Holoportation™

Frequently asked questions

  • Yes!  The bandwidth required by Holoportation has been reduced to 30-50 Mbps.  This allows us to use Holoportation in a moving vehicle, as long as we are within WiFi range. We will be moving to cellular data soon!

    Importantly, this technology is to be used by a passenger in the back seat of a moving vehicle, with no interaction with the driver.

  • We chose this scenario for two reasons. First, the automobile is viewed more and more as a technology platform rather than simply a means of transportation.  Second, this is a very challenging scenario. It requires solving many of the engineering hurdles encountered in building a volume consumer product.

  • The system only requires two cameras capable of capturing depth information to create a 3D representation of an object. However, the more cameras we have, the better the quality of the 3D model.

  • The greatest challenge was bandwidth, which we reduced by 97% using an innovative approach to compression. Other challenges included changing lighting and background, vibration, and reducing the compute footprint to fit in a vehicle.

  • Using a HMD (head mounted display) like the Hololens or HTC Vive, users can see, hear, and interact with their holoported counterparts in real-time.

For questions, please contact us at holoportation@microsoft.com.