Latest HoloLens News

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