hololens
Latest
Xbox Live and ID@Xbox indie games coming to HoloLens
Microsoft's promise of unifying its disparate platforms with Windows 10 has even more going for it with some surprise announcements ahead of this week's Gamescom show in Germany. We knew that Xbox Live was coming to the desktop -- for free, even -- but that extends to HoloLens too. That's right: online multiplayer, friends lists and your achievements (anything tied to Redmond's gaming service, from the sounds of it) will be available on the augmented reality headset, according to VRFocus. The site also reports that HoloLens, Windows 10 and Xbox One will share a universal store for apps and the like "in time." Some purchases will also apparently be pay-once-play-anywhere affairs too. And similar to Microsoft's push to get Android and iOS developers to bring their apps to Windows 10, the ID@Xbox program will work to court indie game developers and extend across Redmond's latest operating system, HoloLens and Windows Phone.
Microsoft's HoloLens headset will reach developers within a year
When Microsoft said that its HoloLens headset would arrive "in the Windows 10 time frame," what did it mean, exactly? Thanks to a BBC interview with Satya Nadella, we now have a better sense of when this augmented reality eyewear will show up. The company chief expects developers and enterprise users to get the first version of HoloLens "within the next year" -- you won't be getting one as a holiday gift, folks. It's not certain just when a personal version will launch, but Nadella describes the overall technology as a "5-year journey" that will eventually branch out to other fields. While that doesn't necessarily leave you high and dry until 2020, it does suggest that you'll have to be patient if you want to play some holographic Minecraft.
ICYMI: Password via voice recognition, drone delivery & more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-271554{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-271554, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-271554{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-271554").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Customers at the Netherlands ING Bank can now check their account balance by saying "my voice is my password." A delivery company named Workhorse is testing out a parcel delivery service with drones, from a base at the tops of delivery vans. And Microsoft researchers have outlined how to record content viewable with HoloLens and a very odd assortment of characters are ready to entertain you.
Microsoft has a trick for making holograms from live video
We've seen Microsoft's HoloLens do an awful lot of different things so far, but Halo, Minecraft and even medical applications are just scratching the surface of what the augmented reality headset is capable of. In a new research paper, Redmond outlines how it plans to grab live video that'd work as fodder for the device's holographic capabilities. Perhaps most importantly these holographic video feeds would be streamable over the internet, as Road to VR points out. By taking advantage of some 106 RGB and infrared cameras and a green screen, Microsoft says that it's able to capture, compress and recreate pretty lifelike results.
ICYMI: Medical HoloLens, programmable kids robot and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-1882{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-1882, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-1882{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-1882").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Case Western Reserve University students put HoloLens to work to learn parts of the human body. The classic '60s TV show Thunderbirds is coming back for more episodes of puppet goodness thanks to a Kickstarter campaign. And a new robot aimed at teaching kids to program is out to terrorize your family pets.
Here's how Microsoft HoloLens could teach the next wave of doctors
Microsoft is big on using HoloLens to advance science and education, but what will that actually look like? You might have a good idea after today. The company has posted a video showing how Case Western Reserve University would like to use the holographic computer to teach medicine. Students could walk around anatomical models to see how bones, muscles and organs work in the context of a human body without resorting to cadavers. They could also produce simulations that let future doctors fail in a relatively low-stress environment -- there's no live patient here, after all. Although it'll probably be a while before you have to don HoloLens to complete a PhD, this clip shows that it's no longer an outlandish concept.
I played 'Minecraft' with Microsoft's HoloLens
"Try to look straight," a Microsoft employee tells me in a bright, cheery tone. I'm staring through an unusual pair of binoculars -- the kind that's normally used to test your eyesight in an optometrist's office. My gaze is locked on the piercing white light inside, but I can feel my sleep-deprived eyes beginning to tire. "Oh, you've moved again," my guide mutters with a hint of disappointment. I'm sitting in a small meeting room deep inside London's Excel Exhibition Centre, waiting for the distance between my eyes to be measured. It's not even 9AM, but already the first Minecraft fans are spilling through for the second day of Minecon -- a fan convention that celebrates the blocky building game invented by Markus "Notch" Persson. Once an indie darling, the imaginative sandbox title is now a global phenomenon played by millions of children and adults around the world. But today, instead of queuing for pictures with creepers and famous YouTubers, I'm waiting to play Minecraft on HoloLens.
