Hololens-Next Official Thread

GordoSan

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Sep 14, 2013
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Hololens 2 is coming, and will be shown at Mobil World Congress event on February 24th. Satya Nadella and Alex Kipman will represent Microsoft at their first MWC since their failed Windows Mobile/Nokia endeavour. Why here? Mixed Reality is what Microsoft is hoping that the world will eventually trade in their phones in for, some day. What's in the next Hololens? One compiled a list of confirmed / rumored / patented specs (yes, I have read through quite a few patents)

  • Smaller Form Factor- Confirmed by Microsoft
  • APU- ? Rumored Qualcomm Snapdragon 850
  • HPU- (Holographic Processing Unit) Confirmed next gen AI coprocessor running deep neural networks
  • Wider FOV- Confirmed. Rumored to be double (70°) at minimum
  • VR Capability- ? Mentioned in patent. (Only if >90° FOV)
  • Variable Focus- ? Rumored, In patents
  • Light Blocking- In patents. Requires liquid crystal, per pixel sync for dark shadows
  • Eye Tracking- ? In patents [involving LBS display]
  • Foveated Display- In patents [involving LBS display]
  • Spacial/Hand Tracking- New Kinect for Azure, Confirmed. Combines 6 cameras/sensors into one, higher res
  • Display Technology- ? Rumored/Co-Patented MicroVision LBS (Laser Beam Scanning piezoelectric micromirror device)
  • Lens Display- ? Likely still Surface Relief Waveguide(s), next gen version of current
  • Consumer Version?- only if <$1500... maybe <$1000
 
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Reminder: Microsoft Conference is coming up soon, at 9AM PST / 12 Noon EST

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But using it for violent games which can be played by anyone is fine?
 
I thought hololense was supposed to be glasses free?
 
Doubt this will be used for the next Xbox
At $3,500, extremely doubtful. I'm hoping to hear soon about Windows Mixed Reality 2.0, which should mix some of these technologies in a more consumer-friendly device.
 
About the display projection technology:

So I have been following Hololens 2 for some time now. In fact, I've spent a lot more time on Hololens forums and reddits than video game ones, for the past 6 months.

One of my most frequently visited forums has been the MVIS (MicroVision) reddit, which is made up mostly of investors. I have been researching Microsoft and MicroVision patents almost daily with some others over there. I have even included the company in my original post here. If you'll notice, I actually hit the mark on a lot of speculation, as well as what to actually speculate about... like eye tracking. Again, I've read through a lot of patents.

How MicroVision PicoP laser beam scanning works: Think of LBS as instead of DLP having a micromirror for each pixel, you have a single mirror which moves (rotates) rapidly in a horizontal line, while slowly in a vertical direction. This is much the same as how an electron beam works in an old CRT, except it's reflecting a digital pulse from a laser (actually 3 RGB ones) to rapidly create a scene, one pixel at a time. The beauty is s that you can have a very tiny display engine that is manufactured as you would manufacturer a small circuit board. An additional benefit, is that it can also emit an IR laser, becoming dual purpose for LiDaR scanning room scanning and time of flight sensing.

So, I have invested some money in the display company MicroVision (MVIS) because in spite of people trying to tell us we were wrong about laser beam scanning (MEMS LBS), like retired display "expert" Karl Guttag, who mocked us and said that we were like a cult for believing in a "25 year old startup", we knew that this projection display technology would be the future. Today, we won! This stock was trading as low as $ .51 a few weeks ago, and has ticked back up to a $1.17 close on Friday. I bought some more at that price on Thursday out of confidence. I'm sharing this because tomorrow could be an explosion for the stock, finally. They actually showed the scanning laser display mirror in that video. It's as clear as day, what that is, and Microsoft has built a fundamental patent wall around MicroVision's display patents. The only similar display technology is owned by Bosch, but MicroVision is located about 15 min from Microsoft's headquarters, and quite a few employees have migrated from one to the other, to work on Hololens 2.

Just sharing this information to my peeps on this forum. Do what you will with this information. Please remember that there are no guarantees with any kind of trading. I did post this company here in the OP, when the stock was at about $.65/share, so don't say "why didn't you say so before now?".
 
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My only real disappointment is the price, at $3,500. I was really hoping for something a little more consumer friendly. They have some work to do, to get down to <$1,000. That's where they need to be for consumer. Maybe the next model will be in the next year or two, instead of three this time... Hopefully. Again, there's always Windows Mixed Reality, which should soon get some of the same tech.
 
With that army deal they don't have to worry about the consumer right now
 
With that army deal they don't have to worry about the consumer right now
Yeah, military and enterprise markets will be enough to ramp up production very rapidly, driving the cost downward on the quick.
 
I wonder if they’ll secretly update/allow it to run on Xbox One....this is what it shoulda been from the get go though, with it’s own hardware internally instead of relying on leeching resources/power from the One
I wonder that too, since it's currently the only version that they will be producing. The only problem is that this thing will be $400. That's a little lofty. They just maybe should have given developers the option to put any given game into a "full resource mode" from the beginning, and disable it. Then everybody wins. Mattrick made a lot of mistakes, IMO.

What's interesting though, is that the technology in Azure Kinect is almost like a hybrid between both previous versions, in that it is both structured light and time of flight sensing. It would be really darn cool if it worked with 360 and One Kinect games. Like I said though, it's probably too expensive for them to even care to develop for...for now anyway.
 


When asked about the next version of the Microsoft HoloLens, the HoloLens 3, he said the device needed to show improvements in 3 areas:
  • improve immersion
  • improve comfort and social acceptability (e.g. glasses versus goggles)
  • increase value of what you can accomplish
He said Microsoft wanted the device to not just be an incremental improvement, but a transformative leap forward.

 
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I'm just going to come right out and say it. HoloLens 3 will probably do both AR/VR, and this is why they were waiting so long for a consumer product.

Edit: at least, I believe that a version will have both.
 
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