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Hands On With Microsoft's Holographic Goggles

First time accepted submitter mkukuluk writes Forget Google Glass — Jessi Hempel describes the amazing experience she had with the new Holographic goggles from Microsoft. From the article: "The headset is still a prototype being developed under the codename Project Baraboo, or sometimes just “B.” [inventor Alex] Kipman, with shoulder-length hair and severely cropped bangs, is a nervous inventor, shifting from one red Converse All-Star to the other. Nervous, because he’s been working on this pair of holographic goggles for five years. No, even longer. Seven years, if you go back to the idea he first pitched to Microsoft, which became Kinect. When the motion-sensing Xbox accessory was released, just in time for the 2010 holidays, it became the fastest-selling consumer gaming device of all time. Right from the start, he makes it clear that Baraboo will make Kinect seem minor league."

171 comments

  1. this is awesome by Noah+Haders · · Score: 4, Insightful

    wearable glasses are dead, long live wearable glasses! srsly though, MS approach makes sense. GG never made sense. projecting data onto your visor for real-time augmented reality? that's cool.

    1. Re:this is awesome by rsmith-mac · · Score: 1

      GG never made sense. projecting data onto your visor for real-time augmented reality? that's cool.

      Onto or into? That makes a huge difference here.

  2. code names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This has to be one of the worst code names I've ever heard. Stop naming your things stupidly if you want people to use them. Hopefully the real name of the product would be better, but for now reading and writing articles about this will be ridiculous with a name like that.

    Say what you want about old Microsoft, but they named things well. This probably would get named Microsoft Holographic Goggles. To the point, uninteresting, and clear. Sometimes I miss the days when tech products were not named silly things or made up words.

    1. Re:code names by Swampash · · Score: 1

      Yeah, like "Wii"

    2. Re: code names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As someone who grew up in Baraboo, WI, I'm a bit offended that you would suggest the name is silly!

  3. Amazing by Etherwalk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The team they have working on this is excellent, the idea is promising, the reviews are great, and the advertising is good. Looks like a solid win. If they have good patents on it, they should be able to control a large and growing market 5-10 years out.

    1. Re:Amazing by smallfries · · Score: 1

      What reviews?

      --
      Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
    2. Re:Amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    3. Re:Amazing by dinfinity · · Score: 5, Informative

      These bits from Engadget sum the most important elements up for me.

      The negative:
      "In practice, the resolution is sharp but the field of view is extremely limited. There's a rectangular area in the center of your vision that acts as your "window" into the reality HoloLens presents. It's this limitation that makes HoloLens not a VR headset, and also keeps it from being the Back to the Future 2 glasses we're all waiting for (I'm waiting for that, anyway). "

      "The bigger issue for me was that the image was relatively transparent, which often made things look less than real."

      The positive:
      "Tracking -- which is to say, "how the headset interprets where your head is in relation to the world around you" -- felt the most fully-baked of any of the headset's sensors. Though the prototype was a bit finicky to move very quickly in, I had no issue turning around quickly or kneeling, or any other movements I tried."

      ( http://www.engadget.com/2015/0... )

    4. Re:Amazing by smallfries · · Score: 1

      I see your google query, and I raise you one:

      https://www.google.com/search?...

      --
      Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
  4. Q. How does one subtract light? by Macfox · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How does this device handle a dull or dark holographic image projected in a bright environment?

    --
    Area51 - We are watching...
    1. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't project into a bright environment. The image that seems to be "out there" is an illusion.

      You project the image onto a smoked or partially silvered visor. Same way that you can sometimes see a partial reflection of something in a car windows but still see inside the car.

      captcha: convince

    2. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by Macfox · · Score: 1

      Yes that much is obvious, but the "marketing" video clearly presents objects as solid, not transparent.

      --
      Area51 - We are watching...
    3. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by bloodhawk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yes that much is obvious, but the "marketing" video clearly presents objects as solid, not transparent.

      It doesn't seem obvious to you as you don't seem to understand the concept. you are looking at a screen, if they choose to place an object on that screen in your vision it can appear transparent or completely solid, depends completely on what they wish to do with it, either way it is completely irrelevant whether the environment is bright or dark as the object is on the screen.

    4. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The device appears to have darker glass on the outside, possibly to reduce the brightness of real world objects/influence.

    5. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 2

      How does this device handle a dull or dark holographic image projected in a bright environment?

      I don't think it projects anything, the power supply would be... well larger, I would think the hologram is created in the goggles which you would see as an item where it should be expected to be, on the wall, table, in the air.

      I did check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... before this reply, to quote:

      A hologram can be copied optically by illuminating it with a laser beam, and locating a second hologram plate so that it is illuminated both by the reconstructed object beam, and the illuminating beam. Stability and coherence requirements are significantly reduced if the two plates are located very close together.[42] An index matching fluid is often used between the plates to minimize spurious interference between the plates. Uniform illumination can be obtained by scanning point-by-point or with a beam shaped into a thin line.

      So knowing as much about them as you, the goggles are most likely two plates with an fluid separating them, the holograms being produced on the fly

      There also exist holographic materials that do not need the developing process and can record a hologram in a very short time.

      While I choose the quotes to show how it could be done within the goggle themselves. There does remain the fact what MS calls a hologram isn't: Things often confused with holograms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... they've have pushed IE as a web browser all these years.

    6. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by Macfox · · Score: 1

      I think you're on the mark, but that would mean the projections cannot be solid as the video portrays.

      --
      Area51 - We are watching...
    7. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by MadKeithV · · Score: 1

      I think you're on the mark, but that would mean the projections cannot be solid as the video portrays.

      It can be if the transparency of the glasses can also be locally controlled, a bit like the 3D shutterglass technology but at a much higher resolution than left eye/right eye.

    8. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by Macfox · · Score: 1

      Correct me if I'm wrong but the screen is transparent. Light from the environment passes through the display. AFAIK, there isn't such technology to accomplish this masking of environmental light (at the require frame rates). Put it this way, if there was, the projector manufactures would be using it now.

      --
      Area51 - We are watching...
    9. Re: Q. How does one subtract light? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The screens are transparent, but the projected objects do not have to be. Three layers of glass, R, G, B. Most reviewers describe the effect as very real, virtually breaking a table etc, removes the real table from the view.

    10. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Q. How does one subtract light?

      A. One could have a layer of LCD pixels that block/pass light as required.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    11. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Correct me if I'm wrong but the screen is transparent. Light from the environment passes through the display. AFAIK, there isn't such technology to accomplish this masking of environmental light (at the require frame rates).

      Put it this way, if there was, the projector manufactures would be using it now.

      The HoloLenses have already been reviewed by a number of journalists that confirm their ability to do the same as in what you call "marketing video". So instead of insisting this isn't possible, you perhaps should rethink your take on how they do this.

    12. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Easy - it just projects black

    13. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      there isn't such technology to accomplish this masking of environmental light (at the require frame rates).

      You mean like LCD displays that block different amounts of a bright backlight to give you different shades and colours?

    14. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by robi5 · · Score: 1

      Hmm you and a couple of anons 'don't get it', Macfox is trying to ask a question that is reasonable and not that hard to parse, yet he gets the 'you don't seem to understand the concept' from you. His point is that if the visor is fairly transparent, then light from the environment (e.g. looking at a white table) will interfere with the augmentation. I.e. you can't simulate the covering of white table with black tablecloth, even though you can (more convincingly) cover a black table with white virtual tablecloth.

