
Hands-On with Microsoft's New Holographic Goggles - vesinisa
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/microsoft-hands-on
======
AndrewKemendo
I think Microsoft re-branding Augmented reality as "holographic" is hugely
impactful and, with the new wave of AR and CV products that are coming onto
the market [1] might be the thing that makes people take it seriously.

It's just so much easier to explain to people what it is if you say
Holographic vs Augmented Reality - even though it is technically wrong. Kudos
to MSFT for making that leap.

[1] Shameless plug for ([http://www.visidraft.com](http://www.visidraft.com)),
my AR CAD company.

~~~
Coincoin
From their marketing material, they pretend they figured a way to fake depth.
If true, that would be a huge step compared to classic stereoscopic
technologies or other cumbersome devices.

However, I doubt this is the case, else they wouldn't just slap this
announcement at the end of a boring Windows 10 presentation. I mean, all I
could remember about this presentation was: "Windows 10. Windows 10. Windows
10. Windows 10. Windows 10. Windows 10. Windows 10 with HOLOGRAMS using
Windows 10! Windows 10. Windows 10. Windows 10."

~~~
dedward
No need to fake it... if you can get the retinal projection accurate enough,
with fast enough eye tracking, the depth is as real as anything else you'll
see in real life...the goal would be to have it feel completely natural.

~~~
walod
I really hope they get the accurate tracking and depth and getting objects to
"stick" where they belong in 3d space correctly, without moving out of place
or floating in a wrong way, with quick head movement. If they can do that,
most of the battle is won and it will be amazing.

Edit: although, of course they'll need some intelligence on the surroundings
to identify surfaces and stuff. But imagine like re-decorating your work room,
adding scifi textures or something, and maybe pipes or whatever ;p

~~~
rasz_pl
They didnt, otherwise they would show you eye view instead of third person
impression of what its supposed to look like to the user.

Most likely it suffers the same shaky snap laggy tracking like every other AR
setup.

~~~
UberMouse
But they showed footage "through the eyes of the wearer" and they let press
have a hands on demonstration, so it's not like they can really fake anything.

I did see a tiny bit of judder in the footage that was supposed to be exactly
what the person wearing the glasses would see, but it was hard to tell.

~~~
mnem
In the video I saw at the conference presentation, the "holograms" were always
in front of the person's appendages, obscuring things:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6sL_5Wgvrg&spfreload=10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6sL_5Wgvrg&spfreload=10)

------
discardorama
I tuned out when I read this: "Sensors flood the device with terabytes of data
every second, all managed with an onboard CPU, GPU and first-of-its-kind HPU
(holographic processing unit)."

I'm sorry, but there is _no_ wearable device which can handle terabytes of
data per second. Heck, my brand new Haswell has a peak memory bandwidth of
17GB/s; even to the L1 cache, its theoretical max is 700GB/s.

This sounds like a puff PR piece.

~~~
roywiggins
For that matter, what sensor can produce terabytes of data per second?

~~~
tacon
The CERN Large Hadron Collider sensors[0]

(not head-mounted!)

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider)

~~~
extropy
Nope, that's 25 petabytes per year - under 1 gigabyte per second.

~~~
jonknee
It's not constantly producing data though.

------
gavanwoolery
Video of it in action here (?):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIiTfdqCUIY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIiTfdqCUIY)

~~~
rndn
Here is the product website with three promo videos on it:

[http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-
us](http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us)

~~~
nostromo
Reminds me of Google Glass's concept video:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R1snVxGNVs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R1snVxGNVs)

I think Google over-promised initially which lead to many being underwhelmed
with Glass. I hope Microsoft isn't making the same mistake here.

~~~
yohui
A better comparison would be Microsoft's demos for Project Natal, which
eventually became Kinect:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5__fZ3GsW8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5__fZ3GsW8)

There was also the other Kinect demo that featured Milo, but Molyneux probably
deserves the blame for that infamous piece of hype:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDvHlwNvXaM#t=10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDvHlwNvXaM#t=10)

I definitely want HoloLens to be real, too, but to avoid heartbreak I'll
temper my hopes until more reports come in. Or, even better, a firsthand
experience.

~~~
tgb
I've never used a Kinect; how does the promo video live up to reality? It's
looks almost identical to what I still assume Kinect is like, minus perhaps
some of the highest fidelity parts like the skateboarding and soccer which I
imagine have been attempted but turn out too clunky to be worthwhile. Am I
wrong?

------
zaroth
I'm so excited to see this. I cannot wait to try one of these on for the first
time. I'm going to bet writing apps for this kit will be a _lot of fun_.

