If you listen to Microsoft, Augmented Reality – through their HoloLens headset – is the future of computing. While they’ve shown off tech demos that hint at a future possibility, it’s always seemed like pie-in-the-sky stuff. Yesterday at BUILD, Microsoft showed it off again, and it’s starting to look like the future is here.
Taking the stage at Build, Microsoft showed real-world application of its mystical headset. And by golly, it seems to work as advertised. In the video below, you’ll see a demonstration of the thing in action, jigged with a special camera that allows you to see the things that that the chap wearing the headset can see.
Incredibly, it’s all apparently built in to Windows 10. Microsoft’s Alex Kipman – the guy behind the Kinect motion camera and now head of the HoloLens project – showed off the Windows Holographic Platform, which will let developers create Windows 10 apps that work on the headset. Everything in the demo was run using that platform.
“All universal apps can be made to work on Windows Holographic, and everything you’ve seen here today is a universal Windows app,” Kipman said.
And damn was it all rather impressive. The tech nerd in me wants to play about with this very, very much. Microsoft didn’t show off the system’s practical applications for gaming, but they’re quite possibly limitless. And better yet, the headset seems to be free from cables and cords – and doesn’t require tethering to a phone – making it a far more practical device for an array of other applications beyond videogames and entertainment.
Last Updated: April 30, 2015
Brandon van Reenen
April 30, 2015 at 12:07
But how does it change the porn industry?
Hammersteyn
April 30, 2015 at 12:09
Should still be a hands on job…
Geoffrey Tim
April 30, 2015 at 12:08
this could totally revolutionise the interactive adult entertainment industry.
Spathi
April 30, 2015 at 12:09
Brandon beat you to it. No pun intended.
Geoffrey Tim
April 30, 2015 at 12:11
Did he? DID HE? Check the header image again.
Spathi
April 30, 2015 at 12:12
Well played 😀
Hammersteyn
April 30, 2015 at 12:14
XD
Brandon van Reenen
April 30, 2015 at 14:33
… and I would have gotten away with it, if it weren’t for you meddling kids.
Admiral Chief
April 30, 2015 at 12:11
Windawz X
Brady miaau
April 30, 2015 at 14:06
Yeah. Released within months of Mortal Kombat X. Coincidence? NO.
It is a conspiracy.
Admiral Chief
April 30, 2015 at 12:11
I never asked for this, however, seems cool
Blood Emperor Trevor
April 30, 2015 at 12:12
So it’s not just a… hollow… gimmick?
Hammersteyn
April 30, 2015 at 12:14
Should be interesting to see how it works with this…
http://www.epforums.org/image.php?u=63510&type=sigpic&dateline=1350872286
Umar
April 30, 2015 at 12:15
Castin…..I mean, what is that?
Hammersteyn
April 30, 2015 at 12:16
It’s a trap
http://new4.fjcdn.com/comments/Search+for+casting+couch+porn+_3263776b3a1f9a16675c47b681a16370.jpg
Umar
April 30, 2015 at 12:17
LOL!
Greylingad
April 30, 2015 at 12:17
Knowing my friends, they’ll plant holographic coffee tables all around my house, just to be spiteful…and of course to see me dodging invisible ornaments…
Blood Emperor Trevor
April 30, 2015 at 12:26
Why would you do that to yourself? ;P
Umar
April 30, 2015 at 12:18
Hologram Tupac, yo!
Mark Treloar
April 30, 2015 at 12:54
let sleeping dogs lie
Pieter Kruger
April 30, 2015 at 13:18
Please please please just let me play C&C top down on my dining room table….PLEASE!!!!!
Brady miaau
April 30, 2015 at 14:41
WARHAMMER, on a table top. The way it is meant to be played!
Edit, just not by me. I have patience issues
Spy Master Tokashi
May 1, 2015 at 14:42
I wonder if this will replace the use of TVs and PC screens?
lygamnt
May 1, 2015 at 17:58
Maybe not the first iteration, but it could definitely supplement physical screens as resolution is improved. I also see it making things like 3D printing and design more accessible to the masses. My son is a very hands on/ visual type of learner and I could see this giving him extra confidence in areas such as art, science and certain aspects of engineering. This is an exciting piece of tech and if it works as advertised could be a real game changer.
40 Insane Frogs
May 2, 2015 at 00:09
One reason why this will never catch on – (incidentally, it’s the same reason why kinect took a nosedive) – at the end of the day, people don’t want to wave their hands and bodies around like mental patients. After 8 hours at work, followed by 4 hours of getting the kids to bed, Joe Public and Sara Normal don’t want to use all their energy moving an icon or opening a folder, that’s why the computer mouse or the controller exist.
Microsoft execs need to get off the golf course, and their engineers need to get off meth, and start chatting to real people about what THEY really want in entertainment.