Augmented Reality is Here

Over the first half of the semester, we have learned about augmented reality and virtual reality. Augmented reality is having something that combines elements of the real world and technology. In class, we have always said augmented reality and virtual reality are closer than we actually believe. There has always been cool headsets and glasses around, but they weren’t exactly affordable for the average person.

Microsoft has recently launched its ‘HoloLens 2’. It is available for preorder at $3,500, or Microsoft has opted to include it with its ‘Dynamics 365 business-application services’, for $125 a month, for 2 years, which equals out to $4,500. This allows it to be more affordable, even though it costs more over time, it is split into different and smaller payments, making it more affordable. The HoloLens 2 is built like more of a headset than glasses, but it still has a sleek, professional look. It is said Microsoft is ‘attempting with what it calls “mixed reality”, technology that overlays computer-generated objects onto the real world’ (Pegoraro 2019). The author of this article, Rob Pegoraro, looks back on his experience with the product. He speaks of a floating bird assistant he could see that helped him out. He also describes how the HoloLens 2 was able to sense his fingers touching, and was able to press virtual buttons, without necessarily pressing an actual button.

I find this article interesting because it introduced another augmented reality product to the market. It is also somewhat affordable, and makes me think if this could be at Penn State soon. Considering Penn State has a Microsoft pack, maybe they could also include some of these headsets into the deal soon. Maybe we could have these sooner than we expected, and maybe they could be all over campus, in some of the labs, and provide all students with an augmented reality experience. It will be interesting to see how this product will be incorporated into schools, businesses, and even hospitals.

 

 

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-hololens-2-augmented-reality-jobs-175027873.html

2 thoughts on “Augmented Reality is Here

  1. Hi,
    Another tech company hoping on augmented reality is apple. Apple loves to be part of the leading tech companies leading in new developments, currently they are working on ARKit. ARKit is an ios app that lets you “Build unparalleled augmented reality experiences for hundreds of millions of users on iOS”(Apple) . This being an app means people can acquired ARKit though there phones which means you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to use augmented reality, you just need a phone. By releasing it by an app more people can use and edit it therefor it can improve and make it better. In ARKit you can interact with other and view the same project its really amazing!

    https://developer.apple.com/arkit/
    https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ios/system-capabilities/augmented-reality/

  2. It is really exciting that augmented reality devices are becoming more affordable to the public. While pictures of the HoloLens 2 show it does resemble a headset more than glasses, it is still a step in the right direction for making augmented reality technology more convenient. The idea of “mixed reality” that you discussed really touches back on what we talked about in class with combining reality and data. The example we saw with the business cards that played ads when looked at through a phone relates to something similar I saw last summer. The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences has an exhibit called Beyond Curie that honors important female scientists and engineers from history. As part of the exhibit, visitors were encouraged to download the Beyond Curie app and point it at indicated pictures, which would then show moving visual displays.
    The capabilities of the HoloLens 2 are a bit more practical than making a museum exhibit slightly more visually interesting. However, while headsets are slowly decreasing in price, access to a smartphone is a much more achievable way for the average person to access augmented reality at the moment. I was able to go to a museum, download a free app in under a minute, and start using the benefits of augmented reality in that environment immediately. It might be useful to work on both headsets and advancing the capabilities of more readily available technology until we are able to bridge the gap between them. It would be interesting if we could get more of this technology to the average student at Penn State. We have explored educational applications of augmented reality in class and have seen how it could be beneficial for Penn State students.

    https://naturalsciences.org/exhibits/featured-exhibitions/beyond-curie

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