HoloLens Features

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: Toyota Begins Testing HoloLens for Production Process Improvements

With HoloLens and its enterprise-focused software offerings, Microsoft continues to make an impression on companies looking to adopt augmented reality, with Toyota Motor Corporation among the latest.

News: This Children's Hospital Uses HoloLens & Augmented Reality to Calm Young Patients During Medical Procedures

While numerous examples exist of hospitals deploying the HoloLens to assist doctors, surgeons, medical professionals, and students while treating patients, California's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford is actually using the augmented reality headset to improve the patient's experience.

News: This App Streams Custom Holograms from a Computer to the HoloLens

The Microsoft HoloLens has a good amount of content available, but it's fairly limited in terms of what you can customize. You can access a built-in library of holograms, but if you want to create your own you have to do that with code.

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: HoloBooth Presents Exhibition Booth Through HoloLens

Asobo Studios, one of the first companies to partner with Microsoft on HoloLens development, is applying their expertise towards building applications for various business verticals through their internal HoloForge Interactive team.

News: Microsoft Uses HoloLens 2 to Demo Multi-Language Speaking Avatar That Looks Just Like You

It's always great to see a company pull off a bit of augmented reality magic, but what we see is not always what it's cracked up to be.

News: Detailed 3D Mining Maps & Future Reclamation Views Highlighted in Proof-of-Concept HoloLens App

LOOOK, a Seattle-based mixed reality and development studio, can now peer into the future with their new geotechnical engineering visualization application for Microsoft HoloLens.

News: Pokémon GO Will Be So Much Better with a Mixed Reality Headset

Pokémon GO has had an incredible impact on gamers in a way we've never seen before, but you can only do so much in augmented reality on a smartphone. It's clear we're headed for more immersive experiences, but the Amsterdam-based development studio Capitola VR already created a proof-of-concept version of the game that works on the Microsoft HoloLens.

HoloLens Feature: Gesture Input

Gesture Input works hand-in-hand with Gaze Input. If you think of Gaze Input like a mouse cursor, Gesture Input is how you "click" in HoloLens—which Microsoft calls "tapping." It's kind of like a touchpad, only in 3D.

News: N3S Brings Classic NES Games to Life on the HoloLens

Video game emulation has saved arcade and console classics from obsolescence, and that wonderful hobby has found its way onto the Microsoft HoloLens—with some three dimensional upgrades, of course.

News: Microsoft Invites Rest of Europe to HoloLens Party with Expanded Availability in 29 Markets

Just days after announcing the launch of two new mixed reality studio facilities, Microsoft is extending its mixed reality reach even further with the announcement that the HoloLens will now be offered in 29 new markets.

News: Arvizio Adds LiDAR Point Cloud Support to MR Studio

Mixed reality developer Arvizio has updated its MR Studio software suite to integrate processing of 3D light detection and ranging (LiDAR) point clouds.

News: Microsoft's HoloLens Is Going to Transform How We Do Work

Mixed reality headsets have limited hardware capabilities and naturally imprecise interfaces. While that works just fine for games and entertainment, can they actually function as a tool for productivity?

News: The Scaling Ratios Every HoloLens Dev Should Know for Clean Text in Mixed Reality

Designing for mixed reality, especially for the HoloLens, can present unique challenges. Dong Yoon Park, a Principal UX Designer at Microsoft with a passion for typography, recently gave a talk to the Windows Holographic Users Group Redmond (WinHUGR) about the pitfalls he ran into trying to convert what started out as a 2D iOS app 5 years ago to the newer 3D Holographic frontier with Unity.

News: New Training Simulation Concept Enables Safe Crane Operation Through HoloLens

A proof of concept for an overhead crane training simulator is in the works. Using Microsoft HoloLens and an industrial-style controller, trainees can pick up holographic loads and transport them throughout a warehouse setting.

News: Volvo Takes Showrooming to the Next Level with a HoloLens

While the early stages of any new technology always seems amazing because of the utilitarian, almost altruistic software concepts it inspires, mixed and augmented reality will still see its fair share of corporate apps. That might be a good thing, however, as Volvo's plan goes past general information and advertising to make a truly helpful tool for prospective car buyers.

News: Mimesys Combines Mixed & Virtual Reality Holoportation Capabilities into One Solution

Mimesys, whose core focus has always been about creating holographic representations of humans for virtual and augmented reality, has released a video showing off their holographic communication platform in action. This new communication tool uses a combination of virtual reality, with the HTC Vive and a Kinect, and mixed reality, with the HoloLens, to allow the users to have virtual meetings from anywhere in the world as though they are in the same room.

News: Share the HoloLens Experience Through MR Studio ViewPoint from Arvizio

HoloLens developer Arvizio has expanded its collaboration suite of tools for enterprises with a device that can stream and record mixed reality experiences in high-definition for local and remote audiences.

Have You Seen This?: Secrets of Ancient Egypt Shows the Potential of HoloLens Tourism

A few days ago, I pulled up the Windows Store on my HoloLens and saw a few new applications. One that caught my attention was Oriental Museum, which lets you explore China's Forbidden City, and the other one is very similar free demo app called Secrets of Ancient Egypt by Link Development.

Have You Seen This?: Oriental Museum App Explores China's Forbidden City on the HoloLens

In this episode of Have You Seen This?, we will look at Oriental Museum by 247 Technology Limited, a free application in the Windows Store for HoloLens. Museum exhibits seem to be a popular theme amongst the demonstrations going up, so let's see how this one looks.

