My first experience with HoloLens
Frankly, I was not surprised at the almost complete absence of articles on this topic. It so happened - people who had the opportunity to work with HoloLens, hardly a dozen in the whole country. However, in the framework of the Imagine Cup in Redmond, to take part in which I happened, one of the first test drives of the development tools of this platform was held.
HoloLens is a seriously classified Microsoft project that was launched in 2012. Since then, the company has managed to develop a prototype, which was presented to the press in January of this year. With a fairly tolerable review can be found, for example, here .
I will describe it constructively, from the developer’s point of view. So, the HoloLens device is rather large, darkened glasses that fit comfortably on the head. Although, given the method of fasteners, it may be more natural for someone to describe it as a helmet. I didn’t manage to notice any special sensors at first: neither clearly defined cameras, microphones, or even headphones. It is quite convenient and easy to adjust according to the individual PD (the distance between the pupils).
')
My technology stack for working with this device included, in addition to the HoloLens platform itself, also the Unity 3D and Windows Store application. Something tells me that using Unity in conjunction with universal applications on related platforms (from Windows Phone to XBox) will be the most popular and productive complex in the future.
It was possible to work with HoloLens productively - we covered a significant number of available features. Virtual additions of reality look impressive, they are perfectly presented in the official video.
This is really impressive. I do not think that something should be added here. Better I will tell you about what is not in this video.
Getting used to the basic gestures that were used to perform actions on adding, selecting and moving objects on the video, the first voice commands were tried out. They work quite accurately and are based (who would be surprised) on the Cortana engine. For HoloLens, voice work is developed by the same team. Let me remind you, Cortana dramatically increases the number of supported localizations and by the end of the year will cover all the most popular languages. Alas, except Russian. Well, we will wait.
Then the participants of the test drive plunged into the first hint at the magic of this device. Using the HoloLens platform, the program can know where the user is looking. An example of this can be seen at the HoloLens presentation at the Build conference here:
This is very interesting and allows you to quickly, conveniently and, most importantly, intuitively clear the necessary actions to call commands related to any specific areas of the review. This is extremely important for a clear virtualization of what is happening. Consider an example on an abstract game in which a knight meets a dragon. You can directly specify the algorithm of actions, how to demonstrate the hologram of the monster in front of the hero's nose (depict a whole dragon at a given distance, or just his evil grin). If the insidious enemy is behind the savior, you can add a growl flavored with a fiery flame at the right angle “from behind”, calculating all the necessary parameters (volume, distance - whatever your heart desires).
This is very conveniently done using the platforms I specified. Everything is beautiful and amazing! With the help of the described opportunities, it is already possible to fight dragons in games, produce visual training manuals, help, say, investigate crimes and search for evidence, and, and, and ... But, ahead of your questions, in reality, not all of this is now realizable. The concrete implementation very precisely follows the slightest change in the position of the user's head, but is in no way tied to the pupil.
In real life this can really be enough, for we intuitively turn not only the pupil, but also the head, changing the angle of view. True activity based on the search for small parts in the current implementation of this platform is very limited. Unfortunately, I currently do not know anything about the future processing of the user's view. Although examples of obtaining information about the immediate point of view of a person are already there and are actively used in the design and testing of mobile applications in major IT companies. They are based on the position of the pupil, not just the head. So I believe that this clarification in one form or another will necessarily be made.
On the test drive, we already managed to test ready-made entities and libraries. For example, a hologram of an explosion (a set of sound and images), animation of physical processes (a ball rolls) and even underworld (a second world with its own laws of gravity and content).
Among other interesting things, I can not help but notice the work that struck me with the sound on this device. Wearing glasses, you can clearly hear everything that happens within the device, while not falling out of the sounds of real life. Your ears are still free from any devices. There is no likelihood that the prank-earphone will still fall out in case of an unsuccessful or sudden movement. The magic at the same time lies in the almost complete silence of what is happening to the outside world. You do not interfere with anyone, no one overhears you. I didn’t quite understand how they managed to do it, but the sound of these glasses can be called almost individual. Miracle! The sound deserves the highest ratings! That's what makes me run in the morning.
As a result, HoloLens looks quite viable, given the serious advances in visualization, sound and integration with almost any device using Windows 10. There are details that need to be completed - this applies to both the parameters of the device itself and the developer’s tools. Nevertheless, I will observe with great interest the development of this device. Considering that in the final of the Imagine Cup one of the judges was the creator of HoloLens Alex Kipman, you can see the tracing trends of this year.
Here we come to the ideological question that I have left after working with this device. I was very impressed and digested thousands of ploys that can be done with. But I was stunned only by the answer to the question of the synchronization of one world into several devices. He was extremely short, but not quite clear - no.
In the near future it is not provided. You can look at copies of the same world, but not share it with anyone. This is a purely individual device that allows a person to customize the reality for themselves. Frankly, I personally have caused (perhaps overly conservative) concern. In my head, dozens of examples of a fantastic genre surfaced, in which the future seemed highly individualized. Perhaps at the level of specific applications, this will be decided by the example of network games - time will tell. But it is clear that the near future awaits us very entertaining. Yes geek is not translated in Russia.
