Overview of Hologram Technology

For you 'technophiles', the following is a high level introduction on the current status and planned use of holographic technologies by industry as of 2017.

Holography is the science and practice of making holograms which are 2D or 3D images formed by the interference of light beams from a laser or other coherent light source. Types of holograms include: 2D Hologram - an image in the two dimensions of length and breadth. 3D Hologram - an image which has the three dimensions of length, breadth and depth Stereogram - a hologram produced by recording many individual frames of a sequence of images to provide an animated picture.

Examples of Hologram Functional Applications

Holographic technologies are now being used in a various ways by industry. For example, they are being used in authentication documents, for packaging and promotional design purposes, in stationery, in-store displays and décor, and in many other industrial applications such as instrument display, lighting, architectural and interior design, medical imaging, 3D visualization, mapping… The following are a selection of recent articles on holographic technology in the marketplace:

• Engineers made a new hologram that's cheap and way easier for everyone to use - 2-D holograms are already being used on some foreign money, credit cards and official documents such as driver’s licenses. Researchers from the University of Utah have now developed an inexpensive way to create lower cost, full-color 2D and 3D holograms, so expect the use of holograms by businesses to increase.
• A better way to make holograms for use in Art Museums - Holography uses include projecting 3D art displays in museums, enabling measurements to be made with great precision using a technique called holographic interferometry, and accurately assessing the three dimensions of packages for shipping companies.
• Holographic Augmented Reality Medical System - RealView’s HOLOSCOPE-i™ powered by Intel RealSense™ technology has been ergonomically designed for use in clinical environments such as interventional cardiology suites, being the first commercial system allowing clinicians a true holographic experience, with full and direct control of the 3D images in real-time during the procedure.
• Global Outlook for Medical Holography Market Analysis thru 2026 - Medical holography systems provide an advanced diagnostic methodology to the doctors. Some of the key players engaged in the growing medical holography market include Eon Reality Inc., EchoPixel, Inc., Zebra Imaging, General Electric, Microsoft, RealView Imaging, Holographic 3d solutions…
• Global 3D Hologram Projector Market 2017 – This report highlights some of the leading manufacturers in the Global 3D Hologram Projector Market 2017. They include: Hereholocube, Christie Digital Systems, Panasonic, 360BrandVision, Hologram Generator, Paradigm, Three D Holograms, SPIX, Virtual On, and Musion 3D.

Examples of Hologram Technologies & Tools

The number of available holographic technologies and tools are now proliferating much more rapidly as many of these software tools have now been released to the global ‘open source’ development community. The following are a selection of recent articles on some of these new holographic technologies:

• Red Hydrogen: 'Holographic' Phone - Red Hydrogen is promising a revolutionary Android phone with supposedly revolutionary tech: a "holographic" display known as 4-View that not only provides a glasses-free 3D image, but also lets you look around and behind objects by displaying multiple perspectives on whatever you're watching.
• HoloLens 2 will have a custom AI chip designed by Microsoft – Microsoft has announced that the next generation of its mixed reality HoloLens headset will incorporate an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chip. The race to build AI processors for mobile devices is running alongside work to create specialized AI chips for servers. Intel, Nvidia, Google, Facebook, ARM, Qualcomm, Google, and Microsoft are all working on their own projects.
• Mind Mapping in 3D with the HoloLens & Holo Mind - Mind mapping has been one tool that allowed someone to break down large problems into like components and help visualize the problems in different ways. Now thanks to Data Experts gmbh's Windows Store release Holo-Mind, we can do that in 3D on the HoloLens.
• HoloToolkit's Expanded Spatial Mapping Capabilities on HoloLens - Microsoft has announced that the Spatial Understanding module in the HoloToolkit has been open-sourced. As a result, the new module now looks a great deal better.
• Holographic Wi-Fi visually maps environments - Holographic Wi-Fi is a way to create three-dimensional images of spaces using radio waves. This new technology has tremendous potential for the military and for disaster recovery activities.
• Turn Your Data into a Hologram with this New HoloLens App - The Visualization Experience app lets you prepare and present your CAD data for visualization in HoloLens. Users can view, manipulate and interrogate their 3D data, all controlled by the use of hand gestures and voice commands. The app is free to download
• Microsoft holographic developer kits for cheap VR headsets - Windows 10 Creators Update will include a wealth of new 3D, virtual, and augmented reality capabilities. This will be used with a range of relatively cheap headsets. Facebook and others also have similar low cost or open source developer kits.
• Make Apps for HoloLens in JavaScript with HoloJS – The open source HoloJS framework is designed to help in the creation of Universal Windows Platform applications using both JavaScript and WebGL.
  

