At E3 this year I got to try out Microsoft's HoloLens technology first-hand as part of a Halo 5: Guardians experience.
Like everyone who watched it, I was blown away by the HoloLens Minecraft demonstration at the Xbox E3 showcase.
The hands-on experience was a briefing for the new Warzone mode of Halo, and while it was quite passive compared to the active HoloLens gameplay in that Minecraft demo, it was nonetheless amazing.
Before being led into the HoloLens Halo room, less than an hour after Steven Spielberg had been in there, I was asked to look into a little optometrist device to check my field of vision for the hologram placement.
After focusing on a green dot through the device, I had an optic measurement of 65, I think measuring the distance between my pupils. The guy next to me had 63.
Entering the indoor area all decked out to look like the UNSC Infinity interior, I was referred to as a Spartan for the rest of the demo. A technician fitted the HoloLens to my head and then asked me to stand and follow the 'waypoints'.
That's when the magic really started. Standing and looking down the pathway before me, a glowing blue triangle flashed in mid-air, just how it does in videogames. It beeped as it blinked, which got louder as I approached, and it was in a fixed position as the technology read the room around me and kept it locked at the right spot.
The unit was nice and light as it sat on my head and easily adjustable for tightness.
The waypoint appeared exactly as it does on Master Chief's MJOLNIR visor in the Halo games and I can't tell you what a thrill it was just seeing it.
As I reached the waypoint, I heard audio confirmation and the next waypoint appeared further along the hall. I got to a certain point where there was a window and looking through it, I could see Spartans preparing Pelican aircraft for an assault.
Walking past the window I got to a briefing room with a large table in the centre. Onto it, the mission briefing for a multiplayer Warzone match was projected in virtual holograms. It looked like something out of Avatar or Star Trek, but it was real and happening right in front of me.
The briefing included 3D models of the map, which rotated around the table and would zoom in and out of the pertinent buildings. Character models would pop up every now and then, each time bringing a smile to my face - this technology is just so cool.
What really amazed me was the clarity. There was no shadowing or other 3D-style glitches, the holographic images appeared perfectly formed.
However, the area of vision in which the images was a rather small rectangle in the centre of my vision. It started getting cut off if I turned my head even a little, so it'd be nice if they expand that out a bit – unless it's a safety thing where they can't have it obscuring too much of your vision, I guess.
The whole experience was amazing and felt very sci-fi. I'm not sure how much of it depended on the controlled environment it happened in and how well it'll work in our homes, but the potential of this technology is extremely exciting.
3 News
source: newshub archive
