Category: Microsoft Mesh

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Qualcomm and Microsoft Partner on Custom Chips for Next-Gen AR Glasses

Qualcomm XR1 AR Reference Design

Qualcomm held its CES 2022 press conference earlier today and as part of the event revealed that it’s partnered with Microsoft to help push the future of augmented reality (AR). Qualcomm announced that the collaboration will see the pair develop custom AR chips for both consumer and enterprise devices.

Qualcomm XR1 Lifestyle

These custom AR chips will focus on ushering in an era of AR glasses that are lightweight and power-efficient as well as integrating into Microsoft’s ecosystem. That’ll mean support for software like Microsoft Mesh – Microsoft’s shared mixed-reality (MR) platform – and the Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform.

What this could mean is a more lightweight, consumer-friendly version of Microsoft’s HoloLens 2. A consumer edition was in fact confirmed last year by Microsoft’s Alex Kipman who said: “we are absolutely working on a consumer journey for HoloLens.” And then there was that Pokémon GO demo by Niantic Labs using the MR headset.

“This collaboration reflects the next step in both companies’ shared commitment to XR and the metaverse,” said Hugo Swart, vice president and general manager of XR, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. in a statement. “Qualcomm Technologies’ core XR strategy has always been delivering the most cutting-edge technology, purpose-built XR chipsets and enabling the ecosystem with our software platforms and hardware reference designs. We are thrilled to work with Microsoft to help expand and scale the adoption of AR hardware and software across the entire industry.”

Microsoft Mesh

“Our goal is to inspire and empower others to collectively work to develop the metaverse future – a future that is grounded in trust and innovation,” adds Rubén Caballero, corporate vice president Mixed Reality, Microsoft. “With services like Microsoft Mesh, we are committed to delivering the safest and most comprehensive set of capabilities to power metaverses that blend the physical and digital worlds, ultimately delivering a shared sense of presence across devices. We look forward to working with Qualcomm Technologies to help the entire ecosystem unlock the promise of the metaverse.”

Qualcomm is heavily invested in the XR space with chipsets like its Snapdragon XR2 platform being used in devices like Meta Quest 2. And then there’s the XR1 AR Smart Viewer Reference Design which OEM’s can utilise to enter the AR glasses market. This, of course, all leads towards a metaverse vision that most tech companies seem to be scrambling towards. As further details arise, keep reading VRFocus.

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Microsoft’s Metaverse Ambitions Grow as Teams Platform to Include 3D Avatars & Immersive XR Meetings

Microsoft is making a strong bid to bolster its version of the metaverse as it looks to roll out 3D avatars and immersive meetings for its Microsoft Teams communication platform.

You might define the metaverse as essentially an immersive internet where virtual experiences are interoperable, and also offer a continuity of the user’s digital identity. It’s not a new idea, as fully-functional immersive social platforms have been around since even the early days of consumer VR, although the concept seems to be picking up traction now that the established names in tech are making more concrete efforts.

First announced back at Microsoft Ignite in March, Mesh allows developers to create multi-user XR applications built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing arm.

Now Microsoft is gearing up to offer competition to the rest of the known tech world with the announcement of Mesh for Microsoft Teams, which effectively brings those previous efforts to build cross-platform immersive spaces and 3D avatars natively to the Teams communication platform, replete with support across mobile, PC, Microsoft VR headsets, and HoloLens 2.

“The feature combines the mixed-reality capabilities of Microsoft Mesh, which allows people in different physical locations to join collaborative and shared holographic experiences, with the productivity tools of Microsoft Teams, where people can join virtual meetings, send chats, collaborate on shared documents and more,” the company says.

Coming sometime in 2022, Mesh for Microsoft Teams will offer a new ‘Immersive experience’ option which will allow Teams users to build a 3D avatar and either use it in place of a standard webcam, or selecting it as their avatar for AR or VR interactions. While Mesh for Teams is admittedly an XR-focused offering meant for live face-to-face collaboration, when used in place of a webcam (read: without an XR headset) the 3D avatar is animated to interpret vocal cues.