      However wouldn't it be possible to use an LCD screen in the visor, which could selectively block out areas if needed? I understand the visor is not in the correct focal plane for the purpose, but brightly lit, large, contiguous objects with low apparent speed (e.g. a window, the sky, a light source or a white wall) could be blocked out, similar to how smudges on sunglasses have a blurred but very noticeable effect. All it would take is a transparent LCD screen which is old tech and uses very little power.

    15. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by robi5 · · Score: 1

      Transparent LCD does that. Another question is, with what resolution? LCDs can be of fine resolution, but you'd need the equivalent of the viewfinder of a high quality SLR camera to ensure it's in the proper focal plane. I think such an optical pathway would be, by necessity, heavy and of limited FOV and light intensity. So inventing a full VR and projecting the external view seems more appropriate, and the quality (resolution, color scale, lag etc.) of the environmental view and the augmentation would make it blend better, with all the positives and negatives.

      Technically you can eventually solve all the technical problems and have human-matching color fidelity, FOV, resolution... but the limitation would be that people wouldn't see one another's eyes.

      But of course you can project virtual real eyes to conceal the real virtual eyes. With high enough fidelity, you'll even see the reflection of your own virtual real eyes in the other person's virtual real eyes :-) But kissing will be weird...

    16. Re: Q. How does one subtract light? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

      Don't get confused by the marketdroids calling this 'hollographic'. It's nice stereo, but it's stereo. Holograms require no headgear.

      Words having distinct meanings is a useful feature of language.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    17. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by robi5 · · Score: 1

      ... and neither can reality... it would be as if you wore sunglasses inside

    18. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, that is not how optics works: Your eye does not focus on the surface of the glasses (also not for google glass), they are way too close to focus on. This means that blocking a certain location at the glasses does not in fact block all light from one object reaching your eye - or it blocks so much light that you will have horrible vignetting effects within your FOV.

    19. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by DanielOom · · Score: 1

      You all learned the answer in high school: if you have a wave, then you can reduce its amplitude or extinguish it by adding a copy if the same signal with the opposite phase.

      This has been done to reduce acoustical noise, but it's rather harder to accomplish with light waves. But then, holography is all about interference.

    20. Re:Q. How does one subtract light? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LCD screens are multiple layers of glass, if you are projecting a solid image onto the screen then you can have whatever you like appear completely solid regardless of light, for such a device you could even have a layer of pixels that act as black filters to ensure there is no light interference. transparent vs solid really should not be an issue unless they put zero thought into it, this has been something you could already do with screens for years.

  5. Definitely interested in this... by MBC1977 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Granted this is just an interesting concept at the moment, however I think Microsoft may have something worthwhile here. The only thing is lacking (or missing rather) is a tactile interface - so that one could "feel" virtual objects.

    I'll be paying attention to this, because I think this could be a game changer.

    --
    Regards,

    MBC1977,
    1. Re:Definitely interested in this... by qpqp · · Score: 2

      Glasses with NUI:
      Meta AR Haptic feedback:
      ring Or one of the "glove" concepts

    2. Re:Definitely interested in this... by skovnymfe · · Score: 1

      A pair of gloves with some sort of force feedback perhaps?

    3. Re:Definitely interested in this... by bwcbwc · · Score: 1

      Granted this is just an interesting concept at the moment, however I think Microsoft may have something worthwhile here. The only thing is lacking (or missing rather) is a tactile interface - so that one could "feel" virtual objects.

      I'll be paying attention to this, because I think this could be a game changer.

      It's probably more than just a concept. They're marketing it like it will be out for holiday season 2015. It looks like they view this as the "killer app" for Windows 10. The closing of the ad shows both the Windows 10 and Microsoft logos in sequence.

      I wonder how it'll play with an HP Sprout or a 3-D printer.

      --
      We are the 198 proof..
    4. Re:Definitely interested in this... by neilo_1701D · · Score: 2

      so that one could "feel" virtual objects.

      This is Slashdot. Why not come out and say straight away that you want to feel virtual boobies, then the conversation will get all hung up on the term "boobies" and you'll have made your point: it's all about interactive porn.

    5. Re:Definitely interested in this... by MooseMiester · · Score: 1

      Being able to "feel" would kill off the prostitution business in a second, wouldn't it?

      he he he

      --
      Murphy was an optimist
  6. very interesting by bloodhawk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Certainly looks a lot more interesting and viable than google glass. Once google pushed the wear it anywhere video camera recording what everyone is doing it became socially a dead product. Lets wait and see if MS can productize it without making the idiotic mistakes of google that led to the highly deserved coining of the word glasshole.

    1. Re:very interesting by Knossos · · Score: 1

      I think that the difference here is that the HoloLens won't be intended for outdoor use. It is way too conspicuous. People hated the relatively tiny Google Glass.

      Instead, I think it will focus more on improving home and office life. From the videos I have seen, I can imagine a world where you can have additional virtual computer monitors to display information that you typically won't interact with. Such as logging information during coding. I would have IRC windows displayed on walls inside my house. When you get an email you could alter the colour of your desk by projecting slightly on top of it... etc...

      I think that Google realised how much of a backlash they were causing by creating a head mounted device that can record other people, since they pulled the Explorer program. The everyday public despises it (as you say, Glasshole). It has been banned in many places, you can't use it driving in many areas (illegal, one person was pulled over citing that it is a monitor). I don't think that is something that will change either, at least not until wearing headsets like this at home becomes mainstream.

      --
      Android Software Engineer
    2. Re:very interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This actually raises an interesting question....if Google were to re-release Glass without the camera, would it be better received?

    3. Re:very interesting by vongillern · · Score: 1

      If you wear one in public and try to interact with me I'm totally calling you a HoloDick. However, I'm still totally buying one.

    4. Re:very interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It might not be "intended" for outdoor use, but the hardware is capable of doing everything that Google Glass can do, including recording and facial recognition (with appropriate apps). And according to Microsoft, it can work without any connections to a PC.

      Privacy issues are exactly the same, unless Microsoft doesn't make it mandatory to connect it to a nearby computer (not a smartphone), so it can be a new I/O interface. It would be an easy, reasonable and quick fix, otherwise there will be the same backlash that hit google glass.

    5. Re:very interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The difference will be how it is pushed. If it is pushed as wear it anywhere recording device the backlash will be the same as google glass. If it is a wear it to do tasks or work, with some wearing them out to augment their view it should be fine. Google actively pushing the wearable VIDEO RECORDING is what killed them socially. many devices today are capable of being highly intrusive to privacy such as smart phones but the difference is they are not pushed as an always recording device streaming the feed back to big brother, if MS go down the same path as google they will get the same backlash.

    6. Re:very interesting by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

      yes, without a doubt, though the damage is probably already done as it is hard to recover such a PR mess. Personally the issue for me is purely the camera, we have enough invasions of privacy without inviting new ones into our lives. I don't want to be in a restaurant, shop or even in public with people wearing google glass as I object to being recorded by others where it isn't strictly necessary, especially people that don't seem to have any social etiquette with regards to the rights of others.

  7. AR-Rift: Stereo camera rig and augmented reality by lippydude · · Score: 2

    AR-Rift: Stereo camera rig and augmented reality showcase

    What is Presence in Immersive Augmented Reality?

