When was Microsoft hololens available to common people?
Microsoft HoloLens, also known as Project Baraboo, is a pair of mixed reality smartglasses that Microsoft developed and manufactured. The Microsoft HoloLens was the first head-mounted display to run Windows Mixed Reality on the Windows 10 operating system. The tracking technology utilised in HoloLens may be traced back to Kinect, a 2010 add-on for Microsoft's Xbox video game console.
The Development Edition, a pre-production version of HoloLens, was released on March 30, 2016, and is available for $3000 to developers in the United States and Canada. Samsung and Asus have sent an invitation to Microsoft to collaborate on the development of their own mixed-reality products based on the HoloLens idea and hardware. Microsoft announced the global expansion of HoloLens on October 12, 2016, and revealed that preorders would be available in Australia, Ireland, France, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
The HoloLens 2 was launched on February 24, 2019, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, and was available for preorder for $3,500.
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| Credits: Microsoft |
The HoloLens is a head-mounted display unit with an adjustable, cushioned inner headband that allows you to tilt the device up and down, forward and backward. The user places the HoloLens on their head, securing it around the crown with an adjustment wheel on the rear of the headband, evenly supporting and dispersing the unit's weight for comfort, before tilting the visor towards the front of the eyes.
Many of the sensors and accompanying hardware, such as CPUs, cameras, and projection lenses, are located on the front of the unit. The visor is tinted, and a pair of transparent combiner lenses are encased in the visor piece, with projected images displayed in the lower half. The user's interpupillary distance (IPD), or accustomed vision, must be calibrated before using the HoloLens.
A pair of little red 3D audio speakers are situated near the user's ears along the bottom borders of the side.
Two pairs of controls are located on the top edge of the device: display brightness buttons above the left ear and volume buttons above the right ear.
Two pairs of controls are located on the top edge of the device: display brightness buttons above the left ear and volume buttons above the right ear.
A power button and a row of five small individual LED nodes are located at the end of the left arm, and they are used to display system status as well as power management, such as indicating battery level and setting power/standby mode.
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Hardware
The HoloLens incorporates an inertial measuring unit (IMU), four "environment understanding" sensors (two on each side), an energy-efficient depth camera with a 120°120° angle of view, a 2.4-megapixel photographic video camera, a four-microphone array, and an ambient light sensor.
HoloLens includes a custom-made Microsoft Holographic Processing Unit (HPU), a coprocessor created particularly for the HoloLens by Microsoft, in addition to an Intel Cherry Trail SoC housing the CPU and GPU. Both the SoC and the HPU feature 1GB LPDDR3 and share 8MB SRAM, with the SoC also controlling a 64GB eMMC and running Windows 10. To process and integrate data from the sensors, as well as handle tasks like spatial mapping, gesture identification, and voice and speech recognition, the HPU uses 28 specialised DSPs from Tensilica.
The inbuilt rechargeable battery in the HoloLens has an average life of 2–3 hours of active use or 2 weeks of standby time. While charging, the HoloLens can be used.
Wireless communication for the HoloLens is provided by IEEE 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 Low Energy (LE).
Interface
HoloLens uses sensuous and natural interface commands—gaze, gesture, and voice—sometimes referred to as "GGV" inputs, thanks to the HPU. Gaze instructions, such as head-tracking, allow the user to focus the application on whatever they are looking at. Air tapping is used to select "elements"—or any virtual programme or button—in a similar way to clicking an imaginary computer mouse. The tap can be held to simulate dragging to move an element, as well as to use voice commands for specific commands and actions.
Microsoft released the Microsoft HoloLens App for Windows 10 PCs and Windows 10 Mobile devices in April 2016, which allows developers to run apps, type text using his or her phone's or PC's keyboard, view a live stream from the HoloLens user's perspective, and remotely capture mixed reality photos and videos.
Criticism
Microsoft received a deal from the US military in November 2018 for 100,000 HoloLens MR glasses worth $479 million. "Increased lethality, mobility, and situational awareness necessary to achieve overmatch against [...] existing and future opponents," according to the MR goggles.
Fifty Microsoft employees wrote a letter to their CEO Satya Nadella and President Brad Smith just before the start of one of the largest international technology conferences, the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona, stating that they "refuse to develop technologies for warfare and oppression." They urged that the contract be terminated by corporate management.
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