Mixed Reality News Features

Hands-On: Hands-On with the HoloLens 2, the New Best Augmented Reality Experience You Can Get

In the last couple of days there's been a lot of speculation about the powers of Microsoft's HoloLens 2, but few have had a chance to get their hands on one to see if the company's claims live up to what HoloLens inventor Alex Kipman showed off on stage.

Hands-On: Hands-On with Magic Leap's Avatar Chat, Remote Virtual Meetings in AR Have Arrived

Unlike the realm of virtual reality, augmented reality is less about losing yourself in some fantasy environment, and more about getting things done in the real world. So while we've seen some great games that capture the imagination on devices like the Magic Leap One and the HoloLens, when it comes to real-world usage, the biggest developments coming for AR apps that are the more practical ones.

News: Microsoft Japan Helps Godzilla Invade Real World Tokyo via HoloLens

The company behind Japan's beloved Gozilla, Japan's Toho Studios, has for years tried to give fans the sense of what a giant, nuclear-powered lizard invading Tokyo might feel like. Until now, those attempts have been limited to the movie theater, but now, with the help of the Microsoft HoloLens, Godzilla is finally getting its chance to invade the actual city, with terrified fans looking on from a safe distance.

News: I Spent a Full Day Working in the Magic Leap One & Discovered the AR Office of the Future

Why do you need augmented reality? Because enterprise, they say. And while that's certainly true for several disciplines, there's still that mainstream use case hanging out there waiting for users to discover beyond the realm of enterprise and gaming.

News: Magic Leap Claims He Stole Augmented Reality Ideas as an Employee, but Who Is Chi Xu, the Founder of Nreal?

When I first found out about Nreal, back in the spring of 2018, the most interesting thing about the company's story was the founder's background. Chi Xu, the CEO and founder of Nreal, previously worked at Magic Leap as a software engineer.

News: Microsoft HoloLens 2 Assists De'Longhi Japan Call Center Agents Using Augmented Reality Product Models

Less than a month after the worldwide launch of HoloLens 2, call center consultant BellSystem24 has already prepared an augmented reality solution for one of its clients.

News: US Navy Using Magic Leap AR Technology to Improve Warfare Training

In recent years, the US military has been utilizing augmented reality as a training tool, giving officers and soldiers an opportunity to train and hone their decision-making, tactical efforts, and weapons accuracy via virtual scenarios.

News: AR Telepresence App Spatial Debuts on Magic Leap via Enterprise Suite

After stealing the show at the HoloLens 2 launch and starring in Qualcomm's unveiling the Snapdragon XR2, holographic video conferencing app Spatial has landed a leading role in Magic Leap's second act with the enterprise segment.

News: Try Windows 10's Mixed Reality Portal on Your PC with Insider Build 15048 — No Headset Required

If you're part of the Windows 10 Insider Program, build 15048 launched this morning, and included a nice big unannounced surprise. You can now launch the Mixed Reality Portal and enable the simulation to try out mixed reality right from your PC, even if you don't have one of the new Acer dev kits.

News: Magic Leap's 'Blink' Demo Shows How Eye Tracking & Spatial Audio Make Virtual Content Come Alive

Over the past few weeks, a trio of developer lessons (one of which was revealed in Magic Leap's most recent Twitch livestream) have revealed samples of experiences that are possible while using the Magic Leap One.

News: Magic Leap Trade Secrets Lawsuit Against China's Nreal on Hold as Mediation Begins & Court Sets Tentative Trial Date

This week, the beginning of an epic legal battle was set to begin between augmented reality players Magic Leap and Nreal, the small China-based startup accused by the former of stealing trade secrets.

HoloLens Dev 101: Building a Dynamic User Interface, Part 2 (The System Manager)

Now that we have installed the toolkit, set up our prefabs, and prepared Unity for export to HoloLens, we can proceed with the fun stuff involved in building a dynamic user interface. In this section, we will build the system manager.

