HoloLens

Any ideas on how the Unity engine will relate to Microsoft's new HoloLens?

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/hands-on-with-hololens-making-the-virtual-real/

 

Second cousin twice removed?

But seriously, we don't know, but it looks hella cool.

 

If it gets attention, which I bet it will atm, then Unity like all other big companies will give some love

Surgeons already use VR systems to simplify work and increase precision, just to give an example. An AR system like Holo would be a million times better because they can simulate the graphics straight onto the patient while doing complicated task... still able to see the nurses and tools around them. Holo got a bright future ahead of itself if MS can deliver and the fact that they already collaborate with Nasa (and who knows what other companies in the background) probably increase chances that this will become something.

I would simply love if I could get a VR or AR set that can simulate several OS desktops around me because I my work area isn't so big. I would instantly write a mouse software if the device also came with eye-tracking.

 

There's already www.spaceglasses.com, which uses Unity for development.

--Eric

 

I'm sure they'll make it easy to use. If it's sdk is anything like the kinect v2 we should be good......

 

Wow. That thing is hideous.

 

That's a prototype, not a fashion statement. Look at the product page (particularly the Meta Pro at the bottom) for the actual thing.

--Eric

 

Okay. I didn't see the Meta Pro. That is much better.

 

HoloLens looks cool, its much too early to make any calls on if it will be a good product or not. The demo video is clearly designed to be more flash than function, can't see anything but the back of people heads.

The Air Touch stuff will probably be the real key to this hardware. It seems like there are enough products and research projects floating around to make acceptable HMDs and head tracking already, the big thing for the next few years is inputs, specifically gesture driven inputs.

 

Yeah, that looks pretty much like an OR setup I've tested with a Leap controller to track your hands.

I've had a Leap for a while, and struggled to find anything useful to make for it. When trying the it with the Rift, it definitely seemed much more useful. I think the trick with the HoloLens is will it have good gesture recognition and flawless tracking. The Kinect is impressive for what it does, so I think MS will do a good job on the tech.

I think much like early VR, these devices are fun toys when the tech is OK. But, the details matter, and it really needs to be perfect and performant to start to become useful. As an example, the Leap demos show a 'virtual pottery app' that seems able to make horrible pottery.

I don't get why that would be useful, I don't want to 'kinda make something' in virtual space, I'd actually like to make something better or impossible to make in the real world with a virtual device.

 

I watched part of the demo. To be honest to don't see the appeal of standing up all day with my arms out. Maybe if they can make it as responsive as the one Tony Stark uses.

The technology is coming. But this is not it yet. Give it a few years.

 

The Hololens video sure has caught the imagination of the sci-fi , 3D loving community.
This vdo has reached 8 Million views already..whoaaa

Whats plans to Unify with this platform too?

 

MS will probably just make it work with Minecraft....

 

A good read: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...-warns-microsoft-dont-overpromise-on-hololens
P.S. It's funny to hear this from Peter, but he's right.

 

hmm i wonder how the actual "collision detection" / range finding.. whatever you call it works... i mean.. how it knows where walls and etc are.. really fascinating ...

 

Holo Lens looks Amazeballs!!

 

More Minecraft stuff was shown at E3

 

even if hololens never gets too much beyond that minecraft demo (and I would bet it will) it'll be a revolutionary way to experience games.

 

I usually have close to zero interest in Minecraft, but this is seriously impressive and a perfect way of differentiating their AR tech from all the VR tech that is so prevalent. Any top down god style game will be perfect with this technology. I am guessing that the whole Minecraft engine must have been re-written in something other than Java to pull this off!

Also, the new graphics engine with more physically correct shading, AO and shadows really makes the blocks feel rooted in the physical world, which is of course paramount when try to sell the AR illusion. Will be interesting to see if the narrow field of view is as annoying as some claim.

On a side note, I do really wonder what spending hours a day staring at AR is going to do to the visual cortex of kids brains! What happens when you take off the goggles and start seeing things that are really there in your daily life, after your neural wiring has been scrambled by too many AR sessions...Will AR be the new legal LSD...Ha.. only time will tell what the implications will be

 

My grand parents said this about TVs. My parents said it about cell phones. Now we warn our kids about VR.

So far my eyes have yet to turn square.

 

You say that with years or decades of hindsight on your side, though. Your grandparents didn't have that, and it was perfectly valid for them to ask what the risks of TV might be just like it's perfectly valid for us to ask what the risks of AR might be.

 

Its definitely worth asking and thinking about. But I think we are past the days when we can believe any new technology might end humanity forever. Humans have proven incredibly adaptable to new technology.

 

Haha, we're climbing the ladder of uncertainty at an incredible rate here. We started at a "what happens when...", jumped to (mock) physical deformity and are now onto an apocalypse scenario...

 

It would make a good game idea. But I've survived that many 'end of the worlds' so far that I'm beginning to become a sceptic.

 

It looked kick ass although I dont think i would want to use it myself.

 

it has a depth camera, so it can capture depth map. if it's a flat area and horizontal, then it should be desktop or floor, if it's 90 degree then it should be wall. it's a stick thing moving in front of the camera it should an arm. the small stick on this object should be finger. If this finger get close to the float and connect, it should be a touch.

I guess this is the concept