science fiction culture, but researchers from the Human Media Lab at Queen’s University in Ontario are working to make them a reality. Friends, say hello to the TeleHuman.

The Telehuman is a life-size cylindrical video chat pod where users can communicate with three-dimensional displays that are capable of 360-degree representation. The technology is not necessarily holographic, though it appears much in the same fashion. The Telehuman uses ten Microsoft Kinect sensors to project your image onto a convex mirror which is then reflected onto a wrap-around acrylic screen. Go ahead and pinch yourself.

Only downside? It takes two of these bad boys to really work, and each Telehuman runs about $5000. On top of that, you’ll need to wear special glasses to view the images, even though the shades make the images noticeably dimmer. Still, with the rapid advancement of current technology, I’m sure it won’t be long before we see these things cropping up with a lower price tag in the very near future.

Watch a video of the Telehuman in action here.