8 ms·

I played with Hololens at Build this week. I believe, after seeing it, using it, and even developing a little with it, that this device is truly revolutionary,

I played with Hololens at Build this week. I believe, after seeing it, using it, and even developing a little with it, that this device is truly revolutionary, and Google is wasting its money in Florida. I shook my head back and forth like a dog trying to dry itself off, and the images I saw barely wiggled. The images are bright enough to completely occlude reality. The software dev stuff is from MS, so it is polished, simple, and powerful. Voice recognition on the device, for example, is just handled by calling the voice functions in the core library, then GIVING IT A STRING. It listens for this plain text string. That's it. Sooooo simple and powerful.

deanCommie 11y ago
Alexa Skills kit voice recognition configuration is also done by just giving it a String. It's a wonderful time to be working on apps/APIs using voice recognition!
badsock 11y ago
What does Hololens do that Magic Leap doesn't? Information is very sparse, but I had the impression that the latter is a superset of the former.
- JabavuAdams 11y ago
  It exists and is available to developers?
  - badsock 11y ago
    First-mover is an advantage, sure, but it hardly means that anyone who isn't first to the gate is wasting their money. Anyway, I see downthread that VonGuard has made the silly claim that "Hololens can do everything Magic Leap is supposed to do", so I think it's safe to say that the "wasting money" thing is just a throwaway line that's not based on a lot of actual knowledge in the field. I feel kind of trolled.
    - VonGuard 11y ago
      All I will say is: try Hololens, then come back here and tell me it is lacking, dramatically. It's a VERY good device. Surprisingly good. I expected it to suck.
      - badsock 11y ago
        I think what's happened is that you meant "supposed to do" as in "it fills the need that ML was aiming at", and I took as "it has feature parity". The latter is clearly not true - ML is supposed to have a very wide FOV, handle the accomodation reflex, simulate occlusion, do depth of field, etc. - none of which Hololens can do.
  - Natanael_L 11y ago
    This one is available too, with 90° FOV: https://www.metavision.com https://www.metavision.com
spacecity1971 11y ago
So you've demoed Magic Leap? What differences did you see that would make it a waste of Google's money?
- VonGuard 11y ago
  Magic Leap is based on super complex tech that draws images right onto your retina. It's the kind of tech that will take them another couple of years to make small enough to package, and possibly another few years to build the tools to develop for it and to ensure it's not actually blinding people by shining bright lights right into their eye. A friend of mine used it and said Magic Leap, initially, is like trying to breath liquid oxygen in the Abyss: you fight it and can't really take that bright ass light shining in your eye. You have to really get used to it and relax yourself for it to work. Hololens is just a screen in front of your face. It could never blind you or hurt your eyes. It just works, it works today, it fits in a product form factor today, and after using it for a while, I really don't see much need for an also-ran here. Hololens can do everything Magic Leap is supposed to do, and it can do it a LOT cheaper and safer. Plus, MS dev tools. You just know that Google's Magic Leap dev kit will, basically, be targeted at super intelligent people and require a lot of do it yourself stuff.
  - tizzdogg 11y ago
    I havnt used either, but my impression was that Magic Leap's technology is basically projecting a light field into your eyes, so you eyes can actually focus naturally.. as opposed to looking at an image with fixed focal distance like the hololens. But I'm not super informed about either product so I could be wrong.
  - imh 11y ago
    Magic Leap apparently can draw things at more than one distance from you, unlike the hololens's fixed 2m away. That's a massive difference.
    - CyberAngel 11y ago
      Compared to the HoloLens ... 2 - Yes! There will be HoloLens 2 in the Magic Leap future 2020...???

deanCommie 11y ago

Alexa Skills kit voice recognition configuration is also done by just giving it a String. It's a wonderful time to be working on apps/APIs using voice recognition!

badsock 11y ago

What does Hololens do that Magic Leap doesn't? Information is very sparse, but I had the impression that the latter is a superset of the former.

JabavuAdams 11y ago
It exists and is available to developers?
- badsock 11y ago
  First-mover is an advantage, sure, but it hardly means that anyone who isn't first to the gate is wasting their money. Anyway, I see downthread that VonGuard has made the silly claim that "Hololens can do everything Magic Leap is supposed to do", so I think it's safe to say that the "wasting money" thing is just a throwaway line that's not based on a lot of actual knowledge in the field. I feel kind of trolled.
  - VonGuard 11y ago
    All I will say is: try Hololens, then come back here and tell me it is lacking, dramatically. It's a VERY good device. Surprisingly good. I expected it to suck.
    - badsock 11y ago
      I think what's happened is that you meant "supposed to do" as in "it fills the need that ML was aiming at", and I took as "it has feature parity". The latter is clearly not true - ML is supposed to have a very wide FOV, handle the accomodation reflex, simulate occlusion, do depth of field, etc. - none of which Hololens can do.
- Natanael_L 11y ago
  This one is available too, with 90° FOV: https://www.metavision.com https://www.metavision.com

spacecity1971 11y ago

So you've demoed Magic Leap? What differences did you see that would make it a waste of Google's money?

VonGuard 11y ago
Magic Leap is based on super complex tech that draws images right onto your retina. It's the kind of tech that will take them another couple of years to make small enough to package, and possibly another few years to build the tools to develop for it and to ensure it's not actually blinding people by shining bright lights right into their eye. A friend of mine used it and said Magic Leap, initially, is like trying to breath liquid oxygen in the Abyss: you fight it and can't really take that bright ass light shining in your eye. You have to really get used to it and relax yourself for it to work. Hololens is just a screen in front of your face. It could never blind you or hurt your eyes. It just works, it works today, it fits in a product form factor today, and after using it for a while, I really don't see much need for an also-ran here. Hololens can do everything Magic Leap is supposed to do, and it can do it a LOT cheaper and safer. Plus, MS dev tools. You just know that Google's Magic Leap dev kit will, basically, be targeted at super intelligent people and require a lot of do it yourself stuff.
- tizzdogg 11y ago
  I havnt used either, but my impression was that Magic Leap's technology is basically projecting a light field into your eyes, so you eyes can actually focus naturally.. as opposed to looking at an image with fixed focal distance like the hololens. But I'm not super informed about either product so I could be wrong.
- imh 11y ago
  Magic Leap apparently can draw things at more than one distance from you, unlike the hololens's fixed 2m away. That's a massive difference.
  - CyberAngel 11y ago
    Compared to the HoloLens ... 2 - Yes! There will be HoloLens 2 in the Magic Leap future 2020...???