In the early days, it appeared that Oculus was taking a hardware and platform approach—’if you build it, [content creators] will come.’ But now with some 250 employees and the backing of Facebook, Oculus has begun working on first-party games, and is now experimenting with cinematic VR experiences in a newly revealed internal ‘Story Studio’ group. The first glimpse of the studio’s work, Lost, a CG VR short film, will be shown at this week’s Sundance Film Festival.
Unfortunately no cameras or phones were allowed inside the press’ special hands-on meeting with Microsoft HoloLens after the device’s announcement on Wednesday, so we can’t show you a single picture of the only verifiably working model of the new augmented reality headset. We do however have some first-hand accounts from the lucky few allowed into Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington headquarters for the meeting, who then got a little one-on-one time with a HoloLens prototype. The device has garnered a collective ‘the potential is awesome, but still needs some work’ vibe.
As virtual reality rises, so does the need for its enthusiasts and industry members to meet. The UK has a thriving VR community and a growing industry presence, so the recently announced SouthWest VR Conference on the 24th Feb, is a welcome addition to the VR calendar.
HoloLens, a newly announced augmented reality device from Microsoft, is definitely turning some heads to the possibility of interacting with floating apps and games. We can’t help but notice though that there seems to be an eerie convergence of technology, leaving us with a serious case of déjà vu. Here we take a closer look at two crowdfunded devices that are working on the same problems as HoloLens: Atheer Labs’s AiR Smart Glasses and the Meta 1 developer kit.
Although Microsoft’s HoloLens is promising to bring some very important firsts to the field of augmented reality— like the integration of voice commands, or their Windows 10 ‘Universal apps’ that will run on both PC and the new AR wearable itself, we’re still scratching our heads over the fact that Microsoft is calling HoloLens “the first fully untethered holographic computer.”
Brushing aside the buzzwords, what Microsoft has introduced is an advanced AR wearable (holograms need not apply), but not entirely unlike some crowdfunded devices, namely Atheer Lab’s AiR Smart Glasses and Meta 1 Development Kit (formerly known as ‘Spaceglasses’).
AiR Smartglasses
Atheer Lab’s AiR Smartglasses essentially connects their AR glasses to an android-based computer, or as they say “the wallet”, that’s supposed to fit in your pocket while doing the computational heavy lifting. Although not ‘fully untethered’ by virtue of the cable connecting the two halves of the device, AiR Smartglasses integrates hand-tracking and gesture control with their see-through display that looks awfully similar to their undelivered developer kit directed towards consumers, a move by the company to consolidate funds and focus on growing their business.
However, since the new CEO stepped in, former HP mobility chief Alberto Torres, Atheer Labs has become much more enterprise-focused, and is only allowing demos with the Air Smartglasses by request through their website. No public pricing information or specs exist of their Smartglasses at this time, but with a rumored release date of late 2015, we’re bound to see more information come out detailing the specifics surrounding the device and exactly what its capable of.
Meta 1 Developer Kit, Meta Pro
Make no bones about it, Meta’s initial Kickstarter-funded developer kit is a resolutely tethered experience (unless you plan on shoving a laptop into a backpack), but full-featured low-power AR is a tricky beast to tame. Without access to cutting-edge mobile processors like Intel’s new Atom (code named ‘Cherry Trail’), reported by PCWorld to be driving HoloLens, the number of features packed into the Meta 1 dev kit necessitate the reliance on external power and a separate computing device.
The company’s new Meta Pro however, seen last September in a demo by YouTuber Austin Evans, is coming to a yet unspecified mobile device which will supposedly use a similar ‘in pocket’ cable scheme. Meta’s new refreshed device features 720p see-through displays for both eyes, computer vision depth mapping, 360 degree tracking, and of course the same gesture-based interface that the company is comparing to Ironman’s UI. We hope Meta can get this one down in price though, because at last year’s quoted price of $3,000 is looking a little (or in fact a lot) outside of the average consumer’s budget.