Image courtesy Microsoft

Mesh for Microsoft Teams will roll out with “pre-built immersive spaces to support a variety of contexts, from meetings to social mixers,” the company says. At some point, organizations will also be able build bespoke immersive spaces so colleagues can interact.

Microsoft Teams’ large enterprise usership and interoperability with its cloud infrastructure, video conferencing, and family of Microsoft 365 products automatically positions it as a strong competitor for would-be metaverse users.

Undoubtedly the company’s biggest competition is Meta (formerly Facebook), which announced last week that it was bolstering efforts to shift its business toward building its version of the metaverse, something that saw a complete rebrand of the company.

Meta launched its own work-focused immersive space back in summer. Called Horizon Workrooms the virtual collaboration platform connects both VR and video chat users in the same place, the latter of which includes support for both Zoom and Facebook video chat.

The post Microsoft’s Metaverse Ambitions Grow as Teams Platform to Include 3D Avatars & Immersive XR Meetings appeared first on Road to VR.

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Watch: Microsoft Mesh’s Amazing Social AR In Action On HoloLens

A few weeks back, we reported on Microsoft Mesh, a new framework for enabling social and collaborative AR experiences on its HoloLens headset that also works cross-platform with other devices.

At the time, we were able to experience Mesh in a controlled demo. But, now that Microsoft is rolling a preview version of the platform out, we dived back in to talk about the toolset. Watch myself and UploadVR Managing Editor, Ian Hamilton, walk through what Mesh is capable of (so far) below.

Microsoft Mesh In Action

Inside the Mesh preview app HoloLens users can meet up, generate 3D assets to share between each other and draw in 3D space. It’s a remarkably intuitive experience similar to what can be seen in many current social VR apps, but doing all of this in AR gives Mesh a more instantaneous and productive feel than jumping into an entirely different virtual world.

But Mesh isn’t limited to this single app. In a demonstration in early March we saw apps like Pokemon Go tease potential future support with this feature, and Microsoft is also making it cross-platform and compatible with PCs, smartphones and VR headsets (including Oculus devices), meaning a more ambitious platform isn’t far out. We could see VR and AR games with cross-platform support, for example, or imagine a version of UploadVR’s Download podcast in which members can join in on their real couch instead of a virtual one.

There’s plenty of potential but, just like HoloLens 2 itself, it’s early days and AR technology has far to go. We’ll keep following its development as more players enter the field.

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Microsoft & Niantic zeigen Pokémon Go auf HoloLens 2

Tower Tag auf Steam

Eventuell könnte es sich zukünftig mit Pokémon Go tatsächlich so anfühlen, als würden wir gemeinsam mit den unterschiedlichsten Pokémon auf diesem Planenten leben. Ermöglicht könnte dies mit AR-Brille wie der HoloLens 2 und Microsoft Mesh werden.

Microsoft & Niantic zeigen Pokémon Go auf HoloLens 2

Um zu demonstrieren, was mit Microsoft Mesh möglich ist, hat Niantic gemeinsam mit Microsoft einen Prototypen gebaut, der eine Multiplayer-Version von Pokémon Go für die HoloLens 2 darstellt. Microsoft betont hierbei, dass es sich nur um einen Prototypen handelt und nicht um eine Version die für Konsumenten.

Microsoft Mesh

Microsoft Mesh ist ein neuer Cloud-Service von Microsoft, welcher die Erstellung und Nutzung von XR-Anwendungen für mehrere Personen vereinfachen soll. Das Tool wird Entwicklern und Entwicklerinnen ein Framework für die Verbindung von Nutzern in gemeinsamen Instanzen bieten, die räumliche Sprachkommunikation, Cloud-basiertes Asset-Management, persistente Szenen und ein gemeinsames Avatar-System unterstützen. Während der Dienst primär auf immersive Anwendungen ausgerichtet ist, kann er auch nicht-immersive Zugangspunkte wie Webbrowser oder Smartphones unterstützen.

