Video – Prince Charles Attends World Future Energy Summit Virtually as 3D Hologram

We have to hand it to Prince Charles as, whilst he seems to court more than his fair share of bad press in the UK, he is rather more forward thinking than we’ve come to expect from the immediate royal family and now, apart from being the first royal to freely admit to conversing with flowers (I recall having a rather heated conversation with a Geranium myself some while back, but that’s another story) he’s become the first royal to attend a conference virtually as a 3D hologram.

As you can see from the video below, his resulting virtual attendance – which lasted a total of six minutes – is pretty impressive and, of course, in choosing to attend the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi in holographic form he’s saved tons in aviation fuel (a purported 20 tons, to be exact).

However, as his virtual speech was not relayed in real time, but was based on a recording, Charlie was unable to except questions from the floor during the event from any passing perennials but his virtual speech has certainly served underpin not only the feasibility of virtual, holographic remote speech delivery but also to potentially set an example for others to follow.

Perhaps Al Gore might like to take a leaf out of Charles’s book instead of clocking up his air miles?

[Via AP & Gizmodo]