Microsoft unveils 'HoloLens' holographic computing headset

1235

Comments

  • Reply 81 of 101



    Steve surely won't get up...

  • Reply 82 of 101
    wp7mango wrote: »

    I don't need to believe. I saw the demo, one of which was presented by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) working on the Mars Rover.

    Hey, I read the descriptions from The Verge and other sites covering the event. I know it was a very limited demo. The point isn't that it was a demo, the point is, goggles don't replace a screen and keyboard or an iPad or iPhone. "AR" glasses/goggles are inherently limited and good mainly for visualizations or demonstrations that are brief, otherwise fatigue quickly sets in.
  • Reply 83 of 101
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post





    Hey, I read the descriptions from The Verge and other sites covering the event. I know it was a very limited demo. The point isn't that it was a demo, the point is, goggles don't replace a screen and keyboard or an iPad or iPhone. "AR" glasses/goggles are inherently limited and good mainly for visualizations or demonstrations that are brief, otherwise fatigue quickly sets in.



    My main point is this...

     

    You claim that there is no audience for this. On the contrary, the audience for this is huge. It's called industry. Space industry, military, manufacturing industry, design industry, construction industry etc. Not to mention education and entertainment. This is designed to be a tool for use in these areas. And, just like any other tool, you will use it for the tasks which are best suited for it.

  • Reply 84 of 101
    wp7mango wrote: »

    My main point is this...

    You claim that there is no audience for this. On the contrary, the audience for this is huge. It's called industry. Space industry, military, manufacturing industry, design industry, construction industry etc. Not to mention education and entertainment. This is designed to be a tool for use in these areas. And, just like any other tool, you will use it for the tasks which are best suited for it.

    Aerospace and the military are where these systems originated. Please do some basic research.

    Also it should be noted that Apple has some patents regarding binocular displays and interaction that could affect Microsoft. Perhaps they are already licensed under the existing patent sharing agreement with Apple.
  • Reply 85 of 101

    Wow, this actually looks really cool. However, I'm not sure if this will be targeted at consumers. It's big, it's clunky, and as cool as it looks, I can't imagine people walking around with these on unless they're doing something enterprise related.

  • Reply 86 of 101
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post





    Aerospace and the military are where these systems originated. Please do some basic research.



    Also it should be noted that Apple has some patents regarding binocular displays and interaction that could affect Microsoft. Perhaps they are already licensed under the existing patent sharing agreement with Apple.



    Sure, but many things we take for granted as consumers originated from those industries. Please do some basic research.

  • Reply 87 of 101
    ipenipen Posts: 410member

    Until Apple comes in, this thing is not going to fly.

  • Reply 88 of 101
    muppetrymuppetry Posts: 3,331member
    iqatedo wrote: »
    <span style="line-height:1.4em;">Okay, I've read Wired's piece on this and two interesting bits of information come out:</span>


    [1] The device has a CPU, GPU and an HPU, a 'holographic processing unit'. It also has a 'depth processing camera'. Looking good, if a little hard to believe, for holography.

    [2] The device has 'two lenses'. I have no idea what this means but alarm bells are ringing. (The author didn't pursue details.) If the lenses are in fact, translucent/transparent screens onto which separate left-eye/right-eye information is projected, then game over, this is not a holographic display. In holography, a single interference pattern is viewed by each eye which, from slightly different perspectives, create in our brains the illusion of a 3D image. Two separate screens are not needed, the interference pattern is contained on a single surface.

    I would be astounded if Microsoft is claiming holographic imaging if they are performing glorified (or unglorified) stereoscopic imaging. If so, they will get hammered (not that the public would care).

    http://www.wired.com/2015/01/microsoft-hands-on/

    So, what would a real holograph display look like? Well, it would comprise a single surface or screen and until properly illuminated, look like nothing sensible. This is because an interference pattern would be displayed that just looks like weird patterns. Once properly illuminated a 3D image would appear that would look that way with both eyes looking at the same screen. As one moves from side-to-side or up and down, the image, in 3 dimensions, would spin around or tilt. One could look behind an object in the scene for example, if enough information is presented.

    Can't say that this headset is not a holographic one but evidence suggests not. :\  

    EDIT: Of course, the two screens could be showing slightly altered interference patterns to allow for parallax of the human eye but the computational overhead would be double that of a single display. However, two screens don't rule out holography in this case as I earlier stated. :wow:

    It appears to be stereoscopic VR. Apart from anything else, one defining feature of a hologram is that its constituent wavefronts exist in space, independent of the observer. The stereoscopic information presented to the eyes of the observer in this application may have been derived from holographic recordings, but they are not holograms.
  • Reply 89 of 101
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ipen View Post

     

    Until Apple comes in, this thing is not going to fly.




    You mean until some small independent company cracks it and Apple buys them.

  • Reply 90 of 101
    rs9rs9 Posts: 68member

    Many of you who criticize this technology are not thinking out of the box. Consider the device being used in education. Imagine a Planetarium, in you bedroom. Teach a child math, by having them count boxes as they fly around.  Imagine using holo-lens with mapping systems.  Picture medical students using this technology the study the human body.  Some of will counter, this is far fetched it will never happen. I would like to remind everyone by first Personal Computer was by IBM; only one floppy drive;  in the mid 80's; now imagine holo-lens in 40 years.  I for one plan to buy MS Stock. 

