The more time I spend playing online, the more innovations just blow me away. But this one takes the cake.

It’s called “telepresence”, and in this video it was used to create a 3D virtual, live, image of a presenter, who could not physically attend a conference, but presented anyway. His image was projected onto the stage, and since it was happening in real time (think teleconferencing, but on steroids) the “virtual” presenter (who was actually in India at the time) was able to speak and interact with a colleague (his boss) who was “really” on the stage.

The virtual image is not projected onto the screen, but onto the stage. You really do think you are looking at a live person. (Well, you are looking at a live person, but he happens to be thousands of miles away).

There are many possible applications to this. The video mentions doctors “visiting” remote patients. But I immediately had another idea: If my deceased father was able to make a virtual “video” of himself (prior to his death, of course!) then I could listen to a message from him after his death, and see it coming “directly from him”. My daughter could “see” her grandfather, whom she now does not remember. The potential is tremendous.

In fact, this is so awesome that I was waiting for a “April Fool’s” kind of spoiler at the end. But no, it seems the Cisco people are really pulling this off. Watch it, it really is amazing.