What I Learned: Design Collaboration on the Star Trek HoloDeck?

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.