We've already seen the potential of HoloLens up close. The Redmond giant is taking its time developing the headset, but if everything goes well, it will probably become the top player in the augmented reality market. Still, hardware isn't enough. HoloLens also needs a lot of much content, including three-dimensional video. This short clip shows us the complex (and at the same time impressive) method Microsoft uses to create such material.
Today is an extremely important day for Microsoft, and the reasons are obvious. In the coming weeks we'll be able to see whether Windows 10 manages to become everything Windows 8.x wasn't, but behind the new operating system there are other high-profile projects. One that has definitely stood out is HoloLens, combining augmented reality, virtual reality, collaborative environments, and 3D content. According to much of the specialized press, the HoloLens stole half of E3 with its spectacular Minecraft demo, and recently we saw the productive side of this platform with the help of Autodesk Maya.
Creating holographic content
Today, it's time to shift our attention from the headset to the compatible content. Minecraft lets us visualize what HoloLens will be in games, and Maya does its part among professional tools, but the headset has an obligation to go further. Interactive multimedia experiences, holographic videos in high resolution, and specialized environments are part of the list. Developing this type of material requires a special environment, and it all begins in a studio covered in green, equipped with a total of 106 RGB and infrared cameras in perfect synchronization. The background is digitally removed to focus on processing the silhouettes, which in turn are converted into a 3D point cloud with detailed depth information obtained from the RGB/IR combo. Additional algorithms further refine the results; however, we're talking about millions of points and triangles per frame. The system tries to preserve as many details as possible in the most critical sections of a figure, such as the face and hands, but the final video needs to be compressed and encoded to reach an average bitrate of about 12 megabits per second.
What the future holds
Some of the demonstrations at the end of the video are truly impressive, and we can't help but wonder how these videos will be integrated into future projects, including video games and animated movies. We'll have to wait to know for sure. As we mentioned at the beginning, Microsoft is taking its time with HoloLens, and it's logical that this delay also extends to its content.
