10 ms·

Hololens pre-orders starting tomorrow, ships in 30 days

190 points by atilimcetin 11y ago

spyder 11y ago
If it still has that very small FOV then I cannot see why anybody would buy it for that high price. https://www.google.hu/search?q=hololens+fov&tbm=isch https://www.google.hu/search?q=hololens+fov&tbm=isch
- detaro 11y ago
  I really hope they fix that before general availability. But that probably is part of the reason why we are only seeing a limited developer release right now, especially since they'd compete with already more established VR solutions.
- fsloth 11y ago
  It's not necessarily for home users. It should be damn good for providing professionals a task specific hud. Think of architects surveying a construction yard where the the virtual model is laid over the construction work.
  - kefka 11y ago
    With their current implementation of IR laser structured light, your architect is only going to go to the construction yard at night, and have to turn the sodium lights off. This to me, is a much bigger failure point with the way the Hololens is implemented. It's also a great deal harder to fix. (Mainly, they need a visual SLAM on stereo-cameras, similar to what we've been hearing about the MagicLeap.)
- partiallypro 11y ago
  It's a devkit, not for general release. Microsoft has already addressed why the FoV is narrow, and it has to do with battery life and power needed to process the scene. So the wider FoV will come when battery tech and processing power catch-up. I've used a Hololens, yes the FoV is off-putting, but the technology itself is incredible. If I had $3K to throw around, or if I were a big enterprise looking to invest for various research using Hololens, I'd say it would be worth it.
  - ultramancool 11y ago
    > battery tech > catch-up So... never?
Eupolemos 11y ago
Whoever wrote that piece need a serious spanking. My mind is just blown with the possibilities of a software-layer on our real world, slowly growing from this initial piece of hardware. I want to be a part of this. And then they put THAT picture, with the selling-point being games, 3D tours and Skype. This is just horrible. Do they even care?
- blisterpeanuts 11y ago
  Not to mention the shallow, trollish comments following the article. But then, I suppose a publication that calls itself "MS Power User" is going to have a bit of a rah-rah cheerleader tinge.
- rch 11y ago
  My impression was that they were overselling, if anything.
leeoniya 11y ago
> As expected, the development edition will come with Skype which will allow users to “interact in the holographic world” will it _require_ Skype?
therein 11y ago
> HoloLens Developer Edition will be available for $3000. Wow. I'm a 23 year old Software Engineer living in the Bay Area and making six figures. I have plenty of disposable income yet I still find this expensive. If they aren't targeting me, who are they targeting? I don't think a senior executive at an Investment Banking firm will develop apps for their prototype in his free time.
- yxlx 11y ago
  Probably they are targeting companies.
- Jonnerz 11y ago
  Check you out! They must be targeting businesses? It is a Developer Edition after all.
- supercoder 11y ago
  Agencies, game companies etc. The price point is designed to stop people like yourself grabbing it thinking it's going to be a full experience day 1. But it's cheap enough where anyone who'll be in the position to develop anything of quality to grab it without thinking twice.
  - eitally 11y ago
    This is still a bad method of distribution. It would make a lot more sense to make the hardware free but require an application process to purchase them (along the lines of how Google is managing distribution of the Glass v2.0... which likely almost no one actually knows much about).
  - monk_e_boy 11y ago
    This. Games companies who are spending $100K a year for a single developer isn't going to be worried about $3K for a holo lens.
- swalsh 11y ago
  I think you're the target market as a software engineer, not as a young dude with disposable income. $3000 as a business expense is small, it's the opportunity to build an app for a platform early. If it becomes something larger, then it was a great investment. Of course like all new bets, its risky. Anyone who bought into google glass early sunk with the ship.
praeivis 11y ago
>HoloTour which will offer “users 360-degree panoramic displays of places like Rome and Machu Picchu. For $3000 now days you can visit half the world.
axx 11y ago
It's clear that Microsoft is not targeting the same audience as Oculus and HTC. 3000 USD for a developer edition is a bold statement. I guess hololens will "fail". A few big companies will buy them and develop random software to impress clients. But i'm pretty sure we will not see much else.
