Microsoft HoloLens [Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Holograms]

[liquidboy]

In my opinion, and I believe a couple of Journalists picked up on it, is that there are 3 parts to the HoloLens story...

1. WinRT API/Framework/SDK/Holographic OS (Windows 10)
2. Holographic Studio
3. HoloLens that is the showcase for the above 2.



1 & 2 above will hopefully attract some glass, ar/vr, visual aide OEM's ..

Right now there are several high profile solutions going on in the world, including Occulus. Their building their own software/hw stacks .. Some will go with their own custom OS's, others leverage existing ones (Linux/android etc) ...

Hopefully this will spur some of the to go Windows 10?!

Also these other solutions will need to build complete ecosystem of software to drive their glasses, MS could do well trying to sell their Windows Store, Universal Apps, WinRT api, Visual Studio/Holographic Studio story to them ..

After all it is in MS's best interest to have this industry thrive, not just their Hololens BUT everyones solutions..

One of these solutions my succeed and hit a nerve and get hundreds of millions of people to buy glasses... MS should try everything to get these glasses to be on Windows 10 etc...

Then ofcourse we have HoloLens itself, the perfect implementation of the HolographicOS/ APi stack and Windows Store of Universal Holographic apps.... This will show the other ar/vr OEMs how its done ...

MS are doing well setting the bar for it's tablet/mobile OEM's with Surface/Lumia ... this HoloLens could do the same...

Well that's my perspective on this...

p.s. I've seen the WinRT api's that I believe are the foundation for HoloLens, and its nice and similar to the Kinect API's... It's pretty generic hopefully it does convince other AR/VR to place their bets on the Windows 10 stack ...

 

[Scott_Arm]

I think the display is actually the most interesting bit, as it's something pretty new (new in terms of I've not heard about it before, but maybe some startup invented it 5 years ago!). The first mention of low resolution is kinda curious because no-one's mentioned it. Maybe all the pixel-art games on mobile has acclimatised people? From the demo vid there was reasonable lag between hand input and what we saw. Assuming that's not introduced by the capture, the display itself can't have that much lag or it should be telling in reviews. So I'm guessing the display is something special that accommodates this.

There is a forward facing camera (at least one) in the unit. It has 120 degree FOV in any direction. Kinect has historically been laggy on the input side, so that's probably a significant part of the lag. It would be interesting to hear how it compares to Kinectv2 on PC. Kinect is a pretty large device, so I have to wonder how they've made it small enough to be head mounted.

 

[Brodda Thep]

How is that possible if the image generation is in the glasses and constantly being moved? If you tilt your head right, the image generation (screen, projector, laser array) will be tilted right and the generated image will need to be rotated left to compensate. Take any real hologram and rotate it, and the hologram rotates.

Think of a virtual image. Most VR devices I know use a screen to generate the image. Think of a point light in this system. If you draw light rays then they all emanate from this spot on the surface of the screen. If you translated your eyes parallel to the screen you would still see it at the same spot on that screen. (Unless software recognized you had moved and updated this position.)

If you had a virtual image of the point light then all rays that you measure would actually converge on that 3d position in real space. So now if you translate your eyes relative to the screen the virtual image would also move and still appear to be originating from the same position in space. It is virtual.

I do not know if this is what they do. But I see no mention of images being jittery at all, so I think this must be what is going on.

 

[Scott_Arm]

It does track your pupils and adjust the image accordingly. Not sure exactly what it's doing or how.

 

[liquidboy]

I have to wonder how they've made it small enough to be head mounted.

 

[Jwm]

A set of prescription glasses costs 60 Euro including fitting. If they commercialize this it would be nice if it had a purpose designed frame which you could have glasses put into, seems the only way this is going to be usable for me.

It seems like enough of the engineers on the project are not 20/20, and it did look like the industrial design unit gets supported more by its surround than it does on your nose. So I hold hope that they thought of this.

 

[Scott_Arm]

It seems like enough of the engineers on the project are not 20/20, and it did look like the industrial design unit gets supported more by its surround than it does on your nose. So I hold hope that they thought of this.

I haven't seen anyone describe the visor in much detail. Curious to know if it is significantly different than the concept they showed on stage. You know, hacked together prototypes don't necessarily have the same kind of though put into details like that. They're more concerned that the thing actually works.

 

[Jwm]

I haven't seen anyone describe the visor in much detail. Curious to know if it is significantly different than the concept they showed on stage. You know, hacked together prototypes don't necessarily have the same kind of though put into details like that. They're more concerned that the thing actually works.

She had a working unit on stage, but I gather they do not have many? The Surface design team was working on the unit we saw on stage, and in the video you do get to see a few (I think three) that are in some stage of assembly and you can sort of see the bits. It was funny to see the press complain about how heavy the dev kits were, and who knows what extra senors and bits they have for testing and development. I would love to see the chip layout and cooling solution, not to mention the light engine.

Did they say units would be available to developers June/July? (and outside of Adobe, Autodesk, etc how would I get one?) LOL

 

[Brodda Thep]

Project HoloLens is built, fittingly enough, around a set of holographic lenses. Each lens has three layers of glass—in blue, green, and red—full of microthin corrugated grooves that diffract light. There are multiple cameras at the front and sides of the device that do everything from head tracking to video capture. And it can see far and wide: The field of view spans 120 degrees by 120 degrees, significantly bigger than that of the Kinect camera. A “light engine” above the lenses projects light into the glasses, where it hits the grating and then volleys between the layers of glass millions of times. That process, along with input from the device's myriad sensors, tricks the eye into perceiving the image as existing in the world beyond the lenses.

