Microsoft HoloLens [Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Holograms]

[Silent_Buddha]

Also as mentioned, there are safety implications. You aren't expected to move around while wearing a fully immersive VR helmet. With HoloLens and augmented reality, there are situations where an application is used while navigating around RL. I can imagine that MS don't want to have a situation where a badly (or even maliciously) coded application could have the potential of obscuring enough of your view that you don't get any cues as to what is potentially there. Leaving the top/bottom/sides uncovered means there's always an awareness of your surrounds. You can see what is coming in the next step you taking. If anything is moving into your path from the sides.

Especially, for commercial aspects (use on a construction site, near stairs, etc.) this would be an important consideration.

But, hopefully, whenever they get around to a model targetted at general consumers. Perhaps they could make a version where a user could only use it in a home environment (where most people are familiar enough that they could navigate it in the dark) with an FOV that fills most of a persons FOV. Something meant for more sedentary uses, like games...

Or perhaps a version that when it detects movement from the user (like walking), automatically limits the FOV from full vision FOV to limited relatively safe movement FOV.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It sounds like a large screen TV in terms of FOV. That's something to factor in regards games. Although there's a whole world going on, game design should probably factor this in. Playing an FPS, the viewport would feel very tunnel-vision. But a game of exploration or as a huge desktop you can quickly switch anywhere to just by looking would be a very comfortable fit.

The opacity aspect reinforces original views on how it works. It's a projection over the visible light. Put a light shield behind it and it'll be every bit as solid as VR. For AR games, maybe not as stable and convincing as a VR headset with cameras but okay.

All in all though, I really don't think MS are looking at games with this, so won't pursue choices to facilitate gaming. Games will come as they do to every electronic device, but I think conventional VR will be the birthplace of the next-gen immersive experience and Hololens will sit it out until a more refined gen 2 or 3 tech. It'll need the full FOV (100+ degrees) to work well.

I wonder if the display could be stretched over a larger area with increased FOV at lower res and decrease brightness/opacity? Would be great if the glasses could be switched to VR mode with a blacked out visor.

 

[eastmen]

It seems the first unit they demo'd had a better FOV. So it will be interesting to figure out what made them make it smaller

 

[AzBat]

All in all though, I really don't think MS are looking at games with this, so won't pursue choices to facilitate gaming. Games will come as they do to every electronic device, but I think conventional VR will be the birthplace of the next-gen immersive experience and Hololens will sit it out until a more refined gen 2 or 3 tech. It'll need the full FOV (100+ degrees) to work well.

Not sure I agree with that. They definitely have games in mind & it was rumored the project was originally incubated as a gaming device. I suspect we will hear even more game support throughout the year. But I think these articles show they're serious about gaming on Hololens...

Appearing at Game Developers Conference 2015 today, Xbox chief Phil Spencer confirmed that Microsoft intends to bring Xbox gaming to the company's futuristic HoloLens headset. "Gaming and entertainment is going to be critical," to introducing consumers to such a radically new experience, Spencer said. He revealed that Microsoft's own first-party development studios are already at work trying to build captivating experiences beyond what we saw in January. But eventually, Microsoft's going to open the doors to outside developers.

"While there are going to be many uses and industries that take advantage of Microsoft HoloLens and everything that holographic computing has to offer, gaming is a huge opportunity," Microsoft said in a press release. Earlier in the presentation, Spencer had underlined the important piece gaming plays in the software ecosystems of other platforms — PC, smartphones, and obviously consoles. Microsoft apparently sees HoloLens and its underlying Windows Holographic as no exception. Spencer hinted that interested developers should sign up for the Windows Insider Program for eventual API access;

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/4/8149331/microsoft-working-on-games-for-hololens

Former Lionhead Studios boss John Needham is now in charge of internal development for several games and experiences on Microsoft's Xbox and HoloLens platforms, a Microsoft spokesperson told Engadget today. Needham reports directly to Kudo Tsunoda, head of Microsoft Studios' portfolio investments team and former creative director for Kinect Games. Needham took over as the head of Microsoft's Lionhead Studios in 2013 and he's been involved in the corporate gaming world since joining Sony Online Entertainment in 2001. As the leader of Lionhead, the studio behind Fable, Needham reported directly to former Microsoft VP Phil Harrison. Needham relocated to Microsoft's offices in Redmond, Washington, for his new role.

