Holographic communication in 5G networks

Abstract

Holographic communication refers to real-time capturing, encoding, transporting and rendering of 3D representations, anchored in space, of remote persons shown as stereoscopic images or as 3D video in extended reality (XR) headsets that deliver a visual effect similar to a hologram.■ After several years of experience with video calls on smartphones and tablets, many users report that they are eagerly awaiting the chance to meet others digitally using immersive communication services such as 3D holographic augmented reality (AR) calls over 5G [1]. Compared with flat screen video, holographic communication can convey the subtleties of non-verbal communication and provide a sense of presence and immediacy that enhances the quality of human interaction. More than 50 percent of smartphone users [2] expect this technology to be available to them within a few years.Consumers are not the only ones longing for more authentic forms of digital communication. A recent study showed that the main barrier to remote working was the need for social interaction [3]. With the time spent working outside the office expected to increase in the coming decade, many office workers will require more immersive forms of digital interaction.Starting with AR glasses and holographic calls with spatial audio, office workers around the world expect to benefit from the emergence of haptic technology, which adds tactile sensing of digital objects [3]. More than half of them say they would like a digital workstation with multisensory presence at the office when working remotely. Similarly, in a recent online survey of 7,115 self-defined early adopters aged 15-69 in 14 major cities, 80 percent of the respondents said they expect to have telepresence facilities to socialize with remote colleagues by 2030. Holographic communication in5G networksThe potential for realizing holographic communication use cases in the years ahead is high. They are already anticipated in numerous consumer and enterprise areas ranging from attending family events as a hologram or meeting a doctor from home to remote presence at the office, expert help at a factory and immersive marketing. As soon as the ecosystem is ready to deliver these new experiences at a good price point and quality of experience (QoE), our research suggests that both private consumers and enterprises will be keen to use it.The ability to make holographic communication an everyday reality is dependent on three key factors. Firstly, there needs to be a desire that drives the behavioral change (the human factor). Secondly, the appropriate AR devices need to become available. Lastly, mobile networks must have the ability to support the holographic communication pipeline. The human factorUsers are the primary beneficiary of any type of human communication technology, and holographic communication is no exception. It is therefore essential to understand how they perceive it, along with the benefits from their perspective and their opinions about how to improve the user experience.The two major user groups f...

Toward immersive communications in 6G

“…XR 360 • video playback < 20 ms MTP delay (Yao et al, 2017), 2.35 Gbps data rate (Mangiante et al, 2017) Interactive applications (e.g., VR gaming) <50 ms response time (Zhang et al, 2017) Collaborative virtual applications (e.g., teleconference) <150 ms virtual feedback (Jay et al, 2007), 12.5 Tbps/km 2 upload capacity AR smart healthcare <5 ms delay, 10 Gbps data rate (Xu et al, 2022) Haptics Telesurgery > 99.999% reliability, <1 ms delay (Gupta et al, 2019) Remote machine manipulation > 99.999% reliability, <2ms delay (Aijaz and Sooriyabandara, 2018) Haptic interaction-based rehabilitation >99.999% reliability, <50 ms delay (Holland et al, 2019) Holography Volumetric-based hologram (e.g., point cloud) >300 Mbps data rate (Selinis et al, 2020;Essaili et al, 2022) Image-based hologram (e.g., LFV) >100 Gbps data rate (Clemm et al, 2020) Real-time holographic teleconference <100 ms delay (He et al, 2023)…”

“…Integrating 3D data capturing, processing, transmission, and rendering, holographic communication is expected to enable exciting new services in 6G (Strinati et al, 2019;Clemm et al, 2020). At the moment, there is no consensus on the scope of holographic communication in the literature, and some researchers consider the transferring and rendering of 3D data in AR/VR as a type of holographic communication (Essaili et al, 2022). In this review, holographic communication refers to data transfer for autostereoscopic 3D display, i.e., 3D images that can be viewed by naked eye without the aid of eyewear or headsets and, ideally, are different when viewed from different positions, angles, or tilts.…”

“…captured), and the output from capture sensors is fused to form a composite 3D representation of the captured scene (Javidi et al, 2005). For example, in digital holography, a computer can process 2D images taken from different angles and tilts by a camera array to form a single 3D representation of the captured scene (Essaili et al, 2022). The fusion of images may help achieve visualization enhancement in the rendered 3D images such as improvement in the resolution and contrast (Javidi et al, 2005), and it can be conducted either solely at the transmitter side or with the help of an edge server.…”

“…For example, to fully represent a human, the point cloud in each frame typically consists of 10 5 -10 6 points, while each point needs 15 bytes of data to represent the color and 3D coordinate of the point. In the case of 30 frames per second, the data rate requirement is between 300 Mbps and 3 Gbps (Selinis et al, 2020;Essaili et al, 2022). For image-based holograms, such as light-field video (LFV), an object is presented by an array of images captured at different angles, tilts, and/or positions.…”

“…Another solution for reducing the required data rate is to apply data compression. For a 2D real-time video, current media codecs can achieve a compression ratios from 250:1 to 1,000:1 (Selinis et al, 2020;Essaili et al, 2022). Similarly, format conversion and data compression can be applied to reduce the data size in holographic communication.…”