“On-Stage” Experience
Years ago, I remember sitting with my friend Nathan at a lan party of at least sixteen people in the middle of a big ‘Halo’ match, talking about how different video games would be in the future. We envisioned a world where the game is constructed around the player. Where looking left and right would actually entail the movement of our heads, not of the the thumbsticks on the controllers. A world where the actions of a fighting game were actually acted out in a 3D environment, where you could almost feel the bullets flashing overhead, because you could see them as they whizzed overhead and ‘struck’ your bedroom wall.
In our mind, a prototypical model of the future of visual media was revolutionary. A white room, with a door that barely had a seam. No windows. Hidden holographic projectors would have locations which were impossible to discern. When the game or movie started, the projectors would kick in and the user would find him or herself surrounded by an entirely different world. The environment of a World War II combat game, the rich green grass and blue skies, as well as the rusting metal and thundering artillery cannons would materialize out of nowhere and surround us as if we had been transported back in time.
Complete immersion. We’re getting there. Really.
For even more detail and video, go here.
Here’s a more recent example:
This video records holographically, but lacks the ability to display in 3 dimensions. The reporter in the studio was most likely looking at nothing. Give it 5 more years. 