Your work meetings like with the holograms of ‘Star Wars’ thanks to 5G

The three-dimensional image of Princess Leia broadcasting her distress message is part of popular culture. Even those who have not seen the films of the saga, easily associate the holograms with Star Wars. If anything, holographic technology has a promising path ahead. The arrival of 5G will allow heavier images to be transmitted through networks. In this way, it will be easier for these 3D images to be adopted as a standard in communication between people.

Video calls, so common since the pandemic took over our routines, could be made using a 3D hologram. It’s not just the speed of the network that will influence our ability to deal with holograms. Also the low latency. These two aspects, of paramount importance in 5G, will allow images to be transmitted properly and not be unbalanced or suffer interruptions.

The origin of holography

The differences between holography and photography are obvious. The second captures a two-dimensional snapshot, while the first offers three-dimensional or multidimensional information. When the viewer moves they will see different angles of the projection and this will make sense at all times.

This result is reached through decades of research. One of the pioneers in this field was Dennis Gabor, who studied Mechanical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Budapest and the University of Berlin. There he began to work in one of the physics laboratories of the Siemens company. Following Hitler’s rise to power, he was forced to leave Germany because of his Jewish origins. And it was in 1947, in the United Kingdom, when he happened upon a new method of forming images on a circular transparent slide. He called that technique holography, for ‘holos’ (everything, in Greek). Its discovery went unnoticed at first but years later it gained international recognition. So much so that in 1971, Gabor received the Nobel Prize in Physics.

How holograms work

It can be said that a hologram is a record of the interference that occurs between two beams of light when the light from one of the beams reflects off the object. This registration is carried out with a laser beam on a photosensitive film. From there, it is possible to generate a three-dimensional projection of the image.

When it comes to image projection, it’s really just a matter of having the right receiving device. “Holography works the same as live streaming, but changing the final screen for a holographic device”, point out from the technical department, specialized in holography. “Although it is always necessary to follow the specific technical parameters of lighting and recording as per techguff.com.”

5G as a boost for holography

In the field of holographic images, 5G will be a boost. The graphics are very heavy, so the high speeds offered by the new generation of networks are adequate. But also its low latency, thus avoiding interruptions. Otherwise, the projections may suffer cuts and decompensation.

“Currently enough powerful network connections are needed to avoid delays in full HD broadcasts,” they point out from 3DH. “ With the arrival of 5G we hope to avoid these delays and to be able to broadcast in 4k without problems . It will help us a lot in the retransmission of holographic images ”.

There have been several pilots who have made video calls with holograms via 5G networks. And this is one of the applications being considered as a driver of the new connectivity. It is based on augmented reality. Two people could sit quietly chatting, each with the other’s hologram.

It seems like a thing of the future, but in 2017 the first international video call was already made. It was made between Seoul and New Jersey. In South Korea, KT Telecom, one of the participants in the project, pointed out that this type of communication would be available with the new 5G. The idea is to provide a greater sense of reality. From the flat image of video conferencing, it would move to a three-dimensional one, which would capture much more detail, such as body language.

The following year another milestone took place in the field of holography. Mischa Dohler, a professor of wireless communications at King’s College London and a music composer, demonstrated the capabilities of the technology at a concert. It was a live event, where he acted as a pianist on stage while his daughter sang through a hologram. The holography showed the girl a few meters from the piano, singing to the rhythm of her melody. The two were 1,000 kilometers apart, but the latency was minimal, so the result was impressive.

It’s just two glimpses of what holograms can do. From 3DH they list, as the main applications of technology, ” communications, events, exhibitions, fairs, shops, and businesses “. Although they point out that they are currently developing “new holographic applications for education, in schools, and the cultural sphere, for museums.”

Meetings via holographic telepresence

With current technology, it is possible to generate video calls with holograms. This is what the project offers a telepresence system that shows an assistant remotely through volumetric video. For this, augmented reality techniques will be used. Participants in this holographic meeting will have to wear HoloLens 2 type glasses.

The remote assistant will be staged in a 3D augmented reality figure. The idea is that it can be observed from all angles. A factor that will be useful for training in different areas, such as rehabilitation techniques or medical interventions. But objects can also be displayed in 3D, which will be useful when examining prototypes in industry, for example.

It will be necessary to deploy a volumetric capture room. This will feature multiple depth cameras, such as Intel’s RealSense. What they will do is capture the 3D figure of a person in real-time. From there, the images will be generated using Evercoast software. To send them, considerable bandwidth will be needed and here 5G comes into play. Thanks to edge computing processing, multidimensional images can be served to meeting attendees.

Video calls with a 3D hologram on mobile

The next step is to take the holograms to much more everyday terrain. This is what some initiatives that have put smartphones in the spotlight are looking for. From these devices, they have been able to generate holographic images, although not always with good resolution.

One of the methods used is simply an optical game to channel the light, with a simple pyramid projector. Of course, it is not the most advanced, but today almost all holograms generated with smartphones need some type of projector. Although some have tried to create them using only miniaturized technology, integrated into the smartphone, such as HoloFlex. For the moment, the results have to improve.