IBM predicts holographic phone calls by 2015

Holographic calls could be the norm by 2015. Unbelievable? But it comes from the world's largest provider of computer services IBM, which predicts that cell phones will project a 3-D holographic image of callers as soon as 2015. The company gathered data from some 3,000 researchers as part of its yearly survey on the future of technology and holographic images led the list.

Air-breathing batteries were the next thing researchers thought we could see by 2015, along with applications predicting traffic conditions and environmental information generated by our phones and cars. But these predictions are still far from becoming a reality - instant speech translation was long due by IBM's predictions as well and we are yet to see it.

Some of the predictions are derived from research that has already started at IBM. For example, the environmental information gathered by phones and cars is a current initiative of the company. And many previous forecasts are also coming true like the 2007 dated prediction of use of phones for payments. Just a week ago Google launched the Nexus S with support for NFC, which could turn out to be the next revolution in mobile payments. “The nice thing about the list is that it provokes thought. If everything came true, they wouldn’t be doing their job,” Paul Saffo, managing director of investment consultant company Discern commented.

So while teleportation might wait, you could still get a lot of exciting tech in the future, young Jedi.

source: Bloomberg via Gizmodo