"The Use of a Three Dimensional Hologram as an Interface Option" The Be More Urban Team considered the efficacy of a three-dimensional

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1 Dominique Mastrangelo Research Paper IDIA 612 Interaction and Interface Design / Fall 2006 Be More Urban Team "The Use of a Three Dimensional Hologram as an Interface Option" A. Introduction The Be More Urban Team considered the efficacy of a three-dimensional holographic interactive interface option. As designed, a life-like virtual human and threedimensional map would be available, at the user's request, to guide the user to selected restaurants, and to answer any questions that he or she might have. This paper discusses the history and development of holograms, the "Cheap Eats" design, and the feasibility of using holograms as contemplated in the near future. B. The History and Development of Holograms In 1947, British/Hungarian scientist Dennis Gabor accidentally developed the theory of holography: Gabor intended to increase the power of electron microscopes by using a light beam instead of an electron beam. Instead of achieving his goal, Gabor created the first hologram. Gabor then coined the term hologram from the Greek words holos, meaning "whole," and gramma, meaning "message." 1 In 1962, Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks realized that holography could be used as a 3-D visual medium. They read Gabor's paper and "simply out of curiosity" decided to duplicate Gabor's technique. Unlike Gabor, Leith and Upatnieks used a laser. They ultimately succeeded in producing the first three-dimensional image (a train and a bird) via the "transmission" -- i.e., laser -- hologram technique. This transmission hologram method produced images of ground-breaking clarity and realistic depth. It remains the foundation creating the holographic images today. Leith and Upatnieks s pioneering work led to the standardization of the equipment 1

2 used to make holograms. Today, thousands of laboratories and studios possesses the equipment needed to produce transmission holograms: continuous wave lasers, optical devices (such as lens, mirrors and beam splitters) for directing laser light, film holders, and the isolation tables on which laser-facilitated exposures are made. 2 As was the case during Leith and Upatnieks's time, stability remains absolutely essential in producing a hologram. Movement, even as small as a quarter wave-length of light, during exposures of a few minutes or even seconds, can completely spoil a hologram. There has been a significant advance in holographic technique during the intervening years. In 1972, Lloyd Cross developed the "integral hologram" -- i.e. moving threedimensional images -- by combining white-light transmission holography with conventional cinematography. Cross accomplished this goal by using sequential frames of twodimensional motion-picture footage of a rotating objects. When viewed, the resulting composite images are synthesized by the human brain as a three-dimensional image. 3 C. The Potential Uses of Holograms Researchers are presently considering practical applications for the hologram technique. According to Mark Lucente, several hologram applications that are within arm's reach. He lists "computer-aided design, multidimensional data visualization, virtual surgery, teleoperation, training and education (e.g., holographic virtual textbooks on anatomy, molecules or engines)" among those applications for which holograms may soon be used. (Lucent, Pg.66) 4 Other researchers have discussed using holograms in additional contexts. Kevin Bonsor has discussed using holograms for "Teleimmersion." He writes that "Teleimmersion takes videoconferencing to the next level. It will create a central, simulated environment that will allow everyone to come together in one virtual room, and no one will have to leave their physical location to do so. Employees in Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and Paris will soon meet in a tele-immersive environment and shake 2

3 hands with holographic images of their co-workers." 5 A group of researchers from USC in California are considering the possible use of holograms in educational and training aids for different specializations. In the article "How to Talk to a Hologram," they discuss a life-size holographic image they created, called "Sgt. Blackwell." The image uses a high-resolution real-time graphics projected onto a transparent optical film that covers the doorway of a kiosk. To create lip and body movements and life-like gestures, an actor was filmed in a studio. The recorded images were then edited. To enable Sgt. Blackwell to speak and answer questions, a scriptwriter developed possible questions and answers and an actor spoke the recorded dialogue. The researchers used a state-of-the art automatic speech recognition system and natural language classifier to analyze the user's speech and select the appropriate character response. Sgt. Blackwell delivers 83 spoken lines. If the user asks a question that the program does not recognize, Sgt. Blackwell asks the user to reframe the question. (Leuski, Pg. 360) 6 D. The Let's Eat Design The design team considered the use of a holographic interface based on the clear advantages such technology provides. Technical research has repeatedly shown that people can more easily understand and respond to three-dimensional visual images. Researchers at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio found that during high levels of stress a human being relies more heavily on sight than any other sense. (Thayn, Pg. 1) 7 They also found that two-dimensional displays, which necessarily fail to reproduce images as they would naturally appear in the real world, can cause users to feel disoriented or confused. As Mark Lucente and Tinsley Galyean at the MIT Media Laboratory concluded in their paper "Rendering Interactive Holographic Images" 3

