Exciting new tech from Microsoft

[Newt]

People using words incorrectly annoys me.

Same here. We are a minority, and Microsoft probably does not care.

[basic.syntax]

Nothing new here, I will let them have their marketing-speak, because the end result reported by journalists trying out the prototype, sounds quite good. The term "virtual reality" was used heavily, in the Wolfenstein 3D era.

It's SO "you are there" REAL, right?

[pxi]

Nothing new here, I will let them have their marketing-speak, because the end result reported by journalists trying out the prototype, sounds quite good. The term "virtual reality" was used heavily, in the Wolfenstein 3D era.

http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/467410-wolfenstein-3d-pc-98-screenshot-taking-on-two-maniacal-blue.png

It's SO "you are there" REAL, right?

The funny thing is that at the time, graphics like that really seemed more realistic then they do now. I remember playing Daytona USA in the arcades back in the mid 90's and thinking distinctly that 'realistic' graphics were finally here.

Of course, I've thought that several times with other games since.

It's the same with special fx in movies too.

[*Aqua*]

Microsoft demonstrated HoloLens. In case somebody didn't see that, look here:

Notice this could be used to build rockets for KSP!

I wonder what the target audience is. Only designers, technicans and engineers? Or do they intend to sell it for average consumers too?

[basic.syntax]

@pxi - agreed. I thought Wolf3D was amazing when it first came out, it pushed forward on the wave of the first-person-perspective revolution. When its in motion, your mind fills in the pixelated gaps. Tech has improved so much that there is much less to imagine now... to the point where I played Wolf 3D all the way through, but (based on reviews with the predominate color being 'red' everywhere) could not play the graphic bloodbath that is in Bioshock Infinite.

@*Aqua* - Microsoft would love to sell one to everyone on the planet. They have ideas for how it could help anyone, with "virtually" any task.

But I have a feeling it will be expensive, its going to be a full-blown computer, with fancy cameras and optics.

Go here for their colorful "dream BIGGER!" sales pitch and glossy video: http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us?ocid=MSCOM_HoloLensGlobe

I love this dream... fingers crossed!

[Camacha]

Microsoft demonstrated HoloLens. In case somebody didn't see that, look here:

Notice this could be used to build rockets for KSP!

I wonder what the target audience is. Only designers, technicans and engineers? Or do they intend to sell it for average consumers too?

To be honest, as a professional, this excites me a lot. People react completely different to a good plan on paper than to a graphic representation of even a worse plan. The former is always hard to convey, while the latter speaks for itself. People just dig pretty pictures. It makes understanding easy. I have spent time to figure out how to use augmented reality via tablets to present products to clients, but if Microsoft even makes this half as good as promised, the tablet version is going to look very silly and outdated. With a little effort and polish you can show people what you want right to do right before their eyes. Bring some goggles, apply to client and you are off. It might work wonders for the design process itself too. Seeing things in a natural and tangible way instead of dealing with an abstraction could really help the process along.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Camacha

[vger]

That's very slick. Looks like they are trying to beat Google Glass. When they combine the display with Kinect sensor tech, they can know where your hands are. Next, all software you want to use with it, needs to be hand-wave enabled

I wouldn't say this is in competition with Google Glass at all. Google Glass is basically a hands-free cellphone. Unless I've missed something, it was never meant to be a gaming platform, or anything more advanced than that. Microsoft Lens obviously CAN do those things, but I certainly don't think that's its most intriguing feature.

[J.Random]

I am very sceptical, both for Win10 and Hololens.

Win10: the "OS as a Service" sounds shady. The amount of data that Microsoft may/will suck out of users is huge, and it has a horrible potential. Public cloud services integration, XB Live integration, "Cortana"... If I will be able to control it, to turn it off and uninstall all of these components, if I may remain to be an owner of my own PC - I'm OK with it. But I seriously doubt it.

Hololens: I doubt it works in a way it was presented, and even if it does, what's the resolution? What's the battery life? How does it dissipate heat? Are there any health risks? This thing needs some attention from ophthalmologists, that's for sure.

[basic.syntax]

I am very sceptical, both for Win10 and Hololens.

Win10: the "OS as a Service" sounds shady. The amount of data that Microsoft may/will suck out of users is huge, and it has a horrible potential. Public cloud services integration, XB Live integration, "Cortana"... If I will be able to control it, to turn it off and uninstall all of these components...

Similar concerns were argued about Win8. They push using their online account for OS login during setup, which enables all kinds of cool app integration... and tracking scenarios, but it IS possible to use Win8 with a local account name and password. I did so, which cut me off from easy access to various free accessories from the Windows Store, which prefers their online account. I think I put the one I do have, in just once, so I could more easily get the 8.1 update. They've never bugged me to buy stuff But I think that's a fair price for "Free" - they should be able to do some marketing, at you. My experience has been good, so far.

[pincushionman]

...What does any of this have to do with holography?

Holography seems to be used too generally...

People using words incorrectly annoys me.

Agreed. It's augmented reality. Are our attention spans so short that that phrase has already become boring to us?

[*Aqua*]

Hololens: I doubt it works in a way it was presented, and even if it does, what's the resolution? What's the battery life? How does it dissipate heat? Are there any health risks? This thing needs some attention from ophthalmologists, that's for sure.

Specifications are unknown. But HoloLens is supposed to come out at the Windows 10 release. That's around autumn IRC. We will get a lot more information in the coming months.

And you can be sure that Microsoft hired some specialists who make sure that their device will not toast your eyes or brain.

