A Canadian scientist says he has created a Star Trek-like 3-D pod to allow people in different locations to talk as if they are standing in front of each other.

Roel Vertegaal, director of the Human Media Lab at Queen's University in Ontario, and his research team developed what they're calling a TeleHuman, looking like something from the Star Trek holodeck.

Two people can stand in front of their own life-size cylindrical pods and have a video conference with a 3-D hologram-like image of each other.

Cameras capture and track 3-D video and convert it into the life-size image.

The system, which seems like something from science fiction, actually uses mostly existing hardware, including a 3-D projector, a 6-foot-tall translucent acrylic cylinder and a convex mirror, a university release reported Thursday.

Since the 3-D video image is visible 360 degrees around the TeleHuman pod, a person can walk around it to see the other person's side or back.

"Why Skype when you can talk to a life-size 3-D holographic image of another person?" Vertegaal asked.