Holographic Programming: A HoloLens How-to In A Mixed Reality World ((INSTALL))
Use the following checkpoints to bring your Unity games and applications into the world of mixed reality. If you haven't already explored the Designing Holograms sample application, we recommend downloading and using it to familiarize yourself with the basics of Mixed Reality UX.
Holographic Programming: A HoloLens How-to In A Mixed Reality World
Azure Spatial Anchors (ASA) is a cross-platform service that allows you to build spatially aware mixed reality applications. With Azure Spatial Anchors, you can map, persist, and share holographic content across multiple devices, at real-world scale.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides is a mixed-reality application for Microsoft HoloLens that lets operators learn during the flow of work by providing holographic instructions when and where they are needed. These instruction cards are visually tethered to the place where the work must be done, and can include images, videos, and 3D holographic models.
Before going out into the world of mixed reality on your own, we recommend taking a look at the MRTK-related documentation listed below. These articles are great jumping off points for understanding how MRTK works in greater detail and will give you insight into making your app more performant.
Mixed reality is the next wave in computing followed by mainframes, PCs, and smartphones. Mixed reality is going mainstream for consumers and businesses. It liberates us from screen-bound experiences by offering instinctual interactions with data in our living spaces and with our friends. Online explorers, in hundreds of millions around the world, have experienced mixed reality through their handheld devices. Mobile AR offers the most mainstream mixed reality solutions today on social media. People may not even realize that the AR filters they use on Instagram are mixed reality experiences. Windows Mixed Reality takes all these user experiences to the next level with stunning holographic representations of people, high fidelity holographic 3D models, and the real world around them.
Mixed reality is a blend of physical and digital worlds, unlocking natural and intuitive 3D human, computer, and environmental interactions. This new reality is based on advancements in computer vision, graphical processing, display technologies, input systems, and cloud computing. The term "mixed reality" was introduced in a 1994 paper by Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino, "A Taxonomy of Mixed reality Visual Displays." Their paper explored the concept of a virtuality continuum and the taxonomy of visual displays. Since then, the application of mixed reality has gone beyond displays to include:
As we move through the physical world, our movements are mapped in a digital reality. Physical boundaries influence mixed reality experiences such as games or task-based guidance in a manufacturing facility. With environmental input and perceptions, experiences start to blend between physical and digital realities.
Mixed reality blends both physical and digital worlds. These two realities mark the polar ends of a spectrum known as the virtuality continuum. We refer to this spectrum of realities as the mixed reality spectrum. On one end of the spectrum, we have the physical reality that we as humans exist. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the corresponding digital reality.
The experiences that overlay graphics, video streams, or holograms in the physical world are called augmented reality. The experiences that occlude your view to present a fully immersive digital experience are virtual reality. The experiences that can transition between augmented and virtual realities form mixed reality, where you can:
Most augmented reality and virtual reality experiences available today represent a small subset of the larger mixed reality spectrum. Windows 10 is built with the entire spectrum in mind, and allows blending digital representations of people, places, and things with the real world.
Mixed reality experiences are the result of technological advancements. Windows 10 provides a common mixed reality platform for both device manufacturers and developers. Any given device today can support a specific range within the mixed reality spectrum. In the future, new devices with more expansive range are expected: holographic devices will be more immersive, and immersive devices will be more holographic.
Lars Klint is an author, trainer, Microsoft MVP, community leader, authority on all things Windows Platform and part-time crocodile wrangler. He is heavily involved in the space of HoloLens and mixed reality, as well as a published Pluralsight author, freelance solution architect and writer for numerous publications. He has been a part of the software development community for the past 20 years and co-organizes the DDD Melbourne community conference and developer events with Microsoft. Lars also runs a part-time car restoration business. He has spoken at numerous technical events around the world and is an expert in Australian Outback Internet.
Released in 2019, Microsoft Hololens 2 is an untethered headset that brings holograms into the real world through mixed reality (MR) technology. With MR capture, learners view holograms, photos, and videos while still viewing their physical environment.
Microsoft Hololens 2 brings holograms into the real world through mixed reality (MR) technology. With a retail value of $3500, learners keep a view of the real world through transparent lenses as they place and explore 3D holographic images, photos, and videos anchored within their view.
Mixed reality, or augmented reality, is a technology that overlays digital images like holograms onto the real world. Microsoft's new wireless mixed reality headset also includes an expanded field of view twice as big as the previous device.
Gaming is clearly an exciting and lucrative genre of content on any development platform. Having been a gamer my whole life, and a game developer all of my adult life, it is an area of passion for me as a developer. For the HoloLens Development Edition, we have delivered 3 unique examples of mixed reality games that demonstrate the elements of holographic gameplay that no other platform can deliver.
The first is called Fragments. This is a gaming experience I am particularly proud of. Fragments is a mixed reality crime drama that unfolds in your own environment. Gamers are able to investigate clues and solve crimes that are seemingly taking place in their own living rooms. As a holographic platform highlight, Fragments demonstrates how creators can build characters and storylines that drive a higher level of emotional engagement and attachment than you can with any other medium. Trust me, the first time one of our Fragments characters comes in to your home, sits down on your sofa, and strikes up a conversation with you it is an unforgettable experience. But this game also taught us something unexpected about mixed reality. Fragments blurs the line between the digital world and the real world more than any other experience we built. When your living room has been used as the set for a story, it generates memories for you of what digitally happened in your space like it was real. It is an experience that bridges the uncanny valley of your mind and delivers a new form of storytelling like never before.
Finally, starting this summer, developers will be able to experience a completely new holographic storytelling medium for the Development Edition that we call Actiongram. This experience was designed for creative coders and content creators, providing what we think is the most amazing way to tell digital stories that might otherwise be impractical or impossible. Actiongram uses mixed reality capture (MRC) to blend holographic content into real world settings, allowing anybody to create emotionally compelling and humorous videos. These are videos that previously could only be created using expensive effects packages by people with extensive 3D training. Now, anybody can create their own mixed reality videos!! We will be delivering new content for Actiongram regularly so that you can continually express yourself in this holographic medium. We are incredibly excited to see how people use this new storytelling tool to tell their own personal stories.
I am admittedly a geek and love Sci-fi, I always thought the idea of superimposing graphics/objects in our real-world space was intriguing. I believe that HoloLens is the first step towards making this a common occurrence. Imagine the possibilities, all the applications that could be developed with mixed reality (MR). The amazing thing is, the tools for creating MR are readily available today!
The future of augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) as seen in movies like Minority Report, Star Wars and Back to the Future (to name a few) is rapidly upon us. As many of you first saw in January, Microsoft announced an amazing wearable, holographic computer called Microsoft HoloLens that allows you to overlay 2D and 3D objects in your real-world living and work space.
To fully understand what we could do with HoloLens, we spent several months building dozens of prototypes and tested many scenarios to understand how customers could benefit most from a mixed reality environment. We explored ways to make work areas have infinite space by using walls and open areas overlaid with holographic objects. We explored how users could collaborate together by looking at the same holographic model and being able to walk around it and discuss various aspects of the design as if it were really sitting on their table. We explored the possibilities of creating and editing directly from a holographic model, as well as pitching a final design to an executive team or a customer.
The Metropolia facility is very much grounded in the real world, and participants have to be physically on-site to enjoy the benefits. This is not the case with the new facility developed by Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) in partnership with the Faculty of Education at the university and GigXR, which aims to utilize "mixed reality" to enhance medical training.