My first experience with HoloLens

Frankly, I was not surprised by the almost complete absence of articles on this topic. It just so happened - people who had the opportunity to work with HoloLens are unlikely to get a dozen in the whole country. Nevertheless, in the framework of the Imagine Cup in Redmond, which I was able to take part in, one of the first test drives of the development tools for this platform was carried out.

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Hololens overview


HoloLens is a seriously classified Microsoft project that was launched as early as 2012. Since then, the company has managed to develop a prototype, which was presented to the press in January this year. A fairly decent review can be found, for example, here .

I will describe it constructively, from the point of view of the developer. So, the HoloLens device is a rather large, darkened glasses that are conveniently fixed on the head. Although, given the method of fastening, it might be more natural for someone to characterize it as a helmet. At first, I couldn’t notice any special sensors: no pronounced cameras, microphones and even headphones. It is quite convenient and easy to configure taking into account the individual PD (distance between the pupils).

My technology stack when working with this device included, in addition to the HoloLens platform itself, also Unity 3D and the Windows Store application. Something tells me that using Unity in conjunction with universal applications on related platforms (from Windows Phone to XBox) will be the most popular and productive complex in the future.

Functional


We managed to work with HoloLens productively - they covered a significant number of available functionality. Virtual reality additions look impressive, they are perfectly represented in the official video.



This is truly impressive. I do not think that something should be supplemented here. I’d better talk about what is not in this video.
Accustomed to the basic gestures that performed actions on the video to add, select and move items, the first voice commands were tested. They work quite accurately and are based (who would be surprised) on the Cortana engine. For HoloLens, voice work is being developed by the same team. Let me remind you that Cortana dramatically increases the number of supported localizations and by the end of the year will cover all the most popular languages. Alas, except for Russian. Well, we will wait.

Vision angle


Further, the participants of the test drive plunged into the first hint of the magic of this device. Using the HoloLens platform, the program can know where the user is looking. You can see an example of this at the presentation of HoloLens at the Build conference here:



This is very interesting and allows you to quickly, conveniently and, most importantly, intuitively perform the necessary actions to call the commands related to any specific viewing areas. This is crucial for a clear virtualization of what is happening. Consider an example in an abstract game in which a knight meets a dragon. You can directly specify the algorithm of actions, how to demonstrate a hologram of a monster in front of the hero’s nose (to depict a whole dragon at a given distance or just his evil grin). If the insidious enemy is behind the savior, you can add a growl seasoned with a fire flame at the right angle “from behind”, calculating all the necessary parameters (volume, distance - whatever your heart desires).

This is very conveniently done by means of the platforms indicated by me. Everything is beautiful and amazing! Using the described features, you can now fight dragons in games, produce visual training aids, help, say, investigate crimes and search for evidence, and, and, and ... But, ahead of your questions, in reality, not all of this is possible now. A specific implementation very accurately monitors the slightest change in the position of the user's head, but is not attached to the pupil.

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In real life, this may indeed be enough, because we intuitively turn not only the pupil, but also the head, changing the angle of view. True, the activity based on the search for small details in the current implementation of this platform is very limited. Unfortunately, I currently do not know anything about the future processing of the user's gaze. Although there are already examples of obtaining information about the direct point of view of a person and are actively used in the design and testing of mobile applications in the largest IT companies. They are based on the position of the pupil, not just the head. So I believe that this clarification in one form or another will certainly be made.

And others like them


On a test drive, we already managed to test ready-made entities and libraries. For example, a hologram of an explosion (a combination of sound and image), animations of physical processes (a ball rolls), and even the underworld (second world with its own laws of gravity and content).

Of the other interesting things, I can not help but notice the work with sound that completely amazed me on this device. Wearing glasses, you perfectly clearly hear everything that happens within the device, while not falling out of the sounds of real life. Your ears are still free of any devices. There is no likelihood that the prankster earphone will still fall out with an unsuccessful or sudden movement. The magic in this case lies in the almost complete inaudibility of what is happening for the outside world. You do not bother anyone, no one eavesdrops on you. I did not quite understand how they succeeded, but the sound of these glasses can be called almost individual. Miracle! The sound is worthy of the highest ratings! That's what makes me run in the morning.

As a result, HoloLens looks quite viable, given the serious successes in visualization, sound and integration with almost any device using Windows 10. There are details that need to be completed - this applies both to the parameters of the device itself and to the developer tools. Nevertheless, I will be watching with great interest the development of this device. Considering that one of the judges in the Imagine Cup finals was the creator of HoloLens Alex Kipman, one can notice the trends observed this year.

Futurism


Here we come to the ideological question that I have left after working with this device. I was very impressed and digested the thousands of things that can be done with. But only the answer to the question of synchronization of one world on several devices fascinated me. He was extremely short, but not entirely clear - no.

This is not foreseen in the near future. You can look at copies of the same world, but not share it with anyone. This is a purely individual device that allows a person to customize reality for themselves. Frankly, I personally caused this (perhaps too conservative) concern. Dozens of examples of a fantastic genre surfaced in my head, in which the future seemed highly individualized. Perhaps, at the level of specific applications, this will be solved by the example of network games - time will tell. But it is clear that the near future awaits us very entertaining. Yes geek will not translate in Russia.

Thanks!

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