Like almost everyone else on this planet we experienced the social isolation during these last two months. At the beginning, we had a lot of video conferences with our friends. But it quickly became annoying.
We asked to people what was their main link with the outside world and 60% of them answered video conferences. So why do we turn our back to our favorite way of communication.
Is it only a question of habits or is it a way deeper question? It seems that seeing human through a screen can't replace a real interaction between two people. What if we actually need to see a person in the way that our world is, which means in 3D while video conferences are stuck on a 2D surface. What if video conferences were in 3D? What if you could actually see a person as it is?
We deeply think that, this evolution in video conferences could change the way we chat and thus, increase the feeling of being with someone and not only a phone. This may be an Isolation solution!
Since our childhood we have seen movies where holograms were constantly involved. Science fiction made this technology common in our society. Even if this technology is a real breakthrough and we still don't have all the technology needed to create free floating holograms like Leia's hologram in the first Star Wars. There are ways to create some, using the Pepper Ghost Principe.
We really wanted our product to be easy to build so that anyone could create his own structure to see holograms. That's why we chose a plastic based structure that you can build with CD case or rigid transparent plastic sheet. In order to facilitate the development and the use of this project, we used existing platforms to send our holograms. Indeed, we developed Instagram and Facebook filters that can be used by anyone and easily sent to their friends. The filter has been created on Spark AR Studio.
Space agencies' data have been really important in the early stage of development of our project. Indeed isolation is a problem that Astronaut and Researchers know very well. We had to focus on the flexibility of this project. Even though a lot of people are currently in need of solutions to social isolation on earth, astronauts and researchers who experienced and will experience during each of their missions are in a real need of new solutions. We clearly had to define what does astronaut really need and what is currently developed to reduce social isolation consequences.
This project could be way more than just video conferences. Indeed, we imagined a personal holographic assistant that could help isolated people. Astronauts are used to write a daily journal to express themselves. What if you could confess to a human like holographic form that could answer to you as a psychologist? That's our main goal. But, unfortunately, a week-end isn't enough to change the world, only to ignite the spark!
Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrHFafk6a1c&feature=youtu.be
Protype explanation : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YnUfM4MSI_u7KrwQHr5HIrVcBziIkUdZ/view?usp=sharing
In order to define the consequences of social isolation, we used different NASA's studies :
-ANSIBLE: A Network of Social Interactions for Bilateral Life Enhancement SIFT, LLC PI: Jeremy Gottlieb, Proposal#: H12.03-9213
-Developing, Maintaining, and Restoring Team Cohesion, William Paloski
- Measuring, Monitoring, and Regulating Teamwork for Long Duration Missions, William Paloski
-Holographic Image Plane Projection Integral 3D Display, Phase I
-Individualized Stress Detection System, Pase II