And all the C# .NET developers can say again, _thank you Microsoft_ since they
have committed to one platform, one store, all device types. I think it will
be a while yet before there are thousands of developers working on this, but
it will grow exponentially for a while.

If this is comfortable for extended wear, it's just going to further increase
the value of remote workers. You can't beat time zones, but for everything
else, there's holograms.

I really, really want to understand how high fidelity this is.

One point is we aren't seeing it used for video conferencing between two
people each wearing a band. Probably because face-on you look pretty silly in
it. So it's not quite a natural way to meet people. Just yet. I think it has
world changing potential.

But in 2016 or whenever, this will not be selling for $499 or $899, it's more
like $3299 I would guess. And really, that's more like the price level we
expect for a very high quality gear. Actually, you could realistically go
upward of $10k if the quality truly reflects that price.

So of course the next thing I did was check MSFT stock price. $382 billion
market cap. This is a $100 billion idea, might be a good time to get back in.
I guarantee you, the market has not fully priced in holograms. Just saying it,
you know it's true. For now I will choose to believe the hype, because
eventually, absolutely, this is all _possible_.

~~~
CmonDev
_" the market has not fully priced in holograms"_

Did you factor in the potential disruption by Magic Leap? Retinal projection
could be a better bet long-term.

~~~
zaroth
"Developer, developers, developers."

But imagine picking up an original iPhone today and comparing it to v6. Now
imagine HoloLens going through that refinement process.

If the platform is as powerful as it sounds, and you can openly develop
software which effectively leverages that platform, how is that not awesome?

I mean, it's an entirely new hardware form factor that we all get to hack on
and play with, and it's not a sure thing, but if it goes well, it could become
mainstream and open an entirely new era of computing.

That's the vision anyway... like I said, I'll choose to believe the hype
because it's more fun that way.

Thinking about the design a bit, it's interesting all the compute is on the
band, and not broken out to a separate box communicating over wireless. They
mention fans blowing hot air away from your head, and then add in the battery
too... how long can it run?

I think their use cases are a little weak. There are much more impressive
things you could do with this kit.

Also, what does it look like in a dark room?

------
baby
It was demoed just right now here:
[http://news.microsoft.com/windows10story/](http://news.microsoft.com/windows10story/)

It looks really really really impressive! It's a see through pair of glasses
so not like Occulus and they said they invented a new technology: HPU. The
glasses will have their own GPU, CPU and HPU and will be wireless.

~~~
KeytarHero
HPU isn't really much of a "new technology". It's just a custom coprocessor,
not all that different from the motion coprocessor in the iPhone (except
designed for video processing, so presumably a lot more powerful).

~~~
trsohmers
Except Apple's motion coprocessor is just an ARM Cortex M3 microcontroller...

------
aquark
It looks impressive, but it would help to be able to tell the hype from
reality:

"Sensors flood the device with terabytes of data every second" ... somehow I
doubt the aggregate bandwidth of the device is > 1TB\s

Makes it harder to know how much of the rest of the 'explanations' are
accurate.

~~~
nsxwolf
Could the sensors be indeed flooding the device with terabytes of data, but
the device can only sample that data at a more reasonable rate?

~~~
semi-extrinsic
Well, from that perspective, an analog temperature sensor is flooding your ADC
with infinite GB/s.

For further comparison: the fastest CPUs you can get nowadays have an
aggregated memory bandwidth of ~ 90 GB/s using four lanes.

~~~
8note
if you have enough pins, a custom asic can do just about whatever you want.
the data flowing into the HPU is likely huge, but it is processed down into
something the CPU can deal with.

~~~
semi-extrinsic
Yeah, well, 4x DDR4 DIMMs have 4x288 = 1152 pins. If you want to be two orders
of magnitude faster than that, you're talking on the order of 100 000 pins,
which is just absurd.

------
mortenjorck
So many questions. I can understand light reflecting into the eye from a
microdisplay (using the same principle as a car HUD), but are they actually
creating _opaque_ imagery as well? How is that physically possible?

Then there's 3D spatial interaction: In my experience with Leap Motion,
Kinect, and other competing tech, the level of accuracy still limits
interactions to broad gestures. If they've made a big enough leap in this
domain to enable precise object manipulation, that's a major achievement on
its own.

~~~
sbarre
The WIRED article seems to imply that this device has outwardly-facing cameras
that use Kinect-like technology to track the operator's hands, which is
probably how they are able to let you interact with the projections without
using some kind of wand or controller.

I could see some "high-precision" gloves being an optional accessory for this
that would include some kind of tracker markings to allow even more precise
controls (maybe for medical applications or something)

~~~
TheCraiggers
I would almost imagine gloves like this would be a requirement for precise
control. The Kinect had seemingly pretty decent limb sensing from the few
minutes I played with it (it was able to accurately model the bones in my
fingers moving). However, it had an advantage in that it was a few feet away,
viewing you straight-on.