kefka 11y ago
Hmm. I thought they canceled this project. When I demoed it months ago, it was so not ready for primetime. The AR area was pathetic, and it used IR lasers for scanning. The AR area is self-explanatory: when the size is not much bigger than a postage stamp, your project makes a great tech demo, and a really shitty customer product. The IR laser is problematic in multiple ways: 1. If it's the same module as found on the kinect, it's a 90mW laser, which is a hell of a lot of power on a battery platform. Expect much reduced power in scanning mode. 2. IR means the device is useless outdoors and near windows. Think of anyplace where the Kinect fails: so too will this. I'd pay $1000 for this, not the $3k they're asking. The tech just isn't there. I just hope this doesn't cause an AR desolation in the community the way VR had done for 10 years.
- sgift 11y ago
  > I'd pay $1000 for this, not the $3k they're asking. The tech just isn't there. I just hope this doesn't cause an AR desolation in the community the way VR had done for 10 years. reply And so the high price works exactly as intended. Microsoft KNOWS that this isn't ready for prime-time, so they put this price tag on it to make sure that it isn't buyed by someone just enthusiastic who is then dismayed when it is "not ready for prime-time" (as advertised!). They've stated multiple times that this is the reason for the price tag.
  - kefka 11y ago
    Cost is only a part of the problems with this platform. IR scanning is inherently erroneous. I simply can't be: 1. Outside 2. Near windows 3. Near IR flood sources 4. Reflective/glass areas It just doesn't work on any of those areas. That's the huge unsolvable problem with this platform. And no, frequency shifting to a different wavelength still has the same problems (the sun is a great wideband emitter). Even if their platform was brought to the best their hardware could bear, it still would fail. EDIT: For those of you giving -1's, how about you comment and explain why you are doing so. I'm providing a technical argument why this platform will fail, based on my experiences with this headset and my work in computer vision.
    - 11y ago
hoodoof 11y ago
I think Microsoft has bet on the wrong horse. When I play games I want to get OUT of my reality. I don't want every game being painted onto my lounge room. It might be a great experience if you have a lounge room as stylish and clean and spacious as Bill Gates or Satya Nadella, but I have a small cluttered lounge room and I have no interest in playing games projected into that reality. I'm holding a fistful of dollars which I am trying to throw at Sony as soon as they'll take it from me for immersive VR.
- obj-g 11y ago
  Have you seen the film Her? The game he plays in his living room looked great. I think, just like watching a movie at home, it's fairly easy to get immersed and "lose yourself" if it's engaging. Not that I'm uninterested in something totally immersive like you mean, just think there's room for both.
- sz4kerto 11y ago
  I think this targets a completely different use case. It is not VR, it's AR -- enriching your environment vs. replacing it. Gaming is probably better in VR, but AR may be better when you want to interact with others in the same room (for example, when designing an object), or if you need some help with a real-life object (during an operation, etc.).
  - hoodoof 11y ago
    So where is Microsoft's VR play? VR is becoming huge and so far they have no product in the game.
    - ryoshu 11y ago
      Cover the camera and you have VR.
    - GFischer 11y ago
      Most industry pundits believe AR will eventually supersede VR: "Mobile is the next phase of VR, and augmented reality, also known as mixed reality, is the third phase, said (Piper Jaffray analyst Gene) Munster." http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/07/welcome-to-the-future-virtual-reality-at-ces.html http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/07/welcome-to-the-future-virtual...
nkoren 11y ago
Hololens really does sound like an absolutely extraordinary and revolutionary product. I'm genuinely excited to try it. ...And then I see mention of Skype, which is a product that -- since its acquisition by Microsoft -- has gone steadily downhill in terms of its form, functionality, stability, security, and essentially every other metric. It's hard to find anybody who doesn't loathe it. There's some serious cognitive dissonance in trying to contemplate Hololens and Skype simultaneously. Actually, I had the same reaction when Hololens was first announced. "OMG, the future is here! Thank you Microsoft!" I thought, and then immediately spent the next 6 hours tracking down an idiotic standards-compliance bug which existed in every version of Internet Explorer up until IE 11.[1] I could go on at some length, but suffice to say that I am routinely astonished by Microsoft's R&D capabilities, yet virtually every interaction I have with their actual software leaves me with a dire impression. (Except for Excel, which for some reason Just Works for me). So as much as I want to have high hopes for Hololens, I fear that crappy software will let it down. Please, Microsoft -- prove me wrong! 1: window.location.origin, if you really want to know.
