Trish and I are avid fans of Star Trek (the next generation) and we watch it just about every night on the cable channel, TNN (except we watch it on satellite, not cable).
Star Trek is an interesting show because they have some very interesting technology presented, that, while looking far fetched and futuristic, are actually based on simple scientific laws. Many of the original star trek ideas have already been implemented (cell phones, internet, etc).
Anyway, there is one feature of Star Trek that got me to thinking about a potential new method of communicating on DG. The feature I am talking about is the holodeck.
Some of you here may already know what the holodeck is, but for those of you who do not, allow me to explain.
The holodeck is a room that someone can walk into, and the walls disappear and the room becomes whatever you want it to be. Using holography, the room creates for you entire new worlds. Of course, it is using holograms and thus is just an image.
Well, I've spent the past several months thinking about this, and investigating the options of holography, and I am stunned that this is actually extremely implementable.
While getting nowhere near the coolness of Star Trek's holodeck, I can say that within a month we will be having the world's first holographic chat room - the HoloChat.
How does this work? It is really quite simple: Electrons can be focused with magnetic fields to form small probes. These electron probes can be directed at specimens where they scatter either elastically or inelastically. Elastic scattering in the form of electron diffraction can be used to determine the crystal structure, orientation, and phase identification of a specimen. Inelastic scattering in the form of ionization of electrons from the various shells of the Bohr atom leads to quantitative elemental and chemical information through several spectrometries: Electron Energy Loss (EELS), X-ray (Energy or Wavelength Dispersive), and Auger. These spectrometries combined with electron imaging yield information from regions on a specimen of a few micrometers to less than a nanometer.
In English that basically means that that electrons are zapped at an object (or person sitting in front of their computer). The electrons scatter when they hit the person, thus releasing ionized particles that can be read with various pieces of equipment.
See the attached image for a graphical explanation of this.
The particles can be electronically transferred over a network and recreated anywhere in the world.
This, my good friends, is the basis of a holochat!
The testing phase is finished, and this week I am going to outfit our server with a Philips CM300 FEG TEM/STEM, which will be able to interpret and broadcast the data to all members who are in the holochat.
Any member who is equiped with a Philips CM30 LaB6 TEM/STEM with PEELS, X-ray spectrometry, and digital camera will be able to access the holochat. I will be posting a link where members can pick these up. They are really cheap, I got mine at Radio Shack for $30.
Likely I'll be putting together packages and selling them via DG for around $40 (extra $10 for my time in putting them together).
Sometime in the future, I will be looking into the possibility of sending signals to monitors that will create these electron signals, and then interpret them. If I am successful, nobody will need any special equipment. They will be able to simply sit in front of their monitor and an image of them will appear in the room of any other member who is equipped with the CM30 LaB6.
Stay tuned, and let me know if you have any questions!
Dave
(P.S. Please don't worry about this, your holographic image will only be appearing while you are in the holochat, and will disappear when you leave the chatroom. I've taken privacy considerations very seriously. You may want to hang a blue curtain in front of your monitor while you are not sitting at the computer, for safety's sake.)