    "In a previous post I presented the AR-Rift, a low-cost immersive video see-through AR head-mounted display based on the Oculus Rift DK1 and consumer cameras. Technology affording similar experiences will begin to emerge at a consumer level in the coming years."

  8. Re:Kinect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > a dismal failure

    I know about twenty people with an XBox. All of them work for Microsoft. You're right that the product seems to have failed. It certainly doesn't have much market penetration.

  9. William Gibson and others have prior art. by tlambert · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If they have good patents on it, they should be able to control a large and growing market 5-10 years out.

    William Gibson and others have prior art. Not sure if you watched "Minority Report", or if you have read Gibson's "Virtual Light", but both describe this sort of thing in immense detail. It's basically a straight forward interposition strategy with slightly smaller hardware than has typically been used in the past.

    The real issue that's going to come up is idiots wearing these things while driving, and so on, which is actually not as idiotic as it sounds, but will definitely be illegal as hell for no reason involving reported accident rates. Sort of the same thing that happened with Google Glass 1.0, when people didn't undertand that it couldn't film 24x7 because they didn't understand the concept of "connectivity" nor the concept of "battery life".

    1. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      writing a science fiction book doesn't qualify as prior art.

    2. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah you have to submit your fiction book to the patent office, then it's prior art.

    3. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Driving... how hipster... you don't have a self driving car yet?

    4. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by qpqp · · Score: 2

      Here's your prior art:
      https://www.spaceglasses.com/

    5. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      writing a science fiction book doesn't qualify as prior art.

      No, but it shows that it isn't a unique idea. It is just what people have been expecting out of the field for decades.
      The particular implementation of it might be patentable but any changes like using a different resolution or angle of the displays will be just as unique from your implementation as your implementation is from the versions you have seen in science fiction.

    6. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by Pi1grim · · Score: 2

      Actually it does. Raising a ship from the depth of the ocean by slowly filling it with inflatable baloons was non-patentable because this idea was shown in a disney cartoon, so fiction work does qualify as prior art.

    7. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by Richard_at_work · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Is there anything more than a flashy website behind that?

    8. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by Richard_at_work · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As pumped air flotation systems were in use in the 19th century, I'd suggest it wasn't the Disney cartoon which killed the patent...

    9. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by drinkypoo · · Score: 0

      Sort of the same thing that happened with Google Glass 1.0, when people didn't undertand that it couldn't film 24x7 because they didn't understand the concept of "connectivity" nor the concept of "battery life".

      (-1, Irrelevant troll)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    10. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by sabbede · · Score: 1
      First thing I thought of was Virtual Light!

      Not that Gibson will see a dime. He might, like Heinlein (Waldo), get it named after the story though.

    11. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by rogoshen1 · · Score: 2

      you don't patent the glasses as single, monolithic item. you make up about 300 bullshit patents like "method for utilizing parallax to create depth of view in wearable binocular computer displays .. on the internet"

    12. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by Barlo_Mung_42 · · Score: 1

      That seems to use a very different technique so it doesn't count as prior art.
      Remember, it's not an idea that gets a patent is a particular implementation.

    13. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by c2me2 · · Score: 3, Informative

      That's not how "prior art" works. An idea is not patentable. A precise description of how to achieve an idea is patentable. William Gibson may have written some great stories about VR, but those stories are not descriptions of how to implement VR. I realize that many patents are terrible patents, and should either never have been granted or should be constricted, but I'm talking about the goal of patent law, not arguing about each individual patent.

      Minority Report is another story / fantasy, with some CGI visuals to go along with it. Neither this nor "Virtual Light" describe anything in "immense detail". Immense detail would be source code, VHDL, wiring diagrams, etc.

    14. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not how "prior art" works. An idea is not patentable. A precise description of how to achieve an idea is patentable.

      Right, so if you want to patent an idea, you say, "Claim #1, but with xyz". Then you start compounding them, "Claim #1, #2 or #3 with npq". Before you're doing, you've got a patent on a billion descriptions on how to achieve an idea such that you effectively own the idea. Which is not the goal of patents, but how the system currently works.

    15. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by qpqp · · Score: 1

      Yes, do your research.

    16. Re:William Gibson and others have prior art. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's also castAR, although it is significantly technologically inferior to these, requiring a reflective backdrop to achieve the effect...

  10. Re:Kinect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It pushed depth cameras into non high-end robotics. The Kinect tech wasn't new, it was cheap. Tons of robots now use Kinects to see.

  11. Genuine excitement... by Knossos · · Score: 2

    This is the first time I have been genuinely excited about any Microsoft product since Windows 7.

    This is something I would definitely use.

    I can imagine overlaying debugging screens above my computer monitors. Moving more work off my precious screen real estate without needing several new monitors. The potential for something like this is limitless. Provided it really works like we have been shown.

    --
    Android Software Engineer
    1. Re:Genuine excitement... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the first time I have been genuinely excited about any Microsoft product since Windows 7.

      You were excited about something that was more shit than the thing it replaced?

    2. Re:Genuine excitement... by Knossos · · Score: 1

      Windows 7 more shit than Vista?

      --
      Android Software Engineer
    3. Re: Genuine excitement... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I spotted the shill.

    4. Re:Genuine excitement... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never heard of it. Sure it wasn't in one of the Matrix sequels?

  12. Holograms? by Arkh89 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, it is still not holography. It has exactly nothing to do with holography.

    1. Re:Holograms? by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Where did you read what technique it is using for imaging?

    2. Re:Holograms? by The+Raven · · Score: 2

      It's using augmented reality. It is doing so via additive transmission into each eye to allow for 3D images. Holograms are technically different technology, but I'll give MS a pass on this... it's personal 3D images.

      --
      "I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
    3. Re:Holograms? by mark-t · · Score: 1

      If it is presenting different images to each eye to create the illusion of depth, then it is definitely *NOT* holography.... holography uses just a single image that, all by itself, will appear different from different angles because it is a 3d optical representation of whatever the hologram is an image of.

  13. Re:AR-Rift: Stereo camera rig and augmented realit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is a nervous inventor, shifting from one red Converse All-Star to the other.

    No wonder. I too would be nervously tip-toeing with my curve tippped Laplanders if I had pitched a new name for a common idea to a company employing actual engineers.

  14. Re:Kinect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Fastest-selling consumer gaming device of all time"? Bullshit.

    Citation?

    Kinect, like everything else to do with Xbox, is a dismal failure.

    Citation?

    People bought it only when they had to, developers didn't support it, and the product was flaky.

    It was only a bundle option late into the life of the 360... yet Kinect only boxes sold rather well... so people had to buy it?

    Now no-one cares.

    I rather like mine for voice commands... am I no one?

  15. looking forward to it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Having gotten the chance to play with the oculus dk2, the kinect, nintendo 3ds in the last year, I'm looking forward to seeing this all combined. Will MS be able to bring a good product to the market? Meh... it's the wrong question. The real questions I'm interested in are how will this push the tech forward? And, will it help push these technologies out into the minds of the consumers?

    For a short while I was lucky enough to be asked to build some quick oculus demos to show people. (people who don't see high end 3d games every day are absolutely blown away) I would love to do the same with MS's new headset.

  16. Kinect. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Kinect made Kinect seem like minor league.

  17. Re:Kinect by RogueyWon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not bullshit at all. Kinect's first couple of months on sale were extremely successful. In fact, MS made a very nice slug of money from it; unusually for the console business, there was a hefty chunk of profit margin on each unit sold. And it sold a lot of units very fast, because it was never supply constrained; unlike many new console launches, if you wanted one, you could walk into a shop and buy one (supply shortages have limited early sales of the PS2, Wii and PS4 to a large extent, early sales of other consoles to a lesser extent).

