Jim Brown

What I Learned: Design Collaboration on the Star Trek HoloDeck?
June 30, 2008

What I learned this week ... comes thanks to a short blog post by Right Hemisphere on their Deep3D blog stating "Star Trek's HoloDeck a lot closer than you may think." It points to a blog entry on scientificblogging that provides an overview on the debut of a technology known as HoloVizio 3D based on an EU-funded research project called COHERENT. Reading this, I have two reactions. One, is that it is amazing how far we have come in regards to design visualization and collaboration. The other is that there is still a lot of open frontier to be explored and a long way to go before Utopia is reached.

Note: The videos are worth watching to get a flavor of the concept, but not really a compelling "demo" - I imagine it looks much better in person.

The HoloVizio
I won't go into the details here because you can follow the links, but in short the intent is to provide a 3D screen that you can interact with. 

• It shows 3D in human scale
• It shows 3D in perspective, so you can walk around it and the image changes (you can walk behind it, etc.) 
• It allows you to interact with your gestures 
• This doesn't require goggles or other headgear from the user
• Multiple users can interact with it simultaneously

How Far We Have Come
It is amazing to me how quickly 3D design can now be developed and shared. The ability for companies to design realistic product simulations has increased dramatically, and the barriers are coming down so more companies can adopt 3D design. Sharing this information via the Internet has gotten a lot easier as well, particularly with the ability to share 3D via an Adobe PDF file. And sharing real-time is more viable today than it has been in the past as well. It is much more realistic today than it was even 2-3 years ago to provide another Engineer, or a non-Engineer, the ability to view a design in 3D without the burden (cost and training) of a 3D CAD authoring tool. Companies like Right Hemisphere have helped in this area, for sure.

Beyond design collaboration, companies are leveraging their 3D design assets in multiple spots in their enterprise including marketing, sales, training, and product documentation. In fact, the blog entry mentions training technicians on the HoloDeck which is what really go me thinking about the practical nature of the product. The real-life applications being pursued are automotive design review and some interesting uses in the medical field. Both are very compelling.

How Far We Have To Go
As impressed as I am with 3D visualization software and the progress the industry has made, I started to think about design collaboration on the Star Trek enterprise. The HoloDeck (and I am not a Trekkie, so forgive any misinformation on this) had the capability to include you in a moving, lifelike simulation that you could interact with as if you were in the real, physical world. No training required other than your past investment in learning to walk and interact with your environment as a child. That would be of tremendous value in training. What is missing today is the element of realism. Not in what you see, per se, but how you interact with a 3D image. Perhaps this is a step toward an immersive 3D collaboration that will be intuitive to anybody? I expect that given the advances in technology and the value this would provide, we will see a lot in this area. In the near term, I will remain impressed with the advances we have seen to date and look forward to seeing what comes next from
vendors like Right Hemisphere and others including Anark, Lattice3D, Parallel Graphics or QuadriSpace, and the larger vendors like Autodesk, Dassault Systems, Oracle (Cimmetry), PTC and Siemens PLM. Which of these will win the contract to build the first HoloDeck I wonder?

So thats a look at the future of 3D collaboration from what I can tell, I hope you found it interesting. Who knew? I didn't, if you did let us know about it.

Posted by Jim Brown on June 30, 2008 | Comments (0)