HoloLens – Page 23 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

March 13, 2017

Microsoft HoloLens Partner Program expands to Europe

European companies including REWIND and Black Marble have been chosen to become part of the Microsoft HoloLens Agency Readiness Partners Programme. Approved partners go through extensive evaluation and training by Microsoft to begin creating mixed reality (MR) applications for the HoloLens.

REWIND is one of six companies that have been approved for the programme, and one of only three UK agencies who are taking part. REWIND has produced virtual reality (VR) and MR content before, including slapstick HTC Vive game Pane in the Glass.

HoloLens

The developer also announced that its working with Red Bull to create a new demo called Flight Deck, which will take players up close and personal into the Red Bull Air Race, to learn the rules and the complex techniques as they fly through the opening race at Abu Dhabi.

Sol Rogers, CEO & Founder of REWIND said: “The HoloLens technology is one of the most exciting inventions since humans discovered fire! We are incredibly proud to be one of three UK companies that made it through the programme. We’re looking forward to innovating in the MR space and taking Flight Deck to the next level. The ambition is for Flight Deck to be experienced across the whole Red Bull Air Race 2017 season – on the ground at races and in the homes of fans. Telemetry data from the position of planes will be used to watch head-to-head battles in the sky in real-time. It’s the future of live sport and we’re thrilled to be part of it.”

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Lorraine Bardeen, General Manager, Microsoft HoloLens and Windows Experiences added: “The HoloLens Agency Readiness Partners have all gone through extensive, hands-on training with our team. As part of their commitment, they have delivered real customer solutions for companies around the globe, like Paccar, Lowe’s, Red Bull Air Race, CDM Smith, UK Police Forces, and Alstom. Working with one of our hand-selected HoloLens Agency Readiness Partners is one of the quickest ways to get started with creating mixed reality applications that can transform working with 3D data, bringing new products and information to life, and creating new opportunities for business growth.”

REWIND will be demonstrating the Red Bull Flight Deck demo at Virtual Reality London (VRLO) on 20th March at Picturehouse Central. Further details can be found on REWIND’s official website.

You can watch the trailer for Flight Deck below.

VRFocus will bring you further news on Flight Deck and the HoloLens as it develops.

Flightdeck – Microsoft HoloLens & Red Bull Air Race

March 13, 2017

Microsoft’s HoloLens Readiness Partner Program Comes To The EU

Mixed reality is set to dominate the working world in the years to come, arguably even more so than virtual reality. But a lot of companies that want to use the tech lack to expertise to actually develop for it. That’s where Microsoft’s HoloLens Agency Readiness Partner Program comes in.

Just as its long-winded title suggests, this scheme is designed to recognize studios that have a broad knowledge of and lots of experience with Microsoft’s MR headset. It’s essentially a recommendations list of potential partners for companies looking to utilize the technology. These studios will collaborate on the development of apps that suit the client’s needs. Imagine a healthcare app that hospitals worked with software developers to make, for example.

Current partners in the US already include Taqtile, and POP but, today, Microsoft is announcing an expansion into the EU with six new partners. They include France-based Holoforge and Immersion as well as Zuhlke in Germany. In the UK, Microsoft is adding FundamentalVR, Black Marble, and REWIND to the list.

We already saw FundamentalVR’s surgery training application at Mobile World Congress a few weeks back, and the company is also developing the experience for MR. REWIND, meanwhile, is developing an app for the Red Bull Air Race. Company CEO and Founder Sol Rogers told UploadVR that the team had been through “extensive training” in order to become a part of the program.

The company’s new MR tech is looking to bring live sports to headsets like HoloLens, and this first app will showcase it. “It gives users a first glimpse at REWIND’s proprietary ‘Holemetry’ technology that can enhance live sport,” Rogers said, “bringing spectators an unparalleled never before seen experience.”

Other organizations partnering with HoloLens developers to make MR experiences include Paccar, Lowe’s, CDM Smith, UK Police Forces, and Alstom.

