How does Microsoft holographic glasses HoloLens lead the wave of technological revolution?

January 26 News, Microsoft has been a long time did not release the exciting products, and even was thought to stand on the opposite of innovation, from the scientific and technological sectors of the science and technology to fall to no one willing to mention the situation, Microsoft walked 20 years, witnessed the Microsoft scenery of the people can sigh. But the past Microsoft may be back, together with Win10 's virtual reality Enhancement device Project HoloLens, to get the company back to focus immediately.

Microsoft has a vision for the future, and they try to bring sci-fi things to life. But has the future come before us? The answer is both positive and negative.

In Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled the holographic glasses HoloLens, which was designed to take a sleek futuristic route. Simply put, HoloLens is a set of devices that display holographic images in real-world situations, and these holograms can be controlled and interacted by the user by hand gestures, such as the most basic computer desktop can perform tasks on the icon, and then further with the virtual character interaction, and even the surrounding environment of interaction. The product has transparent lenses, through which you can still see the world in which you live, but all of a sudden, everything changes.--3d objects float in midair, the walls hang with virtual screens, and all kinds of virtual creatures are misbehaving in the bedroom. These are the scenes that we used to see in sci-fi movies, and now it has been HoloLens for us to become a reality.

Technology companies have been promising how to put the future in front of us, and this is Hollywood's big screen trick.

In the Minority Report, the role of Tom Cruise in a transparent screen through various gestures to deal with his affairs as a policeman. 5 years later, Apple's iphone made people interact in a similar way. Microsoft has also launched its own Kinect gesture control device that can identify human movements.

A long time ago, in the world depicted by the matrix, computers connected to people's brains, presenting a virtual city scene. In Star Trek, computers create a world of perception for people through energy fields and visual technology.

We are far from the world in this episode, but we are taking a small step in that direction. Companies such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft are trying to turn science fiction into reality.

So what are the differences between Microsoft's HoloLens and other virtual reality devices?

What is HoloLens? How does it work?

Microsoft's HoloLens will not produce the 3D world that everyone can see, as Star Trek does, and only the wearer will see that you are wearing a funny-looking pair of glasses.

Another key point of HoloLens is that Microsoft does not intend to present a completely different world to its users, but rather to overlay some computer-generated effects on the real world. Users can still walk freely and talk to people at will, without having to worry about hitting the wall.

The glasses will track your movement and sight, and then generate the appropriate virtual objects to project the light into your eyes. Because the device knows where you are, you can interact with a virtual 3D object by gesture--currently only to support air lift and drop your finger clicks.

There are many hardware to help HoloLens achieve lifelike results. Sensors can track your indoor movement and create objects that can interact from different angles through stacked colored lenses. Want to see the other side of a virtual motorcycle in the middle of the kitchen? No problem, only go to the appropriate side.

The glasses look at the objects through the camera, so the device can know the location of the tables, chairs, and other objects, and then it can project a 3D image on the surface of the object--such as projecting a virtual explosive on the desktop--and you can observe the situation after the detonation.

When playing in my world demo, the surface of the table is immediately destroyed by clicking on the real World coffee table. Looking down from the wreck, it was a cave filled with lava.

While there are limitations, Microsoft has demonstrated the potential of the technology.

An invited audience made a video conversation with a Microsoft employee through HoloLens. To help the invitees reconnect with the light switch, Microsoft employees drew sketches and arrows, and presented them to the invitees through a camera inside the HoloLens, and further showed what tools and how to use them.

Think about the role that these technologies can play in the training of pilots or surgeons.

Difference with rift

What about Oculus Rift? The product was created by Oculus VR, which was bought by Facebook at a price of more than 2 billion dollars in March 2014. Oculus Rift was once considered a typical representative of the virtual reality market.

Oculus Rift and Microsoft HoloLens the same thing is that they all need to wear on the head. In addition, they are completely different products. While Microsoft's products help people interact with the real world, Oculus wants us to immerse ourselves in a new virtual world.

In short, rift is a screen placed on your face. When you turn on the device, it cheats your brain and makes you think you're in a completely different world, like a spaceship in space or the edge of a skyscraper. The device will one day allow you to live in a live basketball game or lie on the beach and enjoy sunbathing.

