Whatev’s

So the Good. They look good. This is extremely important. As I have stated quite a few times in my past posts, anything that you put on your head must look good. Cannot get around this. And they do. The Image capture quality is very good as well. I took a picture in low light and the image was corrected once it got to the app on my phone. Nice.

Call quality was good as well. Not great, but very good. The person I was talking to on the other end could not tell the difference between this and normal headphones. I took a few calls on it and really liked it. In fact, I like it more then putting in and taking out ear buds if for no other reason then its easier.

The Bad. Sound quality for other the voice calls was NOT so good. Perhaps this is not intended for listening to music. I tried two tracks, a chillhop where I listen for clarity, and something a bit more bass heavy. The chillhop middles and highs were ok, but really could not feel the bottom. When I hit the bass heavy track, not only was there no bottom, it started to get noisy as I tried to turn it up. This was a BIG disappointment given how great the Bose Glasses sound.

So this is a bit of a short review, and I may add to it later, but basically, if you are into take lots of casual photos and short videos, these are pretty good. As long as its not of yourself. If you are into music, like I am, give it a miss.

  So this past weekend I went to Seattle to participate in the first ever Holographic Hackathon. This event sponsored mainly by Microsoft gave a select number of lucky individuals the opportunity to work with the Microsoft HoloLens device. As an organizer of hackathons for the past few years I was beyond excited to be a participant for a change. True this weekend was not the first chance for me to be around the device, we had several at our AEC Hackathon last month in SoCal, but it was the first time I had an uninterrupted weekend dedicated to developing for it.

For those that are not familiar with this augmented reality headset, see the video below from Microsoft’s Build 2016 keynote.

Hackathon Day #1

The Holographic Hackathon was held at Fremont Studios just north of downtown Seattle. The venue was a super cool open space with blue lights and black curtains along the walls.

The crowd was an interesting mix of software & Unity developers, audio engineers, artists, and non-technical professionals from various industries. I was pleasantly surprised to see several folks from the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, & Construction) space present and over a dozen others that have participated in either the VR or AEC related hackathons I help organize in Seattle. This diversity of skill sets and knowledge excited me more about the weekend.

The Friday evening started off with a networking mixer and then with an introduction from the Microsoft HoloLens team, Seattle VR, and Windows Holographic User Group Redmond (WinHUGR) Meetup groups. They laid out the agenda for the weekend, shared with us some great resources to help our hacking, and then opened it up to team formations. People wrote their ideas on a huge paper tablet and either stood at their table or walked around looking for team members or teams to join. While I came with a team of three, none of us are pro Unity developers (the main developing environment for HoloLens) so we actively sought someone who could assist our project. After giving the pitch to a few visitors to our table, we finally nabbed a Unity developer named Nicholas Abel that was excited to help us with our construction related application. After teams formed, HoloLens were distributed two per table and wasting no time we setup and begin holo-hacking away.

Our Application
The goal of our team’s weekend project was to create a HoloLens version of a building application my tech team at IDEAbuilder has developed for VR (video) and browser based web3D using the Kinect (Wired article). This application uses digital fabrication ready 3D models of building components to 1) give the user/general contractor the ability to place these items in a scene to build a structure and 2) provide them a price of our material and machine time costs for fabrication at our factory. Think of the application like a Lego builder app but with pricing information and other data for building real houses.

Getting Started
As stated, I am not a Unity developer. Sure I can do basic things in the game engine but as a open standards web guy with a focus on real world industries, it is not my tool of choice. While the rest of my team got hacking away at the project, I began building up my knowledge of the tool for HoloLens development via the tutorials at Microsoft’s Holographic Academy website. Hands down this site is among the best resources I have ever accessed for learning anything tech related online. The video and text tutorials were very clear and gave step by step instructions on how to develop for the HoloLens. These tutorials are so well put together that I feel anyone, even if completely new to Unity, can get up and running with development for the device in no time. I was so excited about the progress I was making with the device that time flew by. Knowing it was going to be a long weekend, I called it quits a little after midnight.

Day #2

By mid-day I had created a few different HoloLens examples and even had time to show some others how to build for it as well while the rest of my team cranked away at our project. One application I made showed the digital fabrication model of a home IDEAbuilder helped build in Tahoe AR’ed into the room. Seeing this model in the HoloLens impressed the hell out of me as it is a lot of polygons (750,000+) to render in any mobile AR device. While not accurate in its scale, the model still took up a huge amount of the venue’s space. The video below of this app was recorded with the HoloLens’ video record feature.

