Augmented Reality is in research for quite a few years. The whole vision Microsoft presented in the video is GCI, and not their idea at all. The implementation and the real demo are promising, but nothing special.
It's not completely new - that is obvious. However, this is a little more than a simple projection. The HoloLens system is completely unteathered - it doesn't require a standalone computer to operate. It has voice control along with 3d gesture support.
The big news is that this is enabled by an api that is built into windows 10 and available for other hardware vendors to use do develop their own applications and devices. I'm not sure it will really take off but, what they are trying to do is create a new device category more than anything...
What exactly is the point of this? I just don't get the appeal of AR/VR outside of gaming.
Maybe in the workplace, for people designing 3d objects. Having it float in front of you and being able to walk around it might be an advantage. Or for doctors prior to surgery, being able to see a 3d model of the area they will be operating on.
Maybe in the workplace, for people designing 3d objects. Having it float in front of you and being able to walk around it might be an advantage. Or for doctors prior to surgery, being able to see a 3d model of the area they will be operating on.
I had to reply to this because it really touched a nerve. This is not a hologram if you have to put something on your head. It's VR - that's all. A true hologram is what you see in Star Wars. That's not what they showed here.
Ironically, that is what they showed in the video, but it was a BS pipedream.
The media isn't quite as pedantic as the average nerd.
A hologram, requires no headwear. We don't have the technology yet to record an image that can be played back in a holographic sense. MRI's take "slices" to produce a 3D image. What we see in "3D" films is just sterographic post-processing from a flat image. We do have light-field cameras now that record a 3D image without a needing two cameras.
What is being described is Augmented Reality, which overlays 2D computer generated images with what is physically in the real world. There's an anime called Denn? Coil, which is this exact application of what Microsoft is describing.
Given more miniaturization, it may be more practical to create a lightweight AR headset, but I think we will never reach a point where an AR headset is comparable in weight to just regular glasses.
Microsoft: Masters of the unicorn fantasy product prototype. : )
HoloLens looks very intriguing, but I can't forget the plethora of high concept technologies that they've shown off over the past decade or more, with nothing ever delivered to market. Or any number of demoes that were so flawed that they were laughed out of the room. And I can't overlook the fact that the demo video strictly shows people in their homes... maybe a nod to Google Glass, where it's a great piece of technology to play and interact with, but you probably don't want to be seen wearing it in public.
Anyone remember Courier - kind of a cool tablet concept, with the lispy narrator? Or how about their speech recognition demo that failed miserably?
As Steve Jobs famously said, "Real artists ship". I'll give Microsoft credit when they have a fully functioning product that they bring to market.
Apple apparently deems this (AR+holography) far from ready before they'll adapt it. For now, they're content with making everything thinner.
An actual projection system might still be better than a wearable. Or an ocular implant maybe?
On a side note: The guy speaking at the demo for the Hololens appears to still be hitting puberty. It was... not a pleasant experience listening to him speak. Argumentum ad hominem. Whatever.
Typical fanboism in denial. I thinks MS is doing right things by finally trying to innovate and not just follow.
SHIPPING PRODUCT I CAN BUY TOMORROW FOR *NOT THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS* AND THAT I CAN JUST TURN ON AND USE AND NOT HAVE A BIG HONKING PIECE OF SHIT ON MY HEAD?
Is it? Can I?
No?
Big Ass Table™ situation.
And thanks for nothing (again), MS.
More niche-nonsense. This is the kind of stuff that is a concept/prototype that is best left in the lab UNTIL it can be fashioned into something light, intimate, usable... where form marries function perfectly. Instead MS shoved it into a keynote because hey . . . they have *nothing* else to show. Because Satya is Ballmer 2.0. Another company-man ready to shove Windows and Office retreads at the market and hope to god that they can still leverage all that crap in the enterprise.
I'll wait until Apple does something with this sort of concept down the road and PERFECTS it, seamlessly, and SHIPS it to everyone (that is, Joe Average, to use and enjoy) a month or two after announcement.