- manojlds 11y ago
  Xbox and Kinect?
  - monk_e_boy 11y ago
    Kinect is really neat. It's hard to make it into a fun gaming device. I'm sure some people enjoy using it, but even for my 4 year old, he prefers a controller.
    - soylentcola 11y ago
      Kinect and similar depth cams really are neat but I think their potential won't be realized for a little while and selling an early one as a game controller belies that potential. With VR, I think work on depth cams and software to "stitch" together data streams from multiple devices will become very important. It's one of the only ways you can currently record and transmit (admittedly low-quality in current iterations) actual 3d video that can be viewed from any angle. When you look at early low quality webcams compared to digital video today, then apply that to something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghgbycqb92c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghgbycqb92c you can see how it opens up the possibility of real VR movies (not just pano) and even VR telepresence.
anc84 11y ago
Better source would be the copy of the original text at Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HoloLens/comments/484llx/microsoft_hololens_launch_games_apps_detailed/ https://www.reddit.com/r/HoloLens/comments/484llx/microsoft_...
snarfy 11y ago
> HoloLens Developer Edition will be available for $3000 Seems a bit steep. Hopefully this doesn't represent the retail price.
- jonknee 11y ago
  Since when does early dev kit pricing have anything to do with retail pricing?
hobo_mark 11y ago
Isn't Meta supposed to launch its new thing on the same day, and cost an order of magnitude less? https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble/posts/10153929292124655 https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble/posts/1015392929212465...
- michaelbuckbee 11y ago
  Looks like Wednesday: https://www.metavision.com https://www.metavision.com
nissimk 11y ago
I tried the hololens at the Microsoft store on fifth avenue. I got 3 five minute demos: a 3d modeling app, a wristwatch marketing presentation and the robots attack video game. The device is really quite amazing. Being wireless seems like a big deal to me. The limited field of view is certainly an issue, but seeing objects suspended in front of you is surreal and futuristic. With cardboard and oculus I got motion sickness. Holo lens didn't cause vertigo, but it made me feel like I had eye fatigue. I don't know a better way to describe it. The possibilities for these devices are amazing, I hope they live up to the expectation. To me the killer app for these would be football replays and extra overlays beyond TV.
- ElijahLynn 11y ago
  This. "The limited field of view is certainly an issue". I hope this is eliminated in future versions. The Epson Moverio has this issue too and it is very awkward seeing a rectangle of available AR. I haven't tried the Hololens yet but I hear it is still there. p.s. The Virtual Reality NYC meetup is actually hosted inside Microsoft each month. They have given any talks or demos on the Hololens since I have been going. I hope this will change with this announcement! http://www.meetup.com/Virtual-Reality-NYC/ http://www.meetup.com/Virtual-Reality-NYC/
  - soylentcola 11y ago
    I think the FOV limitations are a result of decisions made based on current tech capabilities. While I'm sure they could've made something with much wider FOV (and I believe earlier prototypes had this) it would mean being tethered to a more powerful computer or a bulkier/more expensive headset. When faced with this, it looks like they went with limited FOV in order to keep it standalone and relatively ergonomic. I think this makes sense because processing power and software will continue to improve and allow wider FOV with equally good performance. They just chose to keep the ergonomics and lower the FOV in these early units to keep performance good. With better chips and software, wider FOV will be akin to raising the resolution on a game when you get a new video card.
cm2187 11y ago
But isn't it a google glass with color?
- Klathmon 11y ago