    Of course, the Kinect basically went on to traverse (on a slightly smaller scale) the same kind of curve of the Wii. Lots and lots of early sales, but faltering when people started to realise that the only games you could practically play on it were short-lived party-games. So after the first few months on sale, sales fell of a brick and games releases dried up. But MS had a lot of sales and made a lot of money in the window before that.

    And in what the hell sense is the Xbox brand a dismal failure? Ok, it's never taken off in Japan (basically because Japanese consumers are highly protectionist), but it's generally been a surprising success. The original Xbox managed just over 24 million sales. That's a long way behind the PS2's 150+ million, but ahead of Nintendo's 22 million, despite Nintendo being an established brand at the time and essentially being able to sell in 3 major markets (US, EU, JP) rather than Microsoft's 2 (US, EU).

    The Xbox 360 managed 83 million sales until the point where MS stopped reporting sales (the unit is actually still selling). By comparison, the PS3 managed 80 million and the Wii just over 100 million (though the Wii got most of those early in the cycle - both console and game sales dried up in the second half).

    And this time around - despite the "disaster for MS" narrative, the Xbox One isn't doing too badly. Sales data is a little hard to compare at the moment, but it looks like the PS4 managed 20 million in a year on sale, the Xbox One 10 million in the same time and the Wii-U around 8 million over two years. The Xbox One is in second place, but set against previous generations, it has sold fast in its first year (remember that console sales tend to accelerate in their second and third years, as prices come down and more games become available).

    So MS has a successful console brand on its hands. What it doesn't have is the kind of "single device living room dominator" that Ballmer hoped the Xbox One would be. The new management seems content to settle for "successful games console", though there's a real question as to whether MS will want to be in that space in the long term.

  18. Re:Still doesn't make sense by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

    So a 3D monitor will let a tutor remotely draw on the pipes you are looking at, or the electrical junction you are looking at?

    No. It will *never* interact with reality. You are hung up on the motorcycle example, and not looking at the others.

  19. This will melt your brain! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft has squeezed potent desktop hardware—or even a discrete GPU—into the head-mounted chassis

    When they say this tech will melt your brain, they really mean it.

    Dino

  20. I don't buy it. by Iamthecheese · · Score: 1

    I don't buy it. I don't buy it. To project virtual objects into the real world required precise head tracking and real-time adjustment of virtual images. It also requires a very powerful video card. To project virtual objects and actually make them look solid takes even more power, both in terms of processing ability and brightness. The description of these glasses looks like it came straight from science fiction. I'll believe it when can see and test them myself and not a moment sooner.

    --
    If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
    1. Re:I don't buy it. by flarb936 · · Score: 1

      All in the realm of possibility. You can get precise head tracking with a combination of optical and depth sensors fused with compass and gyro sensors. I haven't tried this device, but have seen promising results from similar tech.

      The video card doesn't have to be very powerful. In fact, since you aren't rendering a background you can devote all of your video card's power to the virtual objects.

      Projecting solid images on a transparent display--now THAT'S a trick.

      I can't wait to try these.

      --
      ralphbarbagallo.com
    2. Re:I don't buy it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Couldn't you just use an lcd display to block out the background and a transparent oled display to display your object on top of that?

    3. Re:I don't buy it. by flarb936 · · Score: 1

      It seems from reading the announcement, that this uses some kind of Virtual Retina Display--kind of like the Avegant Glyph. Basically painting light on your retina--with this technique, you can't block light only paint over it. (as far as I know) I'm sure TOP MEN are working on opaque VRD tech though. I haven't any myself.

      --
      ralphbarbagallo.com
    4. Re: I don't buy it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uhh, this is the company that owns the kinect. And while the kinect has been a failure in the gaming space,mit has been an enormous success in the home hacking and robotics space.

      I buy it - if there is one MS product that has unambiguously pushed the boundaries of technology in the past 5 years it has been the kinect and their efforts to develop a cheap motion tracking and depth sensing ecosystem

  21. Join the Augmented Reality Club. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is not holographic. This is augmented reality. I have seen many a prototype from others that actually function and are not just concept art.

    1. Re:Join the Augmented Reality Club. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Checked out the YouTube video you linked. It's pretty pathetic. I mean, the kind of toy/gadget that would keep a normal person engaged for a few minutes at most. Please tell me that there are much better things already.

  22. Re:Kinect by Knossos · · Score: 1

    The numbers of devices sold are not the only thing that you should look at in how successful a device is.

    If Gamespot is to be believed, they lost about $126 per device. That will only be offset if those people sign up for gold membership or pay for something else on the side.

    The win for Microsoft in these cases, is probably about getting into the living room in the first place. In this case, it doesn't lose influence in vital areas of the everyday users life.

    --
    Android Software Engineer
  23. Re:Kinect by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 2

    "Fastest-selling consumer gaming device of all time"? Bullshit.

    Kinect, like everything else to do with Xbox, is a dismal failure. People bought it only when they had to, developers didn't support it, and the product was flaky. Now no-one cares.

    I agree, PS2 owned the market, the Cube the first to go and Xbox expected to call it quits soon as they just weren't selling. Then Halo came out and everything changed.

    I've never owned a Xbox but have played Halo (~2001) (Quake2 but with better graphics). I had a PC Voodoo 3Dfx graphics card (~1997), it came with a version of Quake 2 made for that graphics card, it's hard to say now which had the better graphics, the 3Dfx or Halo.

  24. Re:Still doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    [sarcasm]Do you really NEED electricity? Running water? Heating? Why? So many people managed to live without it over the years, when you think of it they are not really necessary.[/sarcasm]

  25. Re:Kinect by Sir_Substance · · Score: 1

    "Fastest-selling consumer gaming device of all time"? Bullshit.

    Citation?

    Every xbox 360 sales package contained an xbox 360. Further, every xbox package contained an xbox 360 controller. Not every xbox sales package contained a kinect.

    People buy kinects at a maximum ratio of 1 kinect per xbox. Not everyone wants a kinect.

    People buy xbox 360 controllers at a maximum ratio of 4 controllers per xbox. In addition, xbox 360 controllers are more likely to break and be repurchased than kinects or xboxes.

    There is some minor academic and hobbyist use for kinects outside gaming. However, there is also minor academic and hobbyist use of controllers and xboxes. This will roughly even out.

    Ergo, xbox 360s and xbox controllers *must* have sold faster then kinects.

    At bare minimum, the order of "fastest selling consumer gaming device of all time" must go
    1. xbox 360 controller
    2. xbox 360
    3. kinect

    We haven't even begun to discuss how the wii consistently outsold the xbox and came with both a wiimote and a nunchuck, and we know that this must be true.

    You don't need a citation, use your brain.

  26. Re:Kinect by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    "Fastest-selling consumer gaming device of all time"? Bullshit.

    Fastest-selling does not mean best-selling.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  27. Re:Kinect by mhotchin · · Score: 1

    Fastest selling != most sold.

    Your points, while correct, aren't particularly relevant. 1000 Kinects sold in a month is 'faster selling' than a 10,000 XBoxes sold in a year.

