Japanese telecommunications company NTT announced last week that it is making progress in delivering technology that can bring 3D broadcasts of live sports events to fans off-site.
The system, called Kirari! For Arena, uses multiple cameras to track 3D positional information of athletes to reproduce their natural movements in a hologram form, enabling the company to recreate a virtual venue in real-time for fans in a different location.
Research and development has enabled the company to expand the viewing of these images from side to side. The movements in 3D can now be seen going front and back without wearing 3D glasses, according to the company.
Efforts have been made to improve accuracy of relaying real-time footage of the athletes and venues and also have it sync with sound information such as cheering. Acoustic technology enables the direction of the sound to be more realistic.
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NTT Service Evolution Laboratories first announced this concept in February 2015 and that it was conducting the research on this immersive telepresence technology so off-site viewers anywhere in the world could watch sports.
The goal is to make these viewing experiences by 2020 when the Summer Olympics come to Tokyo.
The concept of bringing hologram broadcasts of the Summer Olympics has also been imagined by European IT provider Atos.