Kinect is dead. Meet Microsoft's HoloLens

[Murphy245]

The guy is a good salesman but behind the smoke and mirrors i didnt find it that impressive,the UI was very clunky and i cant really see a use for it outside of gaming,you could have built that quadcopter twice as fast with a mouse,also theres no way that thing would have flown so perfectly that easily,neither would it have printed out the motors that powered it but i get that it was just a proof of concept.

[EclecticGroove]

The guy is a good salesman but behind the smoke and mirrors i didnt find it that impressive,the UI was very clunky and i cant really see a use for it outside of gaming,you could have built that quadcopter twice as fast with a mouse,also theres no way that thing would have flown so perfectly that easily,neither would it have printed out the motors that powered it but i get that it was just a proof of concept.

What I've actually heard from people that sat behind the dev units was pretty damned impressive. The UI itself I agree is a bit clunky. But it looks like they have just sort of plopped some windows applications inside and called it a day for now. It really lacks some polish to make it seem like it's own thing. But all that takes is a bit of time to clean up. The core functionality of it seems pretty awesome.

The reviews I've seen of it were still test units, requiring an umbilical for power, and manual calibration/setup of some things. So I'd be more worried about the actual usable battery life they can get out of such a small device.

The processing power needed for everything it's doing, if it isn't just streaming the data from a PC or another device, would not be the most power friendly stuff around.

[Murphy245]

What I've actually heard from people that sat behind the dev units was pretty damned impressive. The UI itself I agree is a bit clunky. But it looks like they have just sort of plopped some windows applications inside and called it a day for now. It really lacks some polish to make it seem like it's own thing. But all that takes is a bit of time to clean up. The core functionality of it seems pretty awesome.

The reviews I've seen of it were still test units, requiring an umbilical for power, and manual calibration/setup of some things. So I'd be more worried about the actual usable battery life they can get out of such a small device.

The processing power needed for everything it's doing, if it isn't just streaming the data from a PC or another device, would not be the most power friendly stuff around.

Seems like they got the hardware right but not the software,thats the main stumbling block for this kind of tech,i dont think people want to be shouting commands or pointing into thin air ,some new thinking is needed to give it mass market appeal.

[EclecticGroove]

Seems like they got the hardware right but not the software,thats the main stumbling block for this kind of tech,i dont think people want to be shouting commands or pointing into thin air ,some new thinking is needed to give it mass market appeal.

Sure. But from a "using just the device" standpoint, it makes sense to do so.
Just like the kinect. As a device, using it and ONLY it as a control scheme is pretty lousy. But when you add it's functionality to a controller or a kb/m it becomes a hell of a lot better.

This would be the same way. Once others get ahold of it, they will integrate it with other things to do what they want, they won't limit it to just controlling within the device itself.

[TmEE]

Holy schit ! This is fantastic ~~~

[vintagegamecrazy]

This is very cool to watch but seems a bit far out on the horizon so far. It seems like it's more work than it's worth at this point when this can all be done on a powerful PC right now but I could see this catching on in the years to come but it will take time for the consumer to get used to it.

[Obviously]

One of the things with the Occulus Rift is most people completely dismiss the thing until they actually try it. I think the same will be true here. Once it's ready for retail they need to get demo models into stores and such. Convince people it's cool and they need it and they'll buy it.

[Gogogadget]

Someone was telling me the Oculus Rift is pointless and stupid, but then he has a Wii U so what does he know. Nothing.

Rift is pretty cool tbh.

[j_factor]

Cool-looking technology is no guarantee of market success, or even an actual release. I'll believe it when I see it.

[Benjamin]

This looks familiar...

segavr3.jpg

I don't find this terribly impressive. HoloLens has the augmented reality we saw from the previous console generation mixed with clunky Kinect gestures. As someone who believes that the vast majority of users have no actual interest in wearable tech -- whether its Google Glass or Oculus Rift or whatever -- I can only hope for Microsoft's sake that this isn't going to be a huge platform push for the company and for Windows 10.

