Latest HoloLens News: July 2017

Tuesday, 25 July 2017

HoloLens 2.0 to get AI injection

Sunday, 16 July 2017

‘Black Mirror’ game of whack-a-mole becomes reality using Hololens

The augmented reality game of whack-a-mole in the popular Black Mirror episode “Playtest” may have seemed like a fascinating look at the future but now it’s real.

David Robustelli, a virtual reality and augmented reality developer at Amsterdam-based Capitola VR, posted video of a prototype of an AR whack-a-mole game using the Microsoft Hololens.

In a post on UploadVR, Robustelli explains how the prototype app simulates hitting the moles as they pop up and disappear.

And while this app isn’t coming to most users anytime soon, it’s yet another example of just how hard it’s getting to come up with sci-fi scenarios that aren’t just previews of things we already have in development. Let’s just hope that most of Black Mirror‘s often dystopian tech visions don’t come true.

Wednesday, 12 July 2017

Meta 2 is a more affordable HoloLens

Friday, 7 July 2017

Walk on Mars with Microsoft’s HoloLens | Fox News

This 1999 Hubble telescope image shows Mars when Mars was 54 million miles from Earth. (REUTERS/NASA/Handout )

Visitors to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida will soon be able to experience what it’s like to walk on Mars, thanks to a new partnership with Microsoft. Using Microsoft’s HoloLens headsets, the public will be able to take tours of parts of the Red Planet this summer, guided by astronaut great Buzz Aldrin.

HoloLens is Microsoft’s augmented reality device, which is now shipping to developers, the company announced at its Build Developers Conference today. It’s not quite the immersive virtual reality experience that true VR headsets like the Oculus Rift offer, but it’s still capable of stitching together real imagery from NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover, which has been exploring the planet since August 2012.

When the exhibit goes live this summer, visitors who don the HoloLens will be greeted by Apollo 11 astronaut Aldrin, who serves as a holographic tour guide. He’ll be joined by a Mars Rover driver, who will explain scientific discoveries and Mars facts while visitors are free to make their own way through the rocky terrain.

“This experience lets the public explore Mars in an entirely new way. To walk through the exact landscape that Curiosity is roving across puts its achievements and discoveries into beautiful context,” Doug Ellison, a visualization producer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.

The upcoming exhibit grew out of a larger partnership between Microsoft and NASA, which developed the data analytics technology to help engineers and scientists direct the Mars Rover. Called OnSight, it has been used to make recommendations about where the rover should drive and which features to study in more detail.

Microsoft’s partnership with NASA is an important step as it ventures into the world of VR, which is already crowded with revolutionary devices like the PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift. During the Build keynote today, HoloLens co-creator Kudo Tsunoda said he hopes partnerships like the ones with NASA will help the general public gain experiences that were previously only available to scientists.

But Microsoft also has big plans for more industry-specific applications. It has lined up organizations as diverse as Japan Airlines and Case Western Reserve University’s medical school, which plan to use HoloLens unique “mixed reality” capabilities to instruct pilots and train future doctors.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.

HoloLens inventor Alex Kipman thinks phones are already dead

This HoloLens app shows how doctors will use augmented reality during spinal surgery

Augmented reality (AR) isn’t just for Pokmon Go and Snapchat masks, the technology will can have practical applications in areas like medicine, too.

At least that’s the promise of the new Scopis Holographic Navigation Platform, which is designed to be used with the Microsoft HoloLens to help doctors perform spinal surgery.

The company claims that its system can use 3D tracking with the HoloLens to help accurately find spinal screw positions faster during surgery. The system also allows the medical team to place virtual monitors above the surgery space, giving the surgeon a hands-free way to refer to charts and images while operating. Scopis also employs the HoloLens’ familiar finger gestures (which look like you’re pinching the air) to allow the surgeon to control the AR content.

Of course, the $3,000 HoloLens is still mostly in the hands of developers, so we’re still learning about just how reliable it is during pressure situations like surgery, but this short video is an encouraging look at the possible near future of AR as a practical tool beyond gaming and casual apps.

Thursday, 6 July 2017

Microsoft just demonstrated virtual teleportation using the HoloLens

The Oculus Rift might have just launched for consumers, butMicrosoft is working on virtually transporting people into remote situations through augmented reality.

Called Holoportation, it can capture an image of an individual and the surrounding space, and transmit it to someone anywhere in the world, as long as theyre using a HoloLens device, Microsofts AR headset.

In a new video, Microsoft partner research manager Shahram Izadi demonstrated Holoportations capabilities in controlled areas. In one scenario, his daughter played with toys and jumped off a chair, and in the other room, her father interacted with her remotely.

