Holodeck Information

A holodeck is a simulated reality facility located on starships and starbases in the fictional Star Trek universe. An episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, "The Practical Joker", formed the groundwork for the idea in the 1970s by portraying a recreation room capable of holographic simulations. The holodeck was first seen in the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Encounter at Farpoint". The concept of a holodeck was first shown to humans through an encounter with the Xyrillan race in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Unexpected".

Features

The holodeck is depicted as an enclosed room in which objects and people are simulated by a combination of replicated matter, tractor beams, and shaped force fields onto which holographic images are projected. Sounds and smells are simulated by speakers and fragranced fluid atomizers, respectively. The feel of a large environment is simulated by suspending the participants on force fields which move with their feet, keeping them from reaching the walls of the room (a virtual treadmill).

Most holodeck programs shown in the episodes run in first person "subjective mode", in which the user actively interacts with the program and its characters. The user may also employ third-person "objective mode", in which he or she is "apart" from the actual running of the program and does not interact with it (all of the program's characters will ignore the user as if they were not there—this was shown in the Enterprise episode "These Are the Voyages...").

Matter created on the holodeck ("holomatter") requires the holoemitters to remain stable and will quickly disintegrate if it is removed from the holodeck without a mobile emitter to sustain it, although this principle has been overlooked in some episodes. Writer Phil Farrand has often pointed out how in many episodes matter from the holodeck that gets on a real person still exists when the real person exits the holodeck. In "Encounter at Farpoint", Wesley Crusher falls into a holodeck stream, but is still wet after exiting the holodeck. In "The Big Goodbye", Picard has lipstick on his cheek after encountering a holodeck simulation of a 20th-century woman. In "Elementary, Dear Data", Data and Geordi La Forge exit the holodeck with a piece of paper that originated in the holodeck.^[1] This could be explained using replicated rather than holographic matter.

In most episodes, the holodeck is controlled by voice commands, though physical controls have been shown in a few episodes. They also include safety protocols to protect the users.

Some users may develop an addiction to the holodeck, leading to them spending unhealthy amounts of time there and personifying artificial characters. This was demonstrated by the Starfleet human character Reginald Barclay in the Voyager episode "Pathfinder" and The Next Generation episode "Hollow Pursuits".

Applications

Starfleet personnel use holodecks for training, diagnostics and recreation. They are used to recreate or simulate settings and events for analysis, such as to explore the forensics and logistics of a crime scene for law enforcement purposes, or for scientific experimentation. In general, the holodeck "functions as a cultural repository of narrative possibilities that would normally be excluded from the ship's own sociohistorical moment" and "allows the Enterprise community to include even that which it excludes by containing the excluded within a proper, controlled place which in no way intrudes upon the everyday space of the ship."^[2]

The Emergency Medical Hologram on ships such as USS Voyager applies holodeck technology to present a single "character" within the otherwise natural environment of the ship's sick bay. In the episode "In Once Upon A Time" Captain Janeway and Harry Kim mention having used a holodeck as children. However, the holodeck was referenced in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation as being fairly new technology.

An example of the holodeck's recreational functions are the holosuites that are owned and rented out – often for sexual purposes – by Quark on Deep Space Nine.

Writing stories and plotlines for the holodeck is an activity pursued by people known as holonovelists. It was the chosen profession of Lt. Tom Paris of the USS Voyager, and he pursued it when the ship finally returned from the Delta Quadrant in the show's finale.

The Holosuites and holodecks utilize two major subsystems: the holographic image and the conversion of matter. The holographic imaging system creates realistic environments and landscapes. The conversion system of matter creates physical objects from the central supply of raw materials from the ship. Under normal conditions, a participant in a holographic simulation should not be able to distinguish an object from a simulated real one.

The holodeck also generates impressive recreations of humanoid and other forms of life by means of precisely-shaped force fields covered by holographic imagery, with the effect that they seem solid to the touch. They are made to move by use of tractor beams, resulting in highly articulated and computer-controlled "puppets" which are exceptionally realistic, showing nearly equal behavior to that exhibited by living beings, depending, of course, on the limits of the software involved. However, the replication-based material transport system is obviously unable to reproduce a living being.

