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Here's the biggest news from Microsoft's Windows 10 event
Microsoft hinted that its January Windows 10 event would have a lot to offer, and boy was it right. The Redmond crew unveiled not just a ton of software features for desktops and mobile devices, but also new hardware that pushes the limits of what you thought computers could do. Overwhelmed? Don't be -- we've rounded up the biggest news from the event in the gallery below, so you'll know just what to expect when the new Windows is ready for prime time.
Hologram headset from Microsoft with Hololens [Update: Site is live]
Hololens is a holographic headset from Microsoft, due out "in the Windows 10 timeframe." Windows 10 is due out this year, first on Windows Phones after the Super Bowl in February. Hololens is not presented as a straight-up virtual reality headset – "We're dreaming about holograms mixed in your world," Microsoft said during a conference today. "Welcome to a new era of Windows. Welcome to Windows Holographic." Microsoft has been working on Hololens "for years," it said, and to do so it invented the Hologram Processing Unit. Hololens features see-through lenses and allows users to navigate Windows apps and to create 3D objects, projected into the real world in front of the lenses, with gestures. Alongside the hardware, Microsoft announced HoloStudio, software that allows users to create holograms and then 3D print them. Update: The Hololens website is live, right here. Regarding gaming, the page reads, "Microsoft HoloLens intelligently maps the room you're in, blending holograms with the environment around you. Pin holograms to physical locations you choose so that your room becomes the canvas for your holographic projects and games. With Microsoft HoloLens, you can interact with holograms and everyday objects together." [Image: Microsoft]
Microsoft's HoloLens headset is a holographic display for Windows 10
Microsoft is building support for holographic displays into Windows 10, so it only makes sense that the company would make one of those displays, wouldn't it? Meet HoloLens, an official headset with see-through lenses that merges digital content with the physical. It includes spatial sound so that you can hear things happening behind you in the virtual world, and it even has a dedicated Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) to make sure everything works smoothly. The company is shy about just when it'll start selling HoloLens, but it should be available "in the Windows 10 time frame."
Watch this: J-pop hologram singer performs on David Letterman
Hatsune Miku, also known to some people as Miku Hatsune, is already a sensation in her native Japan. But now she's taking her vocal talents to other parts of the world, including none other than the US. The virtual pop start appeared last night on the Late Show with David Letterman, where she performed her single "Sharing the World" in full hologram form. While the J-pop singer is well known in The Land of the Rising Sun, it's interesting that Hatsune's character, created by software developer Cryptone Future Media, is now showing up in mainstream media programs Stateside -- especially one as big as Letterman's late-night show. You can check out the performance in the video after the break.
The secret to this interactive hologram tech is water vapor
It's 2014 and while we don't have flying cars just yet it looks like interactive holographic displays could be a reality rather soon. The not-so-cleverly-named Leia Display System (LDS) uses a combination of light, water-vapor and air to provide a transparent canvas for projected images while sensors track movement and touch inputs from users. The videos we've embedded below show all manner of poking and prodding by users, a bit of Minority Report-style pinching and zooming things in mid-air and even using gestures to rotate and flick stuff out of the way. There's even a sample with a Mercedes sedan driving through the curtain and it "shattering" around the vehicle as it passes through.
Engadget Daily: credit card skimming, floating 'Star Wars' holograms and more!
Today, we investigated the tech behind credit card skimming, looked at floating 3D video, learned about next gen lithium ion batteries and checked our Uber passenger ratings. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
Floating 3D video shows 'Star Wars' holograms are closer than we think
Thanks to Princess Leia's famous Star Wars plea, true holograms rank just behind flying cars as tech we want, nay deserve to have in our lifetimes -- and Tupac-style flimflam won't cut it. Now, an exhibition from artists Chris Helson and Sarah Jackets whimsically called "Help Me Obi" projects objects as large as 30cm (12-inches) in space. Visible from any angle in the room, the subjects include a newborn baby and NASA's Voyager 1 space probe. The creators are quick to point out that the machine doesn't create a true hologram, but rather a "360-degree video object." We take that to mean that it's more like a floating 3D movie that looks the same from any angle, rather than a true holographic object you can study from all sides. Since they're seeking a patent, Helson and Jackets are coy about exactly how it works, but say that there's nothing else quite like it (that they know of). If you're in the Edinburgh, Scotland area between July 31st and August 30th, you can judge for yourself at the Alt-W exhibition.