I continued my HoloLens education for the rest of the day and night when not helping my team members with items related to finishing our project. I was having so much fun learning and building that 8:00 AM Sunday morning snuck up on me. This is when I realized I should probably nap for a few hours since I pulled an all-nighter and I face planted on a big super comfy beanbag chair.

Day #3

I awoke a couple hours later to jump back into it with my team. The energy of the room was intense as everyone was getting their projects and presentations ready for the hackathon deadline. At little after 1:00 PM the presentations started and what a variety of projects they were.

There were close to 20 teams and HoloLens apps for medical, storytelling, shopping, and more. There were even a few AEC related apps by AEC Hackathon alumni. Cody “Kick-ass” Nowak’s team made a cool AR measuring app and Willard “the Wizard” Williams showed what architects can do with the device. I could write a whole post on what all the teams created but recommend you check out what they have shared on Twitter using the #HoloHacks hashtag and here at the HoloHacks Facebook page. I hope the Microsoft team puts the videos of the presentations online as well!

This video shows some presentation slides and video footage taken in the HoloLens of our Wall Builder project.

Although our team didn’t win any of the three categories and receive the Unity Pro license prize, we all feel the weekend was a huge win and success in itself. I have much love for my team members Chris, Nicholas, and Greg. Thanks guys for all the hard work and awesome time. We really pushed up the bar for innovation in one of humankind’s oldest industries.

I learned a lot, made new & saw old friends, and am definitely excited about developing for the HoloLens. Our team is going to polish and take our app much further. I will publish the hackathon version of the Wall Builder app to the HoloLens store in the next couple weeks and update this post with links and make announcements on social media for those interested in trying it.

I thank Dona Sarkar, the Microsoft HoloLens team, and other organizers that made this the best hackathon I have ever participated in as an attendee. I look forward to participating in future HoloHacks and using this device to augmented and improve my reality. Now I just have to get my own to keep the innovation going.

At its Build Developer Conference in San Francisco today, Microsoft provided some new details on its HoloLens virtual reality device it announced back in January. HoloLens is a head-mounted, holographic computer with a depth camera that provides a mixed-reality experience for a range of applications. I briefly covered the HoloLens in a previous post and was hoping Microsoft would share more about the unit today. It seems someone in Redmond was listening to my geek prayers.

Today Microsoft showed off various HoloLens applications that work with Windows 10 and even one that controls a Raspberry Pi robot. They also announced support of HoloLens by the Unity3D game engine.

The Verge has a great recap of the day’s announcements and HoloLens in the video below.

Another demonstration today during the Build Conference keynote session showed the integration of HoloLens with Trimble’s SketchUp 3D modeling software and the Trimble Connect collaboration platform. While these applications are still in development, it really gets one thinking about the HoloLens use in built environment related industries. It will be exciting to see what AEC Hackathon hackers create with this device when it is made available to developers.

I will be following HoloLen’s development as Microsoft has definitely made this an exciting time for augmented reality.

First off I’m going to focus on VR and not include AR because although many people like to mix these two systems, immersive AR is VERY hard while simple HUD level AR is already available in your car.  So lets see what we need for a good VR system, which is basically the same thing that Ivan Sutherland created in 1968 (that’s 46 years ago kittens). His head-mounted three dimensional display contained most of the basic elements we consider needed for VR.  A head mounted stereo display, motion tracking, orientation tracking, high speed image rendering, HCI input.  Missing was 3 things from the ’68 system. Easy content creation, user comfort and finally the Internet.  But to be fair, the Internet did not exist back then, but I bet if it did Ivan would have pulled the content over the wire just to be cool.  Oh and one more thing that was missing.  Not everyone could afford to build one of these things.  As such, not much happened with VR in a non military theater for awhile although research continued on.   Then two things happened.  The mid 80’s and mid 90’s.

In the early 80′ Graphic workstations were cheap enough and powerful enough that professionals could buy them.  This allowed the general public to have its first taste of 3D generated images that were at the time limited to Hollywood movies like Looker and the landmark Tron.  These workstation were still pretty expensive but as each year passed, they got more powerful such that you could render over 15 frames a second and create the illusion of motion.

As we drifted from the 80’s to the 90’s workstations were getting more and more powerful and cheaper because of Moore’s law.  This allowed more and more people to play around with high pipeline graphic computing, so much so, you could actually render a textured scene over 15 frames a second!  3D became not something only done on very powerful and expensive powerhouse workstations, but on a workstation you could by in the 10’s of thousands of dollars.  Now 3D graphics and effects were all over television instead of just high end movies.  It was only a matter of time before young hackers starting putting the output of these workstations onto two small screens on a headset.  Using various approaches to head tracking, and suddenly VR seemed very real with store fronts allowing users to enter a pod, don a 3D headset and play 3D games. Siggraph got more and more interesting every year and each year seem to surpass the previous.

