[freudling]

They brought digital movie rentals to the living room, it only seems natural that the next step for movies/home entertainment will be holographic images. I know Apple filed a patent not long ago for a system that produces holographic 3D images, alluding to a system that produces holograms viewable without any special equipment tied to the user. I don't know much about the technology, but maybe it would not require a whole lot of anything on the production side... just a system that will draw up a 3D image of the movie itself.

From one article:

Thus the patent application goes on to describe a projection display system that renders images in three dimensions while still allowing viewers freedom of movement. It proposes to achieve this effect by tracking the position of the viewer(s).

"No headgear needs to be worn by the observer," the patent application explains. "In one embodiment, the system of the present invention provides a stereoscopic 3-D display and viewing experience; in another, it delivers a realistic holographic 3-D display experience."

Although, Apple does mention that there are many challenges to perfecting the technology:

http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.ph...display_system

[Eug]

Will Apple be the First to Bring the Consumer Holographic Movies?

Yes.

/thread

[Ratm]

umm.....WOW. Time frame? next 3-5yrs? And no i didn't rtfa. I'm at work.

[Uncle Doof]

Will Apple be the First to Bring the Consumer Holographic Movies?

Not unless Apple gets into porn movies.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by Uncle Doof 

Not unless Apple gets into porn movies.

I can just see it now: "**** Different."

[Tiresias]

I think holographic movies, as in R2D2-esque 3D projections on a surface, are going to be the "flying cars" of the future. Instead, we'll have "deep immersion" virtual reality, for more on which consult Ray Kurtzweil.