In a recently released YouTube video, Microsoft Research's Interactive 3D Technologies (I3D) group has demonstrated its new augmented reality (AR) telepresence technology which enables "holoportation" --- that is, it gives the users of Microsoft's HoloLens AR headset the capability to converse with people who are not in the room.

To demonstrate the new technology, the YouTube video released by Microsoft's I3D research group shows partner research manager Shahram Izadi in a room alongside several other people. The video showed Izadi being recorded in person, while the other people who joined him in the conversation were displayed as digital renderings when they were being recorded in an adjacent room.

The AR telepresence system developed by Microsoft's I3D research group uses a specialized capture rig for mapping the movements of a person on real time. A 3D image of the movements is then sent to a HoloLens wearer, to enable the two people to interact with each other.

According to the details shared by the I3D research group, the conversation partners of "holoportation" users will be visible to them only through a rectangular window at the center of their vision. Moreover, it is not possible for the "holoportation" users to touch each other, though one person may walk through the other during the course of a conversation.

About the benefit of "holoportation," the I3D research group said that the AR telepresence system will allow people to converse with other people who are physically present in an adjacent room as well as with those who are "holoporting."