While teleportation is still in the realm of science fiction, Microsoft has introduced “holoportation” – a 3D, real-time hologram of someone who is a world away, but still interacts with you.

Holoportation is a new type of 3D capture technology that allows high-quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed and transmitted anywhere in the world in real time.

When combined with mixed reality displays such as HoloLens, this technology allows users to see, hear, and interact with remote participants in 3D as if they are actually present in the same physical space. Communicating and interacting with remote users becomes as natural as face-to-face communication.