For me I've always pictured holographic controls in two ways. First the controls like on the bridge would have a raised holo/3D area above the keyboard/controls panel. This would be much like what we use now with our keyboards/screens. Sensors operators would have a sort of shimmering black area corresponding to the area their ship's sensors cover. Known ships would be shown in general shape and locations corresponding to their correct location in space. Unknown blips would be shown as small medium or large spheres and active signatures/pings would look like waves moving across the image. This would have the effect of putting the operator right in the image by giving the image depth, which I would think would increase their speed and accuracy.
The second way would be like the sensor/briefing room onboard the Donosev survey ships. or other ships with this installed. I can't remember just where I saw the picture but I remember it showed the Donosev's sensor room as being a fairly round room with a central holo area with a number of chairs and consuls surrounding the holo area which had a blue globe representing a planet the ship was apparently orbiting. This might be the same thing as the holo controls above, just super-sized, but being larger a person could walk right into the image and possible interact with it. The sensor operator above might be able to interact with their image, say he wants to check on battle damage to an escorting SDB, they might just reach into the image and with finger and thumb pinch the SDBs image and open their fingers to expand the image. This is not as far fetched as one might think as we now have touch screens on printers and computers.
I just don't see the Star Trek holo room where you program something and have a solid object to interact with. The ancients might have the tech to do this but I see our holo tech as more of an advance on current tech. But on the bright side with the way things are going I don't think we will have to wait for TL-13 to have holo-tech. After all it only took what, two or three years for some inventor to come up with the cell phone after Kirk's first "Beam me up Scotty". and Hollywood has been showing us holo images for a while now.
Roger
The second way would be like the sensor/briefing room onboard the Donosev survey ships. or other ships with this installed. I can't remember just where I saw the picture but I remember it showed the Donosev's sensor room as being a fairly round room with a central holo area with a number of chairs and consuls surrounding the holo area which had a blue globe representing a planet the ship was apparently orbiting. This might be the same thing as the holo controls above, just super-sized, but being larger a person could walk right into the image and possible interact with it. The sensor operator above might be able to interact with their image, say he wants to check on battle damage to an escorting SDB, they might just reach into the image and with finger and thumb pinch the SDBs image and open their fingers to expand the image. This is not as far fetched as one might think as we now have touch screens on printers and computers.
I just don't see the Star Trek holo room where you program something and have a solid object to interact with. The ancients might have the tech to do this but I see our holo tech as more of an advance on current tech. But on the bright side with the way things are going I don't think we will have to wait for TL-13 to have holo-tech. After all it only took what, two or three years for some inventor to come up with the cell phone after Kirk's first "Beam me up Scotty". and Hollywood has been showing us holo images for a while now.
Roger