Turn Your Data into a Hologram with This HoloLens App

Theorem Solutions, a company that helps engineering and manufacturing companies reduce their costs, has taken the next step with their mixed reality technology. The company has now added their own app, called Visualization Experience, to the Windows Store for the Microsoft HoloLens

According to the app page, Visualization Experience shows you "how you can visualize, prepare and present your CAD data for visualization in HoloLens," with features such as data positioning, optimization of data for visualization, and 3D geometry manipulation.

With the app, users can interact with their data by animating it in front of them Iron Man-style. This gives "the user complete freedom of movement to view, manipulate and interrogate their 3D data, all controlled by the use of hand gestures and voice commands," according to the company's press release.

The app is free to download but requires your name, a company name, a valid email address, and a Hololens to validate. As a cool bonus, the app also comes with a free 90-day trial that supplies users with engineering data from Theorem that shows how the app functions and helps optimize output for companies. After the user is validated, they will be sent an email that unlocks the trial of Visualization Experience.

Users can upgrade to the full subscription version at any time, which will replace the Theorem data with a company's own engineering and manufacturing CAD and PLM data. The app will optimize it for use by the HoloLens, making the process efficient simple for its users.

Check out the app in the Windows Store for HoloLens.

TESTED checked out the Meta 2 headset.

Looks cool. I still have the feeling that the HoloLens will be expanding it's FOV for the consumer release. Meta 2 is there, however, you are still tethered to a machine. So for a $1000 dev kit, I'll wait for new HoloLens.

Microsoft to Launch Its Answer to PlayStation VR in 2018, With an Augmented Reality Twist

Microsoft is going to bring its Windows Mixed Reality technology to the Xbox next year. The company announced at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco Thursday that it will launch mixed reality content on the Xbox One, and the next version of the Xbox, code-named “Project Scorpio,” in 2018.

Microsoft didn’t go into details about its plans for the game console; the company has said in the past that it wants “Project Scorpio” to be VR-capable.

However, the new announcement adds a new twist to this: Windows Mixed Reality is the technology that powers Microsoft’s Hololens augmented reality headset, as well as headsets from other manufacturers that combine augmented and virtual reality experiences.

Lenovo's Mixed Reality Headset Reportedly Arriving in August for $399

Rumor or Reality?

Ross McDougall, a member of the Lenovo Insider Program, tweeted Monday about Lenovo's dive into AR and VR, citing specific specs and dates. According to McDougall, Lenovo's Headset will be released August 2017 and retail for $399. He tweeted the headset would feature 1440 x 1440 resolution, weigh 380g (roughly 0.84 lbs), and feature 6 degrees of inside-out tracking. The latter item allowing the user to move their head in 3D space, replicating a real-world experience.
A second tweet from McDougall listed more features. These included dual VGA cameras, a content library featuring 20,000 Windows 10 2D applications, select hololens apps, and the Lenovo Entertainment Hub. McDougall claims the minimum PC specs will be Intel i5 & HD620 (RS3).

Word Translator

Word Lens Translator
This is an app that is still in development. Below is the description for the Android app.

(which is no longer available). However, this app is being developed for the Hololens. We will have to keep our eyes on it.

Word Lens Translator is an application that provides real time translations on your Android device by using its camera.
Lost in translation?

Traveling to another country without speaking the language is nerve wracking. While Word Lens won't teach you to speak a new language, it will enable you to read it at the very least. Word Lens uses your Android device's camera to detect text and automatically translate words and sentences on the fly.
A window onto a new language

Word Lens is very simple to use. You just hold your phone or tablet up to a sign or a piece of text in another language and watch the screen as the text changes to your language before your very eyes. It doesn't work flawlessly, but the overall effect is very impressive, and dare I say it, futuristic.

Unlike the iOS version, the language packs in Word Lens for Android are all free. As of this review, the languages available are Spanish, Italian, French, German, Russian, and Portuguese. There's also a demo of the technology that shows you it works by reversing words and erasing words.

There is a dictionary within the application to look up words that the app fails to translate properly or if you just want to find a word's definition quickly, without using the camera. This is great feature but the definitions that it provided were a hit or miss.

VAR Football Gives Coaches Another Tool to Train Sports   Teams With—The HoloLens

The HoloLens is a natural medium for 3D data visualization, which offers a far more ideal approach over 2D screens to managing multiple resources simultaneously and grasping the bigger picture. We've already seen how management is using holograms to oversee cities, firefighters, and the military, and now training for sports teams is being addressed with VAR Football.