By now VR really took off in the public imagination. Films like Tron and later Lawnmower Man that introduced 3D and VR to a game called Dactyl Nightmare by company called Virtuality that when hit the Press made everyone go nuts. Seemed like VR was really here!  Now everyone was writing about it and people wringing their hands that this would be the end of our humanity.  But this was just the beginning, Moore’s law and more accessible 3D creation tools like VRToolKit and 3D editing tools kept the hype expanding… and I was there.

Back in 1994 I was doing research on VR through a service called Gopher then later using something very new and cool called the worldwideweb which you accessed through a browser called Mosaic (we are going way back kiddies) I started researching 2D cad, 3D cad, and finally VR while studying Architecture at UC California, Berkeley … Even in my own lab in Berkeley, I had a VFX1 HMD running on a PC.  A PC!  The leaps and bounds of computer power seemed limitless.  And with each new CPU came faster and faster framerates.  Memory was going down too, so putting textures on objects was not only a real possibility and broke real time ceiling that was limiting 3D with only phone shading.  Further the gaming industry had its first big break through. Quake! (we can argue duke nukem another time)  In fact, I found Quake was faster then any of the 3d rendering engines from any school at the time.  I did my masters thesis using modified maps with Quake and the VFX1 HMD.

And then… All went quite.  Was it over hype? Tech bobble burst? Wasted dollars on projects that never made sense in the first place?  Yes.

Fast forward to 2014.

So here we are.  The Oculus rift which was a geeky kickstarter project exploded and then got bought by Facebook.  It finally seemed that perhaps VR for the masses could be possible.  Then shoe No.2 dropped. At Google I/O a cool little project was presented called Google cardboard, which basically gave you a simple VR headset made out of cardboard using your phone as the display and computer.  Didn’t take long for a number of higher material devices to be created on the same concept including Samsung’s Gear VR using the Note4.  Suddenly we had the basic building blocks of Cheap VR for the masses.  We also have more content.  3D video is part of the VR offering making VR not just the real of playing video games.  Speaking of games, Unity now comes with an Oculus publishing option.  We also have broadband.. well most of us do.  So is this?  Will it really happen this time???

Ummm.. Not sure..  There still are some problems.

First, there is not THAT much content.  I see a number of videos coming out but they are all proof of concepts and many of them are not that good of quality. Games?  Yes there are a few games made especially for the VR experience but most are demos.  There is still more money focusing on the PC or console gamer.   VR sickness?  Its getting better with faster frame-rates and better tracking, but many VR designers still do not understand just how close to the edge the user is before they get sick of orientation disruption is is taken too far.  That being said…

I think there is a good chance we have hit the tipping point where VR can become a nitch consumer industry.  Right now I’m waiting with baited breath for the NBA All Stars 360 Video to come out for the Gear VR.  I’m really hoping they are taking the extra time to make it look nice and feel immersive. Speaking of the Gear, I love the fact that I can put the headset in the car or backpack and with my note 4, access VR anywhere, anytime.  THIS IS NEW and this is big.  With a bluetooth controller, I pretty much have all I need for a sit down VR experience.  This is something we have not had from the beginning.  In time I expect the HMD to shrink to glasses size again using the phone for computing power.  Its this freedom and flexibility that is what will keep VR from busting again.

Post:  Its March already and I’m doing a quick edit and posting this before I forget again.  In the time between first wriring this and today we have seen a number of new HMD’s come out as well as Microsoft’s amazing HoloLens.  Its the HoloLens I’m most excited about.  The usecase for AR displays in the home and work is mind bending.  I have not seen it in person, but believe me, the moment I do, I will be posting!!!

So my bet on VR/AR?   I do not think we have seen the full potential yes, or anything close, but I do not expect to see a bust like we did at the beginning of 2000.  With low cost hardware, better software and access to high speed internet, the VR industry will only grow from here…. Slowly.

This make total sense.  Its not actuate enough to replace good old fashion measuring to be sure something is going to fix, but now you can look at colors, shapes and get an idea of how something will or will not fix. To make this really take off, they need to demo this in every IKEA across the nation.