This device will be looking nearly straight down instead, and seems to me that
your limbs & fingers will often occlude what is behind them. I doubt the twin
cameras used to sense depth would be far enough apart to always see your
fingers behind your other arm, for example.

~~~
doorhammer
If you want to see similar technology that's being used now, check out the
Leap Motion being used with the Oculus Rift. They mount it on the front. I've
personally only got experience with the rift (I have a DK2), but I've heard
good things.

I think Oculus has it right, though, in that any HMD that does positional
tracking needs super low latency to feel natural. Should be a little less
problematic since the whole world wouldn't lag, but I'd be disappointed if the
virtual overlay had perceptible lag after using some of the better experiences
on the rift.

------
mnglkhn2
Now it makes sense that Google just announced that they're stopping Glass from
being sold retail. They did not want to have their device compared to the new
product from MS. Actually I see this new device as more prone to success than
the Glass. These devices are competing for the same markets: healthcare,
education and entertainment. And here Glass is somewhat underpowered.

~~~
psbp
Google's response would presumably be their partnership with Magic Leap.

~~~
higherpurpose
"holographic", "cinematic reality" \- all just words used to describe
augmented reality.

------
brosky117
What are your thoughts about this? I'll tell you mine.

I just watched Google slowly, painfully, realize that Google Glass isn't
commercially viable (in it's current form and to the general public). I can't
help but feel that this is a larger, albeit more immersive, version of Google
Glass.

I only make this point in regards to any plans for a sci-fi, everyday wearable
HUD. There is obviously a great demand for this kind of immersion within the
gaming community (although I would argue that Oculus will have market control
for the forseeable future).

My opinion is that the kind of augmented reality that we all dream of, that
sort of matrix-like constant data download, won't become a reality until
someone figures out how to take it (visibly) out of human interaction, i.e.
with smart contacts, etc. The current tech is just too intrusive in normal
human interaction. My understanding is that this kind of tech is still a long
way off.

I'd love to be wrong though!

~~~
dewiz
What I find interesting is Microsoft launching this technology just after
Google dropped it. I think the focus on business is the right way to go in
this case, not everything can start from the consumer, e.g. look at how PC
started from a geeky thing for scientists and is now in our pockets and
wrists.

~~~
guardian5x
I didn't know Google Glass combined a 3D Camera with full augmented reality
vision.

------
benmorris
Well I'm impressed. I wasn't initially in the stock promo videos but once she
put the actual device on and you could see the quality of the hologram, the
spatial tracking, etc, pretty impressive. We're also not getting a feel for
the sound system built into it. They mentioned in the demo the sound is also
projected virtually from where the hologram is located.

I'm curious what the price tag will be? Battery life?

~~~
devindotcom
Apparently there will be both consumer and enterprise pricing, whatever that
means. I'm guessing $500 to start at consumer level with lower resolution,
less battery life, etc. Twice that for Holo Pro.

Sound is easy enough - a pair of decent headphones can produce fairly decent
3D sound, and combined with the illusion of depth provided to your visual
system, I suspect it will be extremely convincing.

~~~
hirsin
I'd assume for sound that it doesn't use headphones so much as bone conduction
so that it doesn't get in the way of natural sounds. From the design, it seems
that there's some kind of device-skull contact most of the way around.

------
fenaer
What sort of use case is this for? The demos talked about in the article seem
rather specific. I don't see how this will appeal to mass consumers.

~~~
josephpmay
Ten years ago, I would have said the same thing about a consumer smartphone.

~~~
pconner
Both portable cell phones and PDAs existed 10 years ago. The smartphone was a
logical extension of those paradigms. AR Glasses (for lack of a better term)
are still very young.

------
beloch
VR is going to be a real game-changer for entertainment, but it's AR that's
going to change how we work and live our everyday lives. The key to making VR
work is reducing lag, but this is even more important for AR, which carries
additional complexity in sensing and blending the virtual with the real. The
difficulty of sensing and correctly modelling the real world in real-time is
immense. There aren't many companies I'd believe could make the leap directly
to functional, useful AR, but MS's experience in gaming, with the Kinect,
gives them a huge head-start. This could be the real deal!

