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There are some fantastic scenes. Kingsman: The Golden Circle Eggsy and the other leaders of the secret spy agency (Channing Tatum, of course) gather around a conference room table. But they’re not really there. Each and every one of them is a hologram, as amazing technology is packed into ordinary-looking glasses.
This is a common trope in movies that was also used by James Bond and Ethan Hunt. And this is not possible with today’s augmented reality technology.
Wasn’t it so? It’s possible, I mean.
Today at the Microsoft Ignite developer conference, the technology innovator unveiled Microsoft Mesh, a cross-technology platform that allows app developers to build persistent virtual environments for collaboration, communication, and more.
Messi further develops the boardroom scene so that people from all over the world can share Hologram. Yes, you can throw your virtual key to someone else. It sounds silly, but it opens up a vast new world because the calculations are too complicated to fathom.
Have fun with holograms
To get a feel for the new technology, Microsoft sent me a box containing a very cool HP Omen gaming laptop, a Hololens 2 headset, and HP’s mixed reality headset called the Reverb G2. The last two devices create two very different virtual environments. Hololens is primarily an augmented reality device. It’s essentially a headband with a clear visor, like the ones you might remember from store class, that allows the device to project an image. Your eyes assemble the world and virtual images before you into a new reality, a reality better than the ordinary world in which you live.
Mixed reality headsets are virtual reality devices that transport users into a whole new world. Microsoft Mesh works on desktops (PC and Mac) as well as Android and iPhone devices, Microsoft says.
To test it out, I put on the Hololens 2 and fired it up. The headset creates a detailed map of your environment, including your hands, eliminating the need for controllers. You can launch apps and adjust settings through menus accessed by pressing the floating Windows icon mapped to your wrist.
I fired up the test app (called Fenix when it was still in beta) and was met by a floating avatar of Greg Sullivan, Microsoft’s director of mixed reality, around a shiny workbench that could be individually positioned and resized in the physical environment. I slid the virtual table between the real bed and the doorway, anchored it to the ground, and then turned my attention to the jellyfish, land, and whale sharks floating above it.
“It’s like a metaverse.”
Hololens is very intuitive. Pick up the hologram with your hand or snatch it like a flyball and rotate, stretch, or contract it exactly as you expect. And Sullivan and I were able to pass the holograms back and forth. I picked up the shark, its tail lashing menacingly, and zoomed in to get a better look at its pale underside. I handed it to another reporter across the table, who picked it up and piled it on top of the jellyfish.
Have fun with holograms! One problem occurred. I had a tendency to close my hands when I lowered my arms to my sides, and I kept accidentally holding the hologram. The app also crashed once or twice, but that was more of a technical proof of concept than anything else. Consider proven concepts.
Of course, we couldn’t fist bump to save our lives. Heck, we were just avatars after all. But this was a collaboration on a different level.
“It’s like a metaverse,” Sullivan said. “When someone who is not in the room with you hands you a hologram, it is a very powerful experience.”
Building a new platform
Although we’ve experienced Mesh through the Fenix app, Microsoft says it’s thinking of it as a platform and will release an SDK so any developer can add this functionality to their apps. Therefore, we decided to present it at the Ignite developer conference.
Early demos intentionally mimicked design reviews. This is a natural opportunity for this type of collaboration, Sullivan said, and companies can save money if they can avoid taking someone into the factory to inspect prototype products. Other potential applications include remote support and training, manufacturing, and more.
By physically viewing a holographic model of the factory floor under construction, architects and engineers can see how all the equipment fits together in three dimensions and avoid potentially costly mistakes. Engineering or medical students learning about electric car engines or human anatomy could gather as avatars around a holographic model to remove parts of an engine or peel back muscles to see what lies underneath.
Microsoft has also promised to release Mesh-based versions of its own apps in the near future, but disappointingly there’s no timeline. After all, a mesh-based Teams experience seems like a no-brainer, and the company already has 3D object libraries built into its software, including its Office suite.