  not even a little... Google Glass was a notification system that sits above-ish your one eye. Holo Lens is trying to be full AR.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
fsloth 11y ago
They seem to have a new football themed promo video up https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us Funny, they show football players, all I can see is future generals guiding their troops in the field with this.
zhte415 11y ago
I've a very strong vision of holoprojections. From sitting through numerous meetings with remote teams, where tele- or video-conferences just doesn't work. People lose focus, even through video interaction. How incredible would it to be to walk through an office and interact with colleagues, that simply aren't there (not an American Psycho reference. They are there, any you can see and talk to them in the physical whole, they're simple not _physically_ there). How would this change things? Initially, perhaps not a lot, 10 to 15 years out. Physical interaction would still be deemed prime. And this vision is sans-headset (office decoration firms get busy preparing multiple remote sites). Beyond that timeframe, would it be so normal to have a strong business relationship with someone never physically met? What would be the impact of 'hanging out' over lunch to develop relationships. That seems a bigger challenge. But to put that in perspective, it is only 400 years since Shakespeare's death, that's 10 generations of people that live until 40, or more realistically around 7 generations of hereditary lifespans where the youngest generation is in physical/educational contact with the eldest generation. That's not a long time for transfer of ideas for revolutionary ideas to happen. Will we all be on a tropical beach developing VR apps? No. Old nature dies hard. This is an augmentation, not a replacement.
hudibras 11y ago
The Minecraft Hololens demo from last year is pretty awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEL8XDQFrlI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEL8XDQFrlI
- frik 11y ago
  Yeah, but it was fake. The POV is very small and is a deal breaker: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195008 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195008
bruceb 11y ago
The most realistic part of the video was the instructor helping the woman fix the pipe under the sink. Not to over the top and actually useful. But for this plumbing task and similar tasks, it seems a cheaper headset could be made. Would be a great opportunity for lower cost, more focused product to be "good enough" instead of being overly ambitious but out of reach for most people.
- AndrewKemendo 11y ago
  more focused product to be "good enough" instead of being overly ambitious I don't think you appreciate how difficult that use case is and it ends up being the same level of difficulty as doing basically anything else in AR.
  - bruceb 11y ago
    You are right I am certainly no expert in AR (or VR) but seems having a person circle something on a screen is easier than projecting 3d images that you can manipulate?
    - AndrewKemendo 11y ago
      but seems having a person circle something on a screen is easier than projecting 3d images that you can manipulate? Well it is, that's basically what ScopeAR does, but they use 3D based markers and animated objects. The Hololens video however is showing that the new element (circle something) is being "glued" to the object without a specific image tag - which means you have to have both an accurate scan of the environment and 3D object glued to it. Very hard to do.
megaman821 11y ago
The Hololens technology looks really exciting. I can't wait for a consumer version. That said, this release looks like it is analogous to the Oculus Rift dev kit, we are years away from a consumer version. On the positive side, most the shortcomings of the device look like that can be solved with a little bit of time. The field-of-view will improve with processing power and battery life, and room scanning and tracking will improve with a cheaper and smaller sensors.
sciurus 11y ago
Better link: https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2016/02/29/announcing-microsoft-hololens-development-edition-open-for-pre-order-shipping-march-30 https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2016/02/29/announcing-micr...
jordache 11y ago
where are the realistic demos? I only see polished marketing commercials...
dolguldur 11y ago
Does anyone know the resolution? There doesn't seem to be any numbers out, but roughly, it's very much likely less than 4K, probably 1080p and not too unlikely less, right?!
joe563323 11y ago
Stupid Windows always asks to update and resets all the apps to defaults(i.e its own apps). It will be much worse and more irritating if microsoft wins in this space. Fc* you Microsoft.