~~~
drzaiusapelord
>VR is going to be a real game-changer for entertainment

I think the jury is still very much out on this. Personally, I hate VR. Its
claustrophobic, asocial, dizzying, and I do not like the idea of giving
software my entire field of view either. Cheap HMDs are going to be nice, but
I don't know how well they're going to do outside the hardcore gamer
demographic. I can't imagine watching a movie with friends with each of us
wearing these things or even playing a console game with the other players in
the room.

AR gaming, on the other hand, isn't something that gets much press, but I can
really see some novel uses. Imagine playing something like "Gone Home" but in
your home. Clues hidden in your real-life closets, drawers, etc. Or peering
into the mirror in your bathroom and seeing the main characters face instead
of yours. Or something in the background that's not really there.

~~~
wlesieutre
I wouldn't watch a movie in the same room as friends with a HMD, but I could
watch a movie with someone in a "virtual theater" when they're 1000 miles
away.

I don't think we should write it off so quickly; it's like saying "Text
messages are pointless, they don't carry inflections and emotion like phone
calls. I can't see myself texting anyone." There are things you can do in real
life but not in VR and there are things you can do with VR that you can't do
in real life.

------
mentos
What is the killer app that will get people to go out and buy these? I don't
think Holo Studio is it.

Where is your imagination racing to?

~~~
jwcooper
Depending on the resolution, it could replace your monitors at work (assuming
the headset is light, comfortable, etc). Using a wireless keyboard and mouse,
you'd have your computer with you anywhere in the home or office.

As a developer, having a wall of holographic desktop screen space in front of
me would be amazing. My home office would look much better too!

I have no idea how far away this version of HoloLens is from that reality
though.

~~~
mentos
I think the 'depending on the resolution' is key. Its not really a matter of
software to me, its whether or not the hardware can deliver the necessary
resolution to replace a monitor that's typically 1.5ft from your face. If you
can break the dam by executing on the hardware the software will flow. (I
wonder how Hololens compares to Magic Leap's technology.)

I think it would be very cool to just have 3 tripods on your desk (a ball on a
stick) that represent 3 screen spaces. You could reach out and move them
around, telescope them up and down in the physical world and the headset could
use them for triangulation to render an accurate monitor on each. You'd still
have a keyboard and mouse in the first iteration and then slowly overtime give
way to other forms of input.

~~~
dedward
Thinking about how our eyes really work - you don't need the same resolution.
You only need proper eye tracking and the right amount of resolution in the
center of your vision (or wherever). You only need it to render what you are
looking at - I'm sitting about 2 feet away from a 27 inch screen.... I'm never
looking at the entire thing in such a way that I need all that detail at every
point. Sure, I need it to be there when my eyes dart around... but as long as
that's done, it will look just as real.

Given something more adaptive, there's no reason you couldn't have a ginormous
holographic wraparound workspace... or whatever your imagination can come up
with.

~~~
deagle50
Great point, MS have been working on Foviated rendering for a long time.

~~~
jongalloway2
I hadn't heard of that - here's a Microsoft Research video:
[http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/dl.aspx?id=173013](http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/dl.aspx?id=173013)

Sadly the video player is horrible, and I didn't see this video on YouTube.

------
Animats
Is it really "holographic", or just stereoscopic?

~~~
carapace
It works by stereoscopy. There maybe something "holographic" in the math used
to compute what to show each eye, but there is no projection of light into
space to form holographic images that people can walk around.

~~~
jameshart
Nor is there with holograms. Holography requires creation of light fields from
a flat surface - each point on the surface reflects a different amount of
light depending on what angle it is viewed from, exactly mimicking the way
light would pass through that plane if an object were there. No 'projection of
light into space' is involved.

Since images are formed on your retina by focusing real lightfields, a true
holographic display which produced a complete lightfield would be much more
realistic and comfortable to view than a flat stereoscopic image is.

~~~
carapace
I don't know enough about holography to agree or disagree, I was under the
impression that the "lightfield" has a 3D structure that e.g. the light coming
from a movie screen doesn't.

In any event I don't think that the "holographic" goggles are actually
projecting a complete lightfield. I'm pretty sure they just shine two more-or-
less normal images into your eyes although the math to compute those images
might, uh, be holographic.

~~~
sp332
You can capture a lightfield using a 2d sensor
[https://www.lytro.com/](https://www.lytro.com/) It's like the way your eye
can re-focus on different distances without moving. That's something you can't
do with MS's new tech - everything in the image will be in focus at the same
distance, even if your eyes are getting different images.

------
calgoo
I just finished reading Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End [1], and then this comes
out!! I want it now!!! This is so the way to go. If you are a SciFi fan, you
have probably heard of Vernor's books, if not, I really recommend them. They
have actually given me a brighter outlook on the future of humanity :) Apart
from Rainbows End, check out Zones of Thought[2] if you want a outlook at what
space travel could become in the future.