[EclecticGroove]

This looks familiar...

segavr3.jpg

I don't find this terribly impressive. HoloLens has the augmented reality we saw from the previous console generation mixed with clunky Kinect gestures. As someone who believes that the vast majority of users have no actual interest in wearable tech -- whether its Google Glass or Oculus Rift or whatever -- I can only hope for Microsoft's sake that this isn't going to be a huge platform push for the company and for Windows 10.

While I think the name is misleading, from the demo's I've seen so far, it's a far cry from the "same" AR we've been seeing. All those are basically clumsy overlays on top of a what amounts to a video feed. This looks to be something far more immersive as it's actually displaying it as part of your "live" vision, not a screen being displayed a la the rift.

Which is part of what I wonder about in terms of how "real" it actually looks. If the visor part is actually fully transparent, and this stuff is displayed onto it, does it actually look like it's there to you as a user? Or is it always a bit transparent?

If it can successfully give the impression of the objects being "there", then it's going to be damned interesting.
The clunky kinect controls are something most would replace/append with a controller or KB/m. That would only leave a few "base" things being used to control it (like launching apps, etc.

In general I think most wearable tech is also a fad, but I think it's mostly because it tends to be finding solutions to problems people don't really have.
But at some point they will be able to make this kind of thing much smaller and long lasting (more akin to google glass) and it might get more exposure then since it won't be such an obtrusive and clunky looking device.

But gotta go through these devices first before we can get to the better ones.

[SEGA.GENESIS1989]

On a related note .... but not really ...

Microsoft is developing eyeglasses that detect emotions in others

URL link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...062576?cmp=rss

Microsoft has received a patent to develop eyeglasses that could allow us to see what other people are thinking or feeling by sensing their emotions.The patent is for what the technology giant calls "a wearable emotion detection feedback system."

"Basically it's a pair of glasses that can tell whether the people around you are happy or sad, friendly or unfriendly, excited or calm … just by looking at them" said On The Coast technology expert Dan Misener.

The emotion-sensing glasses also claim to be able to tell if someone is flirting.

The spectacles are regular see-through glasses that have cameras and microphones built into them.

When you're looking at someone, the sensors measure the person's facial features and where their eyes are focussed, while the microphone measures speech patterns and rhythm.

That information is then sent to Microsoft in real time, and compared against databases of facial and audio patterns.

Microsoft's servers then crunch the data, and send back an analysis to whoever is wearing the glasses.

"To be clear, this is a patent application," said Misener.

"We don't know if this will turn into a product that you or I could go out and buy in the store. And Microsoft isn't saying."

This type of technology could be helpful for those on the autism spectrum.

But some say it should be approached with caution.

"Technology companies who are working in this area really need to consider the context of what they're putting out there and what is the need and the emotional state of the person who is using it," said Scott Smith, a futurist with the research and consulting group Changeist.

There are also privacy considerations and Smith worries that in the rush to commercialize emotional technology, there is a risk in trivializing real human emotion.

[Da_Shocker]

We just need to get something that could read your thoughts and turn them into commands but I do like this headset. I just wanna know what the price and the battery life is going to be like.

[EclecticGroove]

We just need to get something that could read your thoughts and turn them into commands but I do like this headset. I just wanna know what the price and the battery life is going to be like.

There are a few things that do stuff like that already, but not for gaming, and still pretty primitive. They just recognize certain bits of neural activity associated with a given command and will respond to it. So you teach it "this is what my brain does when I say do ____" and then it learns and adapts and eventually can do what was desired.

[Pixelepsy]

We just need to get something that could read your thoughts and turn them into commands but I do like this headset.

I know technology will eventually reach that point, but honestly it scares the shit out of me.

As far as this goes, it seems like it could be impressive but until it's released and supported it doesn't mean much as far as your average person / gamer is concerned. Many, many awesome ideas have been proposed and never implemented due to the market not being able to support it over the years, and until this is somewhat mainstream that's all it is to me.