News: Design a Room Layout with Holographic Furniture Using HoloPlanner

When figuring out how to arrange your furniture in a new room, you traditionally have to measure everything and use your imagination. HoloPlanner has a better idea: just place holographic furniture in the room so the Microsoft HoloLens can imagine it for you.

News: Microsoft's HoloLens 2 Makes Primetime Debut on Fox TV Show 'The Resident'

The HoloLens 2 hasn't even reached most of the market, but it's already a big-time TV star. Microsoft's augmented reality device made its primetime debut on FOX TV last night on an episode of the hospital drama The Resident.

News: Magic Leap Patent Reveals the Lightpack May Be More Than Meets the Eye

Among the revelations uncovered during the December unveiling of the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition was the fact that the Lightwear augmented reality headset would be tethered to a wearable computer called the Lightpack.

News: I Met Magic Leap's AI Assistant Mica & Saw the Future of Augmented Reality

Unlike VR, when you're talking about augmented reality, describing what an experience is like can be incredibly difficult — primarily because the experiences are even more contextual than relatively static virtual worlds that don't involve real-world settings.

News: 5 Magic Leap Apps You're Probably Missing, Including Star Wars, the Magicverse Matrix, AR Jenga, & More

Whenever the name Magic Leap comes up, the talk inevitably seems to turn to the company's big-name backers and "unicorn-level" amounts of cash poured into the venture. And if it's not that, observers tend to focus on the company's market strategy and overall prospects.

News: Atheer's Enterprise AR Platform Now Available on HoloLens via Design Interactive's App

Enterprise augmented reality developer Atheer is bringing its AR solution for enterprise businesses to the HoloLens by way of a joint venture with fellow AR developer Design Interactive.

News: Mercedes-Benz Shifts to HoloLens for Employee Training

Luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz has joined the growing list of automakers adopting augmented reality to provide an assist to its manufacturing operations, in this case, via the Microsoft HoloLens.

News: Microsoft Fuels Efficiency at Chevron with Remote Assist App for HoloLens

Four months after unveiling the latest productivity apps for the HoloLens, Microsoft now has a series of compelling real-world use case videos showing how the augmented reality device and its apps are helping oil giant Chevron.

Gallery: A Close-Up Look at the Magic Leap One's Optics

For the curious, here are a number of close-up shots of the Magic Leap One's optics and the magnetic attachment that can be swapped out for a version with lenses matching your glasses prescription in the near future.

News: Microsoft Is About to Revolutionize How We Watch Sports at Home

Obviously this is just a teaser, and who knows how soon we'll see something like this in real life, but just go ahead and watch the video first before you continue reading.

News: Microsoft Has Figured Out How to Double Field of View on HoloLens

One of the most highly-cited drawbacks to the HoloLens is its limited field of view (FOV), but now it appears that Microsoft has solved that problem.

News: The HoloLens Can Now Wirelessly Use a PC's CPU & GPU for Faster Development Cycles

Virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive tether to desktop computers with robust GPUs in order to harness their power. The free-roaming, cordless Microsoft HoloLens forgoes those chains but loses a bit of graphical processing power in the mix. However, a recent report suggests we may get the best of both worlds.

News: Magic Leap Roars into the Auto World via Kia Stinger App from RelayCars

Magic Leap One owners, start your virtual engines, as automotive virtual reality developer RelayCars has published an app to Magic Leap World that lets users customize and test drive a 2019 Kia Stinger.

HoloLens Dev 101: How to Explore the Power of Spatial Audio Using Hotspots

When making a convincing mixed reality experience, audio consideration is a must. Great audio can transport the HoloLens wearer to another place or time, help navigate 3D interfaces, or blur the lines of what is real and what is a hologram. Using a location-based trigger (hotspot), we will dial up a fun example of how well spatial sound works with the HoloLens.

News: EtherWars Brings Real-Time Strategic Space Battles into the Living Room

If you want to quickly understand EtherWars, imagine a game like StarCraft where you build out your base on your living room floor instead of on a computer screen. Before we had computer games to help us imagine what space wars might feel like, we played with toy ships and used our imaginations. EtherWars combines those two elements by replacing toys with holograms that actually react to your choices.