Back to the AR subject, I much prefer AR over true matrix style VR. Let us
stay in the real world, move about the real world, extend it with the virtual.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Rainbows-End-Vernor-
Vinge/dp/081253636...](http://www.amazon.com/Rainbows-End-Vernor-
Vinge/dp/0812536363) [2] [http://www.amazon.com/A-Deepness-Sky-Zones-
Thought/dp/081253...](http://www.amazon.com/A-Deepness-Sky-Zones-
Thought/dp/0812536355/ref=pd_cp_b_0)

[Edit: Grammar]

------
plingamp
How is this different than the Meta AR glasses? I have a pair, and I think
they did a great job with the display and interaction.

~~~
angersock
Hey, did those end up being any good?

I wanted to buy some to develop on, but they didn't really seem to have their
act together.

~~~
sand500
I tried some out at a hackathon and they look cool, the technology still has a
long way to go. The resolution and display quality is pretty shitty.

------
mynameisvlad
The craziest part about this is that they were embargoed for __four __months.

~~~
vxNsr
Yeah, I'd guess that someone leaked to wired accidentally or on purpose (but
the person wasn't cleared to leak) and to keep any info from getting out they
gave Wired an exclusive on condition that Wired keep it's mouth shut until
today.

~~~
arcticfox
It was almost certainly just an embargo in exchange for exclusivity until
launch.

------
BobMarz
Skeuomorphic UI design makes a comeback ;) Ironic that after they push for
flat UI that this device is going back to 3-D UI (obviously 3-D is the whole
point). It might look bad if light sources of the rendered objects are not
consistent with your surroundings.

------
oliyoung
It makes the Minecraft purchase make a whole lot more sense now.

I mean, it made immediate sense it's a cash cow, but long-term Minecraft is
perfect, it's simple, easy, forgiving and fun - a perfect entrance into VR/AR

------
taeric
Why do I get the feeling this is more akin to the trailer to a movie. One that
I really really want to like. And with decent editing to fit in a small demo
looks bloody awesome. But on arrival will mostly just be boring.

I also feel that the videos give a very misleading sense of what it will look
like to see someone using something like this. Unless, I suppose, they have
worked out the "shared" experience would be like. (That is, two of these in
the same room.)

------
Lich
[http://qz.com/330921/this-is-the-difference-between-
microsof...](http://qz.com/330921/this-is-the-difference-between-microsoft-
and-apple/)

More closeup picture of the device in that link. There's some sort of
camera/light emitter above the left and right eyes. Two panes, and some sort
of smaller HUD in front of the right (and left?) eyes, but it actually might
be a part of the second glass pane.

------
DigitalSea
Wow. This looks seriously impressive and based on everything we know so far,
it looks far better than Oculus Rift and Sony's Project Morpheus. I can't
really afford such purchases at the moment because of an upcoming wedding, but
I am definitely going to get one of these when they become available.
Seriously, look at that Minecraft demo, impressive.

Looks like Microsoft has just upped the virtual reality goggles race. My mind
is racing with excitement over all of the applications this could serve. The
tech behind how these glasses actually work is also pretty clever, I don't
entirely understand it, but it seems to be more than just a OLED diplay,
lenses and a driver like existing solutions. I legitimately feel more excited
for this than I have been for Oculus and Morpheus.

Another little clever thing Microsoft have done here is calling it a
holographic headset, not a VR headet. The different wording not only separates
Microsoft from other competitors refering to their headsets as virtual reality
headsets but it also makes much more sense (from a technical and branding
perspective).

------
MrDom
This makes me want to get a dev kit and create a prank exploit that puts a 3d
clippy in the corner of your view that you can't get rid of. :D

------
sz4kerto
Key feature: see-through glasses. The eye strain was a major problem with
Google Glass, that's not present here.

~~~
_random_
Yes, and Oculus Rift is now less relevant as well (good timing for selling it
to Facebook). Why buy a dedicated heavy wired non-see-throw helmet? To shit
yourself when someone is tapping your shoulder?

~~~
watty
To get fully immersed in another world. For example, playing games or watching
a movie. I go to an IMAX theatre because it engulfs my senses, audio all
around me, most of my field of view watching the screen. If the screen were
translucent it simply wouldn't be the same.

This will no doubt have some incredible applications, most of which augment
reality. Not quite the same goal as Occulus.

~~~
publicfig
Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't Microsoft just release (or ship this
product with) a sort of blinder to put around these glasses to make the
dedicated sight come from the glasses themselves while darkening everything
else?

