UCL in the News: Living in a cave could be the way forward

It is an ordinary-sized room with three walls, the fourth being left open. After putting on special spectacles (wired to a computer) I entered the room and saw a statue that might have been in the British Museum. But it wasn't a real statue, nor a hologram, but a three-dimensional recreation of one that really did look real. I could walk most, but not all the way, around it as if it were in real life. The only thing that gave it away was that if I touched it with my finger there was nothing there, though apparently they may soon be able to program the computer so it prompts a reaction in you as if you had touched a hard surface. Wow. …

But what use is all this? The next scenario gave a hint when the far side of the room became a boardroom seemingly stretching three or four yards out into the distance with life-sized representations of people around the table programmed to make all sorts of gestures such as dozing off if the conversation became boring or leaving the room if you got uncomfortably close to them. …

The UCL team is applying these techniques to current problems such as dealing with phobias, but goodness knows where it will lead in the future. …

It is not so fanciful to imagine that at some stage in the future, as technology improves and costs plummet, ordinary homes could have a cave doing all sorts of things from watching a truly immersive film to having a dinner party with relatives scattered around the word. …

I am already wondering what surprises are left for 2008.