Holovision was an informal name for volumetric display technology, or displaying a truly three-dimensional image in volumetric space instead of on a surface. In mid-22nd century though, this term became firmly associated with a technology of translating reality to a digital representation. Of course virtual reality as such had been present for almost two hundred years then, but virtual objects had to be created piece by piece - often with some sort of 3D scanning device of a real object - and then have all its physical properties added and fine-tuned manually. Holovision made it possible to digitalize an object with a very simple act of measurement called a "snaphot" and sophisticated software that determined its features, so a chair made from oak wood was digitalized into a virtual chair made of virtual oakwood - with no preprogrammed ideas of what "oakwood" was. Moreover, this technology allowed to manipulate properties easily, for example turning this oakwood to iron or styrofoam with simple commands. The impact of Holovision on commerce and entertainment was enormous.