There’s a clear scarcity of detailed technical information on both devices, and probably for a pretty good reason. Much like Oculus’ interim feature prototype Crescent Bay, start-up companies aren’t exactly ready to release full specs on unfinished platforms. But now that the bar has been set by Microsoft, who knows what will stream out of Atheer Labs and Meta in the coming months. We’ll be keeping an eye on both to see what develops in the new market of consumer-grade AR, and report any changes in specifications as soon as they come out.
The University of Pennsylvania‘s winter hackathon, PennApps, is now over, and we’re not surprised to see a few VR experiences in the winners circle. Brand Killer, an application running on a custom-built VR headset, was unfortunately not among them, but there’s no denying that the idea behind the Adblock-inspired app is equally brilliant as it is subversive.
The Silicon Valley Virtual Reality meetup (SVVR), one of the first of its kind back in May 2013, has announced the date and venue for its 2015 Conference and Expo and is aiming to triple attendees.
May of 2013. Oculus was just back from their first Game Developers Conference (GDC) a month and a half before, and DK1 Rifts were (slowly) making their way into the hands of anxious early adopters. The go-to demos of the time were games like Lunar Flight, Ciess, and Titans of Space, amongst others. The first Silicon Valley VR meetup, held May 16 of that year, attracted 72 VR enthusiasts. Hot on its heels, San Francisco VR (SFVR) in July of the same year had 40 attendees.
May of 2014 brought us the first Silicon Valley VR expo at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. The two day event attracted over 400 attendees and 35 exhibitors. The show was a resounding success, bringing together members of the VR community and industry from all over the world.
My, how times have changed.
The recently extended and renovated San Jose Convention Center. Home of SVVR Conference and Expo 2015
Yesterday, Silicon Valley VR announced dates and venue for a two day expo devoted to virtual reality. Planned for May 18 and 19 at the San Jose Convention Center, organizers Karl Krantz and Nana Usui are targeting 1200 attendees and 100 of VR’s top innovators on the expo floor. Early plans are for two tiers of tickets, with the lower expo-only pass costing a fraction of last year’s price.
Expect a formal announcement for the event in a few weeks, but consider this breaking update from Road to VR as your Save-the-Date warning!
Wondering how Microsoft HoloLens development will work? Microsoft says that HoloLens APIs are built into the core of Windows 10 and that all Universal apps—those built for cross-device capability–will be automatically compatible with the HoloLens AR headset.
Microsoft further detailed DirectX 12 at yesterday’s Windows 10 address, and promised that not only could it increase performance in CPU-bound games by up to a staggering 50%, but also announced that DirectX 12 would be heading to Unity 5.
As usual, something fun gets announced, and I am stuck in a conference room at work trying to suppress the non-stop beeping of my phone. Microsoft announced it’s new augmented reality headset today, HoloLens. I felt this needed to be addressed as soon as possible, and Ben Lang, Road to VR’s Executive Editor, jumped in for a quick chat about today’s news.
Details have emerged about the evolutionary past of Samsung’s Gear VR, offering a look at the formational stages of the device’s history. The pictures show some prototype design concepts that explore an interesting relationship between the smartphone and the VR headset.
At CES 2015, Oculus said that the Samsung Gear VR mobile headset would begin its international rollout before the month’s end. True to their word, the headset has become available for purchase in three European countries and is up for pre-order in one more.
We’ve seen ever-incredible but never-quite-reality AR concept videos for years now. Microsoft, which just revealed their HoloLens AR headset, was brave enough to take the unit out on stage at their Windows 10 press event for a live demonstration.
Prior to actually showing the device on stage at a Windows 10 press event today, Microsoft rolled a concept video giving examples of how the company envisions the device being used.
We just covered Microsoft’s surprise reveal of it’s new Augmented Reality headset dubbed ‘Hololens’. It seems tech magazine Wired has already seen the device and is seemingly amazed by what they saw.
Today at Microsoft’s Windows 10 press event, the company revealed an untethered augmented reality headset called the Microsoft HoloLens to accompany ‘Windows Holographic’, a component of Windows 10.