News: Microsoft FCC Filing Hints That the Wait for HoloLens 2 Is Almost Over

We know that Microsoft's HoloLens 2 is due to start shipping later this year, but despite the trickle of news about the device, we still don't know when.

News: How to Try Out the Microsoft HoloLens (& Other Reality-Altering Headsets) Near You

Mixed reality (MR) feels like an amazing, almost mind-blowing futuristic technology—but only once you've experienced it for yourself. Words, images, and even videos simply cannot describe the experience in full. If you want to really peer into the future and experience MR for yourself, you can sign up and just go in many cities.

News: Microsoft Discontinuing Major OS Updates for HoloLens 1

With HoloLens 2 (hopefully) just around the corner, Microsoft has announced that it will no longer be providing any major operating system updates to the original HoloLens.

News: Turn Your Data into a Hologram with This HoloLens App

Theorem Solutions, a company that helps engineering and manufacturing companies reduce their costs, has taken the next step with their mixed reality technology. The company has now added their own app, called Visualization Experience, to the Windows Store for the Microsoft HoloLens

News: HoloSuit Proof of Concept Uses Full Body Motion to Control the HoloLens

Here at NextReality, we talk a lot about the many different ways of controlling holograms in the HoloLens and other augmented and mixed reality devices; New and creative ways are coming more and more every day. Most recently is something called the HoloSuit. In the 25-second clip below, you can see a woman moving the arm of a jacket which in turn moves a 3D model of Darth Vader on the screen. It's a simple idea with big potential.

News: Watch Trimble Give the Microsoft HoloLens 2 the Elon Musk Tesla Cybertruck Smash Test, Sort Of

Everyone seems to be talking about Elon Musk's new futuristic Tesla Cybertruck, the vehicle that either looks like a cool moon rover or an outlandish video game replica, depending on your tastes.

Have You Seen This?: HoloChess Is a Great Example of How to Make a HoloLens App Without the Hardware

I am often asked about getting started with HoloLens development and most of the time my answer, in short, is: Install Unity, install Visual Studio, install the HoloLens emulator, and make something.

News: European Inventor Award Profiles Microsoft's Alex Kipman as Finalist for HoloLens

Usually, when the public gets to see and hear Microsoft's Alex Kipman expound on the future of immersive computing, it's because the company has a new product to show off. But on Tuesday, April 24, Kipman was in the spotlight for an entirely different reason: an award nomination.

News: Full-Body Motion Controller HoloSuit Coming Soon to Kickstarter

A few days before Christmas last year, we saw the first glimpse of HoloSuit, a new motion controller by startup Kaaya Tech. This full-body motion controller is designed as a tracksuit with sensors that can be used to control devices such as a computer or Microsoft HoloLens, and now it's getting ready to start production, with an upcoming Kickstarter campaign planned to go live soon.

News: My First Hackathon—What It Took to Win HoloHack Atlanta

Beginners luck is a phrase I have always hated. But really, beginners luck comes down to not letting your experience in something get in the way of the idea.

News: Vuforia Brings a Discoverable Holographic World to the HoloLens

The Microsoft HoloLens mixes the digital world with the physical one, allowing you to coexist with holograms of your choosing. But those worlds won't fully blend until we can experience it all together and create for each other. Vuforia could make that possible in the near future.

News: Microsoft's HoloLens Transports One of Japan's Oldest Temples into the Future in Kyoto

The oldest Zen temple in Kyoto, Japan, is now firmly rooted in the future with the launch of the MR Museum on Thursday.

News: Future Homeowners Can Walk Through House Before It's Built with VeriCon's HoloLens App

In the past, to see a pre-constructed state of the house that you would one day live in, you had to be able to read blueprints or hire an artist to sketch it out. Later came the ability to have a 3D rendering of that house on a screen, but you'd still have to work hard to envision it in real life.

News: Sony's Smurfs Movie to Provide Mixed Reality Experience for Kids on the HoloLens

Sony has upped the ante for the promotion of Smurfs: The Lost Village, which was released on April 7 in the US, with a mixed reality experience via Microsoft's HoloLens.

News: Microsoft Launches HoloLens 2 Development Edition, Offers Free Unity Pro & PiXYZ Plugin Trial Package

Much of the excitement around the HoloLens 2 has moved on to many wondering when we'll finally be able to get our hands on what is now the best augmented reality device on the market.

News: Windows 10 Will Be a Free Upgrade with "Windows Holographic" on the Horizon

Microsoft dropped a couple of huge bombs at their Windows 10 event Wednesday afternoon. Free operating systems and holographic glasses? This must be a Sci-Fi novel or a Hollywood blockbuster, because it reeks of fiction.

News: HoloGroup Is Trying to Crowdfund Their Holographic Learning App HoloStudy

When the HoloStudy Demo app for HoloLens came out in September, it was a pretty impressive start to what could be a very valuable science tool for education. Now, Moscow-based HoloGroup, makers of HoloStudy, started an Indiegogo campaign to improve their modular teaching app.

News: Microsoft HoloLens Art Project Turns New York into an Undersea Dystopia

The HoloLens team is finally beginning to realize that to truly engage the mainstream, augmented reality needs to make its way out of the lab or factory floor and onto the streets.

News: The Future of Gaming Is Robots Blasting Through Your Living Room Walls

Developers across the U.S. and Canada have started getting their augmented reality headset packages from Microsoft, and so far, everyone's raving about one gaming experience that shatters all doubts of just what the HoloLens can do... RoboRaid.