PHONE THAT WILL ALLOW CALLER TO SEE A LIVE IMAGE OF PERSON AT THE OTHER SIDE TO HIT MARKET IN 2019

When Princess Leia appeared before Luke Skywalker as a hologram in the
1977 blockbuster Star Wars, it was very much a work of science
fiction.
But fast-forward four decades and the hologram telephone call – which
will allow callers to see a live 3D image of the other person on the
line – is set to become reality.
The technology is being pioneered by Leia Display Systems, a Polish
company named after the Star Wars heroine.
Using a camera with two lenses and a tablets, your image is blended
into one and beamed onto a screen
It aims to have a working model of the telephone operating by next
year after it successfully built interactive 3D hologram machines.
To make a 3D phone call, a person will sit in front of a specially
adapted camera featuring two lenses and a microphone. The two images
the lenses create are blended to form a 3D version and streamed via
the internet to the person who is being called.
 A hologram machine will receive the image and beam it using a laser
projector on to a 'screen' of water vapour, which gives the image its
third dimension.
The hologram image will speak, move and listen in real time. The
company also believes its invention will be on the market within five
years.
"Our holograms will take video- phone calls to the next level," said
Marcin Panek, chief executive of Leia Display Systems.
"We are on the frontier of technology that was imagined in movies 40
years ago – it is science fiction becoming science fact.
"It will be as if loved ones, friends and family are standing right in
front of you while you talk with them halfway across the world.
"At the moment our holograms  are made using machines that are more
than 6ft high but we are designing smaller versions that can be set up
on a coffee table in a living room.
"It's incredible. Ten years ago people would have been astounded at
the idea of tablet devices but now they are everywhere.
"It will be the same with holograms. It is still early days but we
hope to sell hologram telephone devices within the next five years."
Mr Panek said the possibilities for the technology range from
relatives virtually attending family occasions to specialist surgeons
overseeing hospital operations while located on the other side of the
world.
He said the company was inspired after noticing the 3D effect created
when a nightclub laser is beamed on to dry ice.
He added that the first systems will cost thousands of pounds but, as
with any technology breakthrough, the price will come down once they
become more commonplace.
Mr Panek also claimed that within ten years we will see the creation
of a Star Trek-style fully holographic room, in which 3D objects can
be viewed and manipulated from every angle.
He added: "It is not impossible,  and with the technology moving so
fast, it is only a matter of time.
"Within the next decade we will also be able to watch hologram
football matches and have fully interactive walk-in hologram rooms.
It's very exciting."
Source: www.dailytrust.info