The Japanese Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications is sinking the equivalent of what sounds a fairly modest $1.3m into research on three-dimensional television transmission. A report in the Nikkei Weekly says that the Ministry is committed to holding this as the annual level of funding over the next five years. The project will pool researchers from government agencies, universities and private companies, and the aim is to develop technology that will replicate the original object when viewed from any angle. As visitors to the Japanese stand at Telecom ’91 will remember, the technology is already well advanced, and it is being targeted at the medical profession, especially surgical medicine. The technology on show used liquid crystal displays coupled with special refractive surfaces that trick the eyes’ binocular vision. However, while the Ministry is reportedly looking at this approach, it is also examining the much wackier idea of transmitting three-dimensional holographic images. So now we have an idea how all that capacity on broadband networks will be put to use.
