4 ms·

In a mind-blowing revelation, I learned my university had a Hololens to try. Before trying it, I'd always believed that AR would be the future. After trying it,

In a mind-blowing revelation, I learned my university had a Hololens to try. Before trying it, I'd always believed that AR would be the future. After trying it, I believe that AR will be the future - the tech isn't quite there yet. The finger clicks work like 60% of the time, and the windows seem to vary in opaqueness which really threw me off. (And yes, the FOV is pretty terrible right now). But for minutes at a time, I'd be fully immersed. Mixed reality will be one of the biggest transformations, I think. The digital world used to be restrained to our desks. Right now, we carry it around with us in our pockets (and maybe even on our wrists). But with augmented reality, it's going to be joined with our real world - the two are finally going to truly merge. It's impossible to know what will develop from this. We live in interesting times.

dagw 10y ago
That matches my experience as well. Don't think I've ever been so excited by the potential and at the same time so disappointed by the reality of a technology as I was by the Hololens.
- prefect42 10y ago
  I'm quite impressed with the Hololens, but keep in mind that it's a totally a first gen developer product, so was better than my expectations. Yes the field of view is a tad narrow, and yes, the gestures still don't pick up at much at they should. But the holograms look stellar, the position tracking is quite stellar, objects that are placed, stay placed very well while you move about, the effect works very well. The floating planets that my kids stuck on the living room ceiling, continue to stay floating there until somebody later comes by and moves or resizes them. I think this device will have a bright future.
  - dagw 10y ago
    I agree about the future, and when I step back and put my engineering hat on I also realize how impressive what they actually have pulled off is. It's just that after hearing about this amazing Hololens for a year and then finally getting to try one my expectations where really high, and I have to admit the reality fell far short of what I was hoping for.
- mpweiher 10y ago
  > excited by potential disappointed by reality Sounds like a golden opportunity.
T-A 10y ago
Same here: although I had read about it, the FOV was disappointing, as was the response to my stubby little fingers' clicking. The MR headsets coming out soonish are hopefully going to have a decent FOV, and it seems they can be paired with traditional controllers: https://uploadvr.com/gdc-2017-hands-on-with-microsofts-first-windows-holographic-vr-headset/ https://uploadvr.com/gdc-2017-hands-on-with-microsofts-first...
roywiggins 10y ago
Unlike VR, AR is going to be a lot easier for people to jump into. VR is disorienting and isolating and I can't imagine, like, my mom spending hours inside it. But AR is a lot more straightforward. Put the headset on and hey, there's new things floating around in your vision. Simple as that. You're not locked away into another world. VR could be a great gaming and movie platform, but for day-to-day life AR seems so much more useful.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- Nition 10y ago
  All I really need is something where I can look at people and it reminds me what their name is, and maybe a little blurb about them that I've written previously ("met at party jan 2017. Making RPG about wolves").
- jjcm 10y ago
  Anecdotal evidence, but I recently had my grandmother stay with me. She loved the HTC Vive I had set up and had no disorientation in the virtual worlds. Looking at these developer headsets, it looks like they're moving closer to VR and further from AR. With the camera inputs I'm guessing they're aiming to simply use the camera feed and overlay things on top of that - it'd solve the opacity issues with the current overlays. I'm guessing we'll be gravitating more towards a virtual world with real objects overlayed in it rather than a real world with virtual objects.
- TwoBit 10y ago
  What exactly are people going to do in AR that's so compelling?
  - fsloth 10y ago
    The view part is only one half of AR. The second is that it provides a 3D surface of the users field of view. Industrial uses and helpdesking are obvious. 1. Less need for physical interfaces on machinery 2. Need help in, say, fixing the elevator? AR allows the helper in other end see what you see and point out things and direcr movement in persons field of view 3. Building maintenance. To point out the location of work, just let the AR device guide you there
KurtMueller 10y ago
The next hololens release isn't until 2019. The current device shows a lot of potential - but you're right, the fov (and the resolution) need to massively increase. Additionally, the headset is a bit clunky and cumbersome. Hopefully, the next iteration will be lighter as well.
stcredzero 10y ago
The finger clicks work like 60% of the time, and the windows seem to vary in opaqueness which really threw me off. This tells me that Microsoft still doesn't quite have the corporate culture for the level of innovation they are aiming at. They should have abandoned opaqueness in favor of a really wide FOV, and stuck with a reticle system or some other more robust for pointing and selection.
- ygra 10y ago
  Are you sure that the reduced FOV is an artifact of opaque rendering? Also there is a physical clicker as well. Hand gestures are not mandatory.
  - stcredzero 10y ago
    Are you sure that the reduced FOV is an artifact of opaque rendering? That's putting words in my mouth. I'm talking about what the company should have been prioritizing. If there's a physical clicker, then they should have left out the highly unreliable hand gestures. The fact that they didn't shows they don't quite have the corporate culture and/or management insight to do this kind of innovation. When creating a new category of this kind, you don't put things in too early and turn mainstream customers off. That would have been like introducing the iPhone with a much smaller screen than it had, and with a wonky multitouch.

