Posted on 08/18/2016 6:14:21 AM PDT by dayglored
We're a long way from the Start Menu now
First, it scrapped the classic Start Menu and gave us Tiles.
Now Microsoft has confirmed it really is working on yet another radical user interface update – one that will allow you to use your desktop Windows 10 PC with virtual reality headsets.
The feature, due to arrive next year, is dubbed the Windows Holographic Shell. It is designed to work on any normal PC, not just high-end graphics rigs; the emphasis is on the fact that anyone with a half decent machine can use the new UI.
The Holographic Shell will run and present universal and so-called mixed reality apps in a multitasking 3D space in a connected VR headset. It doesn't matter if applications have classic 2D interfaces or new 3D controls: they'll be thrown together into a realtime-rendered make-believe world around the user like some kind of 1997 Silicon Graphics Inc tech demo.
When you wear your "six degrees of freedom" headset, you can manipulate the 3D desktop using a Wii-like remote control, basically pointing at dialog boxes and icons hovering in the air and clicking on them rather than moving a mouse pointer on a 2D screen.
Here's what Microsoft reckons Windows Holographic will look like on a modest Intel NUC box, running at 90 frames per second:
[VIDEO EMBEDDED AT SITE}
For reference, NUCs sport Intel's 5th or 6th generation Core processors and its Iris graphics chipset.
Confirmation of the Holographic Shell emerged at this year's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco today. It comes after Microsoft started slinging its HoloLens gear at more and more people this month, and mentioned virtual reality coming to mainstream Windows 10 editions in June.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is working on formalizing a specification with Intel for interfacing PCs with head-mounted displays, allowing hardware makers to build headsets and computers that are compatible with Intel's chipsets and Microsoft's software. The spec is due to be published by the end of the year.
"Our shared goal is to enable our hardware partners to build a broad range of devices for the mainstream consumer and business markets," said Windows exec veep Terry Myerson on Tuesday.
"We are working with several partners on the spec today, and plan to publicly release v1 of the spec at the Windows Hardware Engineering Community (WinHEC) conference in Shenzhen in December."
Microsoft's move into virtual reality desktops is a bold one; the software giant was caught out by the sudden rise of touchscreen tablets and smartphones, and doesn't want to be late to this party. For one thing, Redmond is using its massive install base of Windows desktop devices to push mixed reality workspaces to people at work and at home.
"I believe Microsoft has taken the industry lead in augmented reality and mixed reality with its own head-mounted display HoloLens, mixed reality operating system and partner ecosystem," tech industry analyst Patrick Moorhead told The Register during IDF.
"This was a refreshing change for Microsoft who entered the smartphone space late. Microsoft and Intel working together on mixed reality is a very positive sign and historically, more has been accomplished with the two working together than against each other.
"Intel and Microsoft were not aligned in smartphones or tablets and the result was negative for both. The result of this alignment will mean that there will be literally hundreds of millions of mixed reality end points with users’ interaction over augmented and virtual reality, mobile and stationary."
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/16/windows_10_holographic/
Unfortunately I can't seem to get it to embed in this thread...
Have you noticed how hokey the picture with the girl is?
If not, look at how the shadows fall in the picture. She is not a human.
As to these headsets ... they, by design, are bigoted to the human population who do NOT have to wear reading glasses, or multi-lens face-fitting frames.
If they had announced up front that they were going to bring porn to a whole new level, they would have met their targets for conversion to Win10, without having to resort to the coercion and involuntary upgrades.
Will the installation be mandatory, max out all resources even if never used, and make most hardware obsolete, including peripherals?
Ten years ago, I designed, patented, and produced the first touch-less mouse...The Motion Mate.
I used three Sharp IR detectors, an E PROM, I wrote the firmware in PIC and the drivers in C. I used phase space algorithms to perform real time predictive co-ordinate shifts derived by repetitive sampling positions of the users’ hands by target acquisition via triangulation.
It worked perfectly. I even designed a 3D game of Jenga for it.
That being said. There is a big down side.
Try this exercise:
Stand for five minutes moving your hands around, perhaps pretending to chisel a statue out of granite.
It’s taxing, uncomfortable, and exhausting...if not down right damaging!
This will be as successful as 3D television was.
Isn’t that the XP file search doggie in that picture?
Their art dept was on vacation that week. They used what was on-hand.
They'll probably make you buy new printers too.
They have got to make this work with something the size of Google Glass.
I like my ViewMaster-ish VR headset, but I’ve found out that I can only use it for about 20 minutes before it actually starts to make me sleepy.
This simulation would never work for me using a similar headset.
I’ve had an Oculus Rift DK2 for over a year, and I have no problems using it while wearing glasses. They provide lenses you can snap in if you’re nearsighted. Since your face is sitting very close to the display, unless you’re incredibly nearsighted (like me), you can use a VR headset without much trouble.
Microsoft is moving the augmented reality (AR) ball across the field. They recognize that VR with the Vive, Rift, and upcoming headsets is a crowded market. They want to make waves in AR where you can still see everything around you, but there’s a semi-transparent computer overlay. I do like that concept for office automation and teleconferencing.
The OS is not supposed to BE the application, it's job is RUN the application and stay the hell out of the way otherwise. That's what nearly 100% of enterprise users, government users, small and medium business users, and home business users want.
Microsoft has run so far off the rails, they'll never get back on the tracks:
No, Terry, the girl is real, the background is all fake. That’s why there’s no shadows, etc. etc.
catnipman, I think you’re hitting the nail on the head.
The video mock-up was a bad joke, especially with the dog. The search dog from past UIs? Really, Microsoft? Why don’t you just bring MS Bob back and be done with it?
The 3D interface is just Hollywood Computer Interface, taken too seriously. Let’s just walk through some filing cabinets and start pulling out drawers, then put the papers from the folders in the cabinets on a large desk, where we can move them around and twirl them, except NONE OF IT’S REAL IT’S ALL COMPYUTARS!
*shake my head*
Why would you need to wear glasses with these? They ARE glasses!
Upside: People will have really strong arms!
Another Microsoft failure in progress.
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