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Hands-On with Microsoft's New Holographic Goggles

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Re: Hands-On with Microsoft's New Holographic Goggles

#191

Post by eps »

jamespitts wrote: post #188
aquark wrote: post #121

It looks impressive, but it would help to be able to tell the hype from reality: "Sensors flood the device with terabytes of data every second" ... somehow I doubt the aggregate bandwidth of the device is > 1TB\s Makes it harder to know how much of the rest of the 'explanations' are accurate.

I believe that the TB reference comes from listening to Alex Kipman at the Microsoft announcement event. In speaking about the so-called "HPU" (around 01:50 in http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/21/7867593/microsoft-announce... , second video) Kipman mentions "processing terabytes of information from all of these sensors". This is straight from the proverbial horse's mouth, and while it seems hype-ish it should be looked…

He didn't say "per second" though, so the OPs quote is just a piece of bad reporting.

Re: Hands-On with Microsoft's New Holographic Goggles

#192

Post by hirsin »

zo1 wrote: post #172
pharke wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you pause at 9 seconds in and check out the rig they're using to film the feed where the virtual objects are visible, it looks as though they are using the same lenses that are on the goggles to display the virtual objects in front of what the camera is recording. So I would bet that what we are seeing in the video is exactly what the user is seeing and not something added on the fly by other means.

That is amazing. So you have two (or more) people that hook into the same "scene", with the kick being that they see it from a different angle. Wow, very nice.

This was something that I think will be a bigger deal. They can communicate with one another, and potentially split the processing load. I'd love to play an RTS where my device processes my pieces, I see their backs and my opponent sees their fronts.

Of course, the caveat there would be that my command console would be invisible or hidden still from my opponent. Providing selective vision would make for interesting game possibilities.

Re: Hands-On with Microsoft's New Holographic Goggles

#193

Post by kingmanaz »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #149
GrantS wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting how they go out of their way to describe this as NOT augmented reality when... that's exactly what it is. The only time the term appears on the product page is here: "Microsoft HoloLens goes beyond augmented reality and virtual reality by enabling you to interact with three-dimensional holograms blended with your real world. " I understand the marketing reasons for this, but contrast this with the fa…

AR is traditionally a 2D projection on 3D space. This is a 3D projection that you interact with. Sure, its still AR on some level, but I think differentiating the product makes a lot of sense. My idea of AR is a boring HUD-like system that fits in with things like flying fighter jets. This holographic projection is different and notably so. MS could find the middle ground between lush 3D VR-like environments and the…

>MS could find the middle ground between lush 3D VR-like environments and the real world.

Back around 2000 a Slashdot article reported an attempt to create a human-sized hamster ball constructed of a semi-opaque projection-friendly surface. The ball would sit on some sort of roller mount. Five projection screens surrounding the ball would project a virtual environment over the "port", "starboard", "fore", "aft", and "north" surfaces. A human occupant would enter the ball, and, based on his movement detected through the roller base, be presented with a continually updating holodeck-like virtual environment.

Perhaps something like this is still in development somewhere.

Re: Hands-On with Microsoft's New Holographic Goggles

#194

Post by semi-extrinsic »

nsxwolf wrote: post #139
aquark wrote: post #121

It looks impressive, but it would help to be able to tell the hype from reality: "Sensors flood the device with terabytes of data every second" ... somehow I doubt the aggregate bandwidth of the device is > 1TB\s Makes it harder to know how much of the rest of the 'explanations' are accurate.

Could the sensors be indeed flooding the device with terabytes of data, but the device can only sample that data at a more reasonable rate?

Well, from that perspective, an analog temperature sensor is flooding your ADC with infinite GB/s.

For further comparison: the fastest CPUs you can get nowadays have an aggregated memory bandwidth of ~ 90 GB/s using four lanes.

Re: Hands-On with Microsoft's New Holographic Goggles

#195

Post by threeseed »

mkolodny wrote: post #166
rndn wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is the product website with three promo videos on it: http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us

I think this type of AR / holographic technology has many, many more potential real-world applications than VR. With VR, you're shutting yourself off from the outside world. Here, you're enhancing the outside world with technology. You still get to interact with others. Using HoloLens doesn't stop you from doing almost anything. What I'm curious to find out is whether HoloLens will run into the same core problem as G…

From the videos HoloLens looks like being an actually well thought out product unlike Glass.

Many people would find tools like these incredibly useful at work, in the car or at home. But not in the street, at the beach or in restaurants whilst talking to other people. That's just socially awkward/insensitive.

Re: Hands-On with Microsoft's New Holographic Goggles

#196

Post by darkmighty »

baby wrote: post #9

It was demoed just right now here: http://news.microsoft.com/windows10story/ It looks really really really impressive! It's a see through pair of glasses so not like Occulus and they said they invented a new technology: HPU. The glasses will have their own GPU, CPU and HPU and will be wireless.

Any information on whether it truly is holographic? For me this is only satisfied if it has: 1) binocular disparity, 2) accomodation, i.e. it reproduces a light field like a real hologram does.

Re: Hands-On with Microsoft's New Holographic Goggles

#197

Post by AndrewKemendo »

ftcHn wrote: post #179
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #140

I think Microsoft re-branding Augmented reality as "holographic" is hugely impactful and, with the new wave of AR and CV products that are coming onto the market [1] might be the thing that makes people take it seriously. It's just so much easier to explain to people what it is if you say Holographic vs Augmented Reality - even though it is technically wrong. Kudos to MSFT for making that leap. [1] Shameless plug for…

Visidraft might be useful for an idea at our company. The video looks good but the "Get Visdraft Now" button doesn't do anything. Is it available yet? Pricing?

Sorry, send me an e-mail: Andrew@visidraft.com and we can talk.

Re: Hands-On with Microsoft's New Holographic Goggles

#198

Post by eps »

Coincoin wrote: post #152
saosebastiao wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be ignoring something, but this appears to be the first ahead-of-the-pack innovation from Microsoft that I've seen in at least 20 years. Congrats to them.

Kinect was pretty surprising too, especially at that price point. EDIT: Granted they didn't develop 100% of the tech themselves, but still: depth perception, human skeleton recognition, in real time, on a crappy 360, for 150$? That was impressive.

Same guy behind this and the Kinect project though - Alex Kipman.

Re: Hands-On with Microsoft's New Holographic Goggles

#199

Post by jameshart »

jakobegger wrote: post #90
Animats wrote: post #8

Is it really "holographic", or just stereoscopic?

I doubt it actually has a holographic display; I assume that processing power of those glasses isn't enough and current display don't have high enough resolution yet. But then again the following description could be a holographic display (or it could be a description of antireflective coating -- those dumbed down explanations are sometimes worse than useless) > To create Project HoloLens’ images, light particles bou…

Yes, that description certainly -sounds- like they're doing something more than just suspending two stereographic LCD displays in front of your face. Talk of angles suggests they may be doing something to stimulate the correct lightfield passing through the pupil of your eye... but really, need more technical reviews to know more.

Re: Hands-On with Microsoft's New Holographic Goggles

#200

Post by frevd »

bentcorner wrote: post #19
fenaer wrote: post #13

What sort of use case is this for? The demos talked about in the article seem rather specific. I don't see how this will appeal to mass consumers.

I'd imagine that the target is a replacement of the PC. You could (theoretically) have the same utility as a PC with a wireless keyboard/mouse paired with the headset. On top of that is all the holographic applications that will be figured out.

Virtual, not wireless ;)

Think this - size-adjustable holo keyboard, ergonomic natural of course.

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