There was a time when Holoportation was a glittering lure of the science fiction genre. Be it the novels of Isaac Asimov or the big sci-fi movie franchises like Star Wars, Holoportation—the ability to construe real-life 3D holograms of people and transmit them to far-off places—was what used to get the technology futurists all excited and gooey.

Not anymore, as Holoportation tech has turned from mere science fiction to reality. In this guide, we cover what Holoportation is, how Holoportation works, and how it will impact communication right now.

What Is Holoportation Technology?

A type of 3D capture technology, Holoportation can take real people and create their 3D image in the form of a hologram for a real-time, live communication session.

For the technology to work, it needs at least a pair of cameras to create a 3D image and to transfer the real-life hologram of a person to anywhere in the world (where the Holoportation technology is installed).

It will primarily be an evolution in digital communications, just after the world has adjusted to the phenomenon of video conferencing, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Microsoft is the biggest contributor to Holoportation technology, with its flagship products such as Mesh and Hololens 2.0.

Here's how Microsoft describes Holoportation on their blog:

Holoportation is a new type of 3D capture technology that allows high-quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed and transmitted anywhere in the world in real time. When combined with mixed reality displays such as HoloLens, this technology allows users to see, hear, and interact with remote participants in 3D as if they are actually present in the same physical space. Communicating and interacting with remote users becomes as natural as face-to-face communication.

But Microsoft is not alone, of course. There's also PORTL, another company specializing in Holoportation technology. Through their technology, which consists of a box the size of a normal cupboard and multiple cameras, you could be sitting at your home and beam your hologram to anywhere in the world, provided their Holoportation technology is installed there.

Here's a short video of the PORTL CEO, David Nussbaum, demonstrating the technology:

How Does Holoportation Technology Work?

A key component in Holoportation tech is the 3D capture technology and advanced mixed-reality headsets like the Microsoft Hololens, a mixed reality platform built on top of Microsoft Azure.

A host of bigwigs from the tech world, such as Niantic, the developers of Pokémon GO, have now collaborated with Microsoft to show the possibilities in this new world of mixed reality.

Here's a short demo exploring Microsoft and Niantic's collaboration:

The 3D capture technology uses a special type of camera to take images of people necessary for a 3D reconstruction of their hologram. At least two cameras are necessary, with room for as many as you want. The more cameras you use, the better the quality of the hologram on the other side.

The next thing that you'll need, apart from 3D capture cameras, is a mixed reality headset. A mixed reality headset works by reconstructing your image into a 3D hologram, carefully crafted with the help of 3D capture cameras to give a close approximation of a real. Right now, the most popular mixed-reality headset is Microsoft's Hololens 2.0.

Related: What is Extended Reality (XR) and How Does It Work?

How Will Holoportation Technology Enrich Our Lives?

In the middle of the 19th Century, Guglielmo Marconi paved the way for wireless communication with his invention of wireless telegraphy. Marconi used the newly discovered radio waves for the transmission of telegraph signals. And by 1920, people were using radios for personal use.

Then came the development of computer networks, and fast-forward to 1965, email was born at MIT. New developments followed. Robert Cailliau and Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989, and smartphones were introduced in Britain. And Microsoft, in 2003, announced its video conferencing platform, Skype.

Each of these developments brought a fundamental shift in the way we managed long-distance communication. Holoportation is likely to do the same. Here are a few places that are most likely to be disrupted by the Holoportation technology:

1. Gaming

This industry is probably the most excited about the adoption of Holoportation technology. Because let's face it—as good as chat and audio rooms are, having a live hologram of your distant gamer buddies will trump those every time.

As we can see from the examples of gaming companies like Niantic, big corporations are already showing an active interest in combining Holoportation tech with games and producing better and more immersive augmented experiences for gamers worldwide.​​​​​​

2. TeleHealth

Telehealth is defined as the ability to provide all healthcare and health-related services through digital communication technologies such as audio and video chats, mixed reality platforms, and now, Holoportation.

With a market size estimated to reach $298.9 Billion by 2028, the Telehealth industry is primed and ready for Holoportation tech.

Where will this be implemented? Well, everywhere.

Doctor's appointments, therapy sessions, etc., are the obvious use cases. While these services are all already available through online video conferencing platforms like Zoom or Skype, they lack the vivacity of real human interaction, a quality that holographic interaction is intended to provide.

3. Education

This is another area where Holoportation tech can be a major help. With the ability to beam yourself or others to far-off places, the possibilities to enhance the learning experiences are endless.

As geographic limitations are removed through Holoportation, you can attend and roam around the best schools or colleges, all without moving out from your study.

For instance, as you can see from the video above, The Wooranna Park Primary School in Dandenong North, Australia, created a virtual classroom through Minecraft with the help of VR headsets and other holoportation technologies.

Related: The Best Sites for Free College Courses Online

4. Effective Telecommunication

"Co-workers duplicate the serendipity of in-person learning – without the time and cost of travel – thanks to holoportation, holographic sharing, and visualization," writes Microsoft on the homepage of its Mesh mixed-reality platform.

Good communication and trust are regarded as the key ingredients of a successful relationship. While communicating through chat technologies works—especially during the times of the COVID-19 pandemic—they still leave our monkey brains asking for a real tangible human connection. And while the Holoportation technology is nowhere as good as a real-live person in flesh and blood, it's definitely a step in the right direction.

5. Business

Globalization is a fact, and you can't build a wall around that. We can try and put artificial barriers like regulations, often to our own detriment, but it's coming, and it won't stop.

Even now, many businesses, especially in tech, hire people from all over the world. Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, shared their decision to go fully remote-first by closing their only physical office space in San Francisco.

As more and more companies start going remote-first, Holoportation will likely become a key means of communication,

What Does the Future Hold for Holoportation Technology?

Still in its infancy, Holoportation technology has a long way to go.

Microsoft recently announced the release of Hololens 2.0, which builds upon their initial success with Hololens 1.0. Due to its high cost, however, the Holoportation tech is not available to the consumers at the moment. Currently, most Holoportation buyers are big businesses or government organizations. As the technology advances and becomes cheaper with time, it is expected to become available to the average user.