Items tagged with hololens
We have only scratched the surface of what might be possible in the realms of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. Developer creativity will ultimatel dictate where these technologies go, and the folks at Microsoft have an interesting concept in mind—a virtual multi-monitor setup so users can experience the benefits of using more than one monitor without the clutter and cost. Well, sort of. Called "Mirage" (or maybe "HoloScreens"), this appears to be a concept project for the HoloLens. It was spotted by Twitter user WalkingCat (a prominent Microsoft leaker), who posted a bunch of screenshots from the app. The idea is simple, and novel—you install the app, then add...
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Ruben Caballero left Apple in early 2019, where he had served as the head of Apple's 5G wireless program. The reason the executive departed Apple had to do with a change in development plans for 5G modems used in upcoming hardware products. After leaving Apple, Caballero became an advisor to a company called Humane, which was founded by former Apple employees. Reports indicate that Caballero has now been hired by Microsoft as a corporate vice president. His role at Microsoft will reportedly involve mixed reality hardware and AI technology. Information on his duties at Microsoft comes from his LinkedIn profile, and the responsibilities were reportedly confirmed by Microsoft. Hiring Caballero is...
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Microsoft unveiled the HoloLens 2 augmented reality headset at MWC 2019, and as cool as the hardware is, it is aimed at the commercial market and carries the price tag to go with it. Consumers aren't the market Microsoft's fancy new headset targets, but a new patent filing shows how the software giant plans to bring virtual and mixed reality to the consumer masses via an AR smartphone app. Credit: Microsoft via USPTO A patent application has surfaced that outlines part of what Microsoft plans to do for consumers with mixed reality technology on smartphones. The patent document states that in a virtual reality experience, virtual imagery is displayed in the field-of-view of the user, to provide...
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Microsoft is participating in MWC 2019, and at the show, it unveiled its new HoloLens 2 headset. On the heels of unveiling the new product, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is defending the contract that the software giant has landed with the U.S. military that will see it supplying augment reality hardware; a contract worth $479 million. Some Microsoft workers are complaining about the deal and calling for Microsoft to not work with the military. Nadella has stated that he would engage with employees and talk about the company's role as a corporate citizen. However, the executive was clear that Microsoft would not withhold technology from democratic governments calling it a "principled decision."...
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The 2019 Mobile World Congress kicks off tomorrow in Barcelona, Spain but several companies have already introduced a wide variety of products. Many consumers are eagerly awaiting the announcement of mobile devices like foldable or 5G smartphones. However, after several months of heavy-handed hints, we have finally seen what Microsoft plans to do with their offering in mixed reality technology. The Redmond company just unveiled their HoloLens 2 at its press event today. The HoloLens 2 builds upon the original HoloLens, a mixed reality headset that was released by Microsoft in 2016. According to Julia White, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Azure, the HoloLens assisted...
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It looks as though Microsoft is really gearing up to announce something big at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The latest nugget to drop comes courtesy of Alex Kipman, who serves as Microsoft’s Technical Fellow for AI Perception and Mixed Reality in the Cloud. While that job title is definitely a mouthful, all you really need to know is that Kipman is the father of the original HoloLens mixed reality headset. Kipman has posted a video teaser to YouTube which is entitled "2.24.19 #MWC19", which is actually a day before the show officially kicks off. The video shows what appears to a microchip, some Terminator 2-esque “liquid metal” effects,...
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There have been rumors going around for a while now that Microsoft was ready to unveil the second generation of its HoloLens wearable at Mobile World Congress 2019. Microsoft has now sent out invites to its MWC event, which will be held on February 24 at 5 pm CET (11 am ET). On hand at the event will be Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, CVP Julia White, and Alex Kipman. Kipman being on hand for the event is believed to be a tip that HoloLens 2 will be unveiled, as he is known for his work on the wearable. Recent rumors have suggested that HoloLens 2 will use a Snapdragon 850 SoC. That would mean it will be an always on and connected device ready to go when the user is. It's not common for Microsoft...