  • Reply 91 of 101
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RS9 View Post

     

    Many of you who criticize this technology are not thinking out of the box. Consider the device being used in education. Imagine a Planetarium, in you bedroom. Teach a child math, by having them count boxes as they fly around.  Imagine using holo-lens with mapping systems.  Picture medical students using this technology the study the human body.  Some of will counter, this is far fetched it will never happen. I would like to remind everyone by first Personal Computer was by IBM; only one floppy drive;  in the mid 80's; now imagine holo-lens in 40 years.  I for one plan to buy MS Stock. 




    I've owned Microsoft stock as long as I've owned Apple stock. One guess which stock has done well and which one has been a dead dog.

  • Reply 92 of 101
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RS9 View Post

     

    Many of you who criticize this technology are not thinking out of the box. Consider the device being used in education. Imagine a Planetarium, in you bedroom. Teach a child math, by having them count boxes as they fly around.  Imagine using holo-lens with mapping systems.  Picture medical students using this technology the study the human body.  Some of will counter, this is far fetched it will never happen. I would like to remind everyone by first Personal Computer was by IBM; only one floppy drive;  in the mid 80's; now imagine holo-lens in 40 years.  I for one plan to buy MS Stock. 


     

     

    And yet, nothing has really changed since the advent of television.

     

    They looked at a screen back then. We look at a screen today. 

  • Reply 93 of 101
    quadra 610quadra 610 Posts: 6,757member
    A larger, wall-mounted version of an 8-year old, failed product... the Surface table?

    A not-ready-for-primetime prototype (HoloLens) with no software, or idea of practical use?

    (At least Google had some semblance of software and developer community for Glass... And even that failed.)

    The ongoing effort to force portions of a mobile device UI on desktop users, in spite of the failure of Windows 8 to achieve popularity doing the same thing?

    This is essentialy Microsoft's keynote in a nutshell.

    You be the judge as to how this will get something elegant, usable, *presentable* and simplistically awesome actually SHIPPED into your hands, BEFORE a competitor like Apple does it (or something else that will make you forget all about the MS keynote) better, smaller, and aesthetically superior.
  • Reply 94 of 101
    Pretty cool. Apple and Google have also acquired companies doing AR.
  • Reply 95 of 101

    Strangely this device might make me want more physical space for my virtual objects.  I might be a virtual hoarder... 

  • Reply 96 of 101
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by esummers View Post

     

    Strangely this device might make me want more physical space for my virtual objects.




    I can see a future where HoloLens wearing consumers are living in run down tiny apartments but inside the visor it looks like they have a mansion loaded with high end furniture and technology.... LOL. What a nightmare. Living in the Matrix while the entire world turns to garbage.

  • Reply 97 of 101
    mcdavemcdave Posts: 1,927member
    Isn't this just he tip of the iceberg? Part of a joint project between MS & Google combining a stereoscopic HUD, a digital assistant and a jet pack? Tinman or something, apparently the brainchild of, well, a of comic-reading child.

    Google, where's my f***ing jet pack!
  • Reply 98 of 101

    I love the responses here. I've been in computers since the first Commodore and watched these wars for decades. I've also been in the computer business for decades and just chuckle at the arrogance of Apple fans. Microsoft showed true innovation, not the Apple hype of innovation. You sit there and bash something that has real world application when Apple is "innovating" what? A twelve inch IPad with a half baked operating system? Desktops and laptops that run on someone else's operating system that they just slap their user interface on?  How's that OS X working out for you? Little stale?  Just a disclaimer, I bought an IPad, used it a bit then got a Surface Pro...use my IPad for a cutting board now, finally, some productivity out of it. What "innovation" is Apple coming up with? Take a hard look at all their "innovation". All was someone else's ideas they borrowed, stole, or just took credit for and, of course, their fan base just accepted they invented it. Windows 10 is a real game changer for people everywhere and, there is a reason that 95% of Desktop and laptops are Windows, a reason Apple is near non existent in the enterprise, it is because Apple does what it does "so well" (more hype) because it simply doesn't do much. You want to pick up coeds at the coffee shop then get you that MacBook with the little lit apple, you want to do real work you work with Windows. Sell your Apple stock children, the real innovation is in Redmond.

  • Reply 99 of 101
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post

     

     

    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. 




    Surface Pro...real tablet, real operating system...I use my IPad for a cutting board now.

  • Reply 100 of 101
    evilutionevilution Posts: 1,399member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by kkerst View Post

     

    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. 


    Incorrect. The 1st hologram was created many years before Star Wars was made.

    A true hologram is a 3D image created by a laser on a flat plain.

     

    Even the holograms depicted in Star Wars were 3 dimensional images projected on a 1 dimensional plain.

    Same as the holograms created today by projecting a fake 3D image into a mist to create an apparent floating image, an image that moves in relation to the watcher to give the impression of 3 dimensions.

     

    There isn't much difference between AR, VR and holograms. So, this headset projecting a faked 3D image onto a flat plain is a hologram.

Sign In or Register to comment.