Microsoft has $500K in prize money for HoloLens science projects
Microsoft wowed me a few weeks ago with its internal HoloLens programs, but like we've seen with Kinect, the coolest uses aren't always the ones Redmond devised. To help make more applications a reality, the tech giant has opened up what it's calling the Academic Research Request for Proposals. Five awards -- each including $100,000 and two HoloLens development kits -- will go to accredited universities and be announced this October 6th. The official reasoning here is that Microsoft wants to "better understand the role and possible applications for holographic computing in society." So, to see what people outside of the Redmond campus think augmented reality is capable of. Got it. Other objectives include spurring research for mixed reality and generally getting more people to make holograms. A few examples the company lays out are data visualizations (similar to Epic Games) and creating 3D models for medical training.
Disney Infinity might make its way to Microsoft's HoloLens
It's only natural for an entertainment corporation as massive as The Walt Disney Company, with IP holdings that span the likes of Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, to be exploring the potential of virtual reality. It's something John Vignocchi, VP of production at Disney Interactive, the division behind toys-to-life platform Disney Infinity, confirmed when we chatted a few weeks back. But when it comes to Infinity, the future focus seems to be weighted more toward augmented reality. "We've had multiple meetings and discussions with Oculus, multiple meetings and discussions with Sony about Morpheus, multiple meetings and discussions with Microsoft about HoloLens. We're very interested in that space," Vignocchi said. "There's the socialization problem right now with VR, but augmented reality is very exciting."
#ICYMI: A flying roto-car, HoloLens in space and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-974561{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-974561, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-974561{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-974561").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: Our Jetson's dreams (kinda) came true with the invention of this flying single-seater; Astronauts at the International Space Station are about to receive Microsoft's HoloLens for AR projects and general bragging-rights (take that kids, Poppa got one way before you) and Stanford scientists managed to make hydrogen gas in an entirely new way that's cheaper and more efficient. Fuel for flying cars, perhaps?
NASA is putting Microsoft's HoloLens to work in space
When its mixed reality headset was first announced, Microsoft touted its ability to lend a hand in a variety of enterprise scenarios. The company teamed up with NASA for Sidekick: a project that is putting HoloLens on the International Space Station to give virtual aid to astronauts. The project uses the tech in two ways to offer support a crew member wouldn't ordinarily have while completing a task. First, Remote Expert Mode uses Skype to give someone on the ground a view of exactly what the astronaut is seeing. From there, a colleague can remotely guide the task or scribble notes and drawings in the astronaut's view -- all in real time. A Procedure Mode overlays animated holographic illustrations on top of real objects for reference. Not only could this cut down on training time, but it could provide a valuable guide in situations plagued by communication delays.
ICYMI: A new naval launcher, Halo on HoloLens and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-414460{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-414460, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-414460{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-414460").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: The Sandia National Labs robot that walked for two and a half hours on 350 watts of power; the amazing Halo 5 HoloLens demo that makes me want to pick up a gun (virtually of course); and the new electromagnetic aircraft launcher the Navy is having way too much fun testing out.
I got Holo-briefed on 'Halo 5'
Typically E3's vision of the future is pretty shortsighted. But this year when I stepped into a war room for a Halo 5: Guardians mission briefing, that's when I knew that the gaming trade show's look at what's ahead extended beyond just games that are months or sometimes years off. The space's middle was dominated by a hexagonal table roughly four feet across, and floating a scant few inches above its surface was a slowly rotating, azure hologram of a massive starship. It was familiar and I'd seen it somewhere before, but it took a moment for me to identify: It was the UNSC Infinity from the Halo universe, courtesy of Microsoft's HoloLens augmented reality headset sitting atop my skull. With the few moments I had alone in the room, I circled the dais. The hologram remained on its deliberate arc while I peered from every angle, looking for flaws that'd break the 3D illusion. Those came later, but not where I expected them. "This is ridiculous," another attendee said as I returned to my spot at the table. He was right.