dagw 10y ago

That matches my experience as well. Don't think I've ever been so excited by the potential and at the same time so disappointed by the reality of a technology as I was by the Hololens.

prefect42 10y ago
I'm quite impressed with the Hololens, but keep in mind that it's a totally a first gen developer product, so was better than my expectations. Yes the field of view is a tad narrow, and yes, the gestures still don't pick up at much at they should. But the holograms look stellar, the position tracking is quite stellar, objects that are placed, stay placed very well while you move about, the effect works very well. The floating planets that my kids stuck on the living room ceiling, continue to stay floating there until somebody later comes by and moves or resizes them. I think this device will have a bright future.
- dagw 10y ago
  I agree about the future, and when I step back and put my engineering hat on I also realize how impressive what they actually have pulled off is. It's just that after hearing about this amazing Hololens for a year and then finally getting to try one my expectations where really high, and I have to admit the reality fell far short of what I was hoping for.
mpweiher 10y ago
> excited by potential disappointed by reality Sounds like a golden opportunity.

T-A 10y ago

Same here: although I had read about it, the FOV was disappointing, as was the response to my stubby little fingers' clicking. The MR headsets coming out soonish are hopefully going to have a decent FOV, and it seems they can be paired with traditional controllers: https://uploadvr.com/gdc-2017-hands-on-with-microsofts-first-windows-holographic-vr-headset/ https://uploadvr.com/gdc-2017-hands-on-with-microsofts-first...

roywiggins 10y ago

Unlike VR, AR is going to be a lot easier for people to jump into. VR is disorienting and isolating and I can't imagine, like, my mom spending hours inside it. But AR is a lot more straightforward. Put the headset on and hey, there's new things floating around in your vision. Simple as that. You're not locked away into another world. VR could be a great gaming and movie platform, but for day-to-day life AR seems so much more useful.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Nition 10y ago
All I really need is something where I can look at people and it reminds me what their name is, and maybe a little blurb about them that I've written previously ("met at party jan 2017. Making RPG about wolves").
jjcm 10y ago
Anecdotal evidence, but I recently had my grandmother stay with me. She loved the HTC Vive I had set up and had no disorientation in the virtual worlds. Looking at these developer headsets, it looks like they're moving closer to VR and further from AR. With the camera inputs I'm guessing they're aiming to simply use the camera feed and overlay things on top of that - it'd solve the opacity issues with the current overlays. I'm guessing we'll be gravitating more towards a virtual world with real objects overlayed in it rather than a real world with virtual objects.
TwoBit 10y ago
What exactly are people going to do in AR that's so compelling?
- fsloth 10y ago
  The view part is only one half of AR. The second is that it provides a 3D surface of the users field of view. Industrial uses and helpdesking are obvious. 1. Less need for physical interfaces on machinery 2. Need help in, say, fixing the elevator? AR allows the helper in other end see what you see and point out things and direcr movement in persons field of view 3. Building maintenance. To point out the location of work, just let the AR device guide you there

KurtMueller 10y ago

The next hololens release isn't until 2019. The current device shows a lot of potential - but you're right, the fov (and the resolution) need to massively increase. Additionally, the headset is a bit clunky and cumbersome. Hopefully, the next iteration will be lighter as well.

stcredzero 10y ago

The finger clicks work like 60% of the time, and the windows seem to vary in opaqueness which really threw me off. This tells me that Microsoft still doesn't quite have the corporate culture for the level of innovation they are aiming at. They should have abandoned opaqueness in favor of a really wide FOV, and stuck with a reticle system or some other more robust for pointing and selection.

ygra 10y ago
Are you sure that the reduced FOV is an artifact of opaque rendering? Also there is a physical clicker as well. Hand gestures are not mandatory.
- stcredzero 10y ago
  Are you sure that the reduced FOV is an artifact of opaque rendering? That's putting words in my mouth. I'm talking about what the company should have been prioritizing. If there's a physical clicker, then they should have left out the highly unreliable hand gestures. The fact that they didn't shows they don't quite have the corporate culture and/or management insight to do this kind of innovation. When creating a new category of this kind, you don't put things in too early and turn mainstream customers off. That would have been like introducing the iPhone with a much smaller screen than it had, and with a wonky multitouch.