4 A 3-D display allows the viewer to more efficiently and accurately sense both the 3-D shapes of objects and their relative spatial locations, particularly when monocular depth cues are not prevalent in a scene. When viewing complex or unfamiliar object scenes, the viewer can more quickly and accurately identify the scene contents. (Lucente, Pg. 387) 8 The team designed a multiple screen program named "Let's Eat" that would be used to locate restaurants. The location software program would be downloaded onto a user's cell phone. The user would search for restaurants by utilizing the following criteria: price, distance, and cuisine. The design team's target user is a tourist who would either be walking or driving in an unfamiliar city. Our design team considered using the human-like hologram and three-dimensional map because we believed that such a design could be particularly useful in navigating unfamiliar locations. A three-dimensional map necessarily portrays locations more accurately than a two-dimensional image. The availability of a "human" to answer questions would be more user-friendly than the conventional "help" function used by most programs. The "Let's Eat" hologram interface would provide the user with an additional advantage because the 3-D display could also serve as a "visual interrupt" when the driver takes a wrong turn or accidentally drives down a one-way street. The use of such a three-dimensional interface is not an unrealistic goal. Efforts are being made to utilize interactive three-dimensional interfaces on PDA's and cell phones. For the moment, however, the use of holographic images on PDA's and cell phones is not possible. As a group of researchers in Spain recently explained: Mobile devices have limitations of memory and processing power. Also, most of them do not offer hardware accelerated graphics. This makes it difficult to render and interact with large 3D scenes on these devices. (Lluch, Pg. 254) 9 4

5 Nonetheless, Mark Lucente, a researcher for the IBM Research Division, is hopeful about the possible use of holograms in the near future: Holographic display technology is in a research stage, analogous to the state of 2D display technology in the 1920's. What, then, does the future hold? The future promises exactly what holovideo needs: more computing power, higher bandwidth, optical modulation and improvements in holographic information processing.(lucente, Pg. 67) 10 E. Conclusion In conclusion, a human like three-dimensional interface and three-dimensional map option could serve as a benefit to users since research has shown that humans can more accurately identify 3-D objects than a flat screen. However, due to the limitation in memory and processing power of current mobile hand held devices, the team concluded that holograms cannot be used as a current interface for the "Let's Eat" software product. 5

6 References 1 Hologram Research (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2006, from rch.htm 2 Hologram Research (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2006, from rch.htm 3 Hologram Research (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2006, from rch.htm 4 Lucente, Mark (May 1997). Interactive Three-dimensional Holographic Displays: Seeing the Future in Depth, Retrieved, 12/4/2006 from ACM database. 5 Bosnor, K. How Holographic Environments Will Work. Retrieved December 3, 2006, from 6 Leuski, Anton; Pair, Jarrell; Traum, David; McNerey, Peter; Georgiou, Panayiotis; Patel, Ronakkumar (January 29-February 1, 2006). How to Talk to a Hologram. IUI'06, Retrieved, 10/24/2006 from ACM database. 6

7 7 Thayn, J.; Ghrayeb, J.; Hopper, D.; (1999). 3-D display design concept for cockpit and mission crewstations. Retrieved December 3, 2006, from 8 Lucente, Mark; Galyean, Tinsley (1995). Rendering Interactive Holographic Images Retrieved, 10/24/06 from ACM database. 9 Lluch, Javier; Gaitan, Rafael; Camahort, Emilio; Vivo, Roberto (2005). Interactive Three-Dimensional Rendering on Mobile Computer Devices, Retrieved, 12/04/06 from ACM database. 10 Lucente, Mark (May 1997). Interactive Three-dimensional Holographic Displays: Seeing the Future in Depth, Retrieved, 12/4/2006 from ACM database. 7