The HoloLens system is completely unteathered - it doesn't require a standalone computer to operate. It has voice control along with 3d gesture support.
1. In fact, the video I've posted demonstrates way better interaction with objects than what was presented by Microsoft (I've watched their presentation).
2. Microsoft is a bit bigger, has more man power and better financing than researchers and PhD students. And they have tooling to build the device (DSPs, FPGAs, etc.), which is not the focus of researchers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gumbi
The big news is that this is enabled by an api that is built into windows 10 and available for other hardware vendors to use do develop their own applications and devices.
Voice recognition and synthesis API is available in Windows since 98. So, what? Microsoft is a company notorious for not being able to develop useful APIs.
Simple example: Win32 -> WinForms -> WPF/Silverlight -> Windows RT -> Windows Universal
Yet, they are still behind Cocoa (20+ years old; evolving, of course).
Quote:
Originally Posted by gumbi
I'm not sure it will really take off but, what they are trying to do is create a new device category more than anything...
Yes, it is a relatively new category in HCI. No, it is not created by Microsoft. It might be commercialized by them.
Engadget has a clickbait article up asking when Apple became the boring one. I would argue Apple has been boring (in a good way) for a long time now. Apple doesn't release half baked products or pie-in-the-sky concept devices. That's just not their MO, never has been. They release a breakthrough product and then iterate on it. Seems to me people are remembering an Apple that never existed.
Microsoft: Masters of the unicorn fantasy product prototype. : )
HoloLens looks very intriguing, but I can't forget the plethora of high concept technologies that they've shown off over the past decade or more, with nothing ever delivered to market. Or any number of demoes that were so flawed that they were laughed out of the room. And I can't overlook the fact that the demo video strictly shows people in their homes... maybe a nod to Google Glass, where it's a great piece of technology to play and interact with, but you probably don't want to be seen wearing it in public. :D
Anyone remember Courier - kind of a cool tablet concept, with the lispy narrator? Or how about their speech recognition demo that failed miserably?
As Steve Jobs famously said, "Real artists ship". I'll give Microsoft credit when they have a fully functioning product that they bring to market.
They got jealous of all the attention and geek adulation Google's X labs received for beta and concept projects that aren't productized. I think Microsoft wanted a piece of that action.
They got jealous of all the attention and geek adulation Google's X labs received for beta and concept projects that aren't productized. I think Microsoft wanted a piece of that action.
I actually did read somewhere that Microsoft was sick of all the publicity Google gets so they were going to show off more of their "in the labs" stuff to steal some of Google's attention.
Comments
Try again
Augmented Reality is in research for quite a few years. The whole vision Microsoft presented in the video is GCI, and not their idea at all. The implementation and the real demo are promising, but nothing special.
It's not completely new - that is obvious. However, this is a little more than a simple projection. The HoloLens system is completely unteathered - it doesn't require a standalone computer to operate. It has voice control along with 3d gesture support.
The big news is that this is enabled by an api that is built into windows 10 and available for other hardware vendors to use do develop their own applications and devices. I'm not sure it will really take off but, what they are trying to do is create a new device category more than anything...
What exactly is the point of this? I just don't get the appeal of AR/VR outside of gaming.
Maybe in the workplace, for people designing 3d objects. Having it float in front of you and being able to walk around it might be an advantage. Or for doctors prior to surgery, being able to see a 3d model of the area they will be operating on.
And people say ?Watch is niche.
The media isn't quite as pedantic as the average nerd.
A hologram, requires no headwear. We don't have the technology yet to record an image that can be played back in a holographic sense. MRI's take "slices" to produce a 3D image. What we see in "3D" films is just sterographic post-processing from a flat image. We do have light-field cameras now that record a 3D image without a needing two cameras.
What is being described is Augmented Reality, which overlays 2D computer generated images with what is physically in the real world. There's an anime called Denn? Coil, which is this exact application of what Microsoft is describing.
Given more miniaturization, it may be more practical to create a lightweight AR headset, but I think we will never reach a point where an AR headset is comparable in weight to just regular glasses.
