Delegates at a recent telecommunications industry event in Australia were given a preview of the conferencing technology of tomorrow as they interacted with a live hologram on stage.
With the current trend of businesses looking to adopt a more flexible approach to conferences so as to cut back on costs and reduce their carbon footprints widely expected to continue for some time yet, many observers see holographic technology as one of the ways forward.
The benefits were highlighted by Dr Hugh Bradlow, chief technology officer at Telstra, who appeared at an Adelaide conference as a walking, talking hologram.
Recent advances in cameras and microphones enabled the business leader to see and hear the event from around 500 miles away as audiences watched his high-definition image on a transparent screen.
Commenting on the benefits of such technology, he told the event: "If you're in the US and can't attend a conference you could save many hours flying time in that sense to give presentations.
"We've all seen this sort of thing in futuristic sci-fi movies, but the reality is that it can be done here and now, as we have just demonstrated."
At the 2005 MTV Awards ceremony in Portugal, the UK-based band Gorillaz appeared in holographic form and interacted with performers on-stage.