Next step?  Step by step instructions on how to put those thing together.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDNzTasuYEw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcnke3I_JAY

http://youtu.be/6br7NreTwD4

This development will mean an increase in performance, speed, and improvements in power consumption for mobile devices running augmented reality apps. Now augmented reality can be, “Always on, always augmented,” says CTO Peter Meier.

This first-of-its-kind collaboration will improve nearly all aspects of an Augmented Reality experience, yielding performance increases in speed, precision and power consumption, with up to 60 times faster initialization, more than an AR app running on existing platforms – the highest to date in the mobile industry. Both Metaio and ST-Ericsson strongly believe that working together will accelerate the adoption of Augmented Reality as a consumer technology.

“The AREngine will do for Augmented Reality what the GPU did years ago for the gaming industry,” said Metaio CTO Peter Meier. “This is a great leap in the AR space, and we strongly believe that the AR Engine working with ST-Ericsson platforms will help realize the Augmented City – the idea of a completely connected environment powered by Augmented Reality and made possible with next-gen, optimized mobile platforms.”

Check out the full press release here.

Over the past few years I have been engaging a lot more with various entities in Denmark. One such group that has recently caught my attention is the Danish library system. Now I remember coming across this report years back about the city of Aarhus Main Library’s Transformation Lab.

Recently Dave Arendash and I were invited to present at SimLibrary, an event highlighting mixed reality technologies for libraries, held in Odense, Denmark.

From the SimLibrary Website (translated from Danish): SimLibrary is a cooperation between Odense Central Library, Aalborg, and Herning libraries with Euman A / S, and Educational Media Centers in the project cities. The SimLibrary project aims to develop libraries to a prominent place in the digital experience community with young people as drivers in a user-driven innovation process. To create virtual and physical environments that encourage young people to form relationships.

The goal is to develop new delivery of physical and virtual library spaces by incorporating the Playingmondo 3D platform and create user-driven innovation processes in SimLibrary, with young people ideas as the basis for new library services. The project is based on user-driven innovation by young people actively involved in building the 3D world, SimLibrary and helps to create the library space, in a combination of physical presence and online communications.

3D Mixed Reality Gaming

Work on the Playingmondo platform can be used for virtual playgrounds and play spaces where mobile technology, GPS and broadband used to support physical play and games as well as use and highlight local area spaces. 3D technology makes it possible to mix reality and the virtual world. The technology opens up entirely new possibilities for e-learning and provides unique opportunities to motivate movement in nature, urban or indoor.

3D gaming technology makes it possible to test concepts before they are created, making it a great interactive tool for user involvement in construction or upgrading of existing structures and facilities. 3D technology for mobile can make the virtual experience in a natural setting more realistic and lifelike. Mixed reality gaming is tool and teaching materials that support the need for delivery of “text” to the context and coherence in the movement around the many ude-/inderum (spaces / contexts).

Mixed reality gaming is also learning for children who use the children’s reality – computer games and social media – as a tool and medium for learning. When mixed reality gaming based on game or competition in a good way and in the children’s universe, the students are constantly measured and weighed as a natural part of learning.

Development of a 3D model of a library can provide a basis for such the following applications:

 Ability to learn library better to know in advance. Users of the library can use the 3D model on a web page to orient themselves and navigate the library before a visit. Users can play the library’s existing Playingmondo games and themed walks by in 3D on the Web to move around with the keyboard and mouse and activate the items and effects. Play multiplayer games on mobile and web users will be able to play multiplayer Playingmondo game.

In 3D on the Web, some players move around with the keyboard and mouse and activate the items and effects, while opponents or team-mate moving physically around the library with mobile phone and activate game elements.
Interact with the library in new ways can imagine that library users can interact with library staff, visitors, and facilities at thelibrary in new ways. Examples may be that virtual home can visit the library via web-based 3D version, go to a shelf, take a book out and look at it and possibly, the book. It can also contribute to social interactions between library users who are physically present (with cell phone) and those who sit at home or at school in front of the computer.

In our presentation, we outlined a variety of new technologies that are making their way to the mainstream, and our ideas of how they can be used to create a new type of library experience. Dave also showed an augmented reality example he created where a video about Deepak Chopra’s new book played on the cover of the book once the camera saw it. Our presentation was a big hit, and I am very thankful I got the opportunity to participate.

The video I made on slide 11:

More information on the SimLibrary workshop can be found here. I recommend visiting the site with Google’s Chrome web browser as it will translate the site from Danish to your preferred language.

My Dutch isn’t the greatest, actually I don’t know any, so expect a follow up interview explaining more about the application from a member at The Young Generation soon.