(Quelle: Road to VR)

Der Beitrag Microsoft & Niantic zeigen Pokémon Go auf HoloLens 2 zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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Microsoft & Niantic zeigen Pokémon Go auf HoloLens 2

Tower Tag auf Steam

Eventuell könnte es sich zukünftig mit Pokémon Go tatsächlich so anfühlen, als würden wir gemeinsam mit den unterschiedlichsten Pokémon auf diesem Planenten leben. Ermöglicht könnte dies mit AR-Brille wie der HoloLens 2 und Microsoft Mesh werden.

Microsoft & Niantic zeigen Pokémon Go auf HoloLens 2

Um zu demonstrieren, was mit Microsoft Mesh möglich ist, hat Niantic gemeinsam mit Microsoft einen Prototypen gebaut, der eine Multiplayer-Version von Pokémon Go für die HoloLens 2 darstellt. Microsoft betont hierbei, dass es sich nur um einen Prototypen handelt und nicht um eine Version die für Konsumenten.

Microsoft Mesh

Microsoft Mesh ist ein neuer Cloud-Service von Microsoft, welcher die Erstellung und Nutzung von XR-Anwendungen für mehrere Personen vereinfachen soll. Das Tool wird Entwicklern und Entwicklerinnen ein Framework für die Verbindung von Nutzern in gemeinsamen Instanzen bieten, die räumliche Sprachkommunikation, Cloud-basiertes Asset-Management, persistente Szenen und ein gemeinsames Avatar-System unterstützen. Während der Dienst primär auf immersive Anwendungen ausgerichtet ist, kann er auch nicht-immersive Zugangspunkte wie Webbrowser oder Smartphones unterstützen.

(Quelle: Road to VR)

Der Beitrag Microsoft & Niantic zeigen Pokémon Go auf HoloLens 2 zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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Microsoft Mesh to Enable Shared Experiences Across XR Platforms

Microsoft Mesh

Today see’s the start of Microsoft Ignite, its online virtual event which has started with an XR bang. Taking to AltspaceVR’s virtual stage was Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman to announce Microsoft Mesh, its new mixed-reality (MR) platform which aims to make shared holographic experiences effortless across multiple devices.

Microsoft Mesh

Showcasing Mesh by hosting the keynote in the social app, Kipman welcomed various speakers including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, director James Cameron, Niantic CEO John Hanke and Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberté as viewers tuned in from around the world, in both VR and via other devices.

The platform is powered by Microsoft Azure, its cloud-computing service, benefiting from its enterprise-grade security and privacy features. The core focus of Microsoft Mesh is to enable multi-user XR, where companies and consumers can take a device with a Mesh-enabled application and swap ideas, learn or simply socialise. It’ll support 3D models for users to interact with, whilst a full suite of AI-powered tools will enable avatar creation. spatial rendering and more.

“This has been the dream for mixed reality, the idea from the very beginning,” said Kipman in a blog post. “You can actually feel like you’re in the same place with someone sharing content or you can teleport from different mixed reality devices and be present with people even when you’re not physically together.”

Microsoft Ignite, Alex Kipman and John Hanke
Alex Kipman and John Hanke at Microsoft Ignite

“Our part of this is the work of stitching the digital and physical worlds together, connecting the bits and atoms so these experiences can be possible using the Niantic platform,” Hanke said. “But social connections are really at the heart of everything we do, and Microsoft Mesh innovations just enrich that.”