News: Magic Leap Adds Master of 'The Matrix' Bullet Time Effect to Secretive Product Team

After announcing another massive round of funding to the tune of $502 million, Magic Leap is adding another powerful weapon to its creative arsenal: John Gaeta, the man who helped develop the iconic Bullet Time effect for The Matrix series of films.

News: Magic Leap & Sigur Rós Video Reveals Behind the Scenes Development of Tónandi Augmented Reality Music App

Now that the augmented reality cat is out of the bag, Magic Leap is beginning to open up a bit more about how of some of its work came together in the years and months leading up to the Magic Leap One's release earlier this month. On Wednesday, the company unveiled a behind the scenes video of how the ethereal music-meets-AR app Tónandi was produced in collaboration with Icelandic music group Sigur Rós.

News: Microsoft Unveils How-To Videos for Dynamics 365 Guides App Ahead of HoloLens 2 Arrival

With the imminent arrival of the HoloLens 2 expected any day now, Microsoft is preparing new users to take advantage of its software from day one.

News: Magic Leap & Weta Workshop Preview Multiplayer Mode for Dr. Grordbort's Invaders at GDC

Visitors to the Unity booth at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco will get a special augmented reality treat courtesy of Magic Leap and Weta Workshop.

Have You Seen This?: Synesthesia Adds Trippy Sound Visualization to the HoloLens

If anyone has every told you that they see music they listen to, they have synesthesia. It's a fascinating neurological phenomenon where people experience crossed responses to stimuli, and no one knows exactly how common this is. A rough estimate claims that one in every 5,000 to 100,000 people is a synesthete, but it could be far more common or rare. Nobody really knows.

News: This Theater Group Is Taking Entire Audiences into Mixed Reality with Networked HoloLens Headsets

Live theater doesn't typically benefit from the kind of computer-generated special effects that big-budget Hollywood blockbusters deploy, but that could change soon thanks to Microsoft's HoloLens.

News: Data Mining & Augmented Reality Make for an Alarming Combination

Our future technology has a lot of amazing possibilities, and few have more promise than augmented and mixed reality headsets. But these advancements come with several concerns over privacy, and if we don't understand them, we may lose control of our own data without even knowing.

News: Microsoft Makes HoloLens Available for Rent for Trial Evaluation & Trade Shows

While the consensus among some in the augmented reality community is that the Microsoft HoloLens is the best device available at present, it also remains the most cost-prohibitive option, with the development edition costing $3,000.

Have You Seen This?: New 'Crayon' HoloLens App Brings Back the Fun of Drawing on Walls

Crayon, a free 3D drawing application by the mysteriously named arkalian, showed up in the Windows Store recently, so I gave it a try like I do all new apps for Windows Holographic. Truthfully, I loaded it up not expecting much, but wow, was I wrong. It's a simple idea, but it's executed well enough to make it a truly great experience on the HoloLens.

News: 'See Through' Walls with This HoloLens Stud-Marking App

The HoloLens can do some pretty crazy things such as create a robot invasion in your walls, but it can also help you do simple stuff, like hanging frames, paintings, or anything else on those walls—after you repair them from the robot attack, of course.

News: Ex-Magic Leap Employee Files Lawsuit Alleging Shady Hiring Practices

The legal travails of Magic Leap appear to have no end in sight, as a lawsuit filed by an ex-employee further threatens to dampen the startup's 2018 launch.

News: Get Ready to Play Fantasy Card Games in Mixed Reality

Card games like Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, and the like have offered engaging fantasy worlds for players—but not without significant help from their imaginations. Video games and cartoons may have helped build these worlds, but mixed reality finally offers an opportunity to make the player's imagination real.

News: Mixed Reality Tears Complex Data Off the Page & into 3D

If you've ever made graphs and charts, you know it can be a struggle to represent a large amount of data. It's something that just doesn't work very well on a flat surface. In virtual and mixed reality, however, the data can exist all around you.