Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Holo-Dek - A Unique Real-World Virtual Venue
The Holo-Dek center in Hampton, New Hampshire, may not quite have the same features as the holodeck from Star Trek - but when you see your favorite computer games unfold at human scale, you might just buy into their business.
The object at Holo-Dek gaming theaters is to combine the experiences of large-screen presentation with multiplayer gaming as experienced online - but better. No long waits for downloads, no screen lag - more like you might experience in a LAN party in which everyone had a $5,000 screen and PC rig. And, even better, you can fortify yourself with food and drinks, all ordered onscreen and delivered right to your seat.
The developers are not content with flat screens - even in a 180 degree set-up. Coming soon - at a Holo-Dek near you, the gaming sphere: a twenty-foot diameter spherical screen with a robot at the center featuring 360 degrees of gaming excitement.
"Basically, this is a video gaming theater... like a movie theater for gaming. Everybody gets a state of the art PC and at least a six-foot screen," says Mike Fortier, cofounder.
There are 16 of the 73-inch screens, three 100-inch screens, and the big 13-footer. All can be connected to PCs or Xboxes, and players can play singly, or against each other, or online.
Open for only three weeks, the dimly-lit rooms are peppered with teenage and 20-something gamers playing Half-Life 2, or Halo 2, or Far Cry. Yet despite the massive carnage and techicolor sci-fi action exploding on the walls all around, Holo-Dek is quiet, since the gamers are playing with headphones on. The space feels civilized, clean, and relaxed.
(From Life at the dawn of the gaming century)
(From The Gaming Spherek)
The Star Trek holodeck is a virtual environment that provides infinitely varied participatory, interactive entertainment in a very small space. On Federation starships, stressed crewmembers need to have some sort of outlet for exercise and entertainment. (After all, they face certain death every week - every night in some markets!)
(From Holodeck)
The holodeck combines several key technologies to create an environment in which crewmembers can physically participate and interact in a staged drama in which they are the main characters:
- The walls of the holodeck are covered with millions of omni-directional holo diodes (OHDs) that can project full-color three dimensional images and force fields. The force fields allow people to have a physical experience of running, climbing, pushing or pulling in a very small area; participants "move" from one cell to another in the virtual scene.
(From Holodeck) - The transporter can create and destroy physical props at will, in the same way that it can materialize people and objects at a distance.
Update 06-Jul-2020: See the reference for holodeck from Encounter at Farpoint (1987), the novelization of the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. End update.
And don't forget the original holodeck - the first sf interactive, participatory environment - Ray Bradbury's The Veldt, in his Happylife Home.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/25/2004)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 8 )
Related News Stories - (" Entertainment ")
'Iceberg House' Of Travis Kelce Reflects Science Fiction Of Past Century
'The basement was huge... carved deep into the rock that folded up to underlie the ridge...' - Clifford Simak, 1963.
Lucid Dreams On Demand From Prophetic and Card79
'the peeper did not operate by virtue of its machinery alone, but by the reaction of the brain and the body of its user...' - Clifford Simak, 1957.
Flyboard Water Jet Shoes Lift Off
'I shall never forget that first lesson in aerial walking.' - Francis Flagg, 1930.
Cosplay Style Wings Could Work On Moon
'They're lovely! - titanalloy struts as light and strong as bird-bones...' - Robert Heinlein, 1957.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic...
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned!
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
Birds Learn To Sing Pictures ala Frank Herbert's Distrans
'We will fight in the time of fighting.'
ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'?
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
Orb Nomad Zero-Emission Electric Aircraft
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
ICE Buys Shock Gloves Like Batman's
What else is the Caped Crusader using?
Factories In The Sky Will Surpass Those Of Earth
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
Sleeper Drones Lie in Wait
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
Warfare Goes Underground In Ukraine
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo
'At first I was struck by the large size of these bees..'
3D Printed Organs From Space
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
How To Settle An Argument Between Two Robots
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
The Wind Phone Calls Those Who Have Passed On
'Only I heard that!'