Solid, inanimate objects on the holodeck--items such as a book, a rock, or an apple-- are composed of matter arranged by the replication system and, when deemed appropriate by the computer system, can be interacted with or even consumed. Objects created by replication of matter are physically real and can indeed be removed from the holodeck, noting only that they will no longer be under the control of the computer once removed from the simulation. However, objects created on the holodeck that are purely images can not be removed from the simulated environment, even if they seem to have a physical reality due to the force fields. In order for a given item to be removed from the environment of the holodeck, a person would need to be holding the object as he/she leaves.

The basic mechanism behind the holodeck is the omnidirectional holo-diode (HDO or OHD, its acronym in English). The HDO comprises two types of micro-miniature devices that project a variety of special force field. The density of HDOS in a holographic surface is 400 per square centimeter, fed by an outlet eletroplasma medium power. Entire walls are covered with HDOS, manufactured in an inexpensive process of printing circuits on a roll.

A typical surface holodeck includes twelve sub-layers processed a total of 3.5 mm, fused to a thermal-structural light panel, which on average is 3.04 cm thick. The primary materials include sub-processor/emitter of superconducting material. Each individual HDO measures 0.01 mm. The mechanism of digital optical network, by which an HDOS receive impulses, is similar to that which feeds smaller display panels, although the walls are divided into major sections, and easier to control with greater speed, each with 0.61 m². Sub-sections which are dedicated to the main computer can control such "monitors" which are the size of rooms.

Besides the ability to project stereoscopic color images, HDOS manipulate the force fields in three dimensions to allow visitors to "feel" objects that are not really there. This tactile stimulus provides the appropriate response one would expect from a rock on the ground or a tree growing in a forest. The only factors limiting the number and types of object are given by the computer memory and time to retrieve or calculate the beginning the pattern of an object, either real or imaginary.

The version of "optics" of a HDO sends a complete picture of the environment or landscape, based on their location relative to the full panel. The visitor, however, sees only a small portion of each HDOS, almost like a fly's eye operating in reverse. When the visitor moves the visible portions of HDOS change, changing the perspective. In reality, the energy emitted is not a visible electromagnetic emission, but is actually polarized patterns of interference. The image is reconstructed where the patterns intersect the lens of the eye or any visual receiver.

Notable appearances of the holodeck

It has been noted Star Trek has "a number of interesting 'holodeck' episodes that very roughly point towards interesting philosophical and sociological issues of virtual realities".^[3]

The first episode featuring a holodeck was "The Practical Joker", an animated episode in which it was called a "recreation room". Due to interference with the ship's computers, several crew members were trapped in it.

There were several incidents of crew being trapped or injured by holodeck malfunctions in later episodes.^[4] One resulted in the shooting of the ship's historian on board Enterprise. In the episode "A Fistful of Datas", Lt. Worf, his son Alexander, and Counselor Troi were trapped in a 19th century American West adventure with the safety protocols disabled when a computer experiment involving Lt. Cmdr. Data went awry. Worf received a minor gunshot wound when the computer began remaking all the characters as replicas of Data. However he was able to safely play out the story, and once the story ended the trio was able to leave the holodeck. Jean-Luc Picard experiences an upgraded holodeck in "The Big Goodbye", in which he portrays the detective Dixon Hill, a boyhood hero of the captain's. This episode establishes the power and function of the holodeck. A malfunction leads to Data, Jean-Luc, and Beverly Crusher being trapped on the holodeck. Picard portrayed the character again in Star Trek: First Contact.

The disabling of a holodeck's safety protocols was used as a tactical advantage in Star Trek: First Contact, when under attack from the Borg, Jean-Luc Picard disables the security protocols and grabs a holographic tommy gun, shooting and killing two Borg drones.

