We all, no matter who we are, or if we have ever watched, are aware that the phrase “Captain’s Log. Star date….” is one of the most iconic “Star Trek” lines. From its beginning, the show pushed the boundaries of reality. Though certainly not the first Science Fiction show set in space, it is certainly the most far-reaching. In part, this is because references to events in the show have come up in every other genre. For example, the teleportation scene in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” where Ed TV is shrunken down and sent into the television is reminiscent of the ‘beaming’ method of traveling on and off the ship in the first “Star Trek” series. The obsession with “Star Trek” goes beyond referencing it, to the point of making it part of our everyday lives. Twenty-five years ago, the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, gave his support to Riverside, Iowa’s push to be included in Trek lore as the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk. The town celebrates his birthday every year at the local bar and hosts Trek Fest in the summer.
More influential though is that the show has predicted many modern day technologies, though not quite in the form they have taken. We have mobile phones with push-to-talk and speakerphone capability instead of handheld communicators. Where later “Star Trek” series used their badges as hands-free communicators, we have clip-on microphones for our cell phones. “Star Trek” ‘beamed’ people from one place to another. We can be in two places at once via streaming video feeds or real-time hologram transmissions. Instead of phasers, we have electric cattle prods and stun-guns, though thankfully there is no designated “Kill” setting. The show, throughout it various series, used computer technology to archive data, create interactive programming, guide the ship, and assess damage and threats. The real has followed, moving computing from mathematical calculations to being able to do everything shown in the show, except generate a force field. We can even use handheld and room-mounted devices for diagnosing medical problems as occurred during the series.
While scientists and developers have created a large number of items from the show. The holodeck can be considered the most elusive. Though we have recently developed holograms that can be programmed to move through space, essentially choreographing them around live actors and set pieces, we have not been able to achieve the tactile aspect that was found on the holodeck (and in the case of the Doctor from Voyager who existed only as a computer generated hologram). We have however created many things that separately simulate physical interaction with a virtual world. The first was the virtual reality suit. This get-up provided video-gamers with a sensation of being in the game. It does not, however, replicate the holodeck as it blocks out the other people around the user, replacing real people in one’s vicinity with virtual replicas of themselves. VR does, however, utilize an important tool in the potential creation of a holodeck, total immersion. By being fully surrounded by projected images, whether they be projected on the walls and floor around you, or sent to a head mounted display, the experience is more realistic. A more modern, and Trekkian, approach is the video wall with holograms used to create the illusion of other people and objects within the room. For the immersion to be realistic in this particular setup, the images must all be of very high quality, and taken so that the image on the wall is displayed seamlessly. Micoy has unveiled a new process that can create a seamless 3-dimensional video. By wearing a pair of 3-D glasses and sitting within a spherical dome, the brain can be tricked into thinking that you are moving through the space that was filmed/generated.
To move further, total immersion is not enough to replicate the holodeck. Something must be done to provide for tactile interaction with characters, other users connected via the Internet, and objects within the virtual physical space. Medical research is the place to find the answer. In this field, there has been a degree of success with electrode stimulation. Scientists have placed electrodes onto subjects, and by sending different electrical signals through them, have replicated sensations such as heat, cold, and pressure. With the electrode technology at its current state, it would be possible to create a body suit laced with electrodes and connected to the hologram software in such a way as to send different signals to different areas of the body as the user moved through physical space. It is even conceivable that at some point in the future, this technology could be adapted to utilize a single electrode, which by varying the signal, could tell the brain not only that there is heat, but that the right hand is experiencing that heat. This particular possibility still requires much research into the way in which the brain organizes information from different areas of the body.
However, biomedical research aside, by combining electronic stimulation, total video immersion, live-feed holograms, computer programming, and the internet, it is currently possible to create a tactile virtual environment in which individuals can move and interact with real individuals regardless of location, and computer generated characters.
