The Hindu Business Line : It's Telepresence

Chuck hovered in the air, hands clasped, in an earnest discussion with his CEO, John Chambers, Chairman of Cisco. Chuck Stucki, VP and GM, Telepresence Systems, Cisco, and Marthin De Beer, Senior Vice-President for Cisco's Emerging Market Technology Group, were in their offices 14,079 km from Bangalore.

San Jose was jolted by an earthquake, informed De Beer. "But we are fine, as you can see." The 250 spectators nodded. Cisco's Telepresence has become `cuter', as Chambers put it, with holographic meetings replacing video conferencing in the near future. Cisco and Musion System will be marketing this as part of Cisco's Telepresence range of video conferencing products.

Three-dimensional holographic conferencing will first be used at large expositions and conferences, and would later trickle down to enterprises. Over time, it might even be used by us at home. Your grandmother could virtually walk into a living room and talk to you - her image travelling over seas and countries over the Internet. A teacher could face 50 students and give a lecture complete with expressions and body language. The possibilities of this decidedly realistic application are numerous.

HOW IT WORKS

Is it a trick? Chuck's image was captured by a high-definition video camera and transmitted over a 5 MBps LAN to Bangalore using Cisco's CTS 3000, which streams three video streams and four discrete high-fidelity audio streams. A projector `beams' this onto the stage.

The video has a resolution of 1920 pixelsx1080 pixels and a frame rate of 50-60 frames per second. This is double the quality of normal high-definition video conferencing. From a pit on the stage, the video is reflected onto a Mylar screen inclined at 45 degrees. The spectators do not see the pit where the projector is placed. The stage uses the Pepper's Ghost effect, employing special lighting effects to make it seem like Chuck was present. The participants act. They do not see the holographic images of each other - they stand on X-marked spots under a spotlight and talk to 65 inch plasma TVs placed offstage, just as in a typical video conferencing scenario.

"This is wonderful. I can even see the sweat on your brow," said Chambers to Chuck. Such holographic meetings can be captured and broadcast over IPTV, so any TV or PC with a broadband (wireless/ wired) connection can tune in. Telepresence is now available in 28 countries, and Cisco says over 150 rooms are now capable of high-definition video conferencing. Five years in the future, telepresence will no longer be about devices. Homes and hotels will use holographic conferencing, said Chambers. And it will get better.

"In the future, there will be true 3D renderings of people in a meeting - those in which you can see the back of a head of the holograph," he added. You might not be able to shake hands, but everything else could be finalised with such 3D holographic meetings.

preethij@thehindu.co.in