The marketplace for use of holographic technology is heating up, especially now that many of the tools have been released to the innovative ‘open source’ global community. This will result in an explosion of new ideas, software enhancements, and business applications. So keep your eye on this very fertile area for future growth! It will enter the mainstream over the next 5-10 years. Especially in the 'Arts & Entertainment' industry. Your best source of information on the holography industry and marketplace is the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA).

Teleportation: It will be achieved incrementally this Century

Several years ago, an ABC News article reported that 39% percent of U.S. adults believe scientists will make teleportation happen in the next 50 years, according to a new Pew Research. It turns out they may be right.

Teleportation involves the transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. Many believe current technology provides no possibility of anything resembling the fictional form of teleportation we have seen portrayed in Star Trek movies.

However, I prefer to listen to experts like physicist Michio Kaku. He has stated in a number of venues over time that he believes "It is physically possible to teleport an entire human being across the room or maybe onto Mars." See http://bigthink.com/videos/the-metaphysics-of-teleportation-2

Quantum teleportation is a process by which quantum information (e.g. the exact state of an atom or photon) can be transmitted from one location to another via classical communication between the sending and receiving location proceeding no faster than the speed of light.

With the advent of 3D printing, we can now essentially 'transport' inanimate things across space by simply sending the digitized information about an object to a 3D printer in another location – even Mars. When the information is received, the object can then be 'printed' out.

Now think about the recent advances in holography and virtual reality (VR) technologies. We will shortly be able to enter the world of virtual reality and 'visit' other parts of the world and our solar system from th comfort of our living rooms. Holography takes that another step forward. See Microsoft 'Holoportation' with Hololens

Physicall teleporting human beings is much more complex and is still many decades away. The solution that springs to mind, similar in concept to teleporting inanimate objects, may require us to do some profound thinking and to refine our definition of what exactly a human being is.

For example, is the 'heart & soul' of human beings the collected information and knowledge we have acquired since our birth that is stored in our brains. In other words, is a human some form of complex 'information being'.

If this is the case, can we be housed not only in our existing physical bodies, but could we also have the essence of our 'information being' digitized and teleported into a new synthetic 'body' of some sort (e.g. android, cyborg) at some remote location – anywhere in the world or across our solar system.

This may be possible in several decades as a wide range of technologies continue to advance and converge towards a moment of singularity where biotechnology solutions emerge and make possible the scenario above.

According to an article in a 2014 issue of 'The Futurist', we are not far from breaking the barriers to exchanging medical information, drugs, medical equipment, or life itself through biological teleportation and the advances of 3-D printing.

As civilization on Earth makes the transition from a Stage 0 to a more advanced Stage 1 civilization, the need to be able to teleport inanimate objects and 'human beings' around our solar system will become necessary.  See my related blog on "Redefining Our Purpose as Civilization Keeps Evolving".

The bottom line - teleportation is in fact possible right now and will progress incrementally over time, starting with inanimate objects in the immediate future and ultimately moving towards the teleportation of human beings.

One final note, by further embracing the use of open access, open source, and open communities, that will only help speed the process of developing more sophisticated forms of teleportation over the coming decades that will be needed by the end of this century.

The following are several links to key teleportation research, organizations, studies, etc.

ExtremeTech Teleportation News
AAAS Teleportation Scientific Research & News
Wired News Search: Teleportation
Michio Kaku on Teleportation – YouTube Video  
Get physical: Quantum Teleportation into the orbit is a Reality