Microsoft Creates World’s First Holographic Computer

The Microsoft Hololens is the world’s first holographic computer. The development was led Microsoft engineer Alex Kipman with help from Terry Myerson and Joe Belfiore. The market price for the developer’s ver­sion of the product is $3,000. Kipman, who led the software design team on the Hololens, also aided in other Mi­crosoft endeavors such as the Xbox Kinect sensor. Kipman specifically contributed the invention of a brand new processor for holographic mate­rial called an HPU, or a holographic processing unit. Kipman created the HPU by engineering the software that is utilized in today’s Hololens.

The simple, lightweight device is built for entertainment as well as pro­ductivity, features Microsoft’s new Windows 10, and functions just like a computer. It goes over the viewer’s eyes and aids him/her in daily activi­ties by incorporating apps and widgets around their home and workplace. The device functions solely on its own to develop holographic images to any­one wearing it. Microsoft describes Hololens as a “more natural way to interact” with the environment around the viewer. Microsoft Hololens blends together your reality and vir­tual reality to create a mix between the two.

According to Microsoft, this prod­uct is designed for comfort. The hard­ware specialists made sure to focus on maintaining great weight distribu­tion and a comfortable fit. There’s an adjustable wheel to change the size of the headband to fit various head sizes. The device is wireless, which leaves the user to maneuver freely. The Mi­crosoft team also states that as the viewer walks and moves around, the apps that they see pop up and vanish.

The Hololens was officially an­nounced over a year ago in January 2015. The first demonstration of the product was at a Microsoft Conven­tion in April 2015. At the first dem­onstration, Kipman introduced the product by saying that “people, not devices, are mobile. We are ready for technology to move beyond devices, beyond screens and pixels, and be­yond today’s digital borders.”

In March of 2014, the idea behind the Hololens was created. The user wearing the headband can interact with the different applications and software on the computer through sight, sound, and various hand mo­tions.

The previously released Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR—seem­ingly 3-dimensional headbands—are not as developed and real as the Ho­lolens. With only a prototype devel­oper’s version of the Hololens being aired in the first quarter of 2016, we have yet to know how far this new technology can take us.

Although that is true, Kipman cre­ated a way for us to view virtual im­ages in our own world, and that in itself is a huge step forward for not only the Microsoft team, but the ad­vancement of technology worldwide.

The Hololens is said to be the next big thing in technology and will have many more advancements to come in 2016.