A Microsoft spokesperson offered the following statement to Engadget today (partially repeating its announcement about Tsunoda's move in March):

"With the exception of Halo, Gears of War, Forza and Minecraft, Kudo Tsunoda will lead the vision and experience development of our other Microsoft Studios portfolio investments in the United States, Europe and across our Global Publishing team. John Needham relocated to Redmond in a new role overseeing internal development for several games and experiences for both Xbox and Microsoft HoloLens reporting to Kudo. All up responsibility for Xbox EMEA will be overseen directly by Phil Spencer."

http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/21/microsoft-xbox-hololens-boss/

You also announced that Xbox is developing first-party titles for HoloLens. Can you elaborate on the difference between those games and the Minecraft-ish demo Microsoft showed off in January? Are these full-fledged games?

Yes. There’s a lot of work and excitement in the VR space, what Sony is doing, what Samsung is doing, what Oculus is doing, it’s just a lot of interest. In the holographic mixed-reality space, there are fewer players. In some ways, it’s a little more technically challenging — not to take away from any of the challenges of VR. But I think that it’s important for us to build content for our platforms to learn about their capabilities. Halo 2 and Xbox Live were built hand in hand. With HoloLens, it’s the same thing. We’ve got first-party studios working on games and other experiences so that we’ll have a suite of experiences that people will love. I just think that’s critical.

Is HoloLens something primarily made to be used at home, or are you also thinking about games you play on the go? Microsoft doesn’t have a handheld console like Nintendo’s 3DS or Sony’s PlayStation Vita.

HoloLens is untethered, so you don’t need a PC. All the compute capability is in the device itself, so you’re completely mobile, which I think creates a unique opportunity. As we look at it, it’s early, and we’re going to learn a ton as we get feedback from developers, get it in the hands of consumers at some point and get feedback from them. And we think the destination is well worth the journey. But, 3DS is a massive platform, it’s an incredible thing that they’ve built. We showed the device for the first time a month ago.

What’s the audience for HoloLens? Is it an all-in-one device for general users, or is it more gamer-specific like Xbox?

The former. And we’ll find out, consumers will vote. There will be enterprise uses, commercial uses of the device. That’s the plan, and that’s the feedback we’re getting. But any consumer electronics device out there today, it’s almost always true that games are the No. 1 form of content. Who would have thought, when the cellphone was a big brick thing, that the primary use 20 years later is actually playing games and not making phone calls? It’s texting and playing games. I would expect games to play the same role in HoloLens’ evolution, but I do think HoloLens is more than just a gaming peripheral.

http://recode.net/2015/03/06/microsofts-phil-spencer-on-hololens-and-uniting-xbox-and-the-pc-qa/

"Announcing Support For Microsoft Hololens"
http://blogs.unity3d.com/2015/04/29/announcing-support-for-microsoft-hololens/

Tommy McClain

 

[eastmen]

Oh yea , we will see Minecraft on this in the future.

Is intel still on for 10nm in 2016 ? Perhaps willow trail will allow it to fit the envelope of power and battery life to drive a higher FOV ? Wilow Trail I believe is supposed to have the same gpu tech as broadwel

 

[Scott_Arm]

I'd expect gaming to stay along the same lines as mobile gaming. Smaller titles that look for novel uses of AR. Unity support is a great idea. Have it ready before launch and make things easy. Kinect kind of f'ed up in that regard. Kinect should have been an Xbox AND PC product from day one. They should have had a full official toolset for Kinect with Unity or UE support from day one.

