By Joanna Stern
There he is, in my basement, James "Titanic" Cameron, undersea
explorer and digital-filmmaker extraordinaire.
Oh no, no. He's not on my laptop screen. Resembling something
between a Star Wars holo-projection and a Macy's window display,
he's standing in front of my face on a virtual conference stage.
When he turns around you can see the shine of his silver hair and
the back of his black boots.
I should've seen him coming. Microsoft Corp. sent me a box the
size of a freight train. Inside was a virtual-reality headset from
HP (along with a laptop to power it) and Microsoft's own
augmented-reality (aka mixed-reality) HoloLens 2 goggles. All so I
could experience what the company calls "holoportation" at its
Ignite conference, held virtually on Tuesday. Instead of a
boring-old webcast, Alex Kipman, Microsoft's AI and mixed-reality
technical fellow, appeared with other guests, including Mr.
Cameron, as 3-D holograms.
From my early experience, holoportation is quite awesome. It's
also not quite ready for you. I had to be hooked up to an HP laptop
like some sort of marionette puppet to experience this. Then
there's the $3,500 HoloLens 2, which crushes my ears and still has
too narrow a field of vision.
Still, Microsoft Mesh -- the service that the company on Tuesday
announced underlies that holograph experience -- is a big step for
the future of mixed reality, where digital objects meld with our
real world.
Mesh allows people in different physical spaces to collaborate
in virtual environments on different types of devices and apps.
Using Azure, Microsoft's cloud-computing platform, developers add
it to their apps. People using those apps could then create their
own digital avatars and collaborate with others.
Think of it like signing into an app with Google, Facebook or
Apple, only now your avatar is your identity. Whichever app you pop
into, you're the same digital hologram.
Virtual collaboration isn't new. I've been experimenting with
shared spaces in virtual reality throughout the pandemic.
Sometimes, instead of joining a video call, I put on my Oculus
Quest 2 headset and meet up with 3-D avatar versions of my
colleagues in an app called Spatial. (The makers of Spatial even
designed a virtual version of my WSJ elevator.) Microsoft-owned
AltspaceVR, which is where today's event was held, has virtual
comedy shows and meetup spaces.
What Microsoft's doing now, though, is different. First, the
company aims to unify what's a pretty fragmented space. No matter
what headset (HoloLens or Oculus), laptop (Mac or PC) or mobile
device (iOS or Android), you'll be able to sign on and connect with
other avatars.
Down the road, Microsoft wants to go beyond these avatars and
turn us all into actual holograms. Most of these platforms leave
you looking cartoony or deformed. But the ones on stage
representing Mr. Kipman and Mr. Cameron looked like live 3-D
video.
The process of creating those volumetric objects is early and
expensive. The highest-end holograms require a facility like
Microsoft's Mixed Reality Capture Studios, where you perform in
front of a giant green screen, as 160 cameras record various
angles. Mr. Kipman used a somewhat more affordable step-down: three
$399 Azure Kinect DK depth cameras.
So yeah, it'll take awhile for us to have our own holograms;
plus, the hardware isn't ready for consumers. I needed a good 30
minutes to set up the HP Reverb G2 headset to watch the
presentation, and my HoloLens 2's battery died in a meeting with
another Microsoft executive last week.
Facebook Inc.'s $299 Oculus Quest 2 headset is the furthest
along on these fronts, though it's full VR, not augmented reality.
Mr. Kipman says Microsoft's working on getting the technology in
its HoloLens, currently aimed at enterprise, to that consumer
level.
"The technology is not ready -- in terms of comfort, in terms of
immersion, in terms of value -- for consumers," he said. "For
consumers, you need glasses -- socially acceptable glasses. I'm not
going to be standing up on stage talking about consumers until we
believe we have a headset that's comfortable enough and immersive
enough and socially acceptable enough."
Even when that moment comes, Microsoft will likely have to fight
for dominance with other giants with interests in this area,
including Facebook and Apple Inc. And all those companies must
answer one giant question: What's the killer collaborative app?
Here are some ideas:
Work Collaboration: Instead of a Zoom or Microsoft Teams meeting
on your laptop, you pop into a virtual conference room with your
holograph colleagues. In marketing? You all whiteboard your next
big campaign ideas using digital pens and clip art. In industrial
design? You pass around and review 3-D prototypes. In medical
research? You review diagrams and 3-D organs.
This is where James Cameron fits in. He and nonprofit
educational partner OceanX are using Microsoft Mesh to create a
"holograph laboratory" on the OceanXplorer ship. They aim to
collaborate virtually via labs around the world and work with 3-D
holograms of the areas they explore.
Games: Pokémon, obviously. Mr. Kipman was joined on "stage" by
John Hanke, CEO and founder of Niantic Inc., the company behind
"Pokémon Go." He showed off a concept version where Pokémon just
appear right in front of you on the sidewalk.
Live Events: Microsoft's event itself was the best demonstration
of what this technology can unlock. As I sat in the audience as a
box-faced avatar, waiting for the event to start, I overheard a man
behind me mention to a virtual seatmate that he worked on headset
hardware at Microsoft. It was like eavesdropping on a conversation
at a real tech conference.
One day, I'll go back to those conferences but certainly not at
the same capacity and frequency I used to. I might opt to stay home
because it's easier. I'll put on a sleek headset and holoport in.
When that day arrives, holograms might be as normal as Zoom
calls.
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Write to Joanna Stern at joanna.stern@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 02, 2021 17:31 ET (22:31 GMT)
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