Microsoft Surface

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 ...more

We started with a static page and evolved to dynamic screens, and making that 2D surface interactive was a relatively straightforward transition in design. But when you can put holographic objects literally anywhere in the room, the way you design apps, games, and experiences ...more

Google seems to be following Apple's and Microsoft's lead, as the "point" update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow (6.0 -> 6.1) will reportedly allow multi-screen support. Android 6.1 is expected to debut in June 2016. "Snapped" split screen view on the Surface Pro 3.. Companies like ...more

People fundamentally distrust magicians. And they should. The illusions they proffer are just that, illusions meant to astound rather than tangible interactions and results that have weight and meaning in our real world. Our lizard brains know this, and, no matter what the out ...more

Lenovo has done a great job preventing leaks of their new Moto RAZR. We've seen a few images here and there, but for the most part, we knew very little about the long-rumored phone. But with the announcement date just around the corner, an FCC filing has given us a look at the ...more

Before attacking any website, a hacker or penetration tester will first compile a list of target surfaces. After they've used some good recon and found the right places to point their scope at, they'll use a web server scanning tool such as Nikto for hunting down vulnerabiliti ...more

One of the best aspects of the Magic Leap One is the spatial audio, a feature that enhances the overall sense of immersion when interacting with virtual objects and content through the device. Now the company is aiming to boost the quality of that component by partnering with ...more

Today, anyone with a compatible PC can download the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and experience Windows Mixed Reality. Also arriving today are Windows Mixed Reality headsets from Acer, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, which are all available through Microsoft Stores. Best Buy also se ...more

If you've ever made graphs and charts, you know it can be a struggle to represent a large amount of data. It's something that just doesn't work very well on a flat surface. In virtual and mixed reality, however, the data can exist all around you. In the below, futurist Jim Re ...more

Now that the Surface Pro is out, you can game your heart out and get down with some serious Minecrafting. You're not just limited to downloading apps in the Windows Store anymore, like with the Surface RT. You can install a lot of Windows-compatible programs on the Surface Pro ...more

Though Microsoft has had trouble keeping up with the demand for HoloLens 2, the company has been able to supply modified headsets to the US Army. Now, newly revealed images from the US Army show exactly how the HoloLens 2 is being used during training exercises as the militar ...more

On Monday, the Microsoft Build conference kicked off, showcasing a series of demos that went off without a hitch — except for one big one. At the start of the show, the company was meant to show off the capabilities of the HoloLens 2 by highlighting a look at the historic Apo ...more

Simulated training can help soldiers and sailors learn how to use their weapons safely, but simulations can sometimes lack the stressful environment of a real firefight. That's why the US Navy has developed a more realistic augmented reality simulator that runs on the Microso ...more

Over the last few years, the virtual reality space has earned a welcome reputation for fostering better representational balance with regard to gender compared to the general tech industry, with women like Nonny de la Peña and many others leading the charge. Comparatively, au ...more

As we predicted earlier this week, the focus has already begun to move from Magic Leap back onto Apple's rumored augmented reality smartglasses. The latest credible whispers come from none other than longtime Apple-focused analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Boasting a long track record of ...more

The latest preview build for Microsoft HoloLens is packed with new sharing features, including support for the Miracast protocol. Available in the Insider Preview RS5 for the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, Miracast enables HoloLens users to mirror their view to a nearby Surfac ...more

The addition of a new research mode for Microsoft HoloLens will enable researchers and developers to tap into a wider range of data collected by the device's sensors. Available in the Windows 10 RS4 update for HoloLens, application code in Research Mode can access computer vi ...more

Mere weeks after rumors surfaced that Apple may be working on a headset capable of VR and augmented reality, it appears that Samsung is taking the same approach, but with an assist from Microsoft. Samsung is developing a wireless headset that will deliver both AR and VR exper ...more

In hopes of strengthening its growing augmented reality team, Apple has reportedly hired Michael Abbott, an engineering and investment veteran with past ties to Twitter, Microsoft, Palm, and others. The report was surfaced by MacRumors, which translated a MacGeneration post o ...more

Microsoft's latest move to further secure its hold on the emerging mixed reality space comes in the form of two new Mixed Reality Capture Studios in San Francisco (the flagship studio) and London. Announced on Oct. 25, the new studios will allow producers from a wide array of ...more

For those of us on the fast ring of the Windows Insider Program — Microsoft's continual beta program for the Windows operating system — the constant updates can be a bit of a pain. But there is a trade-off. We get to try the new features long before they come out to the public ...more