They mentioned that the "Kinect" camera inside Hololens is more powerful than the Kinect that's commercially available. Makes me wonder if they'll launch another Kinect unit for PC and Xbox in a couple years, and do what I described above. Make it the same hardware for any Windows device (PC, tablet, Xbox etc) and rely on Universal Apps to get small games onto Xbox. Derailing a bit, but it is interesting that Kinect has already been made smaller and more powerful for Hololens.

 

[zed]

All in all though, I really don't think MS are looking at games with this, so won't pursue choices to facilitate gaming. Games will come as they do to every electronic device, but I think conventional VR will be the birthplace of the next-gen immersive experience and Hololens will sit it out until a more refined gen 2 or 3 tech. It'll need the full FOV (100+ degrees) to work well.

Thats a nobrainer, this isnt targeted at games as it wont work well, the limited FOV whilst being not great isnt the issue, the issue is AR, just aint suited to the VAST majority of games. Fitness, training etc are a better fit for AR.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Not sure I agree with that. They definitely have games in mind & it was rumored the project was originally incubated as a gaming device.

Games on it isn't the same as designing the device particularly for gaming over other functions. I think MS are looking at progressing this as a high-end, expensive piece of industrial tool, but will add games as software just to flesh it out. Games have proven invaluable to helping tech get adopted. If you think of all the talk of Kinect support back in the day, and yet how quickly interest fizzled out, putting teams to work on amusements for Hololens as just one of multiple justifications for someone to buy it doesn't necessarily mean a mission to develop this as the best gaming platform it can be. The types of games available on Hololens are quite different from the big buzzword VR though, and with a supposed significantly higher cost and later release, it's not likely to see mainstream consumer adoption. I think of it like a Segway - great tech very usable in some cases, but limited in application and not something everyone is going to own. Or the early forms of tablet computers. Fabulous for what they did, but it took progression of tech to enable the iPad before the idea flew. It's yet to be seen if even $200-300 VR headsets are going to massively popular.

 

[Cyan]

Our universe may be a hologram.

http://www.science20.com/news_artic..._a_2d_projection_on_the_cosmic_horizon-155134

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Games on it isn't the same as designing the device particularly for gaming over other functions. I think MS are looking at progressing this as a high-end, expensive piece of industrial tool, but will add games as software just to flesh it out. Games have proven invaluable to helping tech get adopted. If you think of all the talk of Kinect support back in the day, and yet how quickly interest fizzled out, putting teams to work on amusements for Hololens as just one of multiple justifications for someone to buy it doesn't necessarily mean a mission to develop this as the best gaming platform it can be. The types of games available on Hololens are quite different from the big buzzword VR though, and with a supposed significantly higher cost and later release, it's not likely to see mainstream consumer adoption.

As time goes on, the device will get cheaper and cheaper. Currently it's only possible (break even or profitable) at a corporate/professional price point. At some point it'll hit the early adopter consumer price point. And then gradually work its way down into more affordable consumer price brackets.

One thing to realize as well. Windows 10 has everything built in for creating everything that HoloLens does (from a software POV). This means it's far easier for other companies to come out with HoloLens clones/AR devices. They only have to concentrate on the hardware and not the software/OS/etc.

It's possible, albeit unlikely (IMO), that perhaps another company could beat MS to the punch of getting a consumer version out.

Heck, nothing prevents another company from releasing a HoloLens like device with no computing hardware that requires a desktop PC to use which takes advantage of any software written for HoloLens. Something like that could drive penetration into the consumer market.

Another consideration tied to the previous paragraph. HoloLens applications are Windows 10 universal applications. Which means they should be available on XBO. There's a possibility of an XBO version that only has the batteries and holographic unit without the computing hardware. The XBO would be doing all the heavy work in that case. And without the computing hardware you wouldn't need as large a battery, further reducing the build costs.

But even for that, software needs to be made first. So I wouldn't expect something like that for another 2-3 years. Or to put it another way, within the tentative timeframe they've put out for a possible consumer version of HoloLens.

