Find: Hands-on: Microsoft’s HoloLens is flat-out magical

Microsoft showed off some augmented reality glasses yesterday. 

Looks amazing, but the demo was so controlled that I have to wonder if it's even close to ready. Ar is very challenging, since it requires real time tracking of the real 3d environment. This may not be ready to work outside a well known environment, especially without tethering. 

*** 

Hands-on: Microsoft’s HoloLens is flat-out magical
// Ars Technica

For the second time in as many months I feel like I've taken a step into the world of science fiction—and for the second time in as many months, it's Microsoft who put me there.

After locking away all my recording instruments and switching to the almost prehistoric pen and paper, I had a tantalizingly brief experience of Microsoft's HoloLens system, a headset that creates a fusion of virtual images and the real world. While production HoloLens systems will be self-contained and cord-free, the developer units we used had a large compute unit worn on a neck strap and an umbilical cord for power. Production hardware will automatically measure the interpupillary distance and calibrate itself accordingly; the dev kits need this to be measured manually and punched in. The dev kits were also heavy, unwieldy, fragile, and didn't really fit on or around my glasses, making them uncomfortable to boot.

But even with this clumsy hardware, the experience was nothing short of magical.

Read 20 remaining paragraphs

via Mobiles @ NCSU http://ift.tt/1yPHm27