~~~
bentcorner
Certainly possible. It'll be interesting to see how feasible it is for these
goggles to render entire 3d worlds in this scenario, since normally they'd be
rendering a small fraction of the space you're in.

------
SiVal
Is the plan that you develop apps for this thing using C# (or any .Net
language) plus special libraries? Or will the somewhat real-time nature of 3D
imagery integrated with the real world using a lightweight mobile device
require something closer to the metal?

~~~
zaroth
"Developers can target all these device types, with one platform and one
store. And stay tuned later while our device types expand." They will not
abandon that mission, they just committed to it! (video 3:00)

------
alexvr
Someday there could be gloves that allow you to feel these "holograms" using
cables that prevent your fingers from moving up/down, etc.

I also think this could be a short-term way to introduce full-body physical
constraints in full-on virtual reality. (In the more distant future, we will
probably know how to stimulate the brain directly to produce these
sensations.) I envision a full-body suit (fitted to the user with near
perfection) with a bunch of cables going in every direction. So if you try to
push a virtual wall, the proper cables will be set to resist. Doesn't seem
very practical, but the glove version might be.

------
bd
Here is fresh "back-to-reality" report from Engadget journalist who just tried
working HoloLens device prototype (at the same event where it was announced):

\---------------

 _" Does it work? Yes, it works. Is it any good? That's a much harder question
to answer."_

 _" I say this in the nicest way possible: Using Microsoft HoloLens kinda
stinks. In its current form, it feels like someone is tightening your head
into a vice. The model being shown today on Microsoft's Redmond, Washington,
campus isn't what you saw onstage, but a development kit. The demos begin by
lowering a tethered, relatively small, rectangular computer over your head,
which hangs around your neck by sling."_

 _" You can literally feel the heat coming off the computer's fans, which face
upward. It feels like you're wearing a computer around your neck, because you
are."_

There doesn't seem to be full hand tracking (as suggested by the demo on
stage). Instead it uses something they call AirTap which uses gaze for
pointing and hand only for clicking:

 _" By looking at any of them and using "AirTap" (hold up your hand in front
of your eyes, tap with your pointer finger), I could select any contact to
call."_

 _" While the effects of interaction were impressive, the actual interaction
was less so. Rather than picking up a sheep with my hand by literally just
grabbing it with my actual hand, my only means of interaction were voice
(pickaxe! redstone torch! etc.) and the aforementioned "AirTap."_

Overall impression is kinda mixed (especially compared to how well were
received even very crude Oculus Rift early prototypes):

 _" HoloLens is clearly very early, and kinda sucks right now. It's
uncomfortable. It's cumbersome. It looks and feels like a piece of hardware
that's far from final."_

 _" Is it bad? No. Lord no. Stop it. It's very impressive, but it's a brand
new entry in a market that basically doesn't exist yet."_

\---------------

[http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/21/microsoft-hololens-
hands-...](http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/21/microsoft-hololens-hands-on/)

\---------------

Given Engadget description of the actual device, here is a screenshot from
Microsoft promotional video that probably captured it:

[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B76axLVIUAA4egZ.png:large](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B76axLVIUAA4egZ.png:large)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPmAwvmOXKM&t=12m21s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPmAwvmOXKM&t=12m21s)

\---------------

Another journalist impressions (Andy McNamara from Game Informer):

 _" Important first impression. In the videos I thought it filled your entire
field of view, but it's more like a screen floating in space."_

 _" I'd say it's like a 16x9-ish monitor floating about 7 to 8 inches just in
front of your face."_

[https://twitter.com/GI_AndyMc/status/558039828328357888](https://twitter.com/GI_AndyMc/status/558039828328357888)

\---------------

Gizmodo report was more enthusiastic, especially about ability of display to
hide real view, though noted "tiny" field-of-view:

 _" It's one of the most amazing and tantalizing experiences I've ever had
with a piece of technology."_

 _" It's not like the Oculus Rift, where you're totally immersed in a virtual
world practically anywhere you look. The current Hololens field of view is
TINY! I wasn't even impressed at first. All that weight for this? But that's
when I noticed that I wasn't just looking at some ghostly transparent
representation of Mars superimposed on my vision. I was standing in a room
filled with objects. Posters covering the walls. And yet somehow—without
blocking my vision—the Hololens was making those objects almost totally
invisible."_

[http://gizmodo.com/project-hololens-hands-on-incredible-
amaz...](http://gizmodo.com/project-hololens-hands-on-incredible-amazing-
prototy-1680934585)

\---------------

Verge folks also liked it:

 _"... you look down at the coffee table and there's a castle sitting right on
the damn thing. It's not shimmery, but it's not quite real, either. It's just
sitting there, perfectly flat on the table, reacting in space to your head
movements. It's nearly as lifelike as the actual table, and there's no lag at
all. The castle is there. It's simply magic."_

[http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/21/7868251/microsoft-
hololens...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/21/7868251/microsoft-hololens-
hologram-hands-on-experience)

~~~
shmed
>There doesn't seem to be full hand tracking (as suggested by the demo on
stage)

The demo on stage clearly mentioned that you used your gaze to select and then
tapped with your finger. Which is also exactly what we saw the lady on stage
doing.

