UK To Showcase Holographic Teachers

from The BBC

Scientists have developed technology to "teleport" holograms of teachers into the classroom.

Equipment which can beam the interactive image of a teacher into schools, where it can hold conversations and make eye contact with pupils, is to go on display at the BETT education technology exhibition next month.

Its creators at the Digital World Centre in Manchester believe it could be used to educate children living in remote areas, or to teach specialist lessons in minority subjets, which would otherwise be uneconomic. The technology used for the hologram is like the glass teleprompts used by politicians to deliver speeches. But instead of an image of words appearing to a speaker behind a podium, the full-length image of a teacher appears to children sitting in front of it.

The image is projected - via a signal on the internet - onto a glass laminate screen, which forms part of a mobile hologram. Because the screen is transparent, all children see is the full length image of a teacher, apparently standing in front of them.

The teacher can see the pupils via an invisible camera built into the lectern. The camera lens coincides with the apparent position of the teacher's eyes.