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So far, so near

We have reached a point where reality has surpassed fiction. Holoportation — a teleportation system that we had only seen in futuristic movies and series — is now possible. We are unquestionably witnessing a new revolution in the telecommunications industry and an unprecedented step forward for mankind.

22 June 2022

A few days ago NASA announced dramatic news, telling the world about something that until now only seemed to happen in science fiction stories. The first case of “holoportation” between Earth and space. The event, which took place for telemedicine purposes, undoubtedly opens the way for profound changes in the way humans will communicate within a few years. “Thanks to state-of-the-art technology and virtual reality, a group comprising NASA flight surgeon Dr. Josef Schmid and AEXA Aerospace CEO Fernando De La Peña Llaca and their teams were holographically transported from Earth to the International Space Station in real time. These are the first humans to be ”holoported” into space, which is an unprecedented milestone in the area of telecommunications,” according to the Ecoosfera media outlet. This is a breakthrough that clearly will revolutionize human life in the course of this decade.

What it’s about.Holoportation is a type of capture technology that allows high-quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed and transmitted live in real time,” says Dr. Josef Schmid. It is a similar experience to a video call, but those being holoported are being filmed with a multi-camera setup in their actual location, and this when combined with mixed reality displays allows users to see, hear and interact with remote participants in 3D, as if they were actually present in the same physical space. “This is how, using the Microsoft Hololens Kinect camera and a personal computer with custom software from Aexa, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet had a two-way, live-image conversation with Schmid and De La Peña, who were standing in the middle of the International Space Station. And thus, the first holoportation handshake from Earth in space really happened, just as we have seen in Star Wars or Star Trek movies,” Forbes writes about this incredible moment.

Why is this so important? “The conversation took place in real time, with no lag time in transmitting and receiving information. Normally there are very long lags in long-distance communications, which is why scientists believe that holoportation will completely revolutionize aerospace exploration. Just think that we can now holoport an astronaut to Mars in the blink of an eye, without having to wait through the 20-minute delay, which is the time it currently takes to send a message to the rovers on the Red Planet,” explains Ecoosfera. This method, they say, will also allow astronauts to have private family reunions.

Companies jump in. After the worldwide confinements due to the pandemic, when video calls were the way to communicate among humans, some companies announced that they have been working on holoportation issues for some time. One of them is PORTL. The California-based company has created phone-booth-sized machines to transmit holograms. “We say if you can’t be there, you can be streamed there,” David Nussbaum, the company’s chief executive, told Voice of America. Nussbaum is also known in the industry for developing a hologram of Ronald Reagan for the former president’s library and digitally resurrecting rapper Tupac Shakur. Voice of America reports that prices for the machine start at US$ 60,000, a cost that Nussbaum expects to come down over the next few years.

Another company offering an interesting service is the i2CAT Foundation. This non-profit innovation center affiliated with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and located in Barcelona promotes research on advanced digital technologies and has developed HoloMiT. “The foundation closed a one-year collaboration agreement with Cisco Systems to work on developing a new ‘3D holoconferencing’ system based on the capture, transmission and representation of volumetric video known as point cloud,” according to El Español newspaper. “The technology can even be used to change a hotel’s decoration, using HolMit to make the changes in the virtual world, without need of physically moving furniture, while also allowing avatars to enter a digital room,” explains Sergi Fernandez, director of i2CAT’s Media Internet division.

Holoportation is a technology that is still being perfected, but it is clear this it will soon open up unsuspected possibilities in hundreds of industries and hasten the need for reinvention in many others.