MICROSOFT unveils HOLOLENS

Microsoft has unveiled its most ambitious undertaking in years, a head-mounted holographic computer called Project HoloLens. The Hololens was developed under codename Project Baraboo, or sometimes just “B.” When the motion-sensing Xbox accessory was released, just in time for the 2010 holidays, it became the fastest-selling consumer gaming device of all time, Hololens uses the same technology on a bigger and brighter level.

Here is what HoloLens means to you: We compute on a screen, entering commands on a keyboard. Cyberspace was somewhere else. Computers responded to programs that detailed explicit commands. In the very near future, you'll compute in the physical world, using voice and gesture to summon data and layer it atop physical objects. Computer programs will be able to digest so much data that they'll be able to handle far more complex and nuanced situations. Cyberspace will be all around you. What will this look like? Well, holograms.

HoloLens amplifies the special powers that Kinect introduced, using a small fraction of the energy. The depth camera has a field of vision that spans 120 by 120 degrees—far more than the original Kinect—so it can sense what your hands are doing even when they are nearly outstretched. Sensors flood the device with terabytes of data every second, all managed with an onboard CPU, GPU and first-of-its-kind HPU (holographic processing unit). On the right side, buttons allow you to adjust the volume and to control the contrast of the hologram.

Project HoloLens’ key achievement—realistic holograms—works by tricking your brain into seeing light as matter. “Ultimately, you know, you perceive the world because of light,”. “If you could magically turn the debugger on in the device, we’d see photons bouncing throughout this world. Eventually they hit the back of your eyes, and through that, you reason about what the world is. You essentially hallucinate the world, or you see what your mind wants you to see.”

To create Project HoloLens’ images, light particles bounce around millions of times in the so-called light engine of the device. Then the photons enter the goggles’ two lenses, where they ricochet between layers of blue, green and red glass before they reach the back of your eye.

It’s a new interface, controlled by voice and gesture, and the controls have to work flawlessly before it will be commercially viable.  HoloLens won’t have a keyboard. If the voice and gesture controls don’t work perfectly the first time, consumers will write it off. Quickly. With Google Glass almost dead and Oculus Rift in a life support stage, HoloLens can be a real game changer for Microsoft.