Apparently, we’re all moving forward to a future where two dimensions just aren’t enough. We’re done with using cheats that only make TV ‘look’ 3D. We’re looking to bring our technology, whether for entertainment, business, or even romance, into a whole new reality. Here, we’re going to look at some of the recent technology pushes into pushing past the boundaries we know so far. Some are awesome and full of promise, some are a bit head-scratching. Either way, it’s all very cool.

Boot up those holograms

Like something right out of Star Trek or the Danger Room, we might very have our own digital beings walking amongst us. There have already been forays into making holograms more publicly accessible through things like augmented reality. Pokemon Go is just the beginning, however. Now, we’re looking at potential access to the kind of holograms once only visible at a Gorrilaz live concert. A Japanese company has started working on a strange/cute holographic cosplay character dedicated to ‘serving her husband’. It’s not just for lovesick dudes with too much to spend, either. It actually works like a smart home, automating different parts of the house for you. As the tech gets more mainstream, it’s likely we will start seeing some that aren’t designed to be a cosplaying wife figure, but who knows.

Exploring alternate realities

VR might not feel new by now, but let’s all remember that this tech is super young. Mostly, it’s being used for little short experiences, often promotional materials that are meant to get you ‘inside’ some big IP release. But it’s about more than promotion and videogames. The tech behind VR is only going to get more involved thanks to the amount of money some rich consumers have been pumping into the currently available headsets. Amongst some of the proposed uses? Helping surgeons in training practice their craft on a virtual living human body before they get near a real person. Let’s just hope they sort out some of the calibration jank in the current hardware or else virtual scalpels will be flying left, right, and center.

Exploring alternate realities

Haptic feedback. It’s super important for creating an intuitive link between technology and whosoever is using that technology. It’s why your phones and tablets vibrate when you touch certain features on them. But it’s about to get a lot more complicated and a lot more engrossing. The developers of these touchscreens have a good point that we don’t yet have enough feedback from our devices to make them foolproof. It’s all too easy to touch the wrong place without knowing and access some hour-long feature you don’t want to boot up. That’s why those developers, like Disney, are looking into cool tech that replicates different textures as you touch the screen thanks to some amazing vibration technology. Soon, you too will be able to pet a virtual dog and actually feel its fur.

We’re getting closer to technology we can really dive into, some we can bring out into the real world, and even new tech developments we can touch. Every day, we get closer and closer to some kind of sci-fi film existence. Here’s hoping that day comes a little sooner. Personally, I want a holodeck.