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Are Holodecks and Holosuites in Our Relatively Near Future?

By Melissa Markham on February 18, 2008 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you have watched the 'newer' Star Trek series, then you are aware of the term "holodeck" and "holosuite". These are rooms that the people of the future can go into for a variety of purposes. Mostly these rooms are used for recreation. People simply put in a program and viola they are experiencing the roaring twenties, walking through the pages of their favorite novel, or going hiking through astounding vistas. It is like they are really there, with the added benefit of they can't be harmed. There are other people in the programs (who are holograms) and they will interact with you. Pretty cool really except when there is a malfunction and the safeties get turned off, but that is another story.

Anyway, as with so many of the ideas in the various Star Trek series, this one seems to be coming a bit closer to reality.

From National Geographic

Within a few decades movie-goers may be able to watch their favorite flicks in 3-D without the need for glasses, a new study says. University of Arizona optical sciences professor Nasser Peyghambarian and his colleagues have created what may be the first rewritable 3-D display surface, , one in which an image can be replaced with another within a few minutes.

Peyghambarian's team is working to get the time needed to rewrite the surface down to a fraction of a second.

"The ultimate goal would be some sort of 3-D video that doesn't require eyeglasses to view," Peyghambarian said.

Now while this is not a holodeck or holosuite, it seems to be to be a step closer to that technology. When you go to see a 3-D movie and it is done well and your glasses are on correctly, you feel like you can reach out and touch the things on the screen (I remember how freaked out my kids were during a 3-D IMAX showing of BUGS when a little spider appeared to be lowering herself inches from our nose).

So if we could have that same experience without the sometimes headache making 3-D glasses, it would not only be really cool, but a step closer to the Star Trek universe. We already have cell phones (think old communicators). Wonder when they will start making replicators (the Star Trek kind, not the Stargate kind, thank you very much!)