Windows 10 PCs coming out next year will have Windows Holographic access

Mixed reality is almost upon us. Microsoft Windows head Terry Myerson announced at Intel’s annual developers’ conference that the company is partnering with intel to allow Windows 10 PCs coming out next year to have support for mixed-reality applications. What mixed reality is, as defined by Recode: “The key term for mixed reality, or MR, is flexibility. It tries to combine the best aspects of both VR [virtual reality] and AR [augmented reality], wrapped up in a marketable term that sounds marginally less geeky than its cousins. In theory, mixed reality lets the user see the real world (like AR) while also seeing believable, virtual objects (like VR). And then it anchors those virtual objects to a point in real space, making it possible to treat them as "real," at least from the perspective of the person who can see the MR experience.”

The upcoming PCs will have the holographic shell built in—this is the same operating system running on the Microsoft HoloLens headset. PCs will work with a head-mounted display and run all Windows Holographic apps and this will be enabled by “6 degrees of freedom devices,” which are input devices to add positional tracking alongside other traditional input forms like clicking and pointing. And it’ll be widely available, too. So you don’t require a high-powered machine needed by some of today’s VR headsets. The Microsoft demo video at the conference showed Windows 10 Holographic running at 90FPS on a tiny Intel NUC desktop PC.

Source: TechCrunch + The Verge

Magic Leap and Lucasfilm want to bring C-3PO into your living room

Watch this on The Scene.

It’s feels like a match made in heaven when you think about Lucasfilm and mixed-reality startup Magic Leap partnering, especially if you think about the technology the two companies can bring into the world. What took over a year of “courtship” has resulted in the two innovators working to bringing Star Wars content into our lives. Magic Leap is working closely with Lucasfilm’s forward-looking division, xLab, to do something both brands won’t elaborate on. But a video showed at WIRED Business Conference shows the possibility of having C-3PO in your living room interacting with you and sharing the issues from the Star Wars galaxy, making use of augmented reality and other “mixed reality” tech we’re sure is headed our way many years from now. What they could put forward could be a new medium to consume content or change the way we tell stories. It’s all pretty exciting, if you ask us.

Source: WIRED

Microsoft aims for a ‘mixed reality’ over a virtual one, opens HoloLens development to third-party partners

Microsoft claims the market for virtual reality devices is forecasted to hit 80 million devices per year by 2020. With almost every single tech company putting out some form of a VR headset or accessory, we don’t think that’s far off. But Microsoft is looking beyond the virtual world and entering what they call a “mixed reality” or the mix between the virtual and augmented reality. How Microsoft wants to do this is by opening up development of HoloLens to third-party companies via the Windows Holographic platform. They want to bring the experience not just to their HoloLens device but to whatever VR or AR or “mixed” device it can be made available. It’s not just for the headsets themselves but even the accessories, displays, or PCs needed to make mixed reality devices come to life.

Think of it a bit like Google’s own Daydream VR platform. And Microsoft aims for its partners—which include Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, HTC, Acer, ASUS, CyberPowerPC, Dell, Falcon Northwest, HP, iBuyPower, Lenovo, and MSI—to “push the limits and create opportunity across the ecosystem.” Of course, this means the platform works with Windows. And don’t be surprised if the consumer version of HoloLens comes from a third-party company. Check out the video above to see how Microsoft thinks this technology can be used in the future.

Source: Microsoft