At its core, VAR Football is a football training system that uses 360-degree videos and 3D rendered football players to provide immersive video training for real-life plays and to show off new plays virtually. This version has existed for over a year now, and is available form other companies working with football teams such as EON Sports VR and STRIVR. The two main modules in the system include:

• Virtual Reality Video Training: Allows the coaches to put a 360-degree camera out on the field during a live practice session. After the session, the players can go back and watch the practice session on the HoloLens with the ability to see it from different angles providing considerably more information than a traditional 2D camera and screen.
• Virtual Reality 3D Training: Uses a PC to allow the coaches and trainers to enter new plays into the system. The players then have the ability, using a VR headset, to run those plays virtually.

Thyssenkrupp Claims Up to 4x Faster Workflow with HoloLens

Microsoft announced yet another exciting partnership for HoloLens today — thyssenkrupp, an industrial engineering company best known for their elevators — continuing to prove how useful augmented reality is in the workplace.

The announcement video shows off the HoloLens workflow for thyssenkrupp's stairlifts to help those with mobility and accessibility problems up and down household staircases so that people can be "mobile in the own environment."

Installing stairlifts can be challenging because every home staircase is unique and there is no one size fits all lift for them. Every stairlift must be customized to each individual staircase, so measuring, manufacturing, and installation takes quite a bit of time. Using the HoloLens can make these steps more efficient.

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Stimulant's HoloLens App Helps Navigate Inside Buildings


We've got Google Maps to help us out when we need to navigate outdoors, but Google can only map out so many indoor locations without getting creepy. And that's where Stimulant comes in. This "innovation studio" built a HoloLens app that lets you map out an area, define locations, and use the headset to get instant directions to any defined location.

Stimulant's wayfinding app allows holographic cartographers, so to speak, to place diamond markers on any location and define them by name. A user can then ask for directions to a specific place in the building and a path of animated particles will lead them there.

While this experiment has somewhat limited usefulness at the moment, it's a great method of wayfinding. When headsets get cheaper and widely available, or similar methods are developed for augmented/mixed reality smartphones, we may have a more precise method of getting to our destination both indoors and out.

Just imagine going to a museum, hospital, or other complex public structure and knowing exactly where to go without asking anybody anything. Eventually, it could be like that.

HoloHear Is Like Google Translate for Deaf People

Deaf people primarily communicate through sign language, so understanding spoken languages can prove challenging. To bridge that gap in communication, the HoloHear team built a mixed reality app at a Microsoft HoloLens Hackathon in San Fransisco that translates the spoken word into sign language.
HoloHear not only translates the spoken word for the hearing impaired, but can also teach a hearing person sign language. When someone speaks aloud, a 3D holographic model appears to show the sentence using American Sign Language (ASL) in close to real time. In listen mode, deaf people can understand speech. In learning mode, the hearing can see what signs to make based on the words they use.

Lenovo to launch their Mixed Reality Headset This year

Mixed Reality which is the next big thing will be replacing your Smartphone and PC. Windows users will be having a chance to decide since there will be lot of affordable 3rd party Windows Mixed Reality Headsets which are expected to hit the market over the next year which will be powered by Windows 10 Creators update.

Lenovo is one such company which unveiled their headset at the CES. The device is lighter than most at 350g. It features two OLED display panels which deliver higher resolution to each eye and offers 6 degree inside out tracking meaning users are fully tracked in space without any external tracking device.

The device also features two front camera which enable augmented reality applications without direct external vision. The headset is compatible with Windows Holographic peripherals and will also work with Windows Store apps and HoloLens Software.

Mike Abary, VP of Lenovo’s North America consumer business has revealed that the device will be hitting the market in time the school season starts meaning the device will be launching at the end of summer or mid August this year.

The VP also confirmed that the headset will be priced at $499 which is a great price for such a highly specified device.

Occipital's Bridge Headset Is Available Now
..well not really

This headset is a first step for Apple into the AR world. Not a Hololens or the like, but rather a large, VR like headset that you plug your iPhone into. However, this headset does have cameras on it to give you the hardware you need for AR. The headset is $500. 

Occipital first made its presence known in the augmented and mixed reality scene when it initially Kickstarted the Structure Sensor back in 2013. They well surpassed their $100,000 goal, raising $1.29 million. They have since been busy building the software to power that sensor called Bridge Engine, which led to their VR Dev Kits earlier this year and, finally, to the Bridge headset.