The goal of Oculus is to give users a sense of immersive experience. That feeling is called "existential", which is not the direction Microsoft HoloLens pursues.

"This is one of the few technologies I've seen that makes me feel capable of predicting the future," said venture capitalist Chris Dickson Chris Dixon, who helped Oculus VR raise money. "And those who have the technology are: Apple II, Macintosh, Netscape, Google, iphone--one of the most recent is--oculus Rift." ”

In short, the advent of HoloLens has left the spotlight on wearable devices with Google Glass and Oculus Rift a moment of eclipse, especially Oculus Rift. Google Glass essentially only virtual reality interactive function, and Oculus Rift is completely created a virtual scene with the reality block, HoloLens is very successful in combining the virtual and the reality, and achieve a better interaction. Users can easily identify and dictate virtual images in real-world situations. It's like being in the top of one's head with a little assistant with a long wing to accomplish all sorts of tasks. (Wang Tianji)

HoloLens to lead the wave of technological revolution

Traditional human-computer interaction, mainly through the keyboard and touch, including and can not be accurately identified by the voice. The advent of HoloLens gives the next generation a better way to experience human-computer interaction. In "The film", the city in front of everyone has a can be at any time by the order of the holographic screen, you can perform various tasks on the above, disappear immediately invisible. The future that HoloLens is pointing to is exactly the scene in this cartoon. In addition to human-computer interaction, there is also interaction with people and people and the environment. Virtual reality can allow people who are miles away to sit in front of you and talk to you, and also allow you to visit places you have never been or could not go to, such as the Sahara, Mariana Trench, Moon, Mars. Today's virtual reality technology can do this, but still have to wear a number of cables attached to the heavy helmets, HoloLens is to make these virtual reality equipment miniaturization and portability, at least a step closer to the next.

Imagine that you will be in San Francisco with the Beijing headquarters for a real meeting, your every move, each expression, will be transmitted to Beijing after the virtual scene restore, Beijing, there is the same. Your various household equipment is broken, no longer need to go to an appointment repair, will have a technician hands-on teach you how to do, and real person in your side is no different. Most of the people need to communicate with each other in the field scene, can be taken over by HoloLens, all the emotional exchanges, business meetings, customer service maintenance, teamwork, online education, suddenly become simple and low-cost.

HoloLens can play a role in entertainment needless to say, how big the heart, the world will be how big. You can even take a close look at the volcanic eruptions in your own house, go for a walk on Mars, or encounter aliens, or find out what some scientists have not yet discovered by studying the environment. Of course, Microsoft in the promotion of HoloLens strategy, seems to have started from entertainment, they bought a game called Minecraft, applied to this machine.

The entire HoloLens glasses are equivalent to a small computer, CPU and GPU, and several cameras and sensors. HoloLens's use of Intel's unpublished atom chip, code-named Cherry Trail, is said to have been made with a 14 nm process, smaller and faster, representing the highest level of the current semiconductor industry.

From the technical trend, the interaction between human and computer is facing a change. The wide application of touch screen is not an iteration at all, more like a transition state. On the one hand, people have to discard the intrinsic needs of the keyboard, on the other hand more convenient and efficient interactive technology has been developed but has not been applied. If the keyboard is 1.0, touch screen is 1.5, in the HoloLens inspired by the scene after the realization of the 2.0 times of human-computer interaction. Perhaps HoloLens will fail, but the way it points out is right.

HoloLens opened this door, is not just virtual reality so simple, which is the hidden human-computer interaction revolution, is not too much imagination. Using a product to drive a huge wave of related industries and technological innovation is not uncommon in history, and HoloLens is the product that most hopefully drives a wave of technological innovation, leading people into the exciting future. (Gockai)

Roads

Ultimately, these companies on different roads share a common goal--changing the way people interact with computers. We've all used keyboards and mice, and we're learning how to deal with the screens on smartphones. So far, these devices have been able to help us get all kinds of information, from books to movies.

But Oculus, Microsoft, Google and many other vendors are trying to connect us to technology in a completely different, more natural way. These companies and their products are providing us with the next generation of interaction through gestures, 3D images, and image overlays to help us deal with work, communications and everything else at a new level.

It sounds like a sci-fi plot, but if these devices fulfill the functions they promised, then science fiction will come to reality faster than any one of us ever imagined.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)