Regards,
SB

 

[Billy Idol]

I am not sure if already posted in this thread, the Verge about the FOV problematic:

But I don't understand this fully: so when the the virtual object leaves the FOV box (or part of it), it just disappears? Or the part that is outside the FOV box gets clipped and the other is stil visible??


The first game I would make for hololens: boxing+fitness training for boxer!

The second game: project a whole table tennis setup and lets you play either against the wall, an animated bot or another hololens player

 

[Cyan]

OK, this is freaking cool as all F...

Go to the 2:47:40 -ish mark. (there's a LOT more Hololens demonstrations before this also)

This also shows Hololens scanning the room. This particular segment is about using Hololens to control a real life robot in the real world. It also shows it can see the changes in real-time. Like when one of the presenter's stepped into the programmed path of the robot. Hololens saw it and saw that the path was no longer valid.

That video isn't all Hololens though. But there's quite a bit of it in there. The nice thing is that for a lot of stuff they are getting real developers to relay their experience with each of the things that they've demonstrated (Surface, Win10, Azure, Hololens, etc.). There was one for Hololens from an architecture firm, for example. And they brought on the developer of the sheet music writing program for Pen input for Surface as well. I also didn't know that Azure is used by Steam (Valve) to an extent.

Regards,
SB

Nice robot competition. I've seen something similar in TV shows with celebrities, having two celebrities selecting a robot (from 2 available) and betting on one of them. Usually the fist reaching the goal in the labyrinthine design won. The difference is huge though, those robots were running on a "black tape", so they always knew they were in the correct path because of that, whether one was faster or not -this was random anyways, they had no AI-.

I still remember the 10 minute limit in Youtube videos from the past.

As of it's current setup, no. The system just requires way too much hand holding in its current iteration. Sure you could play games, but its difficult to play a game where the 3D can easily extend outside your field of view (if you are trying to play a game that uses the walls of your house as a level for instance).

I mean more something a long the lines of wearing the glasses as if you would wear the ones you use in real life, for instance, and playing a game in the classic way, with Hololens on your head.

I mean, do you find it feasible to play games like we do nowadays, watching at the action on the TV and using Hololens just as an amazing complement rather than the focus on the game? Can you see real life as crisp as you see it in real life and watch your TV as usual, or is the image kind of filtered or blurry compared to your real life vision if you wear Hololens and you want to play a game in a classic manner?

 

[iroboto]

Uhh. It doesn't quite work like how you think it would work.

It's true that while the AR window port is probably somewhat reasonable in size it is programmed with relative world size.

So if I made a screen greater than. 65" TV and I tried to see it from where I was sitting i likely wouldn't be able to capture the full FOV. I would have to move really far back for that whole screen to fit. And if I was too close I would have to be looking all over the place to get the full image. If you wanted to play a game on a somewhat small space, sure yes it would work. You could just look at it. And stand there and play with a controller or something.

 

[dobwal]

Uhh. It doesn't quite work like how you think it would work.

It's true that while the AR window port is probably somewhat reasonable in size it is programmed with relative world size.

So if I made a screen greater than. 65" TV and I tried to see it from where I was sitting i likely wouldn't be able to capture the full FOV. I would have to move really far back for that whole screen to fit. And if I was too close I would have to be looking all over the place to get the full image. If you wanted to play a game on a somewhat small space, sure yes it would work. You could just look at it. And stand there and play with a controller or something.

Is it like looking at a 23 inch screen monitor from 18 inches away or like looking at a 9.7 inch screen from 3 feet away?

Posting images and outlining a box inside doesn't work for me.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Going by Iroboto's reply, the green rectangle is about the same as my desktop view, so a 23" screen from 3 feet away. Which comes to about a 35 degree FOV on the diagonal. As a generalisation, it sounds like a monitor-sized view wherever you look as opposed to a large screen or cinema or VR full immersion.