HoloLens might not be ready for consumers, but Microsoft is clearly keen to get it into the hands of as many businesses as possible. While the wait for a retail launch continues, the company is deploying its own set of VR headsets, made in partnership with major manufacturers, to bridge the gap. We got hands-on with one such kit two weeks back.

Tagged with: Black Marble, FundamentalVR, HoloLens, microsoft, REWIND

March 13, 2017

Das HoloLens Partner Programm kommt nach Europa

Microsoft hat bekannt gegeben, dass ihr HoloLens Agency Readiness Partner Programm den Sprung über den großen Teich schafft. Damit können ausgewählte Agenturen kostenlos Apps für das Augmented-Reality-System entwickeln. Denn noch wissen zu wenige Menschen, was die HoloLens eigentlich leisten kann.

Nur wenige wissen, was die HoloLens kann

Wer bereits einmal eine HoloLens ausprobiert hat, weiß, was für beeindruckende Dinge die Augmented-Reality-Brille des Software- und Hardware-Giganten aus Redmond leisten kann. Und davon würden sicherlich auch zahlreiche Unternehmen und Privatpersonen profitieren – wenn sie Kenntnis von der Leistungsfähigkeit hätten. Hier liegt allerdings das Problem: Zu wenige haben Zugang zu Microsofts AR-Brille. Aber das dürfte niemanden überraschen. Denn bis jetzt konnte die HoloLens erst von einzelnen Personen getestet werden: Microsoft verkauft seit Oktober 2016 die HoloLens in einer Developer-Version für einen Preis von 3.299 Euro in Europa.

Zühlke aus Deutschland mit dabei

Unternehmen, die sich registrieren und über die notwendige Expertise verfügen, bekommen jedoch Zugang zu Microsofts Development Kit (SDK) und können kostenlos Apps entwickeln. Sechs Agenturen aus Europa wird jetzt die Ehre zuteil, ein intensives Training direkt vom HoloLens-Team zu bekommen. Dazu gehören: Black Marble, Rewind, Fundamental VR (Großbritannien), Holoforge und Immersion (Frankreich) sowie Zühlke aus Deutschland. Mit den bereits bestehenden zehn Stück aus den USA und Kanada steigt die Anzahl an HoloLens Agency Readiness Partner somit auf 16 Stück.

Die HoloLens ist eine eigenständige Augmented-Reality-Brille und funktioniert ohne Smartphone oder Computer. Als Nutzer schaut man durch transparente Bildschirme, die hochauflösende Projektionen darstellen. Diese werden im Vergleich zur Oculus Rift oder der Samsung GearVR nicht durch Pixel oder Raster sondern durch projizierte Lichtpunkte angezeigt.

Der Beitrag Das HoloLens Partner Programm kommt nach Europa zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

March 9, 2017

HoloLens: Wenn ein Smartphone zum Controller wird

Microsofts HoloLens befindet sich zwar noch in einem Entwicklungsstadium, aber einige interessante neue Ideen und Anwendungen für das Gerät wurden in dieser Woche schon vorgestellt. Ein Video zeigt dabei, wie sich euer Telefon in einen Controller für das Mixed-Reality-Headset verwandeln kann.

AfterNow setzt auf eine andere Art von Controller

Derzeit wird HoloLens hauptsächlich per Hand durch Gesten gesteuert. Die Navigation ist zwar auch durch Spracherkennung und Blicke möglich, doch den Entwicklern von AfterNow reichte das nicht. Sie wollten die Möglichkeiten zur Kontrolle bieten, die auch VR-Controller schon liefern wie z.B. die ansichtsbasierte 6DoF-Objekterkennung der HTC Vive. Anstelle eines Vive-Controllers setzt AfterNow auf das Smartphone – ein Gerät, das schon Millionen von uns besitzen.

Das Smartphone des Anwenders funktioniert nicht nur als 6DOF-Controller, sondern auch als eine Art virtuelles Startgerät. Im Video zaubert der User virtuelle Würfel auf den Bildschirm des Smartphones und kann sie dann vom Screen wischen, um sie als Objekte in der realen Welt vor sich zu sehen.

