Big-screen, immersive videoconferencing never quite took off in the business world, but now Economist.com reports on a planned public version, coming soon (well, probably not that soon) to a picturesque European central city near you:
The Tholos, named after a Greek temple from the Mycenaean period, is a 3-metre high, 360-degree screen that sends and receives images between two locations, in effect providing a window between the two cities. If you're in London, you'll be able to walk up to the screen and have a chat with someone in Vienna, as though you were meeting in the town square. A panoramic view of the other city will be visible in the background, and it will always be on.
The accompanying visualization is pretty striking. It really does look like a piece of cityscape has been scooped up and plunked down somewhere else, through it's clear that for maximum effect, the system would have be set up in highly iconic, historic spots. More interesting, though, are the kinds of planned and spontaneous meetings this object might engender. While the panoramic view from one city into another is public, the audio is spacialized and privatized, via "22 directional microphones and loudspeakers [that] will create “sound-cones” around the Tholos to enable private conversations to take place." Imagine yourself walking through the Piazza San Marco. You glance passingly at the Tholos system, which displays a panorama of Trafalgar Square. Then you notice a person emerging from that landscape, moving toward the camera. He's clearly seen you from his side, and he's motioning to you--'hey, come here.' Would you approach him?
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