When Princess Leia appeared before Luke Skywalker as a hologram in the 1977 blockbuster Star Wars, it was very much a work of science fiction.
But fast-forward four decades and the hologram telephone call – which will allow callers to see a live 3D image of the other person on the line – is set to become reality.
The technology is being pioneered by Leia Display Systems, a Polish company named after the Star Wars heroine.
It aims to have a working model of the telephone operating by next year after it successfully built interactive 3D hologram machines.
To make a 3D phone call, a person will sit in front of a specially adapted camera featuring two lenses and a microphone. The two images the lenses create are blended to form a 3D version and streamed via the internet to the person who is being called.
A hologram machine will receive the image and beam it using a laser projector on to a ‘screen’ of water vapour, which gives the image its third dimension.
The hologram image will speak, move and listen in real time. The company also believes its invention will be on the market within five years.
‘Our holograms will take video- phone calls to the next level,’ said Marcin Panek, chief executive of Leia Display Systems.
‘We are on the frontier of technology that was imagined in movies 40 years ago – it is science fiction becoming science fact.
‘It will be as if loved ones, friends and family are standing right in front of you while you talk with them halfway across the world.
‘At the moment our holograms are made using machines that are more than 6ft high but we are designing smaller versions that can be set up on a coffee table in a living room.
‘It’s incredible. Ten years ago people would have been astounded at the idea of tablet devices but now they are everywhere.
‘It will be the same with holograms. It is still early days but we hope to sell hologram telephone devices within the next five years.’
Mr Panek said the possibilities for the technology range from relatives virtually attending family occasions to specialist surgeons overseeing hospital operations while located on the other side of the world.
Mr Panek also claimed that within ten years we will see the creation of a Star Trek-style fully holographic room, in which 3D objects can be viewed and manipulated from every angle.
He added: ‘It is not impossible, and with the technology moving so fast, it is only a matter of time.
‘Within the next decade we will also be able to watch hologram football matches and have fully interactive walk-in hologram rooms. It’s very exciting.’