190 points by atilimcetin 11y ago

If it still has that very small FOV then I cannot see why anybody would buy it for that high price. https://www.google.hu/search?q=hololens+fov&tbm=isch https://www.google.hu/search?q=hololens+fov&tbm=isch

detaro 11y ago
I really hope they fix that before general availability. But that probably is part of the reason why we are only seeing a limited developer release right now, especially since they'd compete with already more established VR solutions.
fsloth 11y ago
It's not necessarily for home users. It should be damn good for providing professionals a task specific hud. Think of architects surveying a construction yard where the the virtual model is laid over the construction work.
- kefka 11y ago
  With their current implementation of IR laser structured light, your architect is only going to go to the construction yard at night, and have to turn the sodium lights off. This to me, is a much bigger failure point with the way the Hololens is implemented. It's also a great deal harder to fix. (Mainly, they need a visual SLAM on stereo-cameras, similar to what we've been hearing about the MagicLeap.)
partiallypro 11y ago
It's a devkit, not for general release. Microsoft has already addressed why the FoV is narrow, and it has to do with battery life and power needed to process the scene. So the wider FoV will come when battery tech and processing power catch-up. I've used a Hololens, yes the FoV is off-putting, but the technology itself is incredible. If I had $3K to throw around, or if I were a big enterprise looking to invest for various research using Hololens, I'd say it would be worth it.
- ultramancool 11y ago
  > battery tech > catch-up So... never?

Eupolemos 11y ago

Whoever wrote that piece need a serious spanking. My mind is just blown with the possibilities of a software-layer on our real world, slowly growing from this initial piece of hardware. I want to be a part of this. And then they put THAT picture, with the selling-point being games, 3D tours and Skype. This is just horrible. Do they even care?

blisterpeanuts 11y ago
Not to mention the shallow, trollish comments following the article. But then, I suppose a publication that calls itself "MS Power User" is going to have a bit of a rah-rah cheerleader tinge.
rch 11y ago
My impression was that they were overselling, if anything.

leeoniya 11y ago

> As expected, the development edition will come with Skype which will allow users to “interact in the holographic world” will it _require_ Skype?

therein 11y ago

> HoloLens Developer Edition will be available for $3000. Wow. I'm a 23 year old Software Engineer living in the Bay Area and making six figures. I have plenty of disposable income yet I still find this expensive. If they aren't targeting me, who are they targeting? I don't think a senior executive at an Investment Banking firm will develop apps for their prototype in his free time.

yxlx 11y ago
Probably they are targeting companies.
Jonnerz 11y ago
Check you out! They must be targeting businesses? It is a Developer Edition after all.
supercoder 11y ago
Agencies, game companies etc. The price point is designed to stop people like yourself grabbing it thinking it's going to be a full experience day 1. But it's cheap enough where anyone who'll be in the position to develop anything of quality to grab it without thinking twice.
- eitally 11y ago
  This is still a bad method of distribution. It would make a lot more sense to make the hardware free but require an application process to purchase them (along the lines of how Google is managing distribution of the Glass v2.0... which likely almost no one actually knows much about).
- monk_e_boy 11y ago
  This. Games companies who are spending $100K a year for a single developer isn't going to be worried about $3K for a holo lens.
swalsh 11y ago
I think you're the target market as a software engineer, not as a young dude with disposable income. $3000 as a business expense is small, it's the opportunity to build an app for a platform early. If it becomes something larger, then it was a great investment. Of course like all new bets, its risky. Anyone who bought into google glass early sunk with the ship.

praeivis 11y ago

>HoloTour which will offer “users 360-degree panoramic displays of places like Rome and Machu Picchu. For $3000 now days you can visit half the world.

axx 11y ago

It's clear that Microsoft is not targeting the same audience as Oculus and HTC. 3000 USD for a developer edition is a bold statement. I guess hololens will "fail". A few big companies will buy them and develop random software to impress clients. But i'm pretty sure we will not see much else.