Structure is a sensor array very akin to the Microsoft Kinect, but designed for use with Apple's mobile product line. Interested? Sorry, the Bridge Explorer Edition is currently sold out. They only released less than 100 for an iPhone 7, and just over 100 for an iPhone 6 or 6s (Plus sizes are not supported). The consumer version of Bridge will be available for $399. They missed their release date, but you can preorder right now.

I would guess you have to go through all the restrictions and cost to get the AR app on the app store. Hopefully not.

ODG R-7HL (The HL stands for Hazardous Location)

ODG unveils hardened AR smartglasses for hazardous jobs

“ODG built the R-7HL to answer the demands and needs of customers who operate in extreme environments,” said Ralph Osterhout, ODG CEO, in a statement. “R-7HL brings a durable, hands-free, wearable computing platform to professionals in oil exploration and production, energy, mining, utilities, chemical production and pharmaceuticals and enables heads-up, hands-free checklists, guided assistance tools and manuals, remote assistance support, and the delivery of real time notifications and alerts. It keeps users safer and helps them be more efficient and will further help to change the way work is done.”

The R-7HL is built with reinforced and protective goggle-like eye housing. It has MIL-STD-810G certification for drop, shock, vibration, low pressure, and temperature extremes, as well as ANSI Z87.1 dust-proof and splash-proof certification.

Continue..

Baidu Acquires Machine Vision Startup

China's internet search leader Baidu, Inc. announced on April 13 that it has acquired xPerception, a visual perception software and hardware developer, for an undisclosed sum.

Co-founded by Dr. Bao Yingze and Dr. Chen Mingyu, former engineers at Magic Leap, xPerception will integrate into Baidu Research. The team will continue developing simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology for visual perception, which allows machines to see their own environments. This technology can be applied to Baidu projects for augmented/virtual reality, autonomous driving, and artificial intelligence.

Visual perception for machines looks to be an emerging field for augmented reality, with the Microsoft/DJI-supported ISAACS program at UC-Berkeley developing similar technology.

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How do I use mixed reality apps in Windows 10?

The Windows 10 Creators Update has brought us a whole bunch of new tools, including a simulator that lets you experience mixed reality apps without having an actual headset. Unlike the Hololens emulator that runs apps in a virtual machine, mixed reality apps run just like any other app; the simulator makes them think you actually have a headset, and your movements are controlled with your normal peripherals instead of having your body tracked in real time.
Ready to check out mixed reality on your PC? Here's how to set up and use the Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) simulator in Windows 10 Creators Update.

Microsoft's HoloLens Reaches the Classroom with Lifeliqe's Mixed Reality Apps for Kids

Lifeliqe (pronounced "life-like"), a visual education company that creates digital science curriculums for students by using the latest MR and AR technology, just finished piloting its 3D apps on the Microsoft HoloLens for kids in grades six through 12 at Renton Prep in Seattle and Castro Valley Unified College in California.

The kids were provided an augmented lesson on the circulatory system and electronegativity. Richard Schneck, a career specialist at Castro Valley Unified College, stated in a press release that the kids "were excited to dive into the blood vessel because they could visualize it, which should help their memory retention."

Lifeliqe's goal is to allow students and teachers to have access to its over 1,000 ready-to-go AR models and lesson plans. The company also wants users to be able to share and create content within the app. Continue Reading

$300 VR / MR

Acer's $300 Windows headset bodes well for the future of cheap VR

This new article gives a personal review of the Acer Headset. It verifies that this headset will be VR for all windows apps AND will be able to use MR apps devoped for the Hololens.

Aside from the low price, this unit will work using low-end laptops with integrated graphics. It is also different from other devices in that it contains some of the technology that is used in the Hololens. You can wear eyeglasses with it, so that is a plus in my book. However, what is really cool, you don't need external sensors to track your position. So it is basically plug-in-play.

WebVR

Google Highlights WebVR Possibilities with New Hub

Google recently added WebVR to Chrome for Daydream and Google Cardboard devices, and now they're taking their endorsement of the browser-based platform a step further.
WebVR Experiments is a showcase of noteworthy experiences as well as a resource for developers to get started with open source code and other tools to build things in WebVR.

"We hope these experiments make it easier for more people to experience VR, and inspire more developers to create new VR worlds on the web," Google writes on their blog.