------
kh_hk
Promotional videos look impressive. The demo, thought, not so much: gesturing
seemed awkward, clicking in the air is not an interface. I guess this could
easily be improved using haptic feedback.

Of course, the naysayer in me is just thinking this is a PR move to tell
investors and stakeholders everything is alright and that MS got their backs
covered by stepping into the future. Which is not that unusual, Google and
Amazon are doing it too.

------
calebm
This looks just like Magic Leap.

~~~
arcticfox
Except Magic Leap is only a concept video right now, publicly at least. This
is a product ready enough for reporters to try.

------
pkaye
Kind of explains why they bought Mojang for Minecraft!

------
marknutter
It was a bit irritating to see the kid running up to the model of the rocket
ship with excitement and _no goggles on_. Why lie and make it seem like you'll
be able to see these "holograms" without the goggles on? Everyone walking
around with these big ski goggles strapped to their head seems worse than
Google Glass, which is awkward enough as it is.

~~~
personlurking
I understood from the video that it had been 3D-printed

------
uchooseyourself
This has the potential of making being rich kind of...obsolete.

Think of it like this: can't afford an iphone? There's a Holographic iPhone
you can download. Can't afford a fancy big screen TV, there are thousands out
there you can download, etc.

This will all depend on the quality / ease of use of Holographic Windows, but
I can already see it's the future of computing.

~~~
erroneousfunk
The last few major purchases I made with my relatively plentiful disposable
income: A pair of Doc Martens, two plane tickets to Kenya, yearly membership
fee to my concierge medical clinic. None of these could be replaced by this
technology. Arguably, I could make it _look_ like I'm wearing new shoes when
look down, and I could load up "Kenya" mode on my Holographic Goggles -- but
nothing will replace the feel and protection of good shoes, or replicate the
smells, tastes, and adventure of actual travel.

Also, I still own an iPhone 5 and don't have a particularly fancy TV...

Your same argument has been made (to a greater or lesser degree) with the
advent of the industrial revolution, the Internet, cheap processors, 3D
printers. There is no technology that will make wealth obsolete.

------
billconan
I wonder why they didn't demo an outdoor use case.

I'm curious if this technology is closer to oculus rift than to google glass.

I'm thinking maybe they use a front-facing camera to capture the scene and
render the 3D stuff on top of the camera view? a user simply sees the
composite scene via a display similar to oculus rift.

~~~
donniefitz2
I'm pretty sure he said in the demo that it did not use a camera.

~~~
billconan
seeing something like this without knowing how it works drives me crazy!

------
dlp211
I watched the live demo and was really excited about this and Mary Jo Foley
and Paul Thurrot got to use it and are really excited about this. They also
mentioned that it will be released this year. They talked about it on TWiT.
Paul said that it looks as good as the pictures on the holo website.

------
mahyarm
What is the resolution of the device? I really doubt it will be as HD as the
promo video that they created.

~~~
dlp211
In the live demo it wasn't has high, but it was still really good.

------
dr_zoidberg
The HoloLens description reminds me of the VR technology depicted in Arthur
Clarke's "Light of Other Days". Its interesting to see how many of things he
predicted of the future we have achieved, through different means than what he
imagined.

------
72deluxe
The technology looks very impressive but I do not see how this will be widely
useful. The necessity to hold your arm out as far as it will go will only
cause Gorilla Arm, and is the reason touchscreen desktop PCs are always
abysmal failures. You need to move your arm far more than with a keyboard and
mouse, so you'll never be productive. The technology looks impressive but I
can't see it being useful unless used for holographic weather reports where
excessive gesticulation is apparently mandatory. 3D modelling with that would
be exceptionally painful. Perhaps gaming or something, but I wouldn't want to
be sat there on my armchair waving my arms around like I am suffering some
sort of uncontrollable seizure (no offence intended btw, just the best way of
describing my actions to onlookers).

------
prawn
Might allow them to reinvent their "Windows" theme when people start
interacting with their environment through some sort of lens. It will act as a
'window' to the world.