  28. It's lightfield, it is holography (sorta) by jcupitt65 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not using simple stereo screens, they have lightfield projectors:

    Project HoloLens is built, fittingly enough, around a set of holographic lenses. Each lens has three layers of glassâ"in blue, green, and redâ"full of microthin corrugated grooves that diffract light. There are multiple cameras at the front and sides of the device that do everything from head tracking to video capture. And it can see far and wide: The field of view spans 120 degrees by 120 degrees, significantly bigger than that of the Kinect camera. A âoelight engineâ above the lenses projects light into the glasses, where it hits the grating and then volleys between the layers of glass millions of times. That process, along with input from the device's myriad sensors, tricks the eye into perceiving the image as existing in the world beyond the lenses.

    http://www.wired.com/2015/01/microsoft-nadella/

    They track eye movement and adjust for that as well. I think you need the lightfield stuff so that the eye if forced to adapt focus for different distances, it's a depth cue that Oculus don't have.

    It'll be interesting to see what frame rate and latency they achieve. It sounds like they have a lot of hardware in the headset, so it could be quite good. Plus they only need to render the bit right in the centre of the field of view at high quality.

    1. Re:It's lightfield, it is holography (sorta) by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 2

      It won't be quick. Lightfield calculations are expensive even on modern hardware, nevermind cramming all that into a headset. John Carmack's comments on coding for mobiles are relevant here. Even with ASICs - there's only so much you can get away with.

    2. Re: It's lightfield, it is holography (sorta) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Judging from the various articles I've read, the glasses have a CPU for general computation, a GPU for rendering, and a custom built, specialized processor to handle the light field computation and depth aspects.

      Which really makes me wonder about battery life, given that the device is wireless.

      But, if anything, I would say these things are over supplied with horsepower and are quite capable of rendering in the technical sense.

    3. Re: It's lightfield, it is holography (sorta) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would expect a specialized chip to draw way less power than using a CPU or GPU to accomplish the same task.

  29. Microsoft's 14 Year Xbox Fiasco by AddisonW · · Score: 0

    Microsoft is 0/3 in the console market with many billions of dollars wasted on the fourteen year long Xbox fiasco.

    The first Xbox was an overpriced bunch of desktop PC parts thrown in a big ugly box and was dumped by Microsoft due to its failure in the marketplace.

    The second Xbox:

    * Was rushed out the door a year/year and a half early to try to pad out its installed base numbers

    * Had the RRoD fiasco that inflated its installed base numbers by tens of millions of units

    * Cost 200 dollars less than the much more powerful PS3

    And despite all that Microsoft still came in last with the Xbox 360.

    And now Microsoft is getting utterly crushed by the PS4 in worldwide sales.

    To describe the Xbox as anything other than a monumental failure for Microsoft is delusional.

    And, no, the Xbox One hasn't 'sold 10 million' - its worldwide installed base numbers are in the 7-8 million range. The Xbox One has been bombing so badly in sales that Microsoft will not admit to its actual installed base numbers.

    1. Re:Microsoft's 14 Year Xbox Fiasco by RogueyWon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Wow, bitter much...

      Kinda guessing you're not a fan of the Xbox. Possibly even that you're a bit of a fan of one of its rivals? Remember that blind brand loyalty (or blind hatred of a brand) is self-defeating on the part of the consumer.

      Microsoft does not love you and does not have your best interests at heart.

      Sony does not love you and does not have your best interests at heart.

      Nintendo does not love you and does not have your best interests at heart.

      Valve does not love you and does not have your best interests at heart.

      The fanboy-arguments between the various sides in the console war are more bitter this time around than I've ever seen them before. Which is ironic, really, given that the actual practical differences between the PS4 and Xbox One are vanishingly small and only really apparent to hardcore enthusiasts.

    2. Re:Microsoft's 14 Year Xbox Fiasco by RogueyWon · · Score: 1

      That whooshing sound you hear is the irony rushing right over your head...

    3. Re:Microsoft's 14 Year Xbox Fiasco by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      The fastest selling gaming device of all time is most definitely not the xbox and why is M$ lying because of course the fastest selling gaming device of all time is not theirs. Just because it also does other things does not mean it is no longer a gaming device. So the smart phone is number one, just because the Losephone (a lot funnier than calling it a Winphone) is one of the worst sellers. The biggest reason why the smart phone wins, is their are a lot more choices than there are for game consoles. Of course these kind of glasses really will have their greatest impact when plugged into a smart phone and not when plugged into a game console. Then on the fly wireless lan gaming potential will most definitely be one of the high lights if they get it to work well and is physiologically comfortable with regard to extended use.

      Why does M$ always seem to head off in the wrong direction, game consoles no, absolutely not, smart phones yes, the only logical direction for the device. Especially as the smart phone can so readily hook into more high powered hardware and act as the link between that and the glasses. Can they turn the Losephone into a Winphone, that would depend upon how far beyond gaming they can extend the use of the glasses. Of course they will not be on their own, ultimately, 3D glasses of what ever description are the most effective way to significantly extend the usability of smart phones. Stick a bunch of rfid tags on your fingernails so that the glasses can track the relative orientation of your fingers and you are done, apart from of course coming up with a range of usability gestures, like thumbs up.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    4. Re:Microsoft's 14 Year Xbox Fiasco by RogueyWon · · Score: 1

      They were talking about Kinect - not the Xbox. And "fastest selling entertainment device" is a flexible term - as you can define whatever period you want to base your judgement on.

      Going off this it seems to have managed 8 million sales in 2 months. That's certainly got to be a contender for "fastest selling over 2 months". The PS2, Wii and PS4 all might have been able to manage faster, as might some of Apple's portable devices, if they hadn't been constrained by supply shortages.

      Of course, Kinect sales flatlined after the first few months, nobody's disputing that. But there is certainly a defined period over which it seems to be "fastest selling".

    5. Re:Microsoft's 14 Year Xbox Fiasco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The "smart phone" is number one? Hey honey, lets go buy the "smart phone" today. You mean the iPhone? No honey, the "smart phone"!

    6. Re: Microsoft's 14 Year Xbox Fiasco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what console hasn't been an enormous failure? Sony has been hemorrhaging money - the PS3 was sold at an enormous loss and was not profitable for them. The vaunted 'power of the cell' was a miserable failure, and developers consistently developed first for the 360 because it was easier. The other segments of Sony are dragging it down as they fail to make a profit - the insurance division is the only one that has consistently shown a profit, and the gaming division has consistently been deeper in the red over the past 5 years as they poured money into PS4 development.

      Put bluntly, Sony is a company that has been sinking for years and is now in an enormous amount of trouble. Last year and the year before they were forced selling off assets (read: property and HQ buildings) in order to write down their losses on paper. Their stock was also downgraded to "junk" by Moody's in 2014, and we saw once again what we have seen many, many times over the past 6-8 years: the CEO of Sony once again apologizing to investors as Sony continued to flounder and sink. Sony also has an enormous amount of debt to service, many times its annual profits, and no real cash reserves to fall back on.

      As for Nintendo, well, Nintendo has always been run in a smart manner. Nintendo's strategy of selling consoles and 1st party development mean that they have larger cash reserves than most national banks. Provided they don't start acting like Sony, they have enough cash banked at this point to hang around for many, many years. And they are doing extremely well in the handheld market.

      But realistically, the Wii had no staying power and the Wii-U has never gotten off the ground to begin with. And in Nintendo's main market of Japan, the home console market is dying in any event, as living space poor families buy handhelds rather than dedicated living room consoles, so I would think that while Nintendo will remain in the console market it will Increasingly on its handheld business in the future.