3D cameras capture the image of a person and objects, and then texture is added to the images. Then, Holoportation compresses the data and sends it to the person wearing HoloLens. The projected image fills up their space, as if someone was right next to them.

Holoportation is designed to let people interact with individuals in real-time, but it can also record situations and play them back. Izadi was also able to shrink down the replay of time spent with his daughter to fit on a coffee table.

The demonstration is impressive, but also a bit eerie.

If I wear my HoloLens device, its like walking into a living memory, Izadi said. How’s that for a plot of a sci-fi horror movie?

Holoportation is by no means a consumer experience yet, especially considering the HoloLens hardware costs $3,000. Developers can apply for a development model, which begins shipping March 30.

Photo via Microsoft

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Microsofts new reality – HoloLens comes to UK – BBC News

Wednesday, 5 July 2017

Spectating League of Legends games through Microsoft’s HoloLens was almost a thing

Imagine watching Fnatic and Team SoloMids League of Legends squads battle it out on Summoners Rift through your virtual reality headset. Well, that almost became a reality.

At the start of December Microsoft launched Share Your Idea, asking members of the community to pitch their ideas for HoloLens experiences, which Microsoft would then bring to life through its team of designers, artists, and developers. Submissions and community voting were open until Jan. 11.

The idea that gained the most votes was a League of Legends match viewer. It would allow viewers to see the entire map, and zoom into certain lanes, or follow the action if they want to.

The HoloLens will show the entire match playing out in real time, said FatedTitan, the user that submitted the idea. Not just certain spots that would be shown on Twitch or other viewing sites this is the ability to watch League of Legends like never before.

Image via FatedTitan/Microsoft Share Your Idea

Microsofts HoloLens is more of an augmented reality headset, it features holograms that enhance everyday experiences, or even gameslike its Minecraft demonstration at E3 last year. So most likely this would be more like seeing the Rift sitting in front of you on a table.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Microsofts HoloLens team responded to the idea, saying it just wouldnt be possible.

We love this idea, the creativity, and the level of support it has received from League of Legends community, the statement says. However, in order for Microsoft to open source the code to the community as promised, we cannot build a project which is based on existing intellectual property.

So it looks like we wont be seeing Summoners Rift and the League Championship Series games in virtual reality (or augmented reality) anytime soon. Or at least until Riot starts working on it, which it may just be doingbut a request for comment from Riot has not been answered yet.

H/T GameSpot.Images via Microsoft & Riot Games | Remix by Jacob Wolf

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Microsoft’s HoloLens goes up for pre-order at a whopping $3,000

If you’re tired of VR and you’d rather just add a few layers of digital flair to the real world, you’ll be happy to hear thatHoloLens, Microsoft’s augmented reality headgear, is shipping in March. You’ll be less happy to hear that it still costs a whopping $3,000.

The company is accepting pre-orders for the untethered holographic computer; developer applicants will begin receiving invites to buy the development edition of the HoloLens. It will begin shipping March 30.

This initial rollout of HoloLens is the developer model only, meaning it’s not consumer-ready yet. Microsoft is letting programmers, designers, entrepreneurs, and others who wants to build things for the mixed-reality headgear get their hands on the first version.

HoloLens will come with developer documentation describing ways of creating holographic apps. Additionally, the self-contained computerized headset will have built-in “experiences” to help users navigate and create content for consumers. HoloStudio assists with creating 3D-projects at real-world scale; Skype, the video and voice chat app, enables holographic communication; and HoloTour is a way for people to project interactive 360-degree experiences and walk around inside them, like the environment around Machu Picchu.

Three games come with the HoloLens developer edition, too: Fragments, Young Coker and RoboRaid.

Companies and organizations are already using HoloLens to create and display worlds in augmented reality. NASA partnered with Microsoft and uses HoloLens to project and explore the surface area of Mars on right here on Earth, and helps astronauts and scientists navigate a rover on the Red Planet. Likewise, Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic use HoloLens for immersive anatomy education.

The price tag is steep for HoloLens, but it could drop a bit before it hits consumers. There’s nothing else like it on the market right nowa computer system that projects another reality on the one you’re standing in, contained entirely in a headset. Oculus, the highly-anticipated Facebook-owned VR headset that requires a compatible computer has bundles that retail for $1,500.

Despite the cool-factor of these systems, most consumers won’t be buying them anytime soon. The price alone is a significant deterrent, and development of practical applications beyond gaming or enterprise uses is still in early stages. Developers who want to make sure their apps are ready for mainstream adoption can apply for a HoloLens developer model. But the rest of us will be waiting a while.

H/T The Next Web | Photo via Microsoft

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