We Will Soon be Texting Holograms

You can teach your computer lots of things, but what can you teach your phone? We can now send people words, images and videos on our iphones–what if we could send them a moving, 3-D representation? And researchers at Fermilab are building a device that will prove that the 3-D universe we THINK we live in is nothing but a hologram. This texting is more than just fun, there’s a serious side to it as well.

In BBC News, Jonathan Amos quotes researcher Nasser Peyghambarian as saying, "We foresee many applications, for example in manufacturing. Car manufacturers or airplane manufacturers could look at holograms and design their systems in real time. They could look at 3D models and make changes as they go. Imagine a very complicated surgical procedure–then with this system surgeons around the world could participate. They could see the whole procedure in real-time and in 3D, and help out."

You would not need special glasses to view these holograms and researchers expect the technology to be available in two or three years. But Peyghambarian is confident and says, "I don’t believe there is any physics that would prevent us from getting there."

You can’t give hologram-texting cell phones as Christmas presents yet, but we can tell you some wonderful things you CAN get: Our beautiful 2011 crop circle calendar and a copy of the original edition of The Key (which will soon become a collector’s item, once The Key is published by Tarcher Penguin in the spring of 2011). And here’s a way to give YOURSELF a present at the same time: If you subscribe to this website for TWO years, we’ll send you TWO beautiful crop circle calendars: Our 2010 calendar (which you can use RIGHT NOW) and our 2011 calendar. But we have a limited number of 2010 calendars left, so don’t hesitate: Subscribe today!