Mixed Reality will be most important tech of 2017

2016 has been a remarkable year that’s brought continued growth and awareness to the worlds of Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality. Set to become a $165 Billion dollar industry by 2020, there’s still a common question that lingers among many newcomers trying to understand this fast moving digital phenomena we are just beginning to watch evolve: What’s the difference between them and how will it impact the digital world as I currently know it?

Before we jump into the mind-blowing future Mixed Reality is set to usher in over the course of 2017, let’s first discuss the distinctions between Virtual and Augmented Reality. Their technologies are very similar but have some fundamental differences.

Virtual Reality (VR) is a digital environment that shuts out the real world. VR is able to transpose the user. In other words, it can bring us someplace else. Through closed visors or goggles, VR blocks out the room and puts our presence elsewhere.

Augmented Reality (AR) places digital content on top of the physical world you see around you. AR works by adding 2D or 3D layered content on top of real world objects or locations, allowing the user to unlock additional information that may be relevant, therefore turning the physical world around them into digital media.

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Augmented Reality SDK provide to developers the tools and libraries to develop more easily Augmented Reality applications (i.e: add AR technology to Android, iOS application...).

This Augmented Reality SDK comparison chart compares Augmented Reality (AR) SDKs and frameworks. Based on spreadsheet created by Gerhard Reitmayr and shared on the Augmented Reality Professionals Group on LinkedIn.

See Chart

Meta 2

The Meta 2 development kit enables you to create holographic apps, tools, and experiences. The headset displays holograms and digital content, and comes with a software development kit (SDK) built on top of Unity, the most popular 3D engine in the world.


The dev kit pretty much just uses Unity and has no need for other services like Vuforia. The headset appears to have plenty of room for eyeglasses. This is yet another device that will be competing with the 'big boys'. More and more companies are popping out of the woodwork and other companies, like Metavision, are starting to get attention.

Vuforia

One of the softwares we need for Hololens development is Vuforia. We have an agreement with them to assist us in getting started. As long as we have less than 1000 end users accessing our apps, we can use the Free version. It will have a small watermark on screen. See example below:

Once we are approaching either surpassing 1000 end users or looking to sell our products, we will need to upgrade to the Pro Licensing.  We have 2 options at that point. Either go with Device Only app (IOS, Android, Universal Windows Platform) or we go with the Cloud option.  I believe the Cloud also includes the Device Only platforms based on its cost.  have quotes for each of those.

Hololens Light?

While we develop for Hololens on a version 1 dev kit, we must continue to wait for the consumer version. The new Version 3 headset is planned on being released in late 2019. However, while we wait, you can expect to see tethered version being released by Microsoft's partners (HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer and ASUS). These headsets will start at $299. They will bridge the gap between VR and true MR.

Best part is you only need the new Win10 Creators Update, which launches 4/11/2017,and some low end hardware. The specs for hardware requirements are;

• CPU: Intel Mobile Core i5 (e.g. 7200U) Dual-Core with HyperThreading equivalent (Kaby Lake)
• GPU: Integrated Intel® HD Graphics 620 (GT2) equivalent or greater DX12 API Capable GPU
• RAM: 8GB+ Dual Channel required for integrated graphics
• HDMI: HDMI 1.4 with 2880 x 1440 @ 60 Hz, HDMI 2.0 or DP 1.3+ with 2880 x 1440 @ 90 Hz
• Storage: 100GB+ SSD (Preferred) / HDD
• Bluetooth: 4.0 and above for accessories

Interesting Articles!!

"MICROSOFT’S MIXED REALITY STRATEGY SEEMS STALLED, BUT IS IT ALL PART OF THE PLAN?" 

"WINDOWS 10 CREATORS UPDATE WITH MIXED REALITY LAUNCHES"

"Microsoft's Sub-$300 Mixed Reality Headsets Are Coming, and I Tried One"

Microsoft’s HoloLens and other mixed reality devices have enormous potential to inform and educate, arguably even more so than VR. Immersive education startup Lifeliqe is looking to capitalize on that potential.

You may have already heard of Lifeliqe; last year the company partnered with HTC to make educational VR experiences for the Vive headset. With HoloLens, though, the company is looking to move into the classroom. In fact the company has already run pilot lessons using the headset in classes at Renton Prep in Seattle, Washington, and Castro Valley Unified College in California. You can see a video of the student’s impressions below.