ICYMI: Head-mounted Minecraft, CGI celebs, and more!
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-634399{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-634399, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-634399{width:630px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-634399").style.display="none";}catch(e){} It's the very first episode of In Case You Missed It, where we surface the weird and wacky news that may have been buried by yesterday's big headlines. Today we're covering some of our favorite stories from Monday: The HoloLens headset at E3, what's happening with the first solar-powered flight around the world and CGI modeling using paparazzi photos.
Microsoft shows off 'Minecraft' built specifically for HoloLens
At its E3 2015 event, Microsoft has given us a new demo of Minecraft built specifically for its HoloLens augmented reality headset. As we've guessed since the hardware originally appeared, the creative world-building game is a perfect fit for the futuristic hardware. The demonstrator at first controlled the experience with an Xbox One controller, then just used his hands in the air to play, and could peek around, above and through his creations simply by moving around in real space. A little awkward to watch, sure, but the live feed showed us a simulated HoloLens feed so we could follow along. We still don't know when we'll be exploring its combination of real and virtual worlds for ourselves, but Microsoft promises more information at the MineCon event that starts July 4th. If you missed it in the stream, check out our gallery to see how it all looks.
'Mass Effect' director Casey Hudson joins Microsoft's HoloLens team
Casey Hudson, the producer largely responsible for EA and BioWare's Mass Effect trilogy, is now Creative Director at Microsoft Studios, where he's working on HoloLens and Xbox games. Microsoft appears to be all-in on HoloLens development -- Hudson now works alongside former Lionhead Studios boss John Needham and he reports directly to CVP of Next Gen Experiences Kudo Tsunoda, who previously led Microsoft's Kinect Games initiative. Hudson relocated from Edmonton, Canada, to Redmond, Washington, for his new role.
Microsoft helped me build a HoloLens app, and it was pretty easy
If you had told me years ago that Microsoft would come out with a futuristic augmented reality headset, I'd have said you were nuts. And yet, a few months ago, it did exactly that. The headset is called HoloLens, which, when worn, allows you to interact with holographic objects set in the real world. It's pretty crazy, sci-fi-level stuff -- as we saw earlier this week at Build, you could have Windows apps floating around you as you sit in your living room or walk around a projected image of a human skeleton. Yesterday, in a 90-minute presentation, I not only had the chance to get my hands on a much more polished version of the hardware, but also tried my hand at creating my very own holographic app.
Microsoft bought 'Minecraft' because it's perfect for HoloLens
Microsoft surprised many when it announced it had acquired Mojang, maker of the hit game Minecraft for $2.5 billion. What could a company specializing in operating systems, business software and consoles do with an already popular sandbox game primarily enjoyed by children? The game's creator, Markus "Notch" Persson, certainly helped expedite the sale, but Microsoft had something else in its arsenal that was also perfectly suited to the game: HoloLens.
Our first close look at Microsoft's HoloLens
It's only been a few months since Microsoft introduced the augmented reality HoloLens headset, and now we've finally got a close look at the unit to show you. We don't have much to show other than these pictures at the moment -- we couldn't take pictures of the early dev unit we tried on back in January -- but check back for more details shortly. Nicole Lee contributed to this report
HoloLens promo video gives a glimpse of early prototypes
During Microsoft's Build 2015 event earlier today it displayed a "Closer look at the hardware" promo video for its HoloLens AR headset. It's the normal fluff and info we're expecting about augmented reality, but as RoadtoVR points out, there are a few brief glimpses at earlier versions of the headset in there too, plus a look at the current unit blown apart so you can see what's inside. They're similar to the Google Glass prototypes we saw during its run up to the Explorer model, and give us an idea of how hard it is to shove all that hardware into something that might fit on a human face. Of course, it doesn't bring us immediately closer to Windows Holographic experiences in real life, but until we get our hands on one just appreciating the headset's history and technology will have to do.
