One way he sees the technology being used is to create more and more sophisticated “windows” into other parts of the world: A sort of hyper-realistic webcam. His ultimate goal, he says, is a 3-D display that incorporates viewpoint tracking. That means it would respond to your head’s motion, so you can move left, right, forward and back to see different perspectives on the scene. Bathiche’s lab is using the Wedge and other technologies, such as remote cameras that follow your head’s movement, to experiment with different ways of making this happen.

It’s still a ways off, but Bathiche seems confident he’s got the components he needs.

“These are the pieces we need to create the ultimate display, which is kind of like a holodeck window to anywhere in the world,” Bathiche says.