Screw VR, I want holograms!!!

There has been some talk in the tech news world lately about VR technology being on the horizon. The 2 companies I hear about are Oculus (which was recently bought out by Facebook) and Sony developing VR for the new PS4 console called 'Project Morpheus.'

Personally, I don't see this as a big deal. VR technology is not exactly a new idea. It's been around in one primitive form or another for many years. There was even a VR Pac-Man game created by a company called 'Virtuality' in 1995 just to show off the technology. It looked quite impressive for 1995 but, it didn't go anywhere. It was too clunky and slow. I'm guessing the new stuff from Oculus and Sony will be a LOT better but, I don't care. I wear glasses. VR headsets (which are still as clunky as ever) are not going to fit over my face very well. That is just one of many reasons why I think VR is never going to catch on with consumers. Cost, comfort, taking up lots of space and requiring lazy gamers to actually get up off the couch (assuming there are motion controls involved) could also prove to be a problem for VR.

So, what would I like to see instead? What 'cutting-edge' solution do I have? Well, it's more evolutionary than revolutionary. In fact, Atari experimented with some of this technology back in the early 1980's and Nintendo implemented it in several devices. My solution is holography and stereoscopic 3D, taken to a much further extreme than we have so far seen in consumer products.

Nintendo's first experiment with stereoscopic technology was the Virtual Boy. That device failed miserably (and rightfully so) because the red and black color scheme hurt people's eyes. Like VR helmets, it also required you to stick your face into the device to see what was going on and was VERY uncomfortable. Fortunately, their next experiment in stereoscopic technology, the 3DS, was a raging success. It has 3D visuals that don't need any kind of glasses or headgear and it works great.

What I'd like to see is for this technology to be taken to the next logical level and turned into a holographic projection. I have no idea just how exactly that is going to happen yet. The only way I can think of how it would work is to have 2 holographic projectors projecting the image into the air, creating the stereoscopic 3D hologram/image. I've seen numerous examples of this in science fiction over the years. There's the tactical display on the White Star ships in Babylon 5, Princess Leia's message to Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Episode IV (Help me, Obiwan Kenobi! You're my only hope!) and several in various episodes and films of the Star Trek franchise. The one that sticks out the most for me is an arcade game featured in the bar scene from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. A human in a Starfleet Academy uniform is playing a game with a female alien featuring fighter planes from the First World War. The graphics were just simple vector drawings but, what can you expect? It was a special effect made for a movie released in 1984. I have a picture of it here:

This picture (and the scene it came from) also provide a good test market for the technology: Arcades. Sadly, Arcades have become something of a dying breed in recent years. Home computers and consoles caught up to the technology of the arcade machines and the arcade beusiness has been in decline ever since. Various 'family fun' outlets, movie theater lobbies, hobbyists and collectors have kept it alive but, it's not a growth industry. Nowadays, almost any arcade game you see is a racer, a light gun shooter or a machine filled with old arcade classics like Pac-Man's Arcade Party from Namco. There isn't much innovation or anything to convince players to go to arcades in droves like the 1980's and early 1990's. Since many of my happiest childhood memories involve arcade games, I would love to give that business a good shot in the arm.

Of course, the technology will also find its way into the home again. And that is fine with me. When it does though, there's one feature I'd like to see: ports for old consoles and devices. This device is a projector, right? Why not give this '3D Projector' a ton of ports so I can connect my game consoles, both new and old, to it and play my games without the need for a TV? That would be awesome! Sure, it won't work for NES Zapper games but, that's why I still own several old CRT monitors.

Also, the ports should not just be limited to standard RCA components, RGB, VGA and HDMI inputs. There needs to be a coax port as well. I want to see how games from a really old console like the Atari 2600 would look in holographic 3D. Imagine being able to play Asteroids, Battlezone or Space Invaders on your 2600 without worrying about modding the console to have RCA component output or keeping an ancient TV around? Even better, how about Super Mario Bros. being projected into 3D holograms. That will be awesome. In fact, I found a video of something like that and have it here for your review...

Even if the projector only played media from the devices you plug into it, just having a device that could do what you see in the video would still be a huge hit. Games, movies and TV shows would never be the same.

- Lord Publius