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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

#272
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually a relatively silly use case for this. A lot of the actual difficult things that a mechanic can do for you usually involve more strength than you have. Or just experience in actually working with things that they can't see. Now, a mechanic using this to "see" things that are actually in control of a remote robot? Pretty cool. Showing you the thing that is right in front of you? Cute, but ultimately si…

Yeah, I'm just not sure that I buy the idea that there's a big market for an expert coaching you through doing repairs via AR goggles. How exactly does this work? You still need to pay for an expert's time -- in fact, you probably need to pay more for it, because the expert is probably faster to do a thing than to explain the thing to you and then you do it. Also, the expert now needs to be someone with these additio…

You could draw on a much bigger pool than professionals. There are plenty of people who know a skill and don't professionally sell their services but could spare a few minutes occasionally to help someone with a problem. If you combine skill tracking with instant global availability of services, you have a lot of room for development.

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

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to fake it... if you can get the retinal projection accurate enough, with fast enough eye tracking, the depth is as real as anything else you'll see in real life...the goal would be to have it feel completely natural.

... and to do it, as well as motion tracking and environmental feature identification, in real-time with as little latency as possible, and do it on batteries. I keep feeling like watching the Longhorn demo at PDC 2003...

They added the third chip, besides CPU and GPU, they call it HPU (holographic processing unit), which could speed things considerably. If they hooked it directly to ccd then they could really grok terabytes of data on battery.

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

#274
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

Reminds me of Google Glass's concept video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R1snVxGNVs I think Google over-promised initially which lead to many being underwhelmed with Glass. I hope Microsoft isn't making the same mistake here.

The biggest mistake Google made was giving Google Glass to Robert Scobel.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/google-glass-2-0-eight-things-addre...

"7. On that note, don't give one to Robert Scoble"

It's not that Google Glass intrinsically makes you look like a narcissistic douchebag, it's that the first people to show them off were narcissistic douchebags, posing with their smug self important "look at me I want your attention" expressions, who crystallized the image of the "glasshole" in everyone's minds.

http://whitemenwearinggoogleglass.tumblr.com/

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

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of Google Glass's concept video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R1snVxGNVs I think Google over-promised initially which lead to many being underwhelmed with Glass. I hope Microsoft isn't making the same mistake here.

What it reminds me of, is Google Project Tango, which also has the NASA's JPL listed as a partner[1]. Also worth mentioning, is Johnny Lee, who worked for Microsoft Kinect, and is now working at Google for project Tango. [1] https://www.google.com/atap/projecttango/#partners

We have a Tango tablet.

First thing, it crashes, a lot. We're talking 2-5 minutes active 3d scanning before the structure sensor driver bites the big one. Requires killing and restarting service along with all programs associated.

Also had hard freezes as well.

Its "google quality" in other words, crap. It might get better. It probably won't, given their track history regarding consumer devices in "google beta" (read as alpha).

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

#276

I tuned out when I read this: "Sensors flood the device with terabytes of data every second, all managed with an onboard CPU, GPU and first-of-its-kind HPU (holographic processing unit)." I'm sorry, but there is no wearable device which can handle terabytes of data per second. Heck, my brand new Haswell has a peak memory bandwidth of 17GB/s; even to the L1 cache, its theoretical max is 700GB/s. This sounds like a puf…

It's probably more along the lines of the same data being processed within the same chip. Not actual memory bandwidth. This HPU they are talking about is processing depth information and eye lines (probably quite a bit more often than 60hz), it's quite possible they are processing the same data multiple times over achieving theoretical bandwidth in the TBs. It's disingenuous sure but it's like saying a network with 20 100GB routers can handle terabytes of data.

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

#277

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…

All they had to say is: you can play Minecraft on this. Sold!

Don't let my kids see this :)

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

#278

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…

All they had to say is: you can play Minecraft on this. Sold!

[deleted]

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

#279
post #62

What is the killer app that will get people to go out and buy these? I don't think Holo Studio is it. Where is your imagination racing to?

"Adult entertainment" and, no, I am not joking. That would be a major market for this technology.

Some of us remember "X-ray glasses" advertised in the backs of comic books. 'nuf said.

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

#280

I tuned out when I read this: "Sensors flood the device with terabytes of data every second, all managed with an onboard CPU, GPU and first-of-its-kind HPU (holographic processing unit)." I'm sorry, but there is no wearable device which can handle terabytes of data per second. Heck, my brand new Haswell has a peak memory bandwidth of 17GB/s; even to the L1 cache, its theoretical max is 700GB/s. This sounds like a puf…

I understood it as saying the sensors are reading terabytes of information every second. The data would get selectively loaded into the device based upon the task at hand. I don't see that as far-fetched -- I can hook 100 digital cameras up to my computer and make the same claim.
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