Einige Einschränkungen bleiben bestehen

Auch wenn es sich um ein faszinierendes Mittel zur Kontrolle für die Plattform handelt, könnte es durchaus sein, dass Microsoft selbst vielleicht nicht zustimmen könnte. Jesse Vander von AfterNow ließ in einem Blog-Post verlauten, dass sämtliche Interaktionen 1,5 Meter vom Benutzer stattfinden sollten, um sowohl die Belastung für die Augen zu reduzieren, als auch sicherzustellen, dass die Elemente, mit denen der Benutzer interagiert sich innerhalb des Rahmens befinden. Vander fügte jedoch hinzu:

„Trotzdem gibt es auf jeden Fall Einsatzmöglichkeiten, bei denen sich die Controller lohnen. Darüber hinaus gibt es viele lustige Dinge die wir mit einem 6DoF-Controller machen können, der zudem einen Touchscreen hat.“

Er nannte Beispiele, darunter eine Mixed-Reality-Version von Tilt Brush, bei der Benutzer beginnen, eine Linie auf dem Handy zu erstellen und sie dann anschließend durch einen realen Raum ziehen, um 3D-Bilder entstehen zu lassen. Wiederum lassen sich 3D-Assets auf das Display packen.

Während HoloLens keine Controller anbietet, bringt Microsoft auch VR-Headsets auf den Markt, bei der physische Controller verwendet werden können. Das Unternehmen stellte dazu fest, dass 6DOF-Controller auf der Plattform ebenfalls noch an Bedeutung gewinnen werden.

(Quelle: uploadvr.com)

Der Beitrag HoloLens: Wenn ein Smartphone zum Controller wird zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

March 8, 2017

Watch A Smartphone Turn Into A Controller For HoloLens

Microsoft’s HoloLens is still very much in an early stage, and interesting new ideas and uses for the device are being discovered by the week. This most recent example turns your phone into a controller for the mixed reality headset.

Currently, HoloLens is mainly controlled through gestures with your hand, though can also be navigated with voice recognition and gaze-based input. To development agency AfterNow, though, that wasn’t enough. The studio wanted the kind of control you can get with VR controllers like the HTC Vive’s six degree of freedom (6DOF) wands but for HoloLens. Instead of using just a Vive controller, AfterNow turned to something millions of us already have, the smartphone.

The result is what you see in the video above. The user’s smartphone isn’t just a 6DOF controller but also a sort of virtual launching device. In the video, the user brings up virtual cubes on the smartphone screen, and is then able to flick them out to project them as objects in the real world.

It’s an intriguing potential means of control for the platform, but one that Microsoft itself might not agree with. As AfterNow’s Jesse Vander Does notes in a blog post, the company asks that “interactions should be a comfortable 1.5 meters from the user” to both reduce eye strain and also “ensure that the items the user is interacting with stay within the frame.”

“Nonetheless, there will most definitely be use cases that benefit from controllers,” Vander Does adds. “Moreover, there are a lot of fun things we could do with a 6DoF controller that also has a touch screen.” He gave examples including a sort of mixed reality Tilt Brush, where users might begin a line on the phone and then pull it through real space to make 3D images. You could also pull 3D assets into your phone.

While HoloLens is controller-free, Microsoft is also bringing VR headsets to market that can use physical controllers. We saw one last week that used an Xbox gamepad, but the company also notes that 6DOF controllers will be important to the platform.

Tagged with: HoloLens, microsoft

March 6, 2017

HoloLens and Oculus Story Studio Co-Founder Coming To VRWC

The revolutionary mixed reality (MR)/virtual reality (VR) headset has already seen use in a number of applications, and attendees at VR World Congress 2017 (VRWC) will have the opportunity to test one out.

Microsoft will be bringing the HoloLens for hands-on demonstrations at VRWC on 11th-13th April 2017 at Millennium Square in Bristol, UK. The HoloLens has already seen some innovative uses, such as for designing new hospital Operating Rooms and presentation on the cars of the future.