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Rumors were circulating last summer that Microsoft was at work on a HoloLens 2 that was supposed to launch in Q1 2019. At the time, that rumor claimed the next HoloLens was supposed to be lighter, more comfortable, and have improved holographic displays. A new rumor circulating now claims that the next-generation device will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 Mobile Compute Platform. This chipset is not entirely new, and there are devices on the market already that use it including the Lenovo Yoga C630 and the Samsung Galaxy Book 2. Qualcomm was recently in the news for rolling out its Snapdragon 8cx chipset, and some might wonder why that won't be the SoC for the next-gen HoloLens. Word...
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The first-generation Microsoft HoloLens certainly hasn’t been heavily adopted by the general consumer but it has been big with developers. Google reportedly sees the segment as big enough that it is planning its own HoloLens competitor. A new rumor is floating around that Microsoft has a second-generation HoloLens in the works that is codenamed Sydney. The rumor claims that the new HoloLens is going to arrive in Q1 2019. This is interesting in part because Microsoft reportedly stopped developing the V2 of the HoloLens and was instead moving directly to a more groundbreaking "V3" device. It was said at the time that the new HoloLens would by an augmented reality device....
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Back in 2015, Microsoft announced the HoloLens to the world as an augmented reality (AR) headset that has mainly been used in industrial applications for training and design. Although it's doubtful that HoloLens is setting sales records for Microsoft, its impact in some critical industries has Google itching to provide its own competitive offering. According to WinFuture, the AR headset will be fully self-contained without needing to be tethered to a PC. The device will reportedly be powered by a Qualcomm processor, although it wouldn’t be a Snapdragon processor as we've see in standalone virtual reality (VR) headsets. Instead, the device is said to be power by...
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If you are of a certain age, hearing the theme music for Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 will send you into an instant state of nostalgia. Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. was an iconic masterpiece in gaming history and still delights players to this day. So, imagine our surprise to see the game’s first level recreated for a life-sized augmented reality gaming experience using Microsoft HoloLens. A HoloLens developer by the name of Abhishek Singh took his love of the game to the extreme by painstakingly recreating the objects, surrounding environment, enemies and power-ups from the game. To demonstrate his creation for an audience, Singh donned a Mario-style outfit (because, why not) and his HoloLens...
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Microsoft Research Unveils Compact Holographic AR Wide Angle Displays To Advance HoloLens Technology
Microsoft hopes to soon rival the holograms featured in sci-fi works like Star Trek and Star Wars. The company just unveiled compact holographic AR wide-angle displays that it anticipates will advance HoloLens technology. Microsoft has been experimenting with true, phase-only holograms that are created through the interference of laser light. Holograms are often noisy, monochromatic images with low resolution and contrast. Microsoft also remarked that digital holograms often require time-consuming, offline calculations. Its latest technology addresses both image quality and computation speed. Microsoft even contends that its latest real-time holograms can be generated at rates of 90-260 Hz with...
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If you own a smartphone running Windows 10 Mobile, you’re a small fish in a very big pond. The market is overwhelmingly dominated by smartphones running the Android operating system (81.7 percent), with iOS taking a distant second place (17.9 percent) according to Gartner. Smartphones running Microsoft’s mobile operating systems, however, have just a 0.3 percent share of the global market. How Microsoft handles its dire predicament in the smartphone game is a mystery to us at this point, but Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella gave Windows 10 Mobile holdouts some read meat yesterday, stating, “When you say ‘Will we make more phones?’, I'm sure we will make more phones, but they will not look like phones...
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Apple may look to the field of augmented reality to help set its upcoming iPhone 8 device apart from the competition. Perhaps just as importantly, infusing AR into the iPhone 8 would set its next flagship phone apart from previous iPhone models, a not unimportant goal after Apple faced criticism for the lack of innovation that went into designing the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. That is not to say the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are bad phones. Far from it—they're the best iPhones to date, and some would consider them the best smartphones available. But compared to previous models, Apple's latest generation iPhone devices are a bit boring. Sure, they're faster, take better photos, and sport some...
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Microsoft is taking a rather unusual path with its HoloLens augmented reality (AR) headset. The corporation is reportedly skipping the second version of the product and jumping right into development of what was to be the third generation model. The latest and greatest and HoloLens is expected to be available for consumers in 2019. At the moment, Microsoft appears to be the lone wolf in the AR field. Companies like Magic Leap have promised ground-breaking products, but have yet to deliver anything to their investors or potential consumers. Microsoft therefore does feel pressure to release a cheaper “gen two” product, but has decided to instead focus on how it can further innovate with...