New smartphone chip will beam high-definition holograms as early as 2015
Just imagine: a smartphone that projects 3D holograms into thin-air. If you can wait until the end of next year, and if you can believe the claims being made by a well-funded company called Ostendo, then your next handset could be capable of just that. Thanks to breakthroughs by the Californian display startup, 5,000ppi projectors the size of Tic Tacs are now powerful enough to control the color, brightness and angle of individual beams of light across one million pixels. Just one chip is said to deliver a usable image, but adding additional chips provides scope for even more complex and detailed images. The Wall Street Journal was treated to a demo involving six chips which beamed green dice spinning in the air and noted how "consistent" the motion appeared, irrespective of where it was viewed from.
Engadget Daily: Apple's dev conference, Samsung's VR headset and more!
Today, we watched Samsung announce it's building a VR headset with Oculus VR, dissected rumors surrounding WWDC 2014, took Samsung's Chromebook 2 for a test run and investigated the technology behind holograms. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
Back to life: A collection of 'holographic' appearances
We've offered up the details about holographic live appearances, and now it's time to kick back and take in a few. Jump in the gallery below for performances from Michael Jackson, Tupac, Mariah Carey and more. There's also a feat from Sir Richard Branson allowing him to be in two places at once and a rather odd appearance from Al Gore.
Watch Michael Jackson's holographic return at the Billboard Music Awards
Michael Jackson isn't the first posthumous recording artist to be reconstituted by light projection -- Tupac got there first -- but it didn't stop the assembled crowds at the Billboard Music Awards whipping themselves into a frenzy during the performance. Naturally, it all coincided with Jackson's Xscape album, launched earlier this month, but the surprise was spoiled a few days early by litigation between several holographic companies over the tech being used. We've embedded ABC's coverage after the break although the performance looks a little flat on video. And don't worry: there's moonwalking.
The world's largest election is being led by a holographic politician
What do you do when you're running for prime minister of one of the most populous nations on Earth and need to reach over 800 million people? How can you possibly shake every hand and kiss every baby, occasionally appearing in several locations at once? One solution is dark magic. The (slightly) more realistic solution, recently employed by Indian candidate Narendra Modi, is to simply turn your speeches into holographic affairs. Yes, like Tupac's 2012 performance at Coachella.
HP Labs builds a glasses-free, portable 3D display with wide viewing angles (video)
Typical attempts at a glasses-free 3D display have trouble with viewing angles; we're all too familiar with having to sit in a sweet spot to get the effect. HP Labs might have just solved this last problem with a prototype 3D LCD that would better accommodate the real world. The display's backlight has nanopatterned grooves that send blue, green and red in multiple directions, letting the LCD show only the light that would be seen from a given viewpoint. Those positions are set in stone, but they're both abundant (200 for photos, 64 for video) and can spread across a wide 180-degree viewing arc. At a thickness of as little as half a millimeter, a production LCD could easily be thin enough for a mobile device, too. The catch isn't so much the screen as the content. Producers need an image for every possible viewpoint, which could create a fair share of logistical problems: even though footage wouldn't necessarily require 200 cameras, it could limit fully immersive 3D to computer-generated visuals or else consume a massive amount of bandwidth. If those are the biggest barriers, though, we're still that much closer to the holographic smartphone we've always wanted.
University of Tokyo builds a soap bubble 3D screen, guarantees your display stays squeaky clean (video)
There are waterfall screens, but what if you'd like your display to be a little more... pristine? Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a display that hits soap bubbles with ultrasonic sound to change the surface. At a minimum, it can change how light glances off the soap film to produce the image. It gets truly creative when taking advantage of the soap's properties: a single screen is enough to alter the texture of a 2D image, and multiple screens in tandem can create what amounts to a slightly sticky hologram. As the soap is made out of sturdy colloids rather than the easily-burst mixture we all knew as kids, users won't have to worry about an overly touch-happy colleague popping a business presentation. There's a video preview of the technology after the jump; we're promised a closer look at the technology during the SIGGRAPH expo in August, but we don't yet know how many years it will take to find sudsy screens in the wild.