      Comparatively, the 360 has returned a small but consistent (and growing) profit to Microsoft for the past 6 or so years. Not that it matters, as Microsoft, like Nintendo, has an enormous amount of cash in reserve and they could continue to support failure in the gaming division for decades to come. The 360 also sold better than the PS3 over much of that generation, and arguably Xbox live is a better online product than PSN has ever been - party chat, anyone?

      Despite the "evil Microsoft is a failure" narrative people like to push, the 360 did extremely well, particularly for a 2nd generation 'new' console product, and has built itself a dedicated user base. The Xbone has also sold reasonably well,although yes, the PS4 has done better. Given Sony's wider financial troubles, however, it wouldn't surprise me if Sony imploded in the next few years, dragging the gaming division down with it, and leaving MS and the Xbox to dance on Sony,s grave.

    7. Re:Microsoft's 14 Year Xbox Fiasco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I still believe Nintendo loves games. I'm skeptical of the other companies.

  30. Re:Kinect by RogueyWon · · Score: 2

    What you say is technically correct for a very narrow span of time, but also one of the most pernicious myths about the finances of the gaming industry.

    The article you link is from when the 360 first went on sale in 2005. The 360 remained MS's "main" console until late 2013. Production costs fall wildly over that time. Indeed, in the traditional MS/Sony model of selling consoles, you sell at a loss for about the first 12-18 months, then as unit cost reductions and economies of scale start to work in your favour, you keep the console selling at a more or less neutral level for the rest of its life-span, reducing the retail price as costs fall further.

    Where do they make the money from? Xbox Live subscriptions, first party games etc are a small part of it, but only a small part. Most of the money - and it is a lot of money - comes from third party game fees.

    See, when you buy a console game as "new" (rather than pre-owned), a large chunk of the sale price goes directly to Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo. On a full-priced game, this tends to be in the $10-15 range. Historically, this has explained the price differential between console and PC games - though with Valve now taking a similar cut of most PC game sales, who knows how long that will last.

    The platform owner has spent next to nothing on those third party games; in most cases, it only gets involved at the certification stage. So it is, for the most part, "free money". And with series like Call of Duty, FIFA, Madden etc racking up the sales they do, it is a lot of free money.

    So the trick is attracting third parties to the console. To do this, you need to have either a large current installed base, or the promise of a large installed base to come. This is why console manufacturers are happy to sell at a loss for the first year and often to take a loss (or at least a risk) on funding first party or platform-exclusive third party games - the Halos, Gears of War, Killzones and Gran Turismos of the world. Those are the bait to lure in the early adopters to get the installed base growing to get the third party developers on board.

    The other business model is the one that was previously (but not currently) used by Nintendo. In the SNES, N64, Gamecube and Wii generations, as well as with its handhelds up to and including the DS, Nintendo sold platforms at a profit from day 1 and focussed much more on first party games development. This actually worked pretty well for a long time; they made megabucks on the SNES (which also had a lot of third party support, so win-win there) and even when the Gamecube ended up with poor sales, they were still able to turn a profit on it.

    But around 5 years ago, this model started to break. The Wii was essentially dead by 2010; console sales were slowing to a trickle (after a few phenomenal years) and despite the huge installed base, most Wii owners (a different demographic to that on other platforms) did not buy many games, so third party developers abandoned it. Then came the 3DS launch.

    The 3DS is doing ok now. Well in Japan, so-so in the US and Europe. It's on course to be a kind of PSP-level success, which is ok (the PSP actually did much better than is generally realised, largely on the strength of Japan). But the 3DS's launch was actually a bit of a disaster. For months after launch, the damned thing just wouldn't sell - and price was a big part of it. So Nintendo reversed historic policy and slashed the price; for the first time in its history, selling console hardware at a loss. It didn't remain at a loss for long; only 6 months or so until it got onto a neutral footing - but it was enough to bury Nintendo's historic strategy. Console sales improved, third parties moved in (particularly Japanese developers, many of who shy away from the high cost of developing for home consoles) and Nintendo's losses (the first in the company's history) were reduced. When the Wii-U was launched, it was launched with a traditional Sony/MS style pricing strategy; sold at a loss at first, before moving to

  31. Porn apps will determine whether it succeeds or no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Porn apps will determine whether it succeeds or not.

  32. Thought policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I see these being banned in the UK, along with Oculus Rift.

    Anything that allows people to have sex with holographic children, or terrorist training = Huge NOPE from the UK.

    1. Re:Thought policing by 3.5+stripes · · Score: 1

      I'm sitting here in london with a DK1 and a DK2 on the desk next to me, and no policemen have showed up yet..

      --


      He tried to kill me with a forklift!
    2. Re:Thought policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Give it a while. GCHQ will send some goons around to smash up your things like some bad actors from The Sopranos.

    3. Re: Thought policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you forgot to post anonymously? You won't wait long...

  33. inventor ?!?!??!?! by citizenr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    > [inventor Alex] Kipman ... idea he first pitched to Microsoft, which became Kinect

    so he invented Kinect? hmm nope, that would be Primesense cleverly going around earlier patents on structure light (for example Viewpoint Corps US6549288 filled in 1999) by using random instead of striped dot pattern.

    maybe Kipman invented original Natal aka Kinect 2 aka time of flight depth camera? hmmm nope, that would be 2 or 3 whole companies M$ bought (3DV, Canesta) spending over 1 Billion dollars before settling on ready to sell Primesense camera in the end.

    What exactly did he invent? He is a manager at M$, not engineer.

    --
    Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
    1. Re:inventor ?!?!??!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It doesn't say he *invented* it, it says he *pitched* it.
      I could pitch the idea of making cornflakes. Doesn't mean I invented cornflakes.

    2. Re:inventor ?!?!??!?! by phorm · · Score: 1

      True enough, but it also called him an inventor, which is misleading.

  34. "Holograssholes" ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I haven't understood whether the device is supposed to be connected to a computer (maybe via bluetooth) or if it can work alone. In the latter case, privacy issues are the very same as with google glass, and I don't see why public reaction should be any different: wearers will be called "holograssoles" instead of glassholes. Google glass had good reviews too, but they didn't save it from failure anyways.

    If instead it's just a different I/O device to be connected to a computer wirelessly, then things might go different.

    1. Re:"Holograssholes" ? by HairyNevus · · Score: 1

      The bulkiness and usage examples in the article made me believe this is something you don't wear out of your home.

      --
      You were critically hit for no damage. The bruise will look nice, and maybe the scars will make good party talk.
    2. Re:"Holograssholes" ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree that the shown examples make one think that it is supposed to be used only at home or at work, however, microsoft states that it doesn't need a "connection" to a PC to work:

      http://www.microsoft.com/micro...

      So I think it will raise the very same privacy issues as google glass. Obviously, giving the bulky appearance, not so many idiots would wear that in public. But the problem is still there, because the design might be changed to make them look leaner.

    3. Re:"Holograssholes" ? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 2

      The first use for technology like this, especially if it can't be taken out of the home, is always porn. Guys are going to wear Hologlass to make their wives look like Beyoncé.

    4. Re:"Holograssholes" ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why -1? The comment is spot on.

      Nice to see microsoft PRs spending time on slashdot to vote down comments they don't like. Is this how desperate they are after the xbox one disaster?