kefka 11y ago

Hmm. I thought they canceled this project. When I demoed it months ago, it was so not ready for primetime. The AR area was pathetic, and it used IR lasers for scanning. The AR area is self-explanatory: when the size is not much bigger than a postage stamp, your project makes a great tech demo, and a really shitty customer product. The IR laser is problematic in multiple ways: 1. If it's the same module as found on the kinect, it's a 90mW laser, which is a hell of a lot of power on a battery platform. Expect much reduced power in scanning mode. 2. IR means the device is useless outdoors and near windows. Think of anyplace where the Kinect fails: so too will this. I'd pay $1000 for this, not the $3k they're asking. The tech just isn't there. I just hope this doesn't cause an AR desolation in the community the way VR had done for 10 years.

sgift 11y ago
> I'd pay $1000 for this, not the $3k they're asking. The tech just isn't there. I just hope this doesn't cause an AR desolation in the community the way VR had done for 10 years. reply And so the high price works exactly as intended. Microsoft KNOWS that this isn't ready for prime-time, so they put this price tag on it to make sure that it isn't buyed by someone just enthusiastic who is then dismayed when it is "not ready for prime-time" (as advertised!). They've stated multiple times that this is the reason for the price tag.
- kefka 11y ago
  Cost is only a part of the problems with this platform. IR scanning is inherently erroneous. I simply can't be: 1. Outside 2. Near windows 3. Near IR flood sources 4. Reflective/glass areas It just doesn't work on any of those areas. That's the huge unsolvable problem with this platform. And no, frequency shifting to a different wavelength still has the same problems (the sun is a great wideband emitter). Even if their platform was brought to the best their hardware could bear, it still would fail. EDIT: For those of you giving -1's, how about you comment and explain why you are doing so. I'm providing a technical argument why this platform will fail, based on my experiences with this headset and my work in computer vision.
  - 11y ago

hoodoof 11y ago

I think Microsoft has bet on the wrong horse. When I play games I want to get OUT of my reality. I don't want every game being painted onto my lounge room. It might be a great experience if you have a lounge room as stylish and clean and spacious as Bill Gates or Satya Nadella, but I have a small cluttered lounge room and I have no interest in playing games projected into that reality. I'm holding a fistful of dollars which I am trying to throw at Sony as soon as they'll take it from me for immersive VR.

obj-g 11y ago
Have you seen the film Her? The game he plays in his living room looked great. I think, just like watching a movie at home, it's fairly easy to get immersed and "lose yourself" if it's engaging. Not that I'm uninterested in something totally immersive like you mean, just think there's room for both.
sz4kerto 11y ago
I think this targets a completely different use case. It is not VR, it's AR -- enriching your environment vs. replacing it. Gaming is probably better in VR, but AR may be better when you want to interact with others in the same room (for example, when designing an object), or if you need some help with a real-life object (during an operation, etc.).
- hoodoof 11y ago
  So where is Microsoft's VR play? VR is becoming huge and so far they have no product in the game.
  - ryoshu 11y ago
    Cover the camera and you have VR.
  - GFischer 11y ago
    Most industry pundits believe AR will eventually supersede VR: "Mobile is the next phase of VR, and augmented reality, also known as mixed reality, is the third phase, said (Piper Jaffray analyst Gene) Munster." http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/07/welcome-to-the-future-virtual-reality-at-ces.html http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/07/welcome-to-the-future-virtual...

