How hologram tech may soon replace video calls

[geemong]

How hologram tech may soon replace video calls

When Swiss watch boss, Christoph Grainger-Herr, was unable to fly to a global trade show in China because of Covid-19 restrictions, he decided to beam in Star Trek-style instead.

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Mr Grainger-Herr, the chief executive of luxury brand IWC, had been due to travel to the Watches and Wonders event in Shanghai back in April.

When that became impossible, instead, he decided to joined the show as a life-size, 3D hologram. Appearing in 4K resolution, he was able to talk to, and see and hear the people who were physically attending the event.

"We beamed him from his office in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, to the event in Shanghai," says David Nussbaum, the boss of US holograms firm Portl.

"He did his thing, chatted to other executives, and even unveiled a new watch, all in real time. And then we beamed him out again!"

With the coronavirus pandemic having put a stop to much global travel since March 2020, it has fuelled a growing interest in the use of holograms - 3D light projections of a person - as a more life-like, more immersive, more sensory alternative to video calls.

Los-Angeles-based Portl is one of the firms at the forefront of the technology, and Mr Nussbaum says "we can't make our portals fast enough".

Its portals are eight feet (2.5m) tall, glass-fronted, computerised boxes. Inside the booths a life-size hologram of a person appears.