Vectorform, Microsoft Partner to Expand HoloLens Technology to Automotive Design

Vectorform, a digital product and experiences company with expert capabilities in mixed reality design and engineering, today announced its collaboration with Microsoft to innovate vehicle design and prototyping processes for the automotive industry. Using Microsoft's HoloLens mixed reality headset, Vectorform and Microsoft enabled Ford Motor Company's designers and engineers to view 3D holographic versions of exterior body options (e.g. side mirrors, grilles) overlaid on top of the physical vehicle prototypes.

Microsoft's HoloLens Showcase team partnered with Vectorform on all design, content development, and engineering to build the mixed reality prototyping system. The companies collaborated for three months to create user experience flows, system requirements, user interfaces, 3D assets, and final engineering builds.This Vectorform solution accelerates the prototyping process by allowing designers to explore different shapes, sizes and textures of future vehicle attributes in minutes, instead of the weeks it can take to create clay models with physical tools. HoloLens also allows multiple team members to simultaneously view the same design variations, making collaboration easier and more productive.

"The ability to help Microsoft and its automotive clients see the potential impact of mixed reality in its design process is a huge win for Vectorform," said Jason Vazzano, CEO, and Co-Founder of Vectorform. "As we continue to work with Microsoft and HoloLens, we can't wait to see what other industry-transforming mixed reality solutions we will bring to market."

Vectorform is an official Microsoft HoloLens Agency Readiness Partner in both North America and Europe, and recently debuted HoloFramer, a mixed reality experience that allows interior designers and architects to create and collaborate on virtual layouts for physical spaces.





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Why Mixed Reality can be the key to transforming education


As technology continues to transform much of the world around us, some of the most exciting and innovative developments are being made in the education sector.

Companies are dedicating huge resources into cracking the lucrative education sector as school and universities look to enrich the learning experience with increasingly developed technology solutions and offerings.

Speaking to ITProPortal at the BETT 2018 show in London this week, Dan Ayoub, Microsoft GM of education for mixed reality, was keen to talk up the company’s increasingly powerful work in the education space, especially using its mixed reality tools such as Microsoft Hololens.

"Mixed reality devices have the capacity to completely transform education and give teachers these amazing tools to really help their students thrive and prepare themselves for the future," he said.

Microsoft recently revealed partnerships with a number of third parties to help make its mixed reality devices cheaper and more accessible, with a number of these products, from the likes of Lenovo and Dell on display at BETT 2018.

Ayoub agrees that getting devices such as Hololens out to schools and universities is key to expanding the potential of mixed reality, noting that it can completely transform the ways that children learn about the world around them.

"It's a fascinating space”, he says, “for us, it’s about, how do we arm teachers with the ways to educate and grow their students...it's just staggering, you could have students literally do anything!"

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This HoloLens App Hopes to Offer Paramedics an Augmented Reality Assist During Emergencies

A new telemedicine application for the Microsoft HoloLens is promising paramedics and EMTs a new tool for diagnosis and treatment of patients in the field.

Designed through a partnership between medical software company Exelus and HoloLens developer HoloForge, Nomadeec leverages the gesture-based commands of the HoloLens to give practitioners access to customizable modules for patient assessments, clinical exams, and patient profiles.

With Nomadeec, HoloLens can also act as a heads-up display for monitoring a patient's vital signs, as the platform can connect to numerous types of medical devices, such as ECGs, thermometers, stethoscopes, and ultrasound devices, via Bluetooth. And when practitioners need a second opinion from a medical professional, the Nomadeec system can connect them to those medical experts via video conference.

While Exelus and HoloForge emphasize Nomadeec's HoloLens capabilities, the platform is also compatible with smartphones, tablets, and smartglasses running on iOS, Android, or Windows.

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Has Microsoft Figured Out How to Double Field of View on HoloLens?



One of the most highly-cited drawbacks to the HoloLens is its limited field of view (FOV), but now it appears that Microsoft has solved that problem.

Based on patents filed in April with the World Intellectual Property Organization and discovered via MSPoweruser, the method involves splitting an image and projecting the two separate components then combining them.

The inventors, Microsoft optical engineers Tuomas Vallius and Jani Tervo, were able to achieve at least 70 degrees FOV, even if the individual components were only able to support 35 degrees (or the FOV of the current HoloLens).


Using embodiments described herein, a large FOV of at least 70 degrees, and potentially up to 90 degrees or even larger can be achieved by an optical waveguide that utilizes intermediate-components to provide pupil expansion, even where the intermediate-components individually can only support of FOV of about 35 degrees. Additionally, where only a portion of the total FOV is guided to disparate intermediate-components, a power savings of up to 50% can be achieved when compared to a situation where the FOV is not split by the input-coupler.— WIPO Patent No. WO/2017/180403

As is the case with most patents, there is no guarantee that this represents an actual design implementation that Microsoft intends to deploy, but this is encouraging news that indicates the next iteration of the HoloLens could include such an improvement.

HoloLens custom prescription lenses by Rochester Optical

If you own a HoloLens and wear glasses, you probably have a bit of difficulty while using the HoloLens. Now, thanks to a new insert from Rochester Optical, you can now get prescription lenses that you can use with your HoloLens very easily. It is worth mentioning that Rochester Optical previously offered prescription lenses for the Google Glass, too.

You can get the lens in three different types, and they cost up to $249. However, the price starts at $99 which is pretty good. To be specific, you can get the single vision lenses for $199 and the bifocals for $249.

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Unity and C#

With Unity and C# you can write a Universal app that addresses augmented reality, Hololens, and immersive headsets. Join this session to get an intro to the Windows Mixed Reality platform. We will write an app from scratch, illustrating the building blocks - input, coordinate systems, spatial mapping, spatial sound - and the most useful tools and patterns for building MR applications.

MR and Unity

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This is just a quick overview on getting started developing with unity.

Multi-Purpose Controller

Sit Back, Relax, and Take Control

Myo lets you take control of your digital world from a distance: browse the web with the flick of a wrist.

Augmented Reality (AR): The Future of Supply Chains?

Your customers want goods faster. You want more accuracy and streamlined processes for your employees. Recently, there has been talk about the use of augmented reality (AR) within the distribution center. Using AR, we can redefine our current processes and integrate with today’s most advanced automation technology.

• Supply Chain Software – While this is a revolutionary piece of hardware, software is the key factor here. Within a distribution center, the Warehouse Management System (WMS) mainly focuses on inventory and labor requirements. Communication to inventory levels and employee performance will play a vital role for HoloLens. A warehouse control system (WCS) can also benefit from holograms. As problems arise on the floor, we rely on our human-machine interface (HMI) display to alert us. With HoloLens the user can walk the physical floor and receive real-time updates as he/she passes each section of the material handling system. With more advanced functions of HoloLens, it can even provide holographic step-by-step instructions on how to fix the issue.

• Picking, for example, can be improved drastically by empowering employees with HoloLens. The operator can now view real-time location of items and quantity to pick. Enabling faster cycle times to fulfill orders and a more efficient workforce without the expense of pick-to-light hardware. If voice-picking is better suited for your operation, HoloLens will be able to enable hand’s free picking using the operators’ vocal commands.

• Collaborative Robotics – Robotics, and humans will come together to augment each other. The human can map out the robot’s path, while the robot will listen and take over the tedious repetitive tasks that a human may not be capable of doing alone. We can use the human for his/her strengths such as awareness, perception, and decision making, while the robot’s strengths are precision, physical strength, and repetitiveness. HoloLens can be the bridge of communication between the two.