'TeleHuman' uses Kinect for 3D holographic chat, bumps up options for contacting Obi-Wan (video)
Looks like virtual Tupac might have some company. With Kinect, you are the hologram. Besides logging in lots of quality time at a South Korean theme park, the Kinect is now doing double duty at the Human Media Lab of Queen's University in Canada thanks to a 3D holographic chat system called "TeleHuman." The setup basically creates a life-size rendering of its subject by using six Kinect sensors, a 3D projector and a cylindrical display. This allows the viewer to walk around the cylinder for a 360-degree view of the subject, giving new meaning to having someone's back during a chat. The director of the Human Media Lab says the TeleHuman could be available for $5,000 within five years. In the meantime, the tech is also being used by the research team to create a 3D anatomical model browser called the "BodiPod." The BodiPod can display various layers of the human body, which can be virtually peeled off as the viewer gets closer to the display. Check out all the 3D action for the TeleHuman and BodiPod in plain, old 2D by viewing the video after the break.
Tupac hologram performs at Coachella, keeps all eyez on him
Have you been getting a kick out of Coachella's jams and arts in Indio, California? Or, did you decide to peacefully enjoy it from home via YouTube's site? Either way, you may have heard Tupac made an on-stage holographic appearance over the weekend, performing Hail Mary and 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted alongside Snoop Dogg. Tupac's hologram was made possible by AV Concepts in partnership with Dr. Dre's production company and Digital Domain, after reportedly working on the project for a few months. The outfits used a display technology dubbed "Eyeliner" that, with the help of a custom rig and a mechanical solution, was able to shoot out a life-sized, 3D illusion of Mr. Shakur onto the Coachella platform. Don't believe us? Hit 'em up at the source below, though we feel compelled to tell you language isn't exactly for all ages.
South Korea's Live Park uses RFID and Kinect to bring your Holodeck fantasies one step nearer
All those long, long drives to Florida in the family station wagon seemed worth it at the time, but now that we've found out that those lucky South Koreans have another crazy theme-park, we might just change our minds. Located near Seoul, Live Park uses 3D video, holograms and augmented reality, interacting with RFID wrist bands and Kinect sensors to stitch together a continuous immersive story. You (and your avatar!) have 65 attractions, over seven themed zones, and the world's biggest interactive 360 degree stereoscopic theater to wave, jump and shout your way through. Two years and $13 million in the making, Live Park's creator d'strict is now looking to license the concept out internationally, with locations in China and Singapore already earmarked. We're not sure we could handle that long of a family drive just yet, but with a Hollywood entertainment "powerhouse" reportedly nibbling, maybe we won't have to.
Microsoft working on Vermeer, a 'touchable' 360-degree holographic display (video)
Touchable is a stretch when talking about Vermeer, but we'd definitely call it interactive. Instead of hiding the 360-degree display under an acrylic or glass dome it uses a parabolic reflector to float a 3D "object" in space and tracks hand motions with an IR sensor or Kinect. It's not unlike RePro3D, but with slightly less bulky hardware. Don't take our word for it though, check out the video after the break.
IMEC working with holograms, mirrored pixels to prevent 3D movie headaches
Let's face it, 3D movies are amazing but there are times when you'll walk away with a killer headache. A group of researchers at IMEC believes that holographic video might be the best way around this problem and has been working on a means of constructing holographic displays by shining lasers on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) platforms capable of moving up and down like small, reflective pistons. Here's the cool part: each pixel would have a spring-like mechanism attached to it that could be moved by applying voltage to it. In the first stage of the technology, a laser is bounced off a MEMS-less chip containing an image, the diffracted light interfering to create a 3D picture. From here, the team can adjust the image by replacing pixels with small, mirrored platforms that can alternate their direction to create a moving projection. It gets technical after this, but you can take a gander at the video after the break for a full demo and explanation.
Holodesk: More Kinect magic from Microsoft Research
There are a lot of conspiracy theorists at Joystiq that attribute the human race's breathtakingly rapid technological advancement to ancient aliens, claiming that world-changing inventions like polymers, optical media and the Internet have all been reverse engineered from downed extraterrestrial spacecraft. In actuality, very few modern conveniences can trace their roots back to ancient aliens; most mind-bending breakthroughs come from abstract corporate think-tanks like Microsoft Research. The lab that previously utilized a Kinect to create real-time 3D models has now developed an interactive, holographic 3D environment called Holodesk. As is demonstrated in the (strangely silent) proof of concept video above, Holodesk uses a Kinect, projector and beam splitter to create interactive holograms. In a nutshell, the Kinect watches your hands and face, tracking their movements and projecting 3D shapes onto a semi-transparent surface above your hands, tricking the eye into thinking the shapes and your hand exist on the same plane. The interface is still fairly rough, graphically speaking, but the technology itself is so solid, we're hoping it'll eventually lead to a Kinect sequel to Time Traveler.
