If the efforts currently underway at the Universities of Calgary and Alberta (U of A) are successful, you might soon be able to chat and have a real dinner with your spouse sitting in front of you even if you're thousands of miles away from her. Pierre Boulanger, professor of computing science at U of A, has just received $1.7 million to develop new and inexpensive 'telepresence' tools to do just these kinds of tricks, and much more according to CBC News in Canada. "The technology could allow surgical instructors to transmit hand and scalpel movements thousands of kilometres across a computer network, where the movements would be recreated." Or you'll build a 3D model of the Earth core on your computer and a teammate will be able to reconstruct it and interact with it at the other end of the world. Read more.
Here are the opening paragraphs of the article.
New technologies could allow sweethearts separated by a long-distance relationship to talk over a meal, or medical students to learn surgical techniques in a virtual operating room, computer scientists say.
The University of Alberta's new $2-million program will develop 3-D technology that allows people to interact with holographic images in virtual encounters, said Pierre Boulanger, a professor of computer science at U of A[, and director of the Advanced Man Machine Interface Laboratory].
Here is Pierre Boulanger in his Virtual Reality lab (Credit: U of A, iCORE Industrial Chair on Collaborative Virtual Environments (Word format, 57 KB).
In 'telepresence,' someone can speak to others in a virtual meeting, much like TV characters from Star Trek act out their fantasies on a holodeck that projects realistic, 3-D images of people and places.
Curiously, there are more details in this news release of U of A, "New virtual reality chair to explore frontier of 'telepresence'."
Tragedy dramatizes human life as potentiality and fulfillment. Its virtual future, or Destiny, is therefore quite different from that created in comedy. Comic Destiny is Fortune—what the world will bring, and the man will take or miss, encounter or escape; tragic Destiny is what the man brings, and the world will demand of him. That is his Fate.
—Susanne K. Langer (1895–1985)
Imagine a world, for example, where professors of surgery transmit hand and scalpel movements, as well as what they see while operating, thousands of miles across a computer network, where it is recreated in an operating room.
"The student will actually look at that and actually feel what the doctor is doing," said Boulanger. "On the other hand, the doctor can feel what the students are doing and give them a nudge in the right direction. It’s like being in virtual residence with doctors."
You also can imagine what could happen with families when one member has to travel.
Families separated by travel will spend meals together through what is called 'telepresence,' said Boulanger. "You would wear special goggles -- and we’re working on that – which would allow you to see your wife sitting in front of you, having a day-to-day conversation. In the future you will have virtual encounters like this, people you want to be part of a meeting sitting beside you virtually and having a conversation."
Of course, this future low-cost technology would also be used for scientific usages.
At a press conference on campus Tuesday to celebrate his chair, and that of Dr. Christoph Sensen at the University of Calgary, Boulanger explained how scientists are now able to create and manipulate a model of the earth’s core by feeding computers highly sophisticated mathematical equations. Once recreated in 3D, the average person is fully capable of understanding such complex physical phenomena, he said. "People can actually interact with it, and say, "What happens if we have that instead of this?'"
For more information and links, please read this other news release from the University of Calgary, "Alberta building expertise in virtual reality computing."
Sources: CBC News, March 16, 2005; and various websites
Related stories can be found in the following categories.
Innovation
Medicine
Virtual Reality
Vision and Visualization Applications.