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This is from the wired article.

 

[Jwm]

^ Looks like they updated that since I had copied the wording yesterday. Cool!

Edit: How do we resize now?

 

[Jwm]

Better details so I am not going to edit above.

Microsoft’s stunning HoloLens holographic computer, which stole the show at this week’sWindows 10 event, runs on an unreleased Intel Atom chip code-named Cherry Trail, according to a source familiar with the hardware.

Source here [PC World] 14nm, wow

Also like the Ars article here.

 

[liquidboy]

Project HoloLens is built, fittingly enough, around a set of holographic lenses. Each lens has three layers of glass—in blue, green, and red—full of microthin corrugated grooves that diffract light. There are multiple cameras at the front and sides of the device that do everything from head tracking to video capture. And it can see far and wide: The field of view spans 120 degrees by 120 degrees, significantly bigger than that of the Kinect camera. A “light engine” above the lenses projects light into the glasses, where it hits the grating and then volleys between the layers of glass millions of times. That process, along with input from the device's myriad sensors, tricks the eye into perceiving the image as existing in the world beyond the lenses.

----
This is from the wired article.

For years i've been following a certain tech from MS that originated in their research labs called "Wedge" ... I hope this is the tech they are using that does the "light defraction" .. It's pretty amazing..

p.s. it's also used in perceptive pixel tech, owned by MS too..

Here's a tweet stream I had with another person on predicting "Forteleza" would use Wedge tech over a year ago . I also have links in that tweet stream to some of the patents on the tech.. It has some amazing potential in my opinion

https://twitter.com/josefajardo/status/558428201072873472

 

[Sonic]

This is awesome. The costs for personal use might be on the high side for now, but for commercial purposes this could be really bad ass. Imagine being in a bar and playing a co-op game with your buddies and getting drunk doing it. I'll be following the development of this for now and hopefully these guys explore commercial development for the bar scene cause I might be all over this.

 

[ramr]

This isn't going to be any more successful than the Kinect. Lets say it adds just $100 to the console. It'll hobble sales just as the $500 SKU of the X1 with Kinect was hobbled.

It looks impressive in the videos but after the novelty wears off, it's unlikely to become a part of people's daily routine. They showed a 3D or holo version of a weather forecast chart. Are you going to dig up that headset and do whatever gestures are needed to bring up a weather forecast that is rendered holographically?

No most people will just pull out their phones and swipe once or twice or just ask Siri or Google Now or Cortana.


The practical applications, like how-to videos or tutorials showing overlays over your plumbing or whatever will only work if third-parties develop compatible content. That could be about as likely as the Kinect games with innovative gameplay mechanics.

Do you not understand that this completely replaces the computer and monitor, all while being fully mobile?

 

[wco81]

Does it?

So instead of buying a tablet or laptop to read emails and browse, you'd buy this device which you have to put over your head to use?

 

[BRiT]

Does it?

So instead of buying a tablet or laptop to read emails and browse, you'd buy this device which you have to put over your head to use?

Minority Report style interfaces would be nice with this except no need for display screens.

 

[wco81]

Yeah but I would really be surprised if they market it as a replacement for traditional computing devices, rather than a complementary thing.

Tablets are used widely because you can do some of the most common things like email and browse with it. However, most people with tablets get them to complement the computers they have, not to replace them completely.

Seems like for this to take off, it needs content specifically made to integrate holograms over the things people see in everyday life. I would say if the overlays had information on places, like subway entrances or particular businesses in an unfamiliar city. But I don't think people would be walking around in public with these things on.

The how-to example for the plumbing would be a good practical type of content but will a lot of this type of content be made without this product becoming a smash hit? And would people pay for this type of content as opposed to watching a video on Youtube which obviously wouldn't have the snazzy overlay graphics but would be free?

There may be a lot of possible applications for this but the only type of monetizable content may be games and entertainment.

 

[BRiT]

There may be a lot of possible applications for this but the only type of monetizable content may be games and entertainment.

You already said how-to content would be great for this. Educational content would be great too. That's very similar to how-to content. Adult content is a given. So that makes possible monetizable content limited to: games, entertainment, educational, and adult. So what other type of content does that leave out? I'm drawing a blank. I think they have all content types covered.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Even then, VR will be better in most game experiences. eg. The Mars Rover example, you'll be more immersed in Mars with VR than AR. Whatever aspects of this tech that make it more comfortable than VR (presumably the display tech) could be integrated into VR. The 'holo projection' aspect makes it better for lifestyle applications such as the pipe/light-switch repair example.

Not necessarily.

Using the Mars Rover example. They are able to have the Mars Landscape occlude everything in the room, except for a computer terminal they had setup in the room. In other words, not something you could do with a VR HMD.

So, in that case (a scientific example) not only are you immersed on another planet to direct remote devices, you also still have real access to real life devices. VR might be slightly more immersive (bright shiny objects are hard for HoloLens to occlude but not most normal objects in a room) in a small number of situations in that case, but access to real world tools simultaneously would trump that, IMO.

Regards,
SB

 

[wco81]

You already said how-to content would be great for this. Educational content would be great too. That's very similar to how-to content. Adult content is a given. So that makes possible monetizable content limited to: games, entertainment, educational, and adult. So what other type of content does that leave out? I'm drawing a blank. I think they have all content types covered.

I'm skeptical that people would pay for how-to or educational content.

Games on the other hand ...