nkoren 11y ago

Hololens really does sound like an absolutely extraordinary and revolutionary product. I'm genuinely excited to try it. ...And then I see mention of Skype, which is a product that -- since its acquisition by Microsoft -- has gone steadily downhill in terms of its form, functionality, stability, security, and essentially every other metric. It's hard to find anybody who doesn't loathe it. There's some serious cognitive dissonance in trying to contemplate Hololens and Skype simultaneously. Actually, I had the same reaction when Hololens was first announced. "OMG, the future is here! Thank you Microsoft!" I thought, and then immediately spent the next 6 hours tracking down an idiotic standards-compliance bug which existed in every version of Internet Explorer up until IE 11.[1] I could go on at some length, but suffice to say that I am routinely astonished by Microsoft's R&D capabilities, yet virtually every interaction I have with their actual software leaves me with a dire impression. (Except for Excel, which for some reason Just Works for me). So as much as I want to have high hopes for Hololens, I fear that crappy software will let it down. Please, Microsoft -- prove me wrong! 1: window.location.origin, if you really want to know.

manojlds 11y ago
Xbox and Kinect?
- monk_e_boy 11y ago
  Kinect is really neat. It's hard to make it into a fun gaming device. I'm sure some people enjoy using it, but even for my 4 year old, he prefers a controller.
  - soylentcola 11y ago
    Kinect and similar depth cams really are neat but I think their potential won't be realized for a little while and selling an early one as a game controller belies that potential. With VR, I think work on depth cams and software to "stitch" together data streams from multiple devices will become very important. It's one of the only ways you can currently record and transmit (admittedly low-quality in current iterations) actual 3d video that can be viewed from any angle. When you look at early low quality webcams compared to digital video today, then apply that to something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghgbycqb92c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghgbycqb92c you can see how it opens up the possibility of real VR movies (not just pano) and even VR telepresence.

anc84 11y ago

Better source would be the copy of the original text at Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HoloLens/comments/484llx/microsoft_hololens_launch_games_apps_detailed/ https://www.reddit.com/r/HoloLens/comments/484llx/microsoft_...

snarfy 11y ago

> HoloLens Developer Edition will be available for $3000 Seems a bit steep. Hopefully this doesn't represent the retail price.

jonknee 11y ago
Since when does early dev kit pricing have anything to do with retail pricing?

hobo_mark 11y ago

Isn't Meta supposed to launch its new thing on the same day, and cost an order of magnitude less? https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble/posts/10153929292124655 https://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble/posts/1015392929212465...

michaelbuckbee 11y ago
Looks like Wednesday: https://www.metavision.com https://www.metavision.com

nissimk 11y ago

I tried the hololens at the Microsoft store on fifth avenue. I got 3 five minute demos: a 3d modeling app, a wristwatch marketing presentation and the robots attack video game. The device is really quite amazing. Being wireless seems like a big deal to me. The limited field of view is certainly an issue, but seeing objects suspended in front of you is surreal and futuristic. With cardboard and oculus I got motion sickness. Holo lens didn't cause vertigo, but it made me feel like I had eye fatigue. I don't know a better way to describe it. The possibilities for these devices are amazing, I hope they live up to the expectation. To me the killer app for these would be football replays and extra overlays beyond TV.

ElijahLynn 11y ago
This. "The limited field of view is certainly an issue". I hope this is eliminated in future versions. The Epson Moverio has this issue too and it is very awkward seeing a rectangle of available AR. I haven't tried the Hololens yet but I hear it is still there. p.s. The Virtual Reality NYC meetup is actually hosted inside Microsoft each month. They have given any talks or demos on the Hololens since I have been going. I hope this will change with this announcement! http://www.meetup.com/Virtual-Reality-NYC/ http://www.meetup.com/Virtual-Reality-NYC/
- soylentcola 11y ago
  I think the FOV limitations are a result of decisions made based on current tech capabilities. While I'm sure they could've made something with much wider FOV (and I believe earlier prototypes had this) it would mean being tethered to a more powerful computer or a bulkier/more expensive headset. When faced with this, it looks like they went with limited FOV in order to keep it standalone and relatively ergonomic. I think this makes sense because processing power and software will continue to improve and allow wider FOV with equally good performance. They just chose to keep the ergonomics and lower the FOV in these early units to keep performance good. With better chips and software, wider FOV will be akin to raising the resolution on a game when you get a new video card.

cm2187 11y ago

But isn't it a google glass with color?