Microsoft Mesh will work on HoloLens 2, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus headsets, PCs, Macs and smartphones so its not restricted to one particular platform. While an official launch date has yet to be confirmed, a collaborative preview of the Microsoft Mesh app for HoloLens is available and access can be requested for a new version of Mesh enabled AltspaceVR. Eventually, Mesh will be integrated within Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

As further details are released for Microsoft Mesh, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Watch: Pokemon Go HoloLens Demo Uses Microsoft Mesh For Multiplayer Battles

Microsoft and Niantic demonstrated a Pokemon Go HoloLens demo at Microsoft Ignite today.

Alex Kipman, Technical Fellow for HoloLens, was joined virtually on-stage by Niantic CEO John Hanke who hinted at a multiplayer battle alongside product marketing manager Veronica Saron. The video featured a number of different Pokemon hanging out in the real world in a way that went far beyond what’s currently possible with the smartphone-based game. This demo was purely proof of concept; Microsoft made it clear this doesn’t represent a consumer product at this stage. Check out the video below.

The demo was designed to showcase Microsoft Mesh, the company’s new platform for building multi-user online experiences that work across HoloLens and a variety of other devices. We got to try out the platform last week and came away impressed with the possibilities. In the case of Pokemon Go — which doesn’t yet have a native app on HoloLens — it allows players to battle online across the world as if they’re in the same space.

Pokemon Go HoloLens

It’s an exciting development, though AR headsets like HoloLens are still too expensive and too limited for full consumer adoption. A Mesh-powered Pokemon Go on a future consumer-oriented version of HoloLens would be an incredible draw and it is hard not to see the demos as a hint that Microsoft knows that’s the direction it should be headed.

Hanke also appeared alongside James Cameron to talk about a new collaboration with OceanX to produce a ‘holographic laboratory’ for the OceanXplorer research and exploration vessel that users from around the world could visit remotely.

Mesh will be rolling out in a preview phase first as Microsoft continues to add more features to the platform.

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Microsoft Mesh Brings Incredible AR Multiplayer To HoloLens

With Microsoft Mesh, HoloLens finally goes fully online.

If you have any experience in VRChat, Spatial, Rec Room, AltspaceVR or other social and collaborative VR platforms, the core of Microsoft Mesh might not seem immediately exciting to you. VR has enjoyed multi-user collaboration, socializing and gaming for years now, what exactly makes it so much more exciting in AR?

I had the same reservations going into demo Mesh last week. But, with a HoloLens 2 on my head, those reservations disappeared almost immediately.

Mesh is Microsoft’s new framework for multi-user immersive reality experiences across a range of platforms. It consists of a set of tools developers can use to implement support into existing applications or build new ones. At the core of it is the long-awaited ability for multiple HoloLens users to connect across the world and interact with the same virtual assets. We’ve seen HoloLens used for same-room collaboration and some limited online functionality in the past but, with Mesh, Microsoft is taking the next step.

So, for example, I trialed a collaboration app named Fenix that came with many of the features you’ve come to expect from social VR apps. Along with other members of the press, I could import 3D assets into the space, pass them off to other users or pinch my fingers to draw Tilt Brush-style lines with hand-tracking. A 3D render of a HoloLens 2 sat on top of a table I could anchor to a physical space. I could pinch the model with both hands, resize it, place it over my head, then slot it over a 3D model of the moon I’d imported to the scene. Moving the table itself also moved other avatar’s positions along with it, allowing me to find space for everyone else in my environment.

Again, all fairly familiar concepts, right? What isn’t familiar, however, is just how extraordinary this feels inside HoloLens, which much of the friction of VR removed – AltspaceVR avatars all stood in my room, passing assets between each other with seamless intuition, as if we were all really standing next to each other. Because I’m no longer in VR, I can quickly grab my phone to check through other messages or maybe access a nearby PC should I need to. Even as a simple showcase, Fenix felt like a genuinely natural and incredibly useful extension of existing online collaboration tools – there’s even planned support to bring PC users in via webcam.

