Microsoft HoloLens: Does anyone know where it’s going?

SAN FRANCISCO — HoloLens, Microsoft’s self-contained holographic computer, arrives in developers’ hands around the world today, but when they open those exquisitely designed black boxes, the devices they receive will largely be a mystery to them — both how they work and, more importantly, what they’re good for.

At its Build 2016 developer conference, Microsoft did its best to dispel the mystery, while at the same time enhancing the HoloLens mystique.

HoloLens certainly played a starring role this week at Build, but unlike the code demonstrations and sessions on bots (Microsoft is obsessed with bots), its Azure cloud platform and machine intelligence, HoloLens is treated like a rare beast, behind lock and key and only on display in something called the Holographic Academy and Destination Mars, a reservation-only HoloLens Experience space housed in a giant, self-contained black box.

A co-production of NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory and Microsoft, the Mars experience uses HoloLens mixed reality capabilities to put you on the surface of Mars. Eventually the 30-foot square box will end up NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, but, for a few days, developers were getting tickets and lining up for the opportunity to finally strap on the HoloLens headgear and stand a few feet away from a holographic image of astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

Outside the box, I found clusters of developers, some of whom were being trained on how to use HoloLens, while others were lining up, post-experience, to get a picture of themselves wearing the the headset. They’d take the photos and then choose the best from a bank of computer screens next to the box. It reminded me of how people collect family photos after an amusement park ride or attaction.

While virtually every developer I spoke to was excited about the possibilities of HoloLens, those who had yet to try out the mixed-reality experience were a little unclear about what it is and what it isn’t.

Developer John Nguyen, 36, who said he’s been writing code for eight years, hoped that HoloLens was prepared to handle his special needs. “I have a vision impairment, so I want to see how well it can work with someone with limited vision. Are they paying attention to accessibility?”

Seated next to him was developer Albert Hofeldt, who had just learned how to Air Tap (a core HoloLens gesture). He said HoloLens “looks like it will be completely immersive and interactive.” Hofeldt was half right. Because it’s in a windowless box and they dim the lights, NASA’s Destination Mars does cut you off from the real world and more fully immerse you in the Mars landscape. However, there is zero interaction. You can’t use any HoloLens gestures to control the experience. So it becomes a bit more like a 360-degree “ride.”

Post-experience, the developers I spoke to were pleased, impressed and had some ideas.

“Yes, it was what I expected, maybe a little better than I expected. It was amazing having Buzz Aldrin there,” said Jamie Ide, 51, a utility business app developer.

Ide immediately saw the potential of mixed reality in his business, having a worker do an onsite home inspection while wearing HoloLens as co-workers monitored from the home office and marked up the environment in real-time.

Even though few developers had experienced HoloLens before this week, many have been closely monitoring the roughly 15-month public development.

Developer Derrick Brown, 41, said he’d been following the project all along. “It’s still very young but was what I expect or better.” He added that he sees applications in everything from education to development and even in homes (HoloLens Development Edition is only being sold to developers, for now).

“I could see it as a daily use item — if the price-point were lower,” said Brown. HoloLens Development Edition currently costs $3,000.

Holographic Academy
In order to achieve its full potential, HoloLens needs developers — lots of them — to build tools for it. Microsoft isn’t saying how many shelled out $3,000 for their own HoloLens, but even without the device, developers can code for it using a free emulator. As a result, Microsoft set out to inculcate as many developers as possible in the ways of the HoloLens.

Enter the Holographic Academy.

Now I haven’t sat in on a lot of Build 2016 sessions and courses, but I’m pretty sure none of them are quite like the Microsoft’s Holographic Academy.

The course they ran for actual developers lasted 3 hours. I went through a compressed, one-hour version. Aside from length, I think I got the flavor of the experience.

Microsoft set up a big room in the Moscone Center with clusters of computer systems, couches, big screens dotted above and loud music and lighting that you might have found in a late-1980s disco. Even though we were there to learn how to build virtual environments and code for HoloLens, the room has a distinct, party-like atmosphere.

Microsoft paired every would-be HoloLens coder with a mentor (actually a Microsoft engineer), who would sit beside you and make sure you didn’t get lost. Every workstation had a HoloLens, which we kept plugged in whenever we weren’t wearing them.

In the center of the room was a raised platform where a trio of Microsoft HoloLens engineers led us on a high-energy journey through basic HoloLens coding.

Real coders going through the three-hour course write actual code and scripts for the HoloLens. For our one-hour run-through, we used all pre-made scripts. Even so, it’s clear that coding for HoloLens is not some esoteric experience. It’s built on the Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform, which means you get to use common tools and technology.

Throughout my academy experience, I used a Windows 10 workstation, the Unity game development platform and Visual Studio, Windows’ primary development tool.

However, before we coded, everyone in the room had to get familiar with the HoloLens hardware and how to use and wear it. By then I had an advantage, having gone through a deep hands-on experience a few days earlier. But I could see coders, analysts and journalists struggling a bit to get handle on the hardware and gestures. Soon, though, many were soon posing to take selfies of themselves wearing the hardware.

The Academy teaches six core goals to developers, such as the fundamentals of HoloLens gaze and gesture input, voice commands, spatial sounds, and mapping coordinates.

Throughout the course, we used Unity to add each of these components (mostly just checking script check boxes), one at the time, to a Holographic experience that involved a floating power station, avatars and some gaming. Essentially, they showed us how easy it is to enable and control each of these aspects.

Microsoft also offered some ideas about how developers might use some of these attributes in real-world applications like 3D content, hidden data, storytelling, augmenting real-world sense, flat 2D interfaces (any Windows modern app can be ported to HoloLens) and for teaching and collaboration.

Throughout the course, Microsoft had us getting up, walking around with the HoloLens on and collaborating in virtual reality. We finished, naturally, with a game that used the real room environment to launch a virtual avatar attack. Soon we were all using Air Tap gestures to shoot each other and the avatars.

For me, it was a reminder that, for all the business and utility promise hidden in HoloLens development, it’s still easier to excite people with fun and entertainment.

In reality, no one really knows what kind of killer app will emerge for the HoloLens. Is it education and semi-immersive experiences like NASA’s Mars Destination? Or is it, as AP developer Premodh Anchuparayil, 42, suggested to me, a new way of experience content like news? “Instead of watching a 2D clip, you could be in the place,” he told me.

Maybe developer Jamie Ide summed it up best when he said, “I think it’s going to go somewhere, though not quite sure where.”