Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 30 May 2008 09:06
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
iTWire readers were quick to question whether the otherwise impressive 3D projection of Dr Hugh Bradlow was really a hologram or not.
In the comments section of an
iTWire article called “Telstra: may the holographic force be with you!”, a reader called “Ghost of things past” said:
“This technology is not a hologram. It's plain projection. was used for theatre illusions from the mid 1860s. The only thing that has changed is the thickness of the semireflective screen.
How fitting that Telstra is using 140 year old smoke and mirrors to try to flog itself to us. Pepper's Ghost is the technology, look it up on the web.”
Another reader called “Veto” said: “What a disgrace they say 'hologram' when it is not. A hologram is something else entirely. Using a very thin semi-transparent projection screen is not a hologram!”
At this point in the comments section I protested that Telstra was simply using the Musion Eyeliner System’s description of its technology as holographic, and suggested that “Ghost of the past” take the issue up with the Musion Eyeliner people. I also said it looked similar to the 3D holographic projections as seen in Star Wars, which is what Tesltra’s David Thodey was likely referring to when he said we’d seen these things in sci-fi.
I also made the suggestion that it was also a form of 3D television being projected into ‘space’, like the middle of your lounge room.
“Ghosts of things past” then replied that, as a journalist, I “should not just believing what Telstra or their suppliers tell you.”
Ghost continued: “Holograph has a specific meaning. Show me where this projector, high def though it may be, uses interference patterns to store the image. Can any part of the image reconstruct the whole image at lower resolution? If not then it is not a hologram. Is this image 3D? If not it is not a hologram.”
“Don't just let marketeers and spin doctors appropriate the word hologram which refers to a much more innovative and powerful/rich technology to mislead people”, concluded Ghost.
So, I went to the world’s occasionally dodgy reference source, Wikipedia, to see what it had to say on the topic. Please read on to page 3.