Microsoft Mesh Capture (2)

Yes there’s the usual restrictions with hardware limitations (and, notably, Microsoft’s promotional materials still don’t realistically represent HoloLens 2’s limited field of view). But, with Mesh integrated, HoloLens starts to shed of some its early prototype stigma and embrace its full potential as a collaborative production tool — and Microsoft says the device is being adopted for production tasks in greater numbers. Obviously VR has its own benefits when it comes to collaboration, and that’s why Microsoft says Mesh isn’t limited to just HoloLens. Director of Mixed Reality Greg Sullivan name-dropped Oculus when talking about compatible devices and confirmed smartphone support was coming too.

Microsoft plans to roll Mesh out in preview at first, gradually adding new features for developers to integrate, including new tools for avatars.

There’s early plans for app integration too. You can request access to a Mesh-enabled version of AltspaceVR, for example, that integrates many of the new features into the social VR platform. Perhaps more excitingly, among other partners at today’s Ignite developer conference, Niantic demonstrated multiplayer Pokemon Go battles running on Mesh in a non-consumer concept demo, though it does make one wonder why Microsoft chose to shut down Minecraft World before introducing what could have been a crucial new feature.

Granted we’re still a ways off from something like Mesh having a truly big impact on consumer AR, mostly because of the limitations of that platform itself. Multiplayer Pokemon Go in full AR is a tantalizing concept, but HoloLens remains an enterprise-focused product that’s too expensive and simply not ready for consumer adoption, and Microsoft isn’t talking about the next steps in that area at Ignite today.

With Mesh, it feels like Microsoft just made a big leap to living up to HoloLens’ full potential and, along with it, the future of spatial computing.

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Microsoft Announces Mesh, a Foundation for Building Multi-user XR Applications

Today during the Microsoft Ignite developer conference, the company announced Mesh, a new cloud-based service which Microsoft says will streamline the creation of multi-user XR applications.

Soon to be offered under Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing arm, Mesh is a foundation for building multi-user XR applications. The tool will offer developers a framework for connecting users into shared instances which support spatial voice communication, cloud-based asset management, persistent scenes, and a common avatar system. While the service is primarily geared toward immersive applications, it can also support non-immersive access points like web browsers or smartphones.

The company compared Mesh to Xbox Live, which functioned as a toolkit for building networked multiplayer games in the early days of online multiplayer on Xbox. Like Xbox Live, Mesh is designed to accelerate the development of multi-user XR applications by providing ready-made solutions for common needs, like networking, spatial voice communication, and object synchronization & interactivity.

Fortunately, Microsoft says that Mesh will be a platform independent service, meaning developers that take advantage of it will still be able to distribute their applications wherever they’d like (be that on Steam, Oculus, HoloLens, or elsewhere).

To demonstrate its capabilities, the company has created a Microsoft Mesh demo application which will be available through the Microsoft Store. The application functions like a collaborative virtual workspace where users can come together to view, discuss, and annotate shared 3D assets. Users inside the app are represented by the Mesh avatar system which allows for avatar customizations to be shared between Mesh-enabled applications.

Image courtesy Microsoft

One such application is Altspace, Microsoft’s social VR app. The company says it has rebuilt the app to take advantage of Mesh, including the Mesh avatar system. That means if you change your avatar in Altspace, you’ll see the same changes seamlessly synchronized to the Microsoft Mesh example app as well. Microsoft says it plans to build Mesh-enabled immersive capabilities into Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365 services as well.

Microsoft seized the opportunity to show off the new Mesh-enabled Altspace by hosting the Microsoft Ignite keynote fully in virtual reality for the first time, allowing users from around the world to connect remotely to see the immersive event live. During the virtual keynote, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Technical Fellow Alex Kipman appeared as high resolution scans of themselves while making the presentation.

Image courtesy Microsoft

We don’t know yet exactly when Microsoft Mesh will become available to developers, nor what the pricing model will be, though we’ve reached out to the company for additional information.

The post Microsoft Announces Mesh, a Foundation for Building Multi-user XR Applications appeared first on Road to VR.