NASA ‘Holoported’ a Surgeon Onto the ISS

If you haven’t heard of holoportation before, you’re not the only one. The term (a combination of “hologram” and “teleportation”) refers to a newer capture technique that “allows high-quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed and transmitted live anywhere in real time,” according to NASA flight surgeon Dr. Josef Schmid. The technology can be stacked with mixed reality displays like Microsoft’s HoloLens, allowing the user to see and interact with the holoported individual as if they were actually sharing the same space.

NASA used the technique last October to holoport Schmid onto the ISS along with AEXA Aerospace’s CEO, Dr. Fernando De La Peña Llaca. The European Space Agency’s Thomas Pesquet, who was physically aboard the ISS, used Microsoft Hololens Kinect camera and a PC fitted with custom AEXA software to “receive” a live, 3D image of Schmid, De La Peña, and their teams. Together they performed the first-ever holoportation handshake between individuals located on Earth and in space.

Microsoft has been working on holoportation for a few years now, having first showcased the technology in 2016. The company originally planned for holoportation to be used for advertising and medical training. Now, it’s clear the possibilities are much bigger.

“We’ll use this for our private medical conferences, private psychiatric conferences, private family conferences and to bring VIPs onto the space station to visit with astronauts,” Schmid said in NASA’s statement. The agency says it will someday combine holoportation with augmented reality to enable tele-mentoring, which would provide an added layer of safety (and peace of mind) during critical operations. Physically bringing a person to space requires a nearly unfathomable amount of money, training, and other resources; temporarily holoporting the same person onto a spacecraft could allow them to achieve similar instructional or medical goals without the extravagant costs.

Outside of its extra-terrestrial uses, holoportation has the potential to change military operations and other forms of work performed under extreme conditions. However impressive, it seems space holoportation is just the beginning.

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