The Microsoft HoloLens team join a huge range of speakers and guests who will be presenting on various aspects of the VR industry. Industry figures such as Edward Saatchi, co-founder of Oculus Story Studio will be speaking on his experience with creating such projects as Henry, Dear Angelica and Talking With Ghosts.

HoloLens

Also featured will be representatives from Google, who will be speaking on Google’s new Daydream VR platform and the progress that have made since Google Cardboard was announced. There are many other speakers schedules from the likes of the BBC, Royal Opera house, IBM, MIT, Samsung and Aardman Animation, to name just a few.

If you are concerned about missing this important VR event, VRFocus is here to help, we have an offer for our readers to get 20% off any tickets to VRWC.

VRFocus will continue to bring you further information on VRWC as we get it.

March 6, 2017

HoloLens: Video zeigt ersten Prototyp eines AR-Golfspiels

CapitolaVR ist eine Agentur, die sich (laut eigener Aussage) im Wesentlichen im Bereich der Action-Games engagiert. Mit diesem Konzept konnten sie Kunden wie Samsung und Ford für sich gewinnen. David Robustelli, Leiter der digitalen Abteilung von CapitolaVR, hat das neueste Ergebnis ihrer Entwicklungen vorgestellt. Das Team möchte vor allem neue Ideen für Augmented Reality anbieten.

Praktikanten sorgen für neue Ideen und Konzepte

Laut Robustelli können die Praktikanten vor allem beim Brainstorming neue Einfälle entwickeln. Wenn erfahrene Entwickler sich engagieren, kann an dieser Stelle ein bisschen ausführlicher gearbeitet werden:

Bei CapitolaVR haben unsere Praktikanten immer einen gewissen Zeitraum zur Verfügung, damit sie an ihren eigenen Ideen arbeiten können; solange es zu CapitolaVRs Strategie zur schnellen Entwicklung von Prototypen passt. In diesem besonderen Fall wollten wir sehen, ob sie in nur wenigen Tagen eine neue HoloLens-Applikation entwickeln können.

Das Ziel war es, ein AR-Programm zu erstellen, das auch für Leute geeignet ist, die mit HoloLens nicht vertraut sind. Das Team wollte an einer physikbasierten App arbeiten, um ein realistisches Gefühl zu schaffen. Gleichzeitig sollte aber auch eine futuristische Ästhetik für zusätzlichen Reiz sorgen. So entstand die Idee zu einem Golfspiel. Hier ergab sich die Möglichkeit, sowohl ein einfaches Gameplay und coole Optik zu bieten, als auch ein tolles Beispiel dafür zu präsentieren, wie räumliches Gefühl durch HoloLens erzeugt werden kann.

Ein einfaches Spiel mit großer Wirkung

Beim Setup müsst ihr einfach nur die Hololens aufsetzen und einzelne Wegpunkte in einem Raum markieren. Das Tool berücksichtigt dann die umliegenden Hindernisse und baut selbstständig einen Parcours um diese Punkte herum. Sobald alles arrangiert ist, könnt ihr den Kurs in der HoloLens sehen. Beim Spiel benutzt ihr eine Hand um zu zielen, wohin die Kugel rollen soll und dann presst ihr die Finger zusammen, um zu schießen. Je weiter ihr zielen müsst, desto schwieriger wird das Unterfangen.

Dieses Spiel befindet sich noch in einem sehr frühen Entwicklungsstadium. Deshalb gibt noch keine Termine für einen möglichen Release. Es bleibt aber spannend zu sehen, wie sich das Spiel noch weiterentwickelt. In dem Video könnt ihr das voll funktionale AR-Programm bereits sehen.

(Quelle: uploadvr.com)

Der Beitrag HoloLens: Video zeigt ersten Prototyp eines AR-Golfspiels zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

March 3, 2017

Medical Technology Firm Stryker Using HoloLens AR To Design Operating Rooms

Augmented Reality (AR) is becoming increasingly popular in the fields of both healthcare and design. Medical Technology firm Stryker have combined the two for designing hospital Operating Rooms.

