There’s been a flurry of news recently in the mixed reality sector. If you aren’t familiar with the term “mixed reality,” it’s essentially a combination of virtual reality and augmented reality.
In augmented reality, you see real physical data and digital data is layered over it like a delicious digital cake for your eyes. In virtual reality, you are fully immersed in a digital world and are as blind as a deaf bat when it comes to navigating whatever room or space you’re in.
The announcement of Intel’s Project Alloy at IDF 2016 probably made the most waves. Though it appeared at first that the processor giant had stepped into the mixed reality space with a headset to compete with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, it turned out to be something a bit different.
Another blip on the mixed reality radar this week was the news about AMA Xpert Eye providing MBTA field mechanics with R-7 Smartglasses from Osterhaut Design Group through CDC, which is responsible for maintenance and repairs.
Shaper: Augmented-Reality Handheld CNC Machine
The Shaper Origin is a cool handheld power tool about the size of a small juicer. It uses augmented reality to help you make cuts by hand on the fly on a multitude of surfaces, including carbon fiber, wood and a few different metals.
The machine was invented by MIT computer vision doctoral student Alec Rivers after he inherited a set of tools from his grandfather and realized he didn’t have the faintest idea of how to use any of them to make anything. Rivers also concluded that having these tools did not endow him with the skills he needed to make anything cool. Since there’s no way (yet) for people to download the years of experience it takes to learn how to use them properly, Rivers was up a certain oft-referred proverbial creek.
The Origin ensures that your cuts are exactly where you want them by using a special tape that helps the visual marker system stay oriented to the workpiece. You just lay down tape around the area to be cut and do a quick scan of the surface to generate a map. You then place your design using augmented reality software and begin cutting. The tool uses precision motors to keep the spindle oriented on the workpiece, vis-à-vis with your digital design.
Here it is in action with the folks from Tested:
Microsoft HoloLens Specs Finally Released
At the Hot Chips conference in California, Microsoft engineer Nick Baker made known the sweet-sounding specs of the holographic processing unit (HPU) that powers the augmented reality headset. To start, there are 24 digital signal processing (DSP) cores of 1 GB of DDR3 RAM with a 28-nanometer co-processor. Specially designed by Tensilica and manufactured by TSMC, the HPU’s 24 cores contain 65 million logic gates and 8 MB of static RAM.
There is also the super-tiny (14 nanometers) Atom Cherry Trail CPU from Intel running Windows 10 alongside the HPU. This “system-on-a-chip” allows the HPU to focus on all of the extra sensor data coming in from external and motionless physical data (a room, furniture, etc.) as well as hand gesture information. Incredibly, the HPU can supposedly handle a trillion calculations per second and runs on less than 10 watts.
With a 3D desktop environment coming to Windows 10 by 2017, the Hololens Commercial Suite making its debut for enterprise customers, and the Windows Holographic OS in the works, this spec reveal is just the beginning (for at least the next few years). Unless it crashes and burns like the first version of Google Glass. There’s just something about headsets that people don’t like. People get their eyes zapped by lasers so they don’t have to wear glasses, so we’ll see.
Dexta Robotics and HTC Vive Development Kit
An exoskeleton glove with haptic feedback that allows virtual reality users to realistically grab objects?
No, it’s not a direct descendant of Nintendo’s Power Glove from the 1990s, but a 2015 project that was shelved by Dexta Robotics, a Chinese startup in the virtual reality space. The company went through about 20 different prototypes before coming up with the current version, which offers 11 degrees of motion for each finger and sends variable force feedback to each finger.
With the HTC Vive opening up its trackers to third-party developers, companies like Dexta Robotics and other developers can create what they feel is the most dynamic controller for the popular headset.
And did you know you could get a development kit for the HTC Vive?
In case you’re interested in developing some external electronics for the HTC Vive, you do not have to pay licensing fees to the company, which is great. However, you do have to set aside USD$3000 and go to Seattle for an in-person training session, which probably makes up for the licensing fees!
The hardware that you receive in the developer kit includes all the EVM circuit boards you’d need to prototype a tracked object along with 40 sensors that could be embedded in any custom tracking device, from VR shoes to a VR baseball bat.
The “Dexmo” glove is not available yet, as the company is looking for partners to develop a consumer version for the HTC Vive.
Space VR
Space VR is a startup that has rocketed to noteworthiness since raising over $100,000 in a Kickstarter campaign in October and $1,250,000 in seed funding from a China-based investment firm called Shanda Group.
Its goal?
To sell $35-subscriptions for people to immerse themselves in space. That’s right, if the ISS live feed isn’t a good enough experience for you and you don’t want to wait for when it’s in range to feel like you are off-planet, then Space VR might be a good option for you.
Space VR signed a deal with NanoRacks, a company that deals in logistic management of SpaceX payloads, to launch Overview 1, its nanosatellite which costs around $300,000 to produce. With solar panels, stereoscopic cameras, and 3D-printed radiation shielding, this CubeSat also will cost another $250,000 to launch. Space VR expects the 8-lb satellite to only last about six months before falling back to Earth and burning up fast from miles above us all.
Originally, Space VR’s intention was to send a stereoscopic camera rig (a good rig will cost anywhere from $15,000–35,000), but realized that it would need to be a standalone satellite. CEO Ryan Holmes came up with the idea after seeing a documentary called “Overview,” in which astronauts waxed poetic about how little and petty their problems seemed after seeing Earth from a distance. Most people out there would travel to space if they could, right?
Bottom Line
Mixed reality is generating so much interest right now, but if you look carefully, giant tech companies with plenty of capital to burn are trying to ignite popular interest in mixed reality with mixed results. Google bought Oculus Rift for $2 billion and Google led a massive $500-million-investment in Florida-based Magic Leap, which has yet to release a product.
With Valley darlings Theranos and Skully going belly-up amidst dubious practices and claims of outright fraud, you really have to remain skeptical about the news you hear about mixed reality. There are some innovative use cases, but overall, the excitement can seem artificial and superfluous from afar. But that is the core issue that stops people from getting excited about mixed reality: you really do have to see it to believe it.
I was at my local HackRVA meetup this weekend, where we had a demonstration of the HTC Vive for about 20 people to try. Everybody reacted differently, but it made a positive impression on everyone who tried it. From demos like “theBlu,” where you watch whales, angler fish and jellyfish float right in front of your face to “Trials on Tatooine,” where you get to be a Jedi and block laser blasts with a lightsaber, the technology does take you into a life-like digital reality. The implications are positive for visualization, training and collaboration.
As far as mixed reality devices like the HoloLens replacing the desktop, there’s no way to tell at this point whether or not mixed reality will really replace the 2D display screens we know so well today.