Virtual and mixed reality are pretty great, but they offer somewhat solitary experiences most of the time. Microsoft is trying to change that with its HoloLens platform, improvising a way to create a mode it's calling Spectator View. With Spectator View, you can give others a third-person window into what you're seeing through HoloLens, and all you really need is a second HoloLens headset and a camera.
Cars, AI assistants, and mixed reality. Those seem to be the major thrusts of tech companies of late, and Apple is no exception. But, as typical of the Cupertino-based company, it keeps its major projects under wraps, dropping hints here and there for fans to chew on. Thanks to renowned blogger Robert Scoble, we have confirmation about Apple’s next major endeavor. Well, third-party confirmation, of course. After grilling an unsuspecting Carl Zeiss AG employee, Scoble says that the two companies are indeed working on a pair of smartglasses that will become Apple’s first and formal entry into the augmented reality market.
The first of the Windows Holographic VR (or mixed reality, if you prefer,) headsets comes from Lenovo, and we're getting up close and personal this week. Lenovo's Windows Holographic headset is light, far lighter than the HTC Vive, close to the size of the Oculus Rift - and seemingly far more magical. Without even getting in to the capabilities of the headset, consider this: the front flips up. No need to take the whole headset off every time we need to see something outside of our alternate, mixed, virtual reality.
Virtual reality, or VR for short, is already being hailed as the next wave in computing, but it’s still a few iterations away from becoming as commonplace as mobile devices, which is the current wave of computing. That said, proponents and advocates of VR continue to push the envelop in order to drive this fledgling market. Though delayed by a few months, VR was off to a great start this year. In 2017, we expect it to get over its teething pains and present a more mature image to consumers. Just how that’s going to happen has been laid out by our crystal ball, and here’s how it goes.
Move over tele-commuting. Microsoft’s Holoportation will be the remote office of the future. The somewhat distant future. Microsoft has just published an update to its Holoportation idea that is making Star Wars like holographic communication a reality. And while the technology has already been proven to work, it’s far from being something you can really use anytime anywhere. In this latest iteration, however, Microsoft takes one step closer to that ideal, by allowing Holoportation to fit and be used inside a moving car.
There are lots of virtual reality headsets on the market that will allow you to play video games that make you feel as if you are in another world. Linq has a new headset that is different from the other virtual reality headsets on the market today that it is calling a mixed reality headset. The big difference between MR and VR is that the MR headset projects the game over your environment.
As fantastic as technologies like augmented and mixed reality may be, experiencing them, much less creating them, requires a sizable investment, financially speaking. It is just beyond to reach of consumers as well as your garage-type indie developer. AR and VR startup Zappar, however, wants to smash that perception. With ZapBox, you can grab a kit for less than a triple-A video game to start your journey towards mixed reality fun and fame. It’s Magic Leap meets Google Cardboard. Or as Zappar itself says, making Magic Leap, magic cheap!
After being exclusive to the US and Canada for a little more than half a year, Microsoft has announced that its HoloLens headset is now available for pre-order in six new regions. Microsoft is opening up orders in France, Germany, the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia today, greatly expanding the reach of HoloLens in one fell swoop.
Virtual reality is great and is entertaining for a lot of things, but there are just some scenarios where a mix of virtual and actual realities is, perhaps, more productive. Hence, the augmented, or rather mixed, reality offered by platforms like the Microsoft HoloLens. One such use case, flaunted around by AR/MR proponents, is eventually replacing one or two real-world, physical computer screens with nearly a dozen virtual ones. And while we all wait for the day when such devices do become more common, the folks over at The Holo Herald are already teasing what that future might look like.
Collectible/Trading Card Games have long been popular even before the mobile gaming revolution, but while most of the franchises n the West, like Magic The Gathering, are your run of the mill card-based games, in Japan they have taken a life of their own. There, CCGs like Yu-Gi-Oh extend to multimedia, especially manga and anime, that portray the game as more than just cards. The advent of virtual and augmented reality gear offers the opportunity to make those fantasies real, like this “real-life” Yu-Gi-Oh made possible by the Microsoft HoloLens.
Partly thanks to the hype around Pokemon GO, augmented reality has become a buzzword again (which is somewhat ironic considering some AR enthusiasts don't consider the game as such). Though definitely not alone nor first, Microsoft is one of the biggest proponents of augmented reality technology which, unfortunately, is extremely limited to a select few, not to mention expensive, number of devices and developers. Come 2017, however, that will somewhat change, as Microsoft releases its Windows Holographic platform, as well as its AR shell, to any and all Windows 10 computers.
This week the folks at Magic Leap have announced a partnership with ILMxLAB, creating technology that'll mix Star Wars with your real world reality. This is not virtual reality - though that's not out of the question for Star Wars, of course - it's mixed reality. That is augmented reality with the ability to trick your brain into thinking the objects you're seeing are really there. It's beyond what you've seen before - and it has droids, too!