    5. Re:"Holograssholes" ? by babymac · · Score: 1

      What will Jay-Z make his wife look like?

      --
      "War makes me sad." - Me
    6. Re:"Holograssholes" ? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      As with every other rapper, Kim Kardashian.

  35. Wow by jandersen · · Score: 1

    ...Kipman, with shoulder-length hair and severely cropped bangs...

    This is the central message here: this is a guy with shoulder-long hair. That is some impressive street-cred right there, but I'm worried that we hear nothing about whether he uses a tie and suit.

    Hmm, am I being too sarcastic? It just gets up my nose when tech-news are presented in a cloud of inconsequential nattering. If this is worth hearing about, surely it can stand on its own merits.

    1. Re:Wow by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Hmm, am I being too sarcastic?

      No, you're being too whiny. Stop whining.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  36. MS should buy the Vocaloid franchise. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Kinect is totally awesome with MMD. I think this personal holo-glasses will also be great, they just need to add a pantsu censorship filter...

    If Microsoft gets into this business, they could diversify in anticipation of the post-software-centric world, just like Sony diversified for the post-electronics world by forming Sony Music and Movies. There is huge profit in entertainment.

  37. Re:Kinect by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    And in what the hell sense is the Xbox brand a dismal failure?

    Has Microsoft's entertainment division turned a lifetime profit yet?

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  38. Side Effects? by colordotmatrix · · Score: 0
    For some reason, I can't remember the movie, but......
    In the movie, an actor puts on a special pair of glasses, and ends up going cross-eyed!!!

    Can we try to avoid a headline similar to the following?

    • Windows 10 users becoming cross-eyed by the millions!!!
    1. Re:Side Effects? by 3vi1 · · Score: 1

      You're thinking of The Jerk

    2. Re:Side Effects? by ezelkow1 · · Score: 1

      it was the jerk and the opti-grab

    3. Re:Side Effects? by colordotmatrix · · Score: 0

      Hey, don't call Steve Martin a Jerk!!!
      ;)

    4. Re:Side Effects? by colordotmatrix · · Score: 0

      Oh, so Microsoft is working on some new Features for it's operating system!

      :-0

  39. Re:Still doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you don't perceive the difference between the level of "need" for running water and that for "microsoft hololens" or google glass, then you're a hopeless retard and you "need" a doctor more than anything else.

    Furthermore, running water doesn't raise privacy concerns or creepiness, and you're not going to be thrown out of a restaurant or hotel for using it.

  40. Re:Kinect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hate to break it to you but Halo was an XBox release title.

  41. Just another device for spamming ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll pass

  42. Re:Kinect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Has Google's Android division turned a lifetime profit yet?
    Has Google's Apps division turned a lifetime profit yet?
    Has Google's Anything but search and advertising business turned a lifetime profit yet?
    Has Apple TV's division turned a lifetime profit yet?
    Has Samsung's Galaxy Gear division turned a lifetime profit yet?

    These are all equally interesting questions that I never see raised here. Only as it pertains to Microsoft.

  43. Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they actually makes it work, i know few other uses for it then running Windows... :P

  44. Re:Kinect by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    These are all equally interesting questions that I never see raised here. Only as it pertains to Microsoft.

    That raises the question, are those equally interesting questions? The answer: Nope. zzzzz

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  45. Re: Kinect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, but they've consistently turned a profit over the past 5-6 years.

    During the same period, Sony has taken a loss from their gaming division every year.

    Which is why it is silly when people suggest that MS will kill the Xbox division any day now. Why would Microsoft kill the cow just when it is starting to give milk?

  46. Re:Porn apps will determine whether it succeeds or by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This needs an augmented reality see through attractive people's clothing app. You'd have to be able to define filters for your own idea of attractive people though.

  47. Re:Still doesn't make sense by RockClimbingFool · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Think of the scene in the matrix where operators are guiding ships in and out of Zion. There is a huge 3D interface for them to interact with.

    You could eventually get right of ALL external displays. All of them. No longer would you need a tv in every room, or at all. The TV could be as big or as small as you want, any where you want.

    You would no longer have to produce any external interfaces at all. Everything would be virtual, seamlessly integrated into your current environment, anywhere you are.

    Imagine playing a shooting game where the enemy is seamlessly integrated into your house.

    The possible applications for AR are truly astounding.

  48. That's cool and all. . . by Casualposter · · Score: 2

    But how well would it work for people with prescription eye glasses? Nobody in the demo is wearing eye-glasses - 60% of Americans have to wear glasses and only about 13% of Americans wear contacts. So that leaves over a hundred million Americans having to cram this thing over their glasses just to use it or not buy it at all. It seems that this suffers from the same issue that Google Glass had - prescription eye care. 3D movies are ruined for folks with glasses - try stuffing two sets of glasses on your head for a couple of hours - it flat out sucks. The selection of headphones is limited by how comfortable they are with glasses on for an hour or more. So why would this technology be any better?

    The article focuses on how cool it is without addressing the actual practicality of having one - how heavy is it? How likely is it to survive five hundred or more impacts with the floor? What happens when the cat sit in it while it is lying on the desk? Besides a couple of gimmicky things, who cares? How is holography on the inside of my helmet better than a computer screen? I keep hearing about how much cooler it is, but not how much better it is than what I have now. Why is it better? A holographic display is not going to be any more enlightening than a regular display. Besides we already see the world in 3D. I really just don't get why this is anything but "cool" like 3D movies were in the 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, 2000's, etc. It's a gimmick.

    --
    Creative Spelling Copyright (2002). May use without Persimmons
    1. Re:That's cool and all. . . by chispito · · Score: 1

      But how well would it work for people with prescription eye glasses?...(snip)...3D movies are ruined for folks with glasses - try stuffing two sets of glasses on your head for a couple of hours - it flat out sucks.

      3D movies still have never delivered on their promise for anyone. It's just not a comfortable format for film.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    2. Re:That's cool and all. . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Glasses are really not hard to accommodate in devices like this. I own a Movario BT200 (a device very similar to this) and there is a prescription lens insert and it works just fine.

      The issue is the field of view.
      nVidia, at last year's Siggraph showed off a full Field of View transparent AR device using light fields, and it looks promising. I'm a little worried about the computing power required to run it though for a mobile device as it requires generation of light fields on the fly. The technology can even do correct depth of field and correct for vision defects.

      The real enemy of AR though is latency, however.
      For some strange reason, light that passes straight through the glasses into your eye, is faster than light which:
      - hits a photo receptor,
      - sent down a sent down a bus to and stored in RAM, where it it refreshed
      - triggers an interrupt to the CPU
      - the CPU processes the interrupt and reports the image, and acts on it
      - the program decides to process the image with the CPU
      - the program decides to send the processed data to the output device via the system bus
      - a correct RGB image is generated
      - the image/light is projected through an optical wave guide
      - this light goes into your eye.

      This means for a long time yet, when you move your head the images will swim after it with a noticable delay in all AR technologies.

    3. Re:That's cool and all. . . by Rhywden · · Score: 1

      It's the lightfield that's the kicker. Because that makes it NOT a simple 'picture projected onto a surface'. With this technology, your eyes should be able to focus on different parts of the image and actually getting the results your eyes expect.

      Thus it should be possible to include a correction for near- or farsightedness. Your other complaints are merely showing your lack of imagination.

  49. It's a windows system... by Sperbels · · Score: 1

    I know this.

