Microsoft Announces HoloLens 2 Mixed Reality Headset For $3,500 (theverge.com) 60
Artem S. Tashkinov writes: Hailed as a third wave of computing, Microsoft has made the HoloLens 2 mixed-reality headset available for preorder for a staggering $3,500 and it's expected to be shipped later this year. It will be sold only to enterprise customers. Compared to the first generation HoloLens, the second version is better in almost every important way: it's more comfortable to wear, it offers a much wider field of view, it contains powerful recognition software that can detect real world physical objects and allow you to seamlessly interact with them using hand and finger gestures. It features new components like the Azure Kinect sensor, SnapDragon 850 SoC, eye-tracking sensors, an entirely different display system with 2K resolution for each eye, a couple of speakers, and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera for video conferencing. It's also capable of full 6 degrees of tracking, and it also uses USB-C to charge.
Excited to try one out! (Score:1)
I had tried the hololens 1 that a colleague use in her VR/AR research. And I liked Hololens. Yes it was a bit heavy, yes the field of view was pretty narrow. But for a version 1, that was pretty good AR. Much better than the VR headset I had tried at the time.
So I hope I'll get to try one out and see how better this is going to be. Probably one of my colleagues will get one, and I'll play with it.
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No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame
Just saying (Score:1)
you could build out an enclosure with 7,1 sound and about 5 to 7 50+ inch 4k UHD televisions for this price... Maybe even a seat with a built in subwoofer.
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"Just saying," allows you to blurt out any idiotic comment without relevancy to get a cheap laugh.
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you could build out an enclosure with 7,1 sound and about 5 to 7 50+ inch 4k UHD televisions for this price... Maybe even a seat with a built in subwoofer.
AR... not VR. So you're close if you can fit all that into a motorcycle helmet, good luck.
V1 (Score:3)
Getting closer (Score:4, Informative)
They said double the field of view for the new model - I also tried the original and it was a bit too limited. I think 2x might be enough improvement to be decent, really hoping I can try one of these out at some point.
At the price they are charging they definitely will be more for enterprise or other serious applications, and that's probably a good thing in terms of taking over a niche they can build on. Maybe someday a consumer model...
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I'm waiting for the YouTube videos of people trying to lean on furniture that isn't really their and putting their heads through the TV. Like with VR but even more dangerous because the whole point is for it to interact with the real world.
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putting their heads through the TV.
The fake furniture thing would be funny but I don't think a Hololens could really do a very realistic job of erasing something that was actually there... at the very least it would be a pretty bad design to try.
The thing I liked about the Hololens (and pretty much any AR system) is that you could see so well was was really around you so you could use it in a real living room or other space with mixed objects. It made me realize an important aspect of any AR system really
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The fake furniture thing would be funny but I don't think a Hololens could really do a very realistic job of erasing something that was actually there... at the very least it would be a pretty bad design to try.
Ever seen a little kid try to interact with a non-touchscreen laptop and conclude that it's broken because the screen isn't responding as they smear their fingers all over it?
Hololens wouldn't have to erase the TV, just get the user used to interacting with screens that aren't physically present. Then one day a real screen gets mistaken for a fake one and bam!
Free gift (Score:2, Funny)
VR and AR are still in infancy (Score:2)
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They would still be good enough to take off if they also weren't insanely expensive
Haha, for those of us old enough to remember the first laptops costing $8k 25 years ago $3.5K in 2019 doesn't seem that insane.
Jesus, give it another year or two and with Apple's new innovations in pricing technology a top of the line iPhone will probably cost $3.5k.
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Main stream VR and AR is still 10 years away due to cost/quality combination.
VR is already a (small) market in video games.
AR is still not quite there. But that's why they target at particular industries at this point.
VR vs AR (Score:4, Insightful)
VR is already a (small) market in video games.
Yes it is. Also a small market for various simulators. Unfortunately VR is likely to remain a comparatively small market. It's very useful for a few niche applications but broader use cases for the technology are generally lacking and likely to remain so. That's not to bash the technology (I used to work in the industry so I'm a fan) but just to temper expectations. Some people have been expecting VR to be the Next Big Thing for the last 30+ years and the reality of it seldom is quite what people expect and the practical use cases have remained few.
AR is still not quite there. But that's why they target at particular industries at this point.
AR has FAR broader potential applications and you are right that it still has a ways to go. That said, AR is already in your hands via your smartphone. I use astronomy apps that help identify stars by putting labeled information on the screen about whatever I'm pointing the phone at. I've used measurement overlay and heads up display apps and there are games that interact with the real world. Google translate has AR features that replace text in one language with text in another in real time. It's a lot easier to envision AR applications as enhancements to existing technology than VR applications which will necessarily be new.
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You must be young. Computing technology hasn't always been cheap and ubiquitous.
My Dad was an immigrant and a hardworking construction supervisor in California. My mom stayed home (this was the 80s remember) and we had a modest but happy life. Dad could see the writing on the wall and bought me and my brother a Mac SE so we could learn computers back in middle school. It was about $4000 in 1988 or $8500 today. Crazy money, especially for a construction worker. But I learned how to code in Turbo Pascal, spen
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>Does it run Linux?
Yes, but Linux doesn't run AR.
strange claims (Score:3)
can detect real world physical objects and allow you to seamlessly interact with them using hand and finger gestures
Well, yes. The Mk1 Eyeball supports that too. It's called "picking things up".
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Ssssh! We won't be able to persuade our boss to buy any if he thinks that...
made for Robert Kraft (Score:2)
LoB