Microsoft HoloLens [Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Holograms]

[Arwin]

The question is if they will run this as a platform or as a service or as a product. The trick for them will be to get that right.

One of my biggest hopes is that this will compete with business air travel and reduce the need for travel in general. That could do well for the environment and also help against outbreaks of various diseases

 

[Shifty Geezer]

What does Hololens bring regards such solutions that Skype et al can't? For virtual presence, VR would still be better I think. Have your companion on the other side of the world wear a stereo camera on their head and beam the results to a VR headset. That'll be better touring a new building than Hololens, or at least its equal. For chatting with business partners, a projection or tablet view of the Skype call is fine, and the tablet can enable annotations and file sharing with an exact interface. I'd rather write labels and draw arrows directly with a stylus rather than tracing my finger in the air with exaggerated movements. Having a colleague walking about the boardroom table as a hologram would be cool, but I don't see that particularly as an enabler.

 

[Jwm]

The question is how many patents does ms have on this and can they keep other players out of the market. Wacom is able to price a cintiq because they are the only real competition in town.

There are a lot of companies doing AR so MS might not have the ability to charge inane prices on the viewer

They bought one company because they would not have been able to secure the patents without it.

 

[dobwal]

What does Hololens bring regards such solutions that Skype et al can't? For virtual presence, VR would still be better I think. Have your companion on the other side of the world wear a stereo camera on their head and beam the results to a VR headset. That'll be better touring a new building than Hololens, or at least its equal. For chatting with business partners, a projection or tablet view of the Skype call is fine, and the tablet can enable annotations and file sharing with an exact interface. I'd rather write labels and draw arrows directly with a stylus rather than tracing my finger in the air with exaggerated movements. Having a colleague walking about the boardroom table as a hologram would be cool, but I don't see that particularly as an enabler.

Trying to find obvious benefits to HoloLens won't enable you to discern its prospect for future acceptance in the market.

Look at the smartphone market. Pre iOS and Android, the smartphone was readily accepted as a credible device with beneficial uses in business. It was still a niche market compared to what it is now.

The explosion in sales had more to with form than function. Billions of phones aren't being sold because the general masses need to email and useful computing on the go. Smartphone sales are mostly driven by entertainment features such as internet surfing, facebooking, gaming and listening to music.

All HoloLens has do is offer more of the same but novel enough that people want to use it. Look at the ipod. What did it do exactly that warranted 20-40 millions in unit sales a year at $300-$400 a pop? What were the tangible benefits in buying an ipod that far cheaper alternatives didn't offer?

 

[Arwin]

At the time the iPod was first with the mini hard drives offering loads more space. I certainly didn't see equivalent devices at the time.

And the iPhone was miles ahead in terms of offering a user friendly way to use and represent many phone features as well as an Spp store.

 

[MfA]

The question is how many patents does ms have on this

The concepts of AR (and VR) have been relatively deeply explored ... it's mostly just been waiting for miniaturization and for someone to market the shit out of it. I can remember quite a few companies with similar projection through lens technologies (although no really wide FOV ones, but the FOV Microsoft can cover isn't entirely clear yet).

That said, Microsoft does seem to have a pretty good lock on depth camera technology for a few more years.

 

[wco81]

AR never really caught on in mobile devices.

I don't think an HMD is going to make it more successful. Problem isn't that there hasn't been good AR. Problem is that people haven't created enough AR content, especially map just even well-known public spaces, say Times Square or Champ de Mars. Or the interiors of well known museums or other places which draw a huge number of visitors. Mapping apps and museum apps will show streets and floor plans but there hasn't been a big impetus to overlay AR on top of ubiquitous cameras.

I'm not sure if even there was a lot of Google Goggles apps. with AR content?

Seems like people are satisfied with 2D info. of potential AR applications.

 

[onQ]

This was the next logical step after the tablet craze so this is a really smart move to get windows 10 in the door as a standard for see through HMDs. They will have Minecraft as a killer app to get people through the door. Google & Apple will have to come with something of their own to stop people from flooding to the Window 10 HMDs or it's going to be an uphill battle.

 

[MfA]

Google glass kinda poisioned the well though ... even if it's for mapping to get accurate positions for overlay I think cameras are going to piss people off at this point.

 

[wco81]

Yeah but Hololens will have cameras.

Not to mention the billions of mobile devices now with cameras.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Google glass kinda poisioned the well though ... even if it's for mapping to get accurate positions for overlay I think cameras are going to piss people off at this point.

This device doesn't look like something meant to be worn in public. It seems targeted to the home and specialized use.

 

[wco81]

Yeah but a lot of the interesting uses for AR could be outside the home, including in exterior public spaces.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Yeah but a lot of the interesting uses for AR could be outside the home, including in exterior public spaces.

Totally agree, but I don't think this is that device.

 

[BadTB25]

I agree. It'll be a few generations before the components are small enough to be non-intrusive in the public setting.
Before it becomes mainstream outside of the house or business, it'll need to be almost invisible from regular sunglasses....or just so socially acceptable that its common place.

 

[eastmen]

I would think the sun would kill any outside use this has during the day. I think it would be way to bright an drown out the affect.

Anyway I wouldn't mind wearing something similar out and about . It would just have to be light enough like half a pound maybe.

 

[MfA]

As I said before you can use an extra display which can switch between opaque and transparent ... being close to the eye the edges will be a bit fuzzy, but it can function to put some billboard type info in an arbitrary window in your vision, regardless of background/light.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

With adequate shades behind the lenses, it should work just as well. Simply need to normalise the background light behind the lens to whatever it's comfortable working with. Bright reflections might still be an issue though.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

With adequate shades behind the lenses, it should work just as well. Simply need to normalise the background light behind the lens to whatever it's comfortable working with. Bright reflections might still be an issue though.

Yup, as I posted before, various electrochromatic shades (the outer tinted shell that we see on the HoloLens prototype) could dynamically change the transparency of that shade to maintain a certain level of incoming brightness. But yes, isolated bright lights would likely still being able to shine through and potentially disrupt the illusion.

Although I'm still uncomfortable with things like this being used in high traffic areas. I can only imagine the potential disasters of someone conducting a skype call, surfing the web, watching youtube, etc. while navigating a busy downtown area.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shifty Geezer]

If prior history is anything to go by, nobody will consider risks in advance. It'll take a few tragic disasters before anyone realises distractions in your field of vision are a bad thing. Then MS will update Hololens with a Driving Mode that cancels everything except GPS and road warnings.

Or, the other flip side, risk assessment will be utterly paranoid and the thing will be banned in most places for fear of optical irradiation and brain damage and epileptic seizures and eye breakage and it'll be 10 years before most States allow it in controlled circumstances when licensed.

 

[wco81]

That's why ultimately HMDs may have problems, the liability issues. On a related note, the technology for autonomous cars is ahead of where the legal issues are for sorting out liability.

Then you have some social resistance to even more technology to distract drivers and pedestrians.

It seems AR content on standard mobile devices is more likely to take off than on HMD devices, even if the latter offer better immersion.