Though the Microsoft HoloLens' release to the consumer market is still a distant thought at the moment, Ubisoft is preparing for the future with the unveiling of AR video game prototypes. The French video game publisher revealed the AR prototypes at a talk called 'AR Prototyp ...more

German tech store Saturn is experimenting with an AR alien called Paula to push their products ... That's a sentence I never thought I'd write. The retailer is testing their augmented reality salesperson with customers in 20 select stores via a Microsoft HoloLens. 'Paula' wil ...more

At Vision Summit 2017, UK-based Rewind, one of the recent additions to the Microsoft HoloLens Agency Readiness Partner Program, showed off a HoloLens application called "Flight Deck" that genuinely blew me away. The idea of watching a live-action sports experience on a coffee ...more

For those of us that were blown away by the spatial mapping and user experience in Fragments and Young Conker, the version of spatial mapping that came stock in the HoloToolkit was lackluster at best. It became apparent really quick that to get an amazing presentation would re ...more

Microsoft's HoloLens may the coolest new advancements in technology we've seen in quite some time, and anyone (with deep pockets) can buy one right now. But so far it's been an isolated platform where you experience mixed reality alone and others watch you air tap nothing but ...more

Keyboards and mice work fine for computers, but in a holographic environment you'll want to do more than just point, click, and type. While we can still benefit from these input devices, complex hand-tracking methods are necessary for the evolution of mixed reality user interf ...more

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. As it turns out, we are indeed living in a world where ...more

Metro apps are pretty nice, but they absolutely suck on a Windows desktop with a mouse and keyboard. That's to be expected though, since Metro (also known as Modern UI or Microsoft design language) was created mainly with touch input in mind for Surface Pros and Windows Phones ...more

The Lens Studio creators have published more than 1.5 million AR effects to Snapchat. One of them is Audrey Spencer, who shared her story with us and provided her insights into Lens Studio as a storytelling device. Meanwhile, Snap has added new capabilities to the platform to ...more

While holographic Whitney Houston is hitting the road, a new mobile app is bringing volumetric captures of up and coming performers directly to the iPhones and iPads of fans. On Wednesday, AR studio 1RIC launched Jadu, a video app that delivers virtual performances by music a ...more

Some of the oldest art on Earth was created 36,000 years ago on the walls of the Chauvet Cave in France. However, these days, physical access to the cave is restricted in order to preserve the site. Thanks to augmented reality, the cave is now virtually open to the public onc ...more

Although early attempts at consumer smartglasses have employed trackpads and handheld or wearable controllers for user input, its the gesture control interfaces of the HoloLens 2 and the Magic Leap One that represent the future of smartglasses input. A new machine learning mo ...more

After improving hand-tracking and adding multi-user sharing features in the last Lumin OS update, Magic Leap has upped the ante yet again. In the Lumin OS 0.95 update (accompanied by SDK 0.21), Magic Leap introduced tracking for eight key poses from varying positions, as well ...more

While the long awaited HoloLens sequel is scheduled to arrive later this year, Apple may force Microsoft to share the AR wearables spotlight, if reports of the company's first entry into smartglasses territory end up coming to fruition. In the meantime, Microsoft's HoloLens 2 ...more

After joining Google and Huawei in underwriting the UW Reality Lab at the University of Washington in January, it appears Facebook is already seeing a return on its donation. According to results published earlier this month through Cornell University's arXiv service in a pap ...more

New documents reveal that electric car company Tesla has filed a surprising new patent that has nothing to do with batteries or autonomous driving and everything to do with augmented reality. Last week, the company's US Patent and Trademark Office patent application, titled " ...more

Magic Leap One owners, start your virtual engines, as automotive virtual reality developer RelayCars has published an app to Magic Leap World that lets users customize and test drive a 2019 Kia Stinger. The RelayCars app, which is available as a free download, enables Magic L ...more

Rumors are swirling today that NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) may have shown us the first public glimpse of the next-generation HoloLens. Are they real? Or just a prototype? We've been digging in all day to find the answers. The "Leaked" HoloLens In a video published ...more

It is finally happening. After not having a major update since August of 2016, HoloLens owners everywhere will soon get a number of new features added to their devices. At least if they are members of the Windows Insider program. Throughout 2017, the Mixed Reality Team at Mic ...more

This week, two companies preparing the most anticipated augmented reality devices for consumers were the subject of reports regarding strategic moves to put them in better positions to move those products forward. Magic Leap is reportedly seeking an extension of its last roun ...more

