LOS ANGELES (AFP) – More than half a century after he materialised on far-flung planets as Captain James T Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, William Shatner has beamed into a distant land in a demonstration of hologram technology.
The Star Trek actor was a guest speaker at an advertising conference in Sydney, Australia, where his lifelike image appeared in a box like a giant action figure – despite his being in a studio in California.
“You’re 7,000 miles away and I’m here in Los Angeles,” he told the audience. “And you can hear every word I’m saying. It’s like I’m there; I’m in the phone booth.”
The tech, produced by Los Angeles-based Proto, displays a high definition 2D image that uses shadows to create a volumetric illusion of three dimensions.
Coupled with the human-sized display – the screen takes up the bulk of a 2.2-metre device – the result is pretty realistic.
But it is not without problems – the demonstration that AFP watched on Tuesday initially faltered, with the audience left staring at a blank screen while Shatner hammed his way through a Star Trek-style materialisation.
“There’s always jeopardy when there’s new technology,” the 92-year-old shrugged when his image appeared inside the device in Sydney moments later. Chief Executive of Proto Inc David Nussbaum said the veteran performer was a natural choice to showcase the tech.
“William Shatner stamped the idea of holoportation on our imaginations with his performances on Star Trek and now he can beam anywhere on Earth, in real life,” he said.
Canadian Shatner became a cult star in the wake of the 1960s sci-fi adventure Star Trek, which follows the crew of a spaceship as spreads liberal humanitarian ideals through the galaxy on a mission “to boldly go where no man has gone before”.
In 2021, he became the oldest person ever to go to space when he travelled aboard a Blue Origin craft.
Shatner told AFP he was a fan of new technology, but pointed to the actors’ and writers’ strike playing out in Hollywood as a good example of how industries have to adapt to it. “We can’t do what we did last year, six months ago,” he said.
“Artificial Intelligence, 3D, streaming, are all new ideas. So new protocol needs to take place. It’s as simple as that. Everybody recognises it.”