That's going to lead to a very different experience to VR. Arwin's about right when he suggests application in strategy games. It'd be a great way to handle tabs/pages by having them on hand around you. The best games will be unique experiences, maybe like PSP's Invisimals where creatures hide under/behind objects in real life? The 3D interaction with world space is likely amazing, and MS seem uniquely positioned there with their Kinect experience and room scanning tech.

 

[Cyan]

Uhh. It doesn't quite work like how you think it would work.

It's true that while the AR window port is probably somewhat reasonable in size it is programmed with relative world size.

So if I made a screen greater than. 65" TV and I tried to see it from where I was sitting i likely wouldn't be able to capture the full FOV. I would have to move really far back for that whole screen to fit. And if I was too close I would have to be looking all over the place to get the full image. If you wanted to play a game on a somewhat small space, sure yes it would work. You could just look at it. And stand there and play with a controller or something.

So, the real life window is sizeable? What I would want is seeing real life through the glasses as any person sees it, (say, the way you see the TV with your glasses if you wear any) and playing games on my TV the classic way with the glasses on.

Then AR elements could be to the sides, and that would make for incredible experiences. Think of it as a Nintendo DS where your TV is the main screen like you usually play in real life and the secondary screen lets you choose different options.

 

[Cyan]

Unity Technologies (Unity engine), detail their partnership with Microsoft Hololens.

The Unity toolchain and pipeline are being augmented to leverage the unique characteristics of the HoloLens such as spatial mapping, spatial audio, gaze, gesture, voice recognition, and the ability to anchor holographic objects to specific locations in the real world. This ensures full integration for a seamless and efficient development experience that takes full advantage of the unique features and capabilities of Microsoft HoloLens. And of course, Unity for HoloLens tools will be included with Unity Pro and Unity Personal Edition with no additional cost.

Unity’s HoloLens support follows the recent announcement that Microsoft and Unity would be working together to better integrate Unity and Visual Studio. This agreement has an important impact for the many developers new to Unity looking to develop game and non-game applications for HoloLens. Increased discoverability through shared installations and new scripting templates will make creating a new HoloLens project fast and simple.

http://blogs.unity3d.com/2015/04/29/announcing-support-for-microsoft-hololens/

 

[MrFox]

The FOV is extremely small (this is typical of AR products), the latest prototype was said to be only 35 to 40 degrees. And whatever google is doing with magic leap, or sony is planning for their AR product, I'm afraid they will be similarly narrow.

To have a good 100 degres FOV they'd need an exponential amount of resolution, processing power, physical size, and weight. AR will have major compromises until someone finds a way to make inexpensive computer-generated diffractive optics. I think we're not there yet.

https://twitter.com/barrythrew/status/593819022040309760
"#hololens is about the smallest possible straw you can suck an AR experience through. It's like a Ferrari with a keyhole for a windshield."

 

[iroboto]

Is it like looking at a 23 inch screen monitor from 18 inches away or like looking at a 9.7 inch screen from 3 feet away?

Posting images and outlining a box inside doesn't work for me.

Its hard to describe, but I think Shifty's description is more or less ballparking pretty good the FOV. I'm using a 14" laptop monitor just shy of 1 arms length from my head and I feel that this was about the size of the FOV.

 

[iroboto]

So, the real life window is sizeable? What I would want is seeing real life through the glasses as any person sees it, (say, the way you see the TV with your glasses if you wear any) and playing games on my TV the classic way with the glasses on.

Then AR elements could be to the sides, and that would make for incredible experiences. Think of it as a Nintendo DS where your TV is the main screen like you usually play in real life and the secondary screen lets you choose different options.

No, maybe I didn't write that out clearly. The AR world is as large as you want it to be. From what I understand, the AR world is modelled within Unity, so anything outside the unity application won't show up unless it swaps over to a new unity level/instance. Your viewport is limited however. If you want to see everything in your viewport without having to look around, you're going to have to step back, or it's going to have to be smaller.