It’s fairly essential for a doctor working on a life-saving operation to have the most efficient possible layout for their OR. The problem is that hospital Operating Rooms are often packed full of very expensive, heavy equipment. This makes the process of finding the best layout difficult and time-consuming.

stryker and HoloLens-for-or-design

Stryker appear to have found a solution. Utilising Microsoft’s HoloLens AR headset, designers and doctors can test out different designs and layouts and even pick which configuration of equipment they would prefer, before a single piece of equipment is moved.

This type of AR/VR functionality is becoming increasingly popular, as VRFocus have reported previously. You can see a video of the Stryker HoloLens solution in action below.

VRFocus will continue to report on AR and VR use in design and healthcare.

March 2, 2017

A Red Bull F1 Car Comes To Digital Life Thanks To AT&T & Microsoft HoloLens At MWC

AT&T have been using the HoloLens to show off their ‘Connected Car’ services at Mobile World Congress (MWC). The short presentation covers the advantages of their connected car services by showing an Augmented Reality (AR) ‘hologram’ of a car moving through a city.

The AT&T connected car has features that allow other cars to communicate with each other to alert other cars in the area of hazards such as ice and re-route cars around accident sites. The presentation even covered how expanding this service to cover a while city could improve infrastructure.

HoloLens

AT&T also demonstrated another Augmented Reality experience involving a Red Bull Formula 1 car. Hovering above an actual Red Bull Formula 1 car was an exploded diagram of Red Bull car, the presentation highlighted certain areas as the presenter talked about each section. AT&T said during the presentation that they provide the infrastructure that allows real-time data to be transmitted from the F1 team at the track to engineers at their home base.

They also showed a birds-eye view of an F1 circuit, complete with tiny cars racing around, hovering above the physical F1 display car.

You can watch videos of both presentations, recorded by You Are Here below.

VRFocus will bring you further updates on the HoloLens and AR as it develops.

February 25, 2017

HoloLens is Helping This Medical Company Design Better Operating Rooms

Microsoft is talking for the first time today about a new customer of its HoloLens augmented reality headset: publicly traded medical device company Stryker. Stryker sells forceps, drills, nasal dressings, and hip replacement systems, but it also sells equipment for operating rooms. The HoloLens is a tool that Stryker can use to help hospital employees figure out the best arrangements for their operating rooms.

This is important because multiple kinds of medical practitioners typically share each operating room, and finding something that’s suitable for everyone involved can be time-consuming.

“Using HoloLens and Stryker’s new By Design solution, hospital stakeholders are now able to envision the ideal operating room configuration with the power of holograms and the benefit of mixed reality,” HoloLens and Windows Experiences general manager Lorraine Bardeen wrote in a blog post. “Instead of needing all of the people from each surgical discipline, all the physical equipment required across all medical disciplines, all in one room at the same time, Stryker is now able to modify and build different operating room scenarios with holograms. No more time-consuming sessions where everyone needs to be physically present and no more need to move around heavy and expensive equipment to get a sense for how everything all fits together.”

This isn’t the first health care customer for HoloLens, which was first unveiled two years ago. CAE, Case Western Reserve University, and Cleveland Clinic have previously been public about their use of the device, whose developer editioncosts $3,000. Outside of health care, other customers include Lowe’s, ThyssenKrupp, and Volvo.

Over the weekend, Brad Sams at Thurrott.com, citing unnamed sources, reported that Microsoft has canceled the development of the second version of the HoloLens and has moved its focus to a third version ahead of a 2019 release. While Magic Leap has faced questions about the state of its technology in recent months, the venture-backed startup does represent competition to the HoloLens. Microsoft already has customers for the version that exists today, and if Sams’ report is right, the company is eager to get a more impressive rethinking of the product out to customers sooner.

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This post originally appeared on VentureBeat by Jordan Novet.

Tagged with: ar, HoloLens, hospital, microsoft