Agreed. It's augmented reality. Are our attention spans so short that that phrase has already become boring to us?

Enlighten us!

What's the definition of holograms?

Holography is a technique which enables three-dimensional images (holograms) to be made. It involves the use of a laser, interference, diffraction, light intensity recording and suitable illumination of the recording. The image changes as the position and orientation of the viewing system changes in exactly the same way as if the object were still present, thus making the image appear three-dimensional.

So a hologram is a 3D image, made out of light. There is no restriction that forbids special googles.

And what's the definition of augumented reality?

Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. [...] As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality. [...] Augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements [...] With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally manipulable. Artificial information about the environment and its objects can be overlaid on the real world.

Especially the last sentence is important. In a nutshell: AR adds context-dependent media and information to real life objects to a user's perception which he can manipulate somehow.

From that definitions we can conclude that the HoloLens enables AR with the use of holograms.

[MartGonzo]

Apologies for digging up a slightly old thread but I came across an interesting and somewhat related article, solid holograms

http://nextshark.com/a-uk-company-has-figured-out-how-to-make-holograms-solid/

[K^2]

I hope this misnomer doesn't stick. But haptic feedback for projected images is a cool idea.

[agentKmurph]

That changes little if you did not really try, then years count for nothing That is exactly what happened in most cases - people heard it was bad, expected it to be bad, ran into new things and judged them bad instead of trying to work them out and that was it for Windows 8.

Especially for power users it is a very sleek OS. I seriously think it is not only Microsoft's best OS, but very well might be the best OS that is currently out there. Productivity is a breeze. If you know what you are doing everything is right at your fingertips.

Windows 8? Power users?

Windows 8 was meant to be a "casual" platform hence why it features basically a tablet interface. I mean one could argue that "power user" implies "difficult to use" in which case Windows 8 might be more of a power user platform than I thought but still I prefer to do my hard drive formatting, file servers, development, and other not-everyday-user stuff on just about any platform BUT Windows 8.

Lets separate your PC's settings into three different locations. Lets make it so it doesn't shut down fully by default. Lets make it so you have two different taskbars. Lets make an interface optimized ONLY for touch screens. These are the big reasons I can't stand to do anything really "computery" with Windows 8. Desktops / classic laptops with Windows 8 make me cringe.

Nice try, but I've been building computers longer than most users of this forum has been alive. The UI sucks for Metro. Charms, slide this way, move a mouse to a corner for this, move to another corner for this. It's horrible. The only nice thing about it was that on the metro screen I could start typing something and the options would show up. Other than that, Metro is HORRIBLE for a work environment, and multitasking.

Okay this is going to sound really wierd but I am now going to defend the Windows 8 interface. When I use Windows 8 on my tablet for taking notes, web surfing, Xbox Video, Music, Maps, and other more application oriented tasks, I actually quite like it. I don't really care where settings are, or that that it does a hybrid shutdown so I can resume work faster, or how I have two taskbards because I really only use one when I am tablet mode. The charms offer great multimedia interconnectivity without the BS of past Windows distributions. The interface works very well for certain things and clearly those things are not what you do.

Basically that makes it ill-suited to what you do but not inherently "horrible."

I am very sceptical, both for Win10 and Hololens.

Win10: the "OS as a Service" sounds shady. The amount of data that Microsoft may/will suck out of users is huge, and it has a horrible potential. Public cloud services integration, XB Live integration, "Cortana"... If I will be able to control it, to turn it off and uninstall all of these components, if I may remain to be an owner of my own PC - I'm OK with it. But I seriously doubt it.

Just got the Windows 10 Tech Preview running in a VM on my Linux box. The first thing it did when I signed into my Microsoft account was load my tablet's desktop, login screen, theme colors, and photo library. I was VERY unnerved by this. I knew MS accounts were more integrated and universal but I never really thought about how much I was sharing until then. How naive of me in hindsight.

I totally agree that the potential for constant surveillence is there. In fact, I would actually go as far as to say at somewhat of a risk that you have every right to gut those features despite what the EULA says. My philosophy of computers is very much at odds with most of the industry at the moment, part of why I my major in college right now is computer engineering.

After using it for over a year, I can confirm that the Windows 8 user interface is crap. Its usability is all over the place and the concept of a schizophrenic UI was, by pretty much everybody's standards, a bad idea to begin with. As a result, it was a failure in terms of sales, especially in the Enterprise market where nobody has any use of with touch screens.

The underlying OS is great though, probably the best version of Windows for years, but most people were (quite rightly) put off by the broken UI.

Refer to above comments on the UI.

As for the second part of your comment, THANK YOU SO MUCH! Someone finally understands computer architecture and the that operating system is different from the interface

To clarify, the way most people think about Windows 8 isn't really what an operating system is. An OS is just a hardware access and memory management program called a kernel. The UI or "shell" is something totally different; its the part people actually see and interact with. Its actually a program run by the operating system.

Windows 8 kernel is actually really fantastic. It has less overhead than the Windows 7 kernel, performs better on similar hardware, and is so far the most stable version I've used yet. Uh that beging said, RUN LINUX! Does better on all fronts, except perhaps stability (but then again if Linux crashes its probably your fault because you did something stupid)

Wow, we were talking about Holo lens originally right? Yeah, about that. Love it. Want to get my hands on one. I think for once in Microsoft's history since the days when they migrated out of DOS and 3.1, they are doing something that is truly unique and industry defining.

The Windows 10 UI is much better than Windows 8 for mouse-keyboard by the way.