------
TheAwesomeA
I don't understand why there is no comment about the probably most important
aspect: The image quality. Is it low resolution or really high def and you
can't see single pixels?!

~~~
rasz_pl
engadget:

-field of view is extremely limited. There's a rectangular area in the center of your vision that acts as your "window"

-image was relatively transparent

-HoloLens is clearly very early, and kinda sucks right now.

------
sambeau
A problem I have with this is that blocks so much of the face that it hinders
subtle facial gestures.

Notice that on all the video calls they show the other person isn't wearing
one?

(That and it is rather ugly, too.)

------
Metaglasses
Hey! We're having our first Meta (YC S13) AR Hackathon in SF Feb 20th-21st.
Come and hack on our Meta Glasses and have a hands-on AR experience!
goo.gl/b6BIWN

------
majc2
Anyone fancy a game of dejarik?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO6M4ngKRp0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO6M4ngKRp0)

------
radiorental
Curious about skype (inc Lync which will be rebranded to Skype)

Seems like a strong use-case but how will they render people on the call if
participants are wearing a headset?

------
20kleagues
I think Microsoft just gained back its cool factor.

Now lets hope .Net also becomes 'cool' to use among developers. The current
perception is pretty bleak.

~~~
lukeholder
They should have gone all in on ironruby and it would have been a huge
competitor to jruby to hip coders for the enterprise.

------
harisamin
This is truly amazing. I’m super excited. It might be time for me to get my
hands dirty with C# again :)

------
coldcode
Unlike the usual meme, in this case the goggles do something. Be interesting
to actually try one.

------
mshenfield
This is one of the very first times I've been happy to be a .NET developer.

------
dvcc
I know this is the future, and I feel somewhat weird in saying this but I am
not quite happy. I feel like technology is coming to replace the physical
world instead of augment and improve on our actual experiences. Either way
it's some awesome work that was done.

~~~
freehunter
This is 100% designed to augment our actual experiences. That's why they said
"this is not VR". It's putting digital objects in the real world. That's
augmenting actual experiences.

------
chrissyb
I'd settle for that holographic puppy at the end of the video!

------
lurcio
"all the fun of schizophrenia in a hat" ?

------
Mizza
Was anybody else slightly disturbed by the Raytheon product placement?
[http://i.imgur.com/ekogOBL.png](http://i.imgur.com/ekogOBL.png)

------
freehunter
It seriously took me several minutes to realize this wasn't a joke. Even Peter
Bright on the Ars live blog had to stop and say "wat".

~~~
kemayo
The name doesn't quite sound right, which triggered the same response in me.

~~~
mattmurdog
Probably because it's more AR than Holo. But meh, still wicked cool.

------
swalsh
I'm going to take a guess, Microsoft is going to give out these to devs at
build this year.

------
zerny
Now, this is going to be the most exciting news of 2015 for me. Well done,
Microsoft.

------
admyral
The future is here.

~~~
r109
holographic nipples everywhere

------
be5invis
It will definitely stamp its name on the page of history.

~~~
saosebastiao
I might be ignoring something, but this appears to be the first ahead-of-the-
pack innovation from Microsoft that I've seen in at least 20 years. Congrats
to them.

~~~
Coincoin
Kinect was pretty surprising too, especially at that price point. EDIT:
Granted they didn't develop 100% of the tech themselves, but still: depth
perception, human skeleton recognition, in real time, on a crappy 360, for
150$? That was impressive.

~~~
eps
Same guy behind this and the Kinect project though - Alex Kipman.

------
jamies888888
I can't see this becoming a consumer product.

------
jesusgaben
Your all plebs

------
brakmic
Google Glass made you look like an idiot.

HoloLens does the same but if you believe their product video: you _are_ an
idiot.

------
joezydeco
That's pretty evil/clever of them to throw Minecraft into their marketing
images.

~~~
_random_
They have a vision, Minecraft was fitting that vision. So they consumed it. It
was smart. Project Spark makes more sense now as well.

~~~
joezydeco
Totally agree. I meant it as a compliment.

------
ha292
Once again, Microsoft is slow to produce a product.

In this case, the product is a "moonshot" at changing the UI.

No wait, the product is a PR event that just says. "We can innovate too, you
know"

If this fails, they will be late again in canceling a VR/Augmented reality
product that should not have made it past beta. See Glass, Google.

~~~
kevincrane
Haha alright Captain Buzzkill, let's give it more than one day before we start
burying this one.

------
angersock
This is really cool, but I'm kind of wondering when Microsoft will cancel the
project. Because, you know, that's what they do.

