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Hands-on with HoloLens: On the cusp of a revolution

arstechnica.com

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Re: Hands-on with HoloLens: On the cusp of a revolution

#82
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn/awesome. Someone I know got to see their demo at a conference a few months ago, and that someone figured they had IR targets under visible-light-opaque elements. Do you know if the structured light is made by the unit, or is it an unmentioned peripheral?

HoloLens is a derivative of Kinect. Kinect 1 (with the Xbox 360) was structured light. Kinect 2 (with the Xbox One) is time-of-flight. I'm not sure which tech the HoloLens uses (I don't think Microsoft has specified one way or another, and I didn't have an IR camera to look to see if it was emitting a pattern), but I'm assuming it's based on the newer tech, because my understanding is that time-of-flight systems can…

It seems like the environment scanning could be a better alternative to the array of external sensors the Vive uses to demarcate its play area. Certainly would be more elegant.

Re: Hands-on with HoloLens: On the cusp of a revolution

#84
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Magic Leap is based on super complex tech that draws images right onto your retina. It's the kind of tech that will take them another couple of years to make small enough to package, and possibly another few years to build the tools to develop for it and to ensure it's not actually blinding people by shining bright lights right into their eye. A friend of mine used it and said Magic Leap, initially, is like trying to…

Focusing lasers onto your retina is not new. There's been Virtual Retina Display for a while. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_retinal_display http://www.hitl.washington.edu/research/vrd/ http://ascent.atos.net/ascent-look/ And here's a (terrifying) DIY version: http://eclecti.cc/hardware/blinded-by-the-light-diy-retinal-...

I remember it being mentioned in Wired in the 90's. But then, Westinghouse build a Mech (yes, a battle suit) in the 50's, and they never caught on. Of course, they never put anyone inside the mech because it could have snapped an arm off by bending the wrong way...

Some tech comes out early but doesn't catch on for a reason.

Re: Hands-on with HoloLens: On the cusp of a revolution

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Magic Leap is based on super complex tech that draws images right onto your retina. It's the kind of tech that will take them another couple of years to make small enough to package, and possibly another few years to build the tools to develop for it and to ensure it's not actually blinding people by shining bright lights right into their eye. A friend of mine used it and said Magic Leap, initially, is like trying to…

Thanks for the reply, even though I was hoping it wasn't basically hearsay and speculation (which it unfortunately is). Abovitz has repeatedly said that they absolutely want their tech to be safe enough for kids to use, so perhaps the safety concerns are not based on facts? Magic Leap apparently has active occlusion, and can run the spectrum from VR to AR/MR; pretty sure that makes it the potential leader, not an als…

What I'm saying is, Hololens does ALL of those VR/AR things already, and there's not even a slight chance of eye damage involved. I really have trouble envisioning anything that would be lightyears beyond Hololens, but rather, something that would be a small step up from Hololens, and yet, still 2 years out.

Re: Hands-on with HoloLens: On the cusp of a revolution

#86
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Magic Leap is based on super complex tech that draws images right onto your retina. It's the kind of tech that will take them another couple of years to make small enough to package, and possibly another few years to build the tools to develop for it and to ensure it's not actually blinding people by shining bright lights right into their eye. A friend of mine used it and said Magic Leap, initially, is like trying to…

Magic Leap apparently can draw things at more than one distance from you, unlike the hololens's fixed 2m away. That's a massive difference.

Jut wrong about Hololens. Stuff may be drawn close to your face, but the image is scaled very, very well. It may be drawn up close, but it still looks like it's very far away, way more than 2 meters.

Re: Hands-on with HoloLens: On the cusp of a revolution

#87
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It exists and is available to developers?

First-mover is an advantage, sure, but it hardly means that anyone who isn't first to the gate is wasting their money. Anyway, I see downthread that VonGuard has made the silly claim that "Hololens can do everything Magic Leap is supposed to do", so I think it's safe to say that the "wasting money" thing is just a throwaway line that's not based on a lot of actual knowledge in the field. I feel kind of trolled.

All I will say is: try Hololens, then come back here and tell me it is lacking, dramatically.

It's a VERY good device. Surprisingly good. I expected it to suck.

Re: Hands-on with HoloLens: On the cusp of a revolution

#88
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First-mover is an advantage, sure, but it hardly means that anyone who isn't first to the gate is wasting their money. Anyway, I see downthread that VonGuard has made the silly claim that "Hololens can do everything Magic Leap is supposed to do", so I think it's safe to say that the "wasting money" thing is just a throwaway line that's not based on a lot of actual knowledge in the field. I feel kind of trolled.

All I will say is: try Hololens, then come back here and tell me it is lacking, dramatically. It's a VERY good device. Surprisingly good. I expected it to suck.

I think what's happened is that you meant "supposed to do" as in "it fills the need that ML was aiming at", and I took as "it has feature parity". The latter is clearly not true - ML is supposed to have a very wide FOV, handle the accomodation reflex, simulate occlusion, do depth of field, etc. - none of which Hololens can do.

Re: Hands-on with HoloLens: On the cusp of a revolution

#89
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Magic Leap apparently can draw things at more than one distance from you, unlike the hololens's fixed 2m away. That's a massive difference.

Jut wrong about Hololens. Stuff may be drawn close to your face, but the image is scaled very, very well. It may be drawn up close, but it still looks like it's very far away, way more than 2 meters.

You're just wrong about this. Magic Leap has accommodation support, Hololens doesn't. Any sense of depth you get from Hololens is simply stereoscopy.

Re: Hands-on with HoloLens: On the cusp of a revolution

#90
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn/awesome. Someone I know got to see their demo at a conference a few months ago, and that someone figured they had IR targets under visible-light-opaque elements. Do you know if the structured light is made by the unit, or is it an unmentioned peripheral?

HoloLens is a derivative of Kinect. Kinect 1 (with the Xbox 360) was structured light. Kinect 2 (with the Xbox One) is time-of-flight. I'm not sure which tech the HoloLens uses (I don't think Microsoft has specified one way or another, and I didn't have an IR camera to look to see if it was emitting a pattern), but I'm assuming it's based on the newer tech, because my understanding is that time-of-flight systems can…

Don't quote me on this, but I believe I've read that it is structured light. From my experience time of flight cameras are excellent at things like body detection and terrible at things like SLAM. (I have no idea why and could be wrong... it's been awhile since I've looked at the literature)
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