Microsoft: Masters of the unicorn fantasy product prototype. : )
HoloLens looks very intriguing, but I can't forget the plethora of high concept technologies that they've shown off over the past decade or more, with nothing ever delivered to market. Or any number of demoes that were so flawed that they were laughed out of the room. And I can't overlook the fact that the demo video strictly shows people in their homes... maybe a nod to Google Glass, where it's a great piece of technology to play and interact with, but you probably don't want to be seen wearing it in public.
Anyone remember Courier - kind of a cool tablet concept, with the lispy narrator? Or how about their speech recognition demo that failed miserably?
As Steve Jobs famously said, "Real artists ship". I'll give Microsoft credit when they have a fully functioning product that they bring to market.
Apple apparently deems this (AR+holography) far from ready before they'll adapt it. For now, they're content with making everything thinner.
An actual projection system might still be better than a wearable. Or an ocular implant maybe?
On a side note: The guy speaking at the demo for the Hololens appears to still be hitting puberty. It was... not a pleasant experience listening to him speak. Argumentum ad hominem. Whatever.
Typical fanboism in denial. I thinks MS is doing right things by finally trying to innovate and not just follow.
SHIPPING PRODUCT I CAN BUY TOMORROW FOR *NOT THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS* AND THAT I CAN JUST TURN ON AND USE AND NOT HAVE A BIG HONKING PIECE OF SHIT ON MY HEAD?
Is it? Can I?
No?
Big Ass Table™ situation.
And thanks for nothing (again), MS.
More niche-nonsense. This is the kind of stuff that is a concept/prototype that is best left in the lab UNTIL it can be fashioned into something light, intimate, usable... where form marries function perfectly. Instead MS shoved it into a keynote because hey . . . they have *nothing* else to show. Because Satya is Ballmer 2.0. Another company-man ready to shove Windows and Office retreads at the market and hope to god that they can still leverage all that crap in the enterprise.
I'll wait until Apple does something with this sort of concept down the road and PERFECTS it, seamlessly, and SHIPS it to everyone (that is, Joe Average, to use and enjoy) a month or two after announcement.
The HoloLens system is completely unteathered - it doesn't require a standalone computer to operate. It has voice control along with 3d gesture support.
1. In fact, the video I've posted demonstrates way better interaction with objects than what was presented by Microsoft (I've watched their presentation).
2. Microsoft is a bit bigger, has more man power and better financing than researchers and PhD students. And they have tooling to build the device (DSPs, FPGAs, etc.), which is not the focus of researchers.
The big news is that this is enabled by an api that is built into windows 10 and available for other hardware vendors to use do develop their own applications and devices.
Voice recognition and synthesis API is available in Windows since 98. So, what? Microsoft is a company notorious for not being able to develop useful APIs.
Simple example: Win32 -> WinForms -> WPF/Silverlight -> Windows RT -> Windows Universal
Yet, they are still behind Cocoa (20+ years old; evolving, of course).
I'm not sure it will really take off but, what they are trying to do is create a new device category more than anything...
Yes, it is a relatively new category in HCI. No, it is not created by Microsoft. It might be commercialized by them.
Ironically, the second part is what Michael Dell actually did with Dell.
That's is so Brainstorm 1983
It reminds me of what MS tried to do with tablets pre-iPad. They were just bad... clunky, unwieldy slabs that never got any traction.
What exactly is the point of this? I just don't get the appeal of AR/VR outside of gaming.
The JPL Rover drivers probably will find it useful.
And the infamous Zune They are truly hardware impaired.
They got jealous of all the attention and geek adulation Google's X labs received for beta and concept projects that aren't productized. I think Microsoft wanted a piece of that action.
I actually did read somewhere that Microsoft was sick of all the publicity Google gets so they were going to show off more of their "in the labs" stuff to steal some of Google's attention.
The JPL Rover drivers probably will find it useful.
Because of the huge signal delay between Earth and a planet (like Mars) I do not think it is going to be useful at all.
Better applications: 3d-modelling, gaming.
[img]http://img.qz.com/2015/01/microsoft-execs-goggles.jpg?w=3200[/img]