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Microsoft is preparing to blast off to Andromeda. No, we’re not talking about Mass Effect: Andromeda, but the company’s efforts to overhaul the Windows 10 UI. Microsoft’s version of Andromeda (not to be confused with Google Andromeda) beefs up the desktop experience for OneCore (Windows 10) platforms such as Windows 10 Mobile and HoloLens. There are a several parts that make up Andromeda, but as MSPowerUser describes, Windows 10 Mobile users stand to gain the most from the initiative. For example, the current Continuum desktop experience with Windows 10 Mobile represents a reasonable facsimile of the Windows 10 desktop when using an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. But Andromeda will bring...
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Can HTC Vive and Microsoft HoloLens users ever truly share a virtual experience together? Are they doomed to stagger through their own lonely artificial reality worlds? Well, Google intern Drew Gottlieb has an answer. Gottlieb’s software allows Microsoft HoloLens users to peek into the virtual reality worlds of the HTC Vive. Gottlieb was inspired by a recent experience with a friend. He remarked, “A friend was recently painting a 3D submarine in Tilt Brush. 'Look at this periscope!' she said. I told her to look closer at it, and I leaned into my computer monitor to get a glimpse of what she made. We can do better than this. Why do I have to get up off the couch to see what my...
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It has now been two years since Microsoft first introduced HoloLens, a set of goggles that meshes the real world with virtual 3D elements. The technology is called augmented reality and outside of Pokemon Go and a handful of nifty demos, we've yet to see to how truly awesome the experience can be. Part of the reason is the hardware. Two years later, HoloLens is still a $3,000 development kit, though that won't be the case forever. Alex Kipman, the Brazilian-born Microsoft executive who invented HoloLens, talked with CNET about his creation and some of the future plans surrounding it. He said that HoloLens is now in nine different countries and is headed to China, which he finds "super interesting"...
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Do you really need a $3,000 device to keep track of your keys, your shoes, or to tell you if your milk jug is near empty? Well, if Microsoft has its way, you’ll be using devices like the HoloLens to keep track of everyday items that might otherwise be misplaced during your daily routines. A newly uncovered Microsoft patent filing describes a system in which an augmented reality (AR) headset is used to track items, be they at home or at work. In addition, the company believes that AR could be used to monitor the status of consumable goods like your orange juice or even eggs: For example, searching for misplaced car keys, wallets, mobile devices, and the like may cause people to lose productive...
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For those looking for a relatively inexpensive way to step into virtual reality (VR) technology with their Samsung smartphone, the $99 Gear VR is pretty safe buy. A new report confirms that Samsung is not only working on the successor to the Gear VR, but also a new augmented reality (AR) headset that will go toe-to-toe with Microsoft HoloLens. According to the Wearable Zone, the next generation Gear VR “will be presented in a short time,” perhaps as early as the Mobile World Congress, which will take place in February 2017. Samsung last refreshed the Gear VR back in August with the launch of the Galaxy Note 7, but was pretty much overshadowed due to that smartphone’s fiery reception.Samsung...
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Microsoft HoloLens is expanding outside of North America, as the augmented reality headset will be available for pre-order in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, France and Germany. Shipping will commence for these countries in November. Microsoft argued that the introduction of the HoloLens in these six new countries is a distinct milestone for their product. It remarked, “Each of these moments bring us closer to a more personal way of interacting with technology. They empower us to go further together, making it possible for people to communicate, create and collaborate more easily than ever before.” The Hololens, the world’s first and still only, self-contained holographic...
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One of the things that separates the HoloLens from the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive is that it doesn't need to be tethered to a powerful PC—the hardware bits required for augmented reality effects is all integrated into the eyeglasses. At the center of it all is a custom designed Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) that Microsoft's been pretty closed lip about. Until now, that is.The HPU is a co-processor built on a 28-nanometer manufacturing process by TSMC. It has two dozen Tensilica-brand digital signaling processing (DSP) cores with custom Tensilica Instruction Extension (TIE) instructions that allow new instructions to be added directly to the instruction set architecture (ISA). Each of those...
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