The holodeck was used as a plot device to explore metaphysical questions, in such episodes as "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Ship in a Bottle", in which a holodeck character becomes self-aware and contemplates the nature of his identity and continued existence.^[5]

Similar technology in other works

• Ray Bradbury was perhaps the first science fiction author to envision a simulated environment similar to the holodeck. His 1951 book of short stories, The Illustrated Man, includes a story called The Veldt, in which a children's nursery can create material objects based on thought.
• In 1965, computer scientist Ivan Sutherland stated: "The ultimate display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining, and a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal."^[6]
• The 1974 Japanese TV series Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers in English syndication) features a "resort room" which allowed the crew to combat homesickness by immersing themselves in simulated scenes of Earth.
• In the X-Men comic book series, the X-Men train in the Danger Room. In the earliest version of this room depicted in the 1960s, the Danger Room utilized mere mechanical devices to simulate threats, but the version depicted followed an upgrade by the extraterrestrial Sh'iar in the early 1980s utilizes sophisticated holograms, robots, and other sensory simulation to create environments as realistic as those on the holodeck. In the film X-Men: The Last Stand, the Danger Room's holography is shown to be a combination of light projection and solid objects.
• In the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, some advanced races (such as the Asgard and the Ancients) have holo technology, albeit generally not to the extent of a Star Trek-style holodeck.
• In the series Jake 2.0, the protagonist was seen training in a holographic room in one of the early episodes.
• In the series Power Rangers: S.P.D., the Rangers train in a similar room on at least two occasions.
• In Futurama, the Nimbus is equipped with a "holoshed", a parody of the holodeck.^[7]
• Madden NFL 09 features a "holographic environment" for players to train.
• In the Nintendo 64 game Perfect Dark, players can use a holo room for basic training purposes.
• In Power Rangers in Space, the Power Rangers use the Simudeck on the Astro Megaship to train and exercise.
• In the Show Squidbillies, (Episode "Holodeck Redneck") The Sheriff uses a holodeck to distract Early while he repossesses his truck-boat-truck-boat-truck-wave-runner, which in fact happened inside a holodeck within a therapist's office as a fantasy of The Sheriff's, which in turn took place inside a holodeck in the therapist's office as a part of one of Early's fantasies.
• The soviet movie "Moscow to Cassiopea" and its sequel "Teens in the Universe" featured the room that simulated multiple environments. For exmaple, a pavillion in the meadow.
• Albeit being a police procedural rather than a SF-show, the medical examiners in CSI: New York use a holodeck frequently.

See also

• Artificial reality
• Augmented reality
• Cave Automatic Virtual Environment
• Haptic technology
• Methods of virtual reality
• Mixed reality
• Narrative environment
• Omnidirectional treadmill
• Virtual retinal display
• Volumetric display

Notes

1. ^ Phil Farrand. The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers New York: Dell (1993)
2. ^ Sarah Hardy & Rebecca Kukla, "A Paramount Narrative: Exploring Space on the Starship Enterprise" The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 57 2 (1999): 182.
3. ^ Ford, Paul J. (2001). "A further analysis of the ethics of representation in virtual reality: Multi-user environments". Ethics and Information Technology (Kluwer Academic Publishers) 3: 113–121. doi:10.1023/A:1011846009390.
4. ^ Thomas Richards, The Meaning of Star Trek. New York: Doubleday (1997): 108 - 109. The Enterprise-D "has two mechanisms aboard that seem especially prone to failure ... the transporter and the holodeck."
5. ^ Richards (1997): 114
6. ^ Sutherland, I. (1965). The ultimate display. Proceedings of IFIP Congress 1965, 506-508.
7. ^ http://theinfosphere.org/Holo-Shed

References

• P. Farrand, Nitpicker's Guide for Deep space Nine Trekkers New York: Dell (1996): 44 - 47
• Lois H. Gresh & Robert Weinberg, Chapter 7, "The Holodeck" The Computers of Star Trek. New York: Basic Books (1999): 127 - 144
• R. Sternbach & M. Okuda, Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual New York: Bantam Books (1991)

External links

• Holodeck at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Holodeck
• Holodeck and Computers FAQ by Joshua Bell

Categories: Star Trek devices | Virtual reality in fiction | Fictional rooms | Holography in fiction

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