Article

Adobe Integrates with HoloLens for Personalized Marketing

At Adobe Summit 2017 this week, Adobe announced they are looking to occupy a new space in the market by combining their analytic capabilities with augmented reality. Teaming up with Microsoft, the company has combined Adobe Sensei software with the HoloLens, reports GeekWire. Together, the tech and software create a new tool for retailers to track their consumers' habits.


The Sensei technology "recognizes faces, makes predictions, and creates elements in photos based its technology," as OnMSFT explains. Incorporating this with the HoloLens will allow marketers to slip on the mixed reality headset and see around them foot traffic patterns and information about each product they focus on, such as what is selling well and what items customers stop to look at. It takes useful data for business and makes it visual and efficient.

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Move over Microsoft: Google-backed startup Magic Leap may release $1,000 'light-field' smart glasses this year

• The augmented reality glasses will add graphics on top of real-world objects
• Smartphone notifications and applications will be projected at eye level 
• Magic Leap is backed by $542 million (£435 million) in funding led by Google
• Apple has also been rumoured to be developing its own smart glasses 

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Following up after an earlier report from Bloomberg on Apple’s behind the scenes efforts developing augmented reality tech, Financial Times is out with a profile today highlighting efforts by Apple, Facebook, and Magic Leap to build AR smart glasses.

Building on Bloomberg’s report that detailed Apple’s team of hundreds of engineers working on augmented reality features for iPhone that could later debut in a glasses product, FT says Apple has been working on the project for over a year and claims a launch is still at least a year away and “perhaps much longer.”

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Apple’s Augmented Reality Debut Will Look More Like “Pokémon” Than Magic Leap

Analysts say Apple may build AR features into iOS that utilize a 3D camera.

When Apple launches its much-anticipated foray into augmented reality, it is likely to start with a version that works on your phone, not on a dedicated headset or pair of glasses, analysts say. Though somewhat underwhelming, it’s a necessary first step for a technology that could eventually transform personal computing. AR technology is meant to superimpose digital imagery over the user’s view of the world through a smartphone camera or a dedicated pair of glasses.

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Microsoft started shipping its HoloLens headsets to developers a year ago today, and the company is celebrating its first milestone. While HoloLens is technically available to anyone with $3,000, Microsoft isn’t aiming this first iteration at consumers. Still, software developers have managed to create 150 apps for the headset over the past year.

Some unique apps include HoloHear, an app designed to provide real-time speech-to-sign-language for the deaf, and a piano teaching app (Teomirn) that overlays holograms on top of the keys of a real piano to help you learn. To mark a year of HoloLens, Microsoft is also gearing up for what’s next.

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NASA has targeted the 2030s as the decade to send astronauts to Mars. However, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have made it possible for astronauts to explore the Red Planet today while still grounded on Earth. HoloLens is being used by scientists to explore the terrain of Mars to help map out the Curiosity Mars rover’s operations. It puts researchers on the surface of the planet, where they can get an up-close-and-personal view of the rock formations and other features.

Even ordinary people can experience the Red Planet through the Destination: Mars exhibit at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The HoloLens transports guests to Mars with Buzz Aldrin serving as a holographic tour guide.

With SketchUp Viewer on HoloLens, Trimble helps bring architectural designs to life, providing a new level of real-world scale, proportion, and perspective.

3D for… mixed reality

Mixed reality enables an entirely new way to experience your project models: right in front of you, holographically virtualized in physical space.

Immerse and inhabit

Imagine immersing yourself in a 1:1 scale experience of your design. When you inhabit your work, you achieve a deep and lasting understanding of it.

Microsoft HoloLens and Autodesk Fusion 360 are helping improve collaboration across the entire product development process, enabling engineers and designers to iterate together in real-time. Faster prototyping, more confident decisions, and more efficient cooperation are the future of product design.

Volvo Cars is renowned for safety, design and its Swedish vision of luxury. Volvo puts people at the center of everything it does. From giving customers a sensor’s vantage point to configuring cars in entirely new ways, Microsoft HoloLens brings its cutting edge car features to life in ways never before possible.

Customers can now see what their kitchen renovation will look like full-sized and in holographic form, thanks to Lowe’s Innovation Labs. A handful of Lowe’s stores around the country are using HoloLens in a pilot program that allows customers to plan out the kitchen of their dreams in an interactive mixed reality environment. Lowe’s has set up a showroom kitchen that blends physical objects with digital holograms. Choosing different cabinetry, hardware, counter tops, and appliances is as simple as waving your hands to drag and drop the pieces for the perfect kitchen.