Want to attend meeting in two places at one time?

Business executives will soon be able to make presentations in distant countries through their virtual presence in the meeting halls, thanks to Australian telecommunications and media company Telstra’s new technology that can create a person’s hologram.

The company used a hologram to beam its Chief Technology Officer, Dr Hugh Bradlow, live into Adelaide from Melbourne to give a speech at a major function for senior business executives. Dr Bradlow addressed and interacted with the audience for around 15 minutes and conducted a realtime media conference following the function.

He revealed that their Musion Eyeliner System enabled them to beam his mobile three-dimensional image from one city to the other to give a live business presentation. “In Melbourne, we have a high definition video camera which is filming me as I stand here,” Dr Bradlow said. “That signal is being taped across the network and the far end is using a very smart optical projection system to create a holograph, or my virtual presence, in Adelaide.”

Dr Bradlow said that a big, flat panel LCD screen enabled him to see who he was talking to in Adelaide , and thus facilitated the real time interaction. “It has the look and feel of being in the same room together,” he said.

“You can envisage this being used in education, in entertainment, in news media as a holographic system, but the whole class of telepresence systems is going to be across all businesses ,” he added. David Thodey, Telstra’s group managing director for enterprise and government, added: “We’ve all seen this sort of thing in futuristic sci-fi movies, but the reality is that it can be done here.”

He also said that the new technology may start entering business houses in four to five years, and eventually in homes.

“In the next few years, as your broadband speeds start to go faster, a step from there to a hologram is not very far,” Thodey said. “I think it is at least four or five years away (for business) before that will be the case because the technology has to come down in price,” he added. “This next generation network is changing the way we live and work.”