VR porn could be the solution to overpopulation in the long run. It might save the planet.
The artfully nude and strategically covered gambit will no longer work when every perv will try to get a look from every conceivable angle. Mosaics shall have a bright future ahead in Hollywood.
Before or after we get personal jetpacks?
And some scientists say those scientists are full of shit.
I really like how the article strives to be solidly grounded in reality by referencing everything back to specific scenes from that classic documentary of the perils and successes of technology, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”.
Nothing says “new updates about interesting technology” like references to 25-year-old pop culture.
Have they solved the problem now that holograms are not, and never will be opaque? How about the one where you will never be able to touch or lean on a hologram? Maybe that holodeck is… I dunno… a plot device?
To get a true holodeck experience, you need some pretty advanced technology. Holodecks on Star Trek were described as using different technologies, but usually as a combination of light projection for the 3D images and carefully manipulated force fields so you could touch them. Sometimes items were described as being replicated and transported onto the holodeck and later recycled back into the replicator system. To keep from running into walls, the floor would act like a treadmill.
The article mentions that last one, but it seems to be the only technology that exists so far. Projecting 3D images is one of those things that perpetually 10-20 years away. And if we develop force fields, replicators, and transporters, holodecks are pretty much an interesting offshoot compared to the major implications that would come with those.
I’m not sure how this tech would work for the benefit of porn, unless the experience that you’re trying to replicate is “standing in the middle of an orgy whilst everyone ignores you.”
But we would prolly run out of towels.
In the mean time, there are always immersive experiences like Speakeasy Dollhouse or (the more grandiose, but less interactive) Sleep No More
There’s a lot of interest in touchless interfaces for operating rooms, where people need to maintain a sterile environment. One of the problems with gesture technology is the lack of feedback that you get with current interfaces, such as the click and kinetic response a keyboard or clicking a mouse. My last company had developed a responsive touchless monitor but I think we had one doctor figure out how to really work it - guy said it saved lives. But not many because I guess no one else could handle it. It looked cool though.
I was interested in holographic buttons, which could give visual feedback - they exist but don’t work well.
So, ORs are one place that will likely adopt holographic technology when it advances.
Honestly, you can find “some scientists” who’ll say pretty much anything.
And yet a third group of scientists notes that these guys are really using “applied sciences”, which makes them engineers, not scientists.
We’re almost there anyway. Hell, using an Oculus Rift with two camera’s (there’s a vid of someone who does this using two Logitech webcams and a full IR motiontracking suite, but you can improve this using a couple of laser projector/kinect base stations which project on a pair of specially coated sunglasses (John Carmack was kinda working on this, but he was thinking of projecting directly on the eye … I think my idea is safer and actually easier due to the trackability and constancy of using a well-defined surface curve)) for the visuals, use any of those moving floors (that old-school VR type ball you walk on or the movable tile floor) and use compressed air bursts or better yet sound waves for force feedback and you’re practically there.
To be honest, I’d be surprised if such a rig wasn’t actively being integrated or at least designed/developed in some lab somewhere. As Gibson said, the future is here, it just isn’t equally distributed.
To keep from running into walls, the floor would act like a treadmill.
But what if two people have an argument and storm off in opposite directions?
Who would want a true holodeck experience anyway? “Aw shit, the villains all became self-aware again and we can’t shut the damn thing off. Somebody call tech support!”
I don’t think they ever said what happens, but my guess would be the holodeck splits the simulation space in two (or more) pieces. There must be a limit on how much space each separate person needs for the simulation to remain realistic but it seems like a fairly large number of people can split off. On Star Trek Voyager they simulated a town using two holodecks and would have quite a few people in it.
People who want to fuck. That seems to be mostly what Quark’s customers use his holosuites for. I recall someone being shocked that Sisko let his son use them, but Quark explained that he just plays baseball in it.
I think Quark’s actual words were “Last time I checked he was in the middle of a double play.”
In a way that’s disappointing. I was hoping they would both smack into the opposite walls, and so learn an important lesson about friendship blah blah type of thing.