  50. Re:Kinect by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

    And in what the hell sense is the Xbox brand a dismal failure? Ok, it's never taken off in Japan (basically because Japanese consumers are highly protectionist), but it's generally been a surprising success.

    Japanese consumers expect their games to be in JAPANESE. That's the problem. A lot of Japanese know perfectly broken English. FWIW it did reasonably well in Japan for a non-Japanese device.

  51. Re:Kinect by RogueyWon · · Score: 1

    In the early days of the 360, MS spent a lot of time and money love-bombing Japanese developers to get them to make games primarily for the Japanese market (though many of them got exported to the West). Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey - the two best Japanese RPGs of the first few years of the last generation - were funded by MS, developed in Japan with Japanese as the primary language and English translations provided later. So language was no issue for those. Similarly, MS pumped a lot of money into Cave, making sure that the 360 got ports of a lot of their most notable arcade machines.

    All of which did next to nothing. I'm tempted to say MS did absolutely everything it reasonably could to break into Japan. It still didn't work. I wasn't surprised therefore that they've barely even bothered to try this time around with the Xbox One. The Japanese home console market is in a bad way anyway, so it probably doesn't matter anything like as much as it did a decade ago.

  52. Re:Kinect by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

    Nintendo managed to get into the causal gaming niche by selling cheap consoles with poorer hardware specs but making up for it with their own games specifically written for that hardware. If you want third party games a lot of them will be ports or cross-platform games and having worse hardware means your port will likely look like shit. The SNES was a bit of a fluke because the hardware specs were better than most of the competition at the time.

    Today people have smartphones and soon a lot will have smart TVs with Android as well so this strategy simply does not work anymore.

  53. Re: Kinect by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

    I think you're exaggerating. Sony loses money while they are ramping up a new console. They also lost money with the Playstation 3 until they did two hardware shrinks. But they did not have consecutive losses for the past 5-6 years on their gaming division.

  54. Re:Kinect by RogueyWon · · Score: 2

    That was certainly true for the Wii and Wii-U, but I'm not sure it holds up for Nintendo's other consoles. The Gamecube hardware was, by all accounts, good. Better than the PS2's and not far short of the Xbox's. It's still slightly amazing that the PS2 did as well as it did, given it was both underpowered and a complete dog to develop for.

    The N64 was more complicated; most of its hardware was pretty decent, but the decision to stick with cartridges rather than move to a CD format for games doomed it in the race with the Playstation. That was probably the most significant point in console-history (I'd rank it above even the Atari-crash, which was strictly a US phenomenon) - the moment Nintendo decided, on the basis of piracy fears, to part way with almost all of its significant third party developers (and also to massively annoy Sony, who had done a load of development work in partnership with Nintendo on CD-based console technology). If the N64 had used CDs, chances are the industry would look completely different today.

  55. glad more people are working on eyeglass displays by peter303 · · Score: 1

    lots of issues with current attempts and room to improve

  56. Re:Still doesn't make sense by Hussman32 · · Score: 1

    Think of many situations where mock-up training is needed (for example, working in radiation fields). If you could practice a task in a safe environment before actually doing it, you could safe hundreds of person-hours of exposure.

    These are impressive, and I hope they continue to develop them.

    --
    "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
  57. Don't compare to Google Glass...Think Cardboard! by cozytom · · Score: 1

    You want to see 3D with something strapped to your face, Google Cardboard is the tool to compare this to, not Google Glass.

    If you are comparing prices, well, maybe Glass is what to compare it to.

  58. Cylons! by McParty · · Score: 1

    This is exactly how the Cylons came to be, with Holobands (see the short-lived Battle Star Galactica spin off series, Caprica). A holographic head band in which users can escape the real world to a virtual reality with their own avatar with the ability to interact with over avatars. My only concern here is will they have a stupid looking start menu? I think Google would be more of a success in such a product, if it can evolve the GG.

  59. Re:Still doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I do not remember that scene being in the movie. Perhaps you're referring to some concept art for a sequel that never happened...

  60. Re:Kinect by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

    Hate to break it to you but Halo was an XBox release title.

    Yes, and it's release made the Xbox relevant for the first time. I wouldn't be far off saying it saved the Xbox. Dependent upon how much money MS was willing to lose before dropping it; it's place in history listed along with the Dreamcast, and the Cube.

  61. Re:Still doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It was when the Neberkenezer first comes to Zion. right before the big council meeting and Orgy Rave.

  62. Re:Kinect by Swampash · · Score: 2

    And in what the hell sense is the Xbox brand a dismal failure?

    These are all published numbers. Google them yourself.

    XBox development costs: 24 billion
    RROD writedown: 1.1 billion
    Xbox division losses as at 2007: 5 billion

    OK, so by 2007 the Xbox brand was worth negative 30 billion dollars. Earnings since then:

    2008: +426 million (first profit for Xbox in a calendar year! yay!)
    2009: +169 million
    2010 +165 million
    2011: +210 million
    2012: -229 million (ruh-roh, Raggy)

    So for Xbox 360's prime earning years, it made 741 million dollars. That doesn't even pay back the 1.1 billion writedown on the RROD fiasco. Let alone the 30 billion dollars Xbox was already in the red.

    Negative thirty billion plus zero point seven four one billion equals TRAINWRECK BLACK-HOLE DISASTER.

    Microsoft tries to deflect attention from overall Xbox performance by either mixing its numbers up in the greater Home and Entertainment reports, by emphasising "revenue" or "units shipped" or "market share", or by fixating on a small time period - that's how you get shit descriptors like "Microsoft's usually profitable games unit". Yeah, usual in the sense that the unit made annual profits for four straight years. It just cost Microsoft's shareholders thirty billion dollars in the years before that.

    OK, how about some more recent numbers:

    http://www.businessinsider.com...

    Summary: Xbox costs Microsoft two billion dollars a year.

    Yep, that's right, Microsoft spent thirty billion dollars setting up a business unit that runs at a loss of two billion dollars a year.

    By any sensible reckoning Xbox is arguably the greatest disaster in the history of the tech industry. Microsoft's just good at covering it up.

  63. Re:Still doesn't make sense by fxsoap · · Score: 1

    That sounds like the book Ready Player One but without having to wear a thing over your head....I'm ready to play FPS like that right now. That's been my dream since I was child

  64. Re:Still doesn't make sense by Your.Master · · Score: 1

    You can *absolutely* be thrown out of a hotel for using running water, and I guarantee -- outright guarantee -- that some people will use this in hotels and not be kicked out. I'd say being obnoxious about running water is *way more likley* for you to get booted from a restaurant or hotel (and a hefty fine at that) than being an asshole with one of these.

    You don't need a tablet, but people buy tablets.

  65. Re:Still doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sequel? You say that like there was a film that preceded Matrix Reloaded.

  66. porn Women for lonely men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am very lonely, the porn studios can create a sexual experience for me with this, add a fleshlight. Very cool, I have an Oculus and the porn is already great on it. Cheers!

  67. Re:Kinect by Sir_Substance · · Score: 1

    What if I sell two copies of Custers Revenge to my friend within a picosecond of each other? Is that relevant?

    Fastest selling always means "units sold/relevant lifetime" unless you're trying to be dishonest about how successful a product was, which is exactly what microsoft is doing here.

  68. OK, Google^W Microsoft by Karrham · · Score: 1

    Maybe it can be activated in GG way with command "OK, Microsoft"