Thank!
HoloLens overview
HoloLens is a seriously classified Microsoft project that was launched in 2012. Since then, the company has managed to develop a prototype, which was presented to the press in January of this year. With a fairly tolerable review can be found, for example, here .
I will describe it constructively, from the developer’s point of view. So, the HoloLens device is rather large, darkened glasses that fit comfortably on the head. Although, given the method of fasteners, it may be more natural for someone to describe it as a helmet. I didn’t manage to notice any special sensors at first: neither clearly defined cameras, microphones, or even headphones. It is quite convenient and easy to adjust according to the individual PD (the distance between the pupils).
')
My technology stack for working with this device included, in addition to the HoloLens platform itself, also the Unity 3D and Windows Store application. Something tells me that using Unity in conjunction with universal applications on related platforms (from Windows Phone to XBox) will be the most popular and productive complex in the future.
Functional
It was possible to work with HoloLens productively - we covered a significant number of available features. Virtual additions of reality look impressive, they are perfectly presented in the official video.
This is really impressive. I do not think that something should be added here. Better I will tell you about what is not in this video.
Getting used to the basic gestures that were used to perform actions on adding, selecting and moving objects on the video, the first voice commands were tried out. They work quite accurately and are based (who would be surprised) on the Cortana engine. For HoloLens, voice work is developed by the same team. Let me remind you, Cortana dramatically increases the number of supported localizations and by the end of the year will cover all the most popular languages. Alas, except Russian. Well, we will wait.
Vision angle
Then the participants of the test drive plunged into the first hint at the magic of this device. Using the HoloLens platform, the program can know where the user is looking. An example of this can be seen at the HoloLens presentation at the Build conference here:
This is very interesting and allows you to quickly, conveniently and, most importantly, intuitively clear the necessary actions to call commands related to any specific areas of the review. This is extremely important for a clear virtualization of what is happening. Consider an example on an abstract game in which a knight meets a dragon. You can directly specify the algorithm of actions, how to demonstrate the hologram of the monster in front of the hero's nose (depict a whole dragon at a given distance, or just his evil grin). If the insidious enemy is behind the savior, you can add a growl flavored with a fiery flame at the right angle “from behind”, calculating all the necessary parameters (volume, distance - whatever your heart desires).
This is very conveniently done using the platforms I specified. Everything is beautiful and amazing! With the help of the described opportunities, it is already possible to fight dragons in games, produce visual training manuals, help, say, investigate crimes and search for evidence, and, and, and ... But, ahead of your questions, in reality, not all of this is now realizable. The concrete implementation very precisely follows the slightest change in the position of the user's head, but is in no way tied to the pupil.
In real life this can really be enough, for we intuitively turn not only the pupil, but also the head, changing the angle of view. True activity based on the search for small parts in the current implementation of this platform is very limited. Unfortunately, I currently do not know anything about the future processing of the user's view. Although examples of obtaining information about the immediate point of view of a person are already there and are actively used in the design and testing of mobile applications in major IT companies. They are based on the position of the pupil, not just the head. So I believe that this clarification in one form or another will necessarily be made.
And others like them
On the test drive, we already managed to test ready-made entities and libraries. For example, a hologram of an explosion (a set of sound and images), animation of physical processes (a ball rolls) and even underworld (a second world with its own laws of gravity and content).
Among other interesting things, I can not help but notice the work that struck me with the sound on this device. Wearing glasses, you can clearly hear everything that happens within the device, while not falling out of the sounds of real life. Your ears are still free from any devices. There is no likelihood that the prank-earphone will still fall out in case of an unsuccessful or sudden movement. The magic at the same time lies in the almost complete silence of what is happening to the outside world. You do not interfere with anyone, no one overhears you. I didn’t quite understand how they managed to do it, but the sound of these glasses can be called almost individual. Miracle! The sound deserves the highest ratings! That's what makes me run in the morning.
As a result, HoloLens looks quite viable, given the serious advances in visualization, sound and integration with almost any device using Windows 10. There are details that need to be completed - this applies to both the parameters of the device itself and the developer’s tools. Nevertheless, I will observe with great interest the development of this device. Considering that in the final of the Imagine Cup one of the judges was the creator of HoloLens Alex Kipman, you can see the tracing trends of this year.
Futurism
Here we come to the ideological question that I have left after working with this device. I was very impressed and digested thousands of ploys that can be done with. But I was stunned only by the answer to the question of the synchronization of one world into several devices. He was extremely short, but not quite clear - no.
In the near future it is not provided. You can look at copies of the same world, but not share it with anyone. This is a purely individual device that allows a person to customize the reality for themselves. Frankly, I personally have caused (perhaps overly conservative) concern. In my head, dozens of examples of a fantastic genre surfaced, in which the future seemed highly individualized. Perhaps at the level of specific applications, this will be decided by the example of network games - time will tell. But it is clear that the near future awaits us very entertaining. Yes geek is not translated in Russia.
Thank!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/264133/
All Articles