ROME, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Frantic search kept going overnight, and continued through Friday, to find dozens of people buried under an avalanche that occurred on Wednesday in Abruzzo, central Italy.
The avalanche crushed the Rigopiano hotel, a luxury ski resort lying between the village of Farindola and the 2,912-meter-tall Gran Sasso peak.
Up to 30 people are missing, including 22 guests and seven employees of the resort, according to local authorities. Among them, there were at least three children of six, seven, and nine years.
Two guests were outside the hotel, when the huge snowslide occurred, and survived. They were able to launch the SOS call soon after. One of them was treated for hypothermia, but was not in health-threatening conditions.
Rescue teams said they would not give up hopes of finding more survivors under the mass of snow, mud, and rubble the hotel has become. Despite the sniffer dogs involved in the research, however, no signs of life were detected so far. Aid teams were working in a hazardous environment.
"We have been digging since last night in difficult conditions," an official with the Alpine Corp of the Italian army leading the search told Ansa news agency.
"Dogs often sniff some traces, but we have over four to five meters to dig before reaching the ground," the rescuer explained. The official death toll remains two, the Civil Protection agency coordinating all rescue efforts said on Thursday night.
Yet, some Italian media were putting the figure at between four and six, reporting that more bodies were detected and not yet recovered. The reports have not been confirmed officially.
The avalanche occurred in the late afternoon of Wednesday, and was almost certainly triggered by four powerful earthquakes that struck the Abruzzo region on Wednesday morning.
All four events measured a magnitude above 5 on the Richter scale, according to Italy's National Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (INGV). The epicenters of the temblors were registered between the provinces of Rieti and L'Aquila.
The series of quakes are actually longer, considering that separate clusters of temblors have haunted Italy's central regions since a major 6.0-magnitude event on Aug. 24 last year.
Severe weather conditions and heavy snowfalls in the area of the Rigopiano hotel have hampered rescue activities, slowing down the arrival of emergency vehicles and forcing first rescuers to reach to site by walking and skiing at 4:30 a.m. local time on Thursday.
In a short press conference on Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni stressed that central Italy was caught in an "unprecedented claw of snowy weather and earthquakes."
Some 7,000 forces were overall engaged in the emergency operation in quake-hit areas, according to Civil Protection official Titti Postiglione.
Holograms have long played a prominent role in science fiction, and it is high time for them to find applications in real life. Holography was the very inspiration behind Star Trek's holodeck, the simulated reality facility on board the Enterprise. It was also the basis of many 3D holographic reels from Star Wars and other such sci-fi royalties. Beyond science fiction glamour Danny Shelton Game Jersey , however, holography is a real-life, well-established technique with its solid theoretical foundation. In fact Malcom Brown Game Jersey , pioneers like Gabor, Upatnieks, Benton Joe Thuney Game Jersey , and Leith have developed an entire array of applications using holographic optical recording and processing among themselves. Today, 3D and holographic projection technologies are more widely available, offering the advantage of more immersive and futuristic visual displays.
Humans are designed to see the world in 3D. The way our eyes and brains are designed to perceive and relay information is truly extraordinary Deatrich Wise Jr. Game Jersey , giving us the unique ability to process images in three dimensions. 3D images are different from 2-dimensional displays in that they enable viewers to perceive depth using different cues like stereo parallax, as well as accommodation and depth of field. 3-dimensional holographic displays, therefore Jeremy Hill Limited Jersey , appeal to the natural sense of humans, allowing them to see the world as it should be seen.
Two-dimensional imaging from computer screens and televisions are simply incapable of producing these depth cues. This results in a reduced sense of realityrealism and a great loss of information related to the scene or object of interest. Developers have done plenty of research and have put a great deal of work in developing 3D and holographic display technologies that aim to overcome the restrictions and limitations of these 2-dimensional displays. Other noteworthy approaches to 3D displays that have contributed greatly to today's latest hologram technologies include stereoscopic displays via special eyewear, volumetric displays that record bright spots in materials Trent Brown Limited Jersey , and more.
Holographic displays stand out from previous 3D attempts because they offer superbly realistic, high-resolution, full-colour images that you can see floating mid-air. Additionally Cordarrelle Patterson Limited Jersey , holographic images are available in large sizes, which is an important quality for displays and similar types of installations. Also worth mentioning is hologram's ability to display images up to several meters across. Another major advantage of holographic displays is that the images they produce are autostereoscopic, which means they can directly be viewed on the recording material and from multiple angles Ja'Whaun Bentley Limited Jersey , without the need for special goggles or some eyewear.