Klathmon 11y ago
not even a little... Google Glass was a notification system that sits above-ish your one eye. Holo Lens is trying to be full AR.

deleted 11y ago

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fsloth 11y ago

They seem to have a new football themed promo video up https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us Funny, they show football players, all I can see is future generals guiding their troops in the field with this.

zhte415 11y ago

I've a very strong vision of holoprojections. From sitting through numerous meetings with remote teams, where tele- or video-conferences just doesn't work. People lose focus, even through video interaction. How incredible would it to be to walk through an office and interact with colleagues, that simply aren't there (not an American Psycho reference. They are there, any you can see and talk to them in the physical whole, they're simple not _physically_ there). How would this change things? Initially, perhaps not a lot, 10 to 15 years out. Physical interaction would still be deemed prime. And this vision is sans-headset (office decoration firms get busy preparing multiple remote sites). Beyond that timeframe, would it be so normal to have a strong business relationship with someone never physically met? What would be the impact of 'hanging out' over lunch to develop relationships. That seems a bigger challenge. But to put that in perspective, it is only 400 years since Shakespeare's death, that's 10 generations of people that live until 40, or more realistically around 7 generations of hereditary lifespans where the youngest generation is in physical/educational contact with the eldest generation. That's not a long time for transfer of ideas for revolutionary ideas to happen. Will we all be on a tropical beach developing VR apps? No. Old nature dies hard. This is an augmentation, not a replacement.

hudibras 11y ago

The Minecraft Hololens demo from last year is pretty awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEL8XDQFrlI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEL8XDQFrlI

frik 11y ago
Yeah, but it was fake. The POV is very small and is a deal breaker: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195008 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195008

bruceb 11y ago

The most realistic part of the video was the instructor helping the woman fix the pipe under the sink. Not to over the top and actually useful. But for this plumbing task and similar tasks, it seems a cheaper headset could be made. Would be a great opportunity for lower cost, more focused product to be "good enough" instead of being overly ambitious but out of reach for most people.

AndrewKemendo 11y ago
more focused product to be "good enough" instead of being overly ambitious I don't think you appreciate how difficult that use case is and it ends up being the same level of difficulty as doing basically anything else in AR.
- bruceb 11y ago
  You are right I am certainly no expert in AR (or VR) but seems having a person circle something on a screen is easier than projecting 3d images that you can manipulate?
  - AndrewKemendo 11y ago
    but seems having a person circle something on a screen is easier than projecting 3d images that you can manipulate? Well it is, that's basically what ScopeAR does, but they use 3D based markers and animated objects. The Hololens video however is showing that the new element (circle something) is being "glued" to the object without a specific image tag - which means you have to have both an accurate scan of the environment and 3D object glued to it. Very hard to do.

megaman821 11y ago

The Hololens technology looks really exciting. I can't wait for a consumer version. That said, this release looks like it is analogous to the Oculus Rift dev kit, we are years away from a consumer version. On the positive side, most the shortcomings of the device look like that can be solved with a little bit of time. The field-of-view will improve with processing power and battery life, and room scanning and tracking will improve with a cheaper and smaller sensors.

sciurus 11y ago

Better link: https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2016/02/29/announcing-microsoft-hololens-development-edition-open-for-pre-order-shipping-march-30 https://blogs.windows.com/devices/2016/02/29/announcing-micr...

jordache 11y ago

where are the realistic demos? I only see polished marketing commercials...

dolguldur 11y ago

Does anyone know the resolution? There doesn't seem to be any numbers out, but roughly, it's very much likely less than 4K, probably 1080p and not too unlikely less, right?!

joe563323 11y ago

Stupid Windows always asks to update and resets all the apps to defaults(i.e its own apps). It will be much worse and more irritating if microsoft wins in this space. Fc* you Microsoft.