Holoportation - Coming Soon to a Location Not Near You

Teleportation. It’s a fantasy superpower right up there with flying, x-ray vision and invulnerability. Back as a child, reading the X-Men, I dreamed of what it would be like to BAMF into new locations as Nightcrawler does. Marvel’s comic book universe has so many characters with some type of teleportation power that Wikipedia lists 91 separate character pages with the ability. Shows like Heroes on TV and other comic publishers like DC comics have also prominently featured teleportation.

Microsoft’s Holoportation isn’t a superpower, but it is a great step forward in both augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) that gives users the visual experience of interacting with people and objects at a remove site. Using a unique camera configuration as shown in the video below, two users can interact in near real time with each other, seeing the “holoported” person in 3D via the VR display in their goggles.

How Does It Work?

Holoportation is made possible by Microsoft HoloLens, built on the Windows Holographic platform. This device, an AR/VR display inside a headset, is expected for release this week to developers at a cost of $3000. No timeline for consumer availability has been announced so far, but as kits like Google Cardboard have made the entry point for VR so low (you can build it for free using Google’s instructions), we now know that many current smartphones can provide enough processing power to smoothly render streaming 3D images. If the processing of the cameras is handled by a separate desktop (or laptop) computer, users might be able to use any phone capable of streaming Netflix movies. This means the technology required to achieve holoportation is many years old at this point and, depending on how Microsoft approaches it, could already be in the pockets and purses of a majority of smartphone users.

Learn more about holoportation by visiting the links below:

1. Microsoft Holoportation
2. Escapist Magazine
3. HBO's Silicon Valley

What do you think? Is holoportation something you will find useful? If so, will it be more useful for your personal life or in your everyday professional experience?