In any business, there are a number of questions companies must answer in order to get customers to buy a product or service. The same holds true for companies selling augmented reality headsets. How do you sell the devices? For Magic Leap, the answer may include physical ret ...more

We've seen a number of unique mashups of augmented reality with other bleeding edge technologies, but somehow it took until 2018 for someone to come up with a now obvious complement to AR: 3D printing. Cornell information science doctoral student Huaishu Peng has developed an ...more

While the company is adamant that the Magic Leap One: Creator Edition will ship this year, currently, it seems its CEO is more interested in striking deals with content partners than releasing details about the headset. Meanwhile, in perhaps the most poorly-written SEC filing ...more

Amazingly, SpaceX founder Elon Musk just launched a Tesla into space, bound for Mars. But just because you're not a billionaire with drone rockets at your disposal, that doesn't mean you can't participate in the automobile-infused future of space here on Earth. Audi has just ...more

One of the more obvious benefits that vertical surface detection will bring to iPhone and iPad apps with the spring 1.5 update to Apple's ARKit platform is the ability to hang virtual artwork that rests realistically on walls. In the meantime, developers wishing to emulate th ...more

A survey by ABI Research revealed that only 25 percent of businesses have implemented augmented reality technology in some form or fashion. However, with 75 percent of companies expressing interest in augmented reality tools, the bandwagon could start to get crowded soon. Thi ...more

This week in Market Reality, we see two companies capitalizing on technologies that contribute to augmented reality platforms. In addition, industry mainstays Vuzix and DAQRI have business news of their own to report. Fastdata.io Raises $1.5 Million A group of investors head ...more

Samsung's new Galaxy S8 can turn into a PC with its DeX dock, but while that may sound like the future of mobile computing on the surface, there are definitely a few issues with the entire setup. The Samsung Desktop Experience (DeX) dock was debuted alongside the Galaxy S8 on ...more

Tricking your eyes into seeing 3D images isn't all that hard in movies or even in virtual reality, but when you start projecting holograms into the physical world, you run into some difficult problems. Microsoft obviously figured them out with their HoloLens, but how? The proc ...more

We're inching closer towards the singularity—that point where technology advances to the steepest slope of the logistic function S-curve and simply skyrockets at a rate we've never seen before. Somewhere along the way, the line between humans and the tech we rely on will becom ...more

Welcome back, my budding hackers! With this article, I am initiating a new series that so many of you have been asking for: Hacking Web Applications. In previous tutorials, we have touched on some of the techniques and tools for web app hacking. We looked at web app vulnerab ...more

If we were to assign a theme for the 2019 edition of the Next Reality 30 (NR30), it might be something along the lines of, "What have you done for me lately?" Many of the top names in the industry from the 2018 edition remain the same, but their positions have shuffled. The p ...more

It's confession time. Through a couple of sources, I managed to get an early look at the HoloLens 2. But I was sworn to secrecy, and I take my tech oaths seriously (shame on you, leakers). But now that it's out in the wild, we can finally talk about how the HoloLens 2 looks c ...more

Despite its status as a hot commodity amongst emerging technologies, the augmented reality industry is not immune to the ebbs and flows that occur in every industry. As Microsoft prepares to unleash the sequel to original HoloLens, Meta Company has crashed and burned, as the ...more

Some of the big guns developing augmented reality technology fired shots at their competitors with announcements and leaked plans this week. Enterprise augmented reality software and hardware makers were served notice by Microsoft when the company strengthened its own offerin ...more

With the reveal of Magic Leap's developer documentation last week, many questions have been answered—and several new ones have been raised as well. But since the Magic Leap One (ML1) isn't simply called the "Leap One," these are questions that the company probably has no inter ...more

The once blurry and mysterious vision of Magic Leap's future is slowly coming into focus in the present, despite the company's obsessive attempts to keep any and all information under wraps until the next reveal is absolutely necessary. A new tidbit of information hints at an ...more

"Necessity, not novelty," is a phrase I use often when it comes to HoloLens development. It would be fair to call it my mantra, or mission statement, as I prototype and explore software creation on this new frontier of mixed reality. "What kind of experiences will keep people ...more

Windows 10 has proved to be immensely popular (free upgrades certainly don't hurt), and with back to school time, there's a good chance you have a new computer running Microsoft's latest OS. You maybe you decided to go with a clean installation rather than an upgrade, or just ...more