Microsoft Hololens

 Abstract

Seminar on Hololens is Microsoft’s take on augmented reality, which they call “mixed reality”. Using multiple sensors, advanced optics, and holographic processing that melds seamlessly with its environment, These holograms can be used to display information, blend with the real world, or even simulate a virtual world. 

Microsoft HoloLens, known under development as Project Baraboo, are a pair of mixed reality smartglasses developed and manufactured by Microsoft. HoloLens was the first head-mounted display running the Windows Mixed Reality platform under the Windows 10 computer operating system. The tracking technology used in HoloLens can trace its lineage to Kinect, an add-on for Microsoft's Xbox game console that was introduced in 2010

What Is HoloLens?

HoloLens is an untethered, fully self-contained Windows 10 computer that rests comfortably on your head. It’s what’s known as a mixed reality device, a device that tries to blend the real and digital worlds. You see objects placed in the world that look and—to an extent—act like they’re in the real world. In contrast, VR immerses you in an environment and you typically don’t see anything around you but that virtual world. You generally aren’t visually aware of the real world outside your head-mounted display (HMD).  This experience can take you flying in outer space while you sit in your office chair. And AR tries to enhance the world around you with extra data, such as markers, or heads-up information that may pertain to your location. Some AR headsets simply throw text and images on a screen overlapping whatever you’re looking at.

With the HoloLens, you can bring applications and objects into the world around you that understand your environment. If you want an application pinned to the wall or in mid-air like a digital screen,  no problem. Such apps stay put, even when you leave your room and come back the next day. I’m constantly leaving virtual windows open in other rooms, to be surprised when I go back days later and they’re still there. And that’s not all. Suppose you want a skeleton standing in front of you in your living room that you can walk around and inspect (including climbing on your couch to look at the top of the head). Again, no problem. Drop a virtual 3D object, say a ball—referred to as a hologram—into your world and it will fall and hit your real table and stop. Move the table and the ball will fall and hit your real floor. The HoloLens understands the world around you and most are absolutely amazed the first time they try it (though I’m still waiting to be able to download Kung Fu into my brain).

How does it work?

The Hololens has a plethora of optical sensors, with two on each side for peripheral “environment understanding” sensing, a main downward facing depth camera to pick up hand motions, and specialized speakers that simulate sound from anywhere in the room. The Hololens also has several microphones, an HD camera, an ambient light sensor, and Microsoft’s custom “Holographic Processing Unit” that they claim has more processing power than the average laptop. All this comes together to sense the spatial orientation of the unit in the room, track walls and objects in the room, and blend holograms into the environment.

Reference:

https://www.gvsu.edu/cms4/asset/7E70FBB5-0BBC-EF4C-A56CBB9121AECA7F/7_things_about_microsoft_hololens.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_HoloLens

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/msdn-magazine/2016/november/hololens-introduction-to-the-hololens