During Microsoft's Windows 10 event today, the company introduced two new devices and a whole new application development model for the Windows platform: holographic computing.

Windows Holographic is a three-dimensional, environmentally aware application environment that will be supported in various ways on all Windows 10 devices. Holographic content will be put most spectacularly on display by HoloLens, a wearable computer that uses tricks of light to project three-dimensional virtual objects on top of the environment around the user, allowing them to interact with the "holograms" using voice and gesture commands.They're not really holograms, in the purely technical sense—there are no lasers involved, and the display is not using diffraction or interference to create a holographic projection. Instead, they use a high definition stereographic display and fool the eye into seeing things laid atop the real world, placed in the same context as real-world objects as if they were projected holograms.

In a live presentation, Chief Inventor for Microsoft's Studio C Alex Kipman and members of his team demonstrated some of the early functionality of the HoloLens, including a "holographic" video of Microsoft executive Terry Myerson projected (at least from the HoloLens' perspective) on a small pillar and the construction of a 3-D model with HoloStudio. Kipman called HoloStudio a sort of "Windows Paintbrush" for the three-dimensional world, and models created in HoloStudio can be sent to a 3D printer. A quadrocopter created with HoloStudio was printed in advance of the demonstration and flown onstage.





HoloLens can function as an augmented reality device as well. In addition to an onboard CPU and graphics processor, the headset contains what Microsoft calls a Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) to manage the data pulled in by HoloLens' onboard sensors. The device requires no external cameras, external sensors, or any tether to an external computer. HoloLens tracks the user's eye motions to determine where he or she is looking, and it also recognizes physical gestures with its onboard cameras.

The platform, which has been developed under tight secrecy on the Redmond campus, was introduced to a select number of developers in recent months. It has already drawn the interest of NASA, however. In a collaboration with Jet Propulsion Labs, the technology is being developed to allow scientists to interact and walk around in a projected version of the environment surrounding the Curiosity Mars rover. Eventually, the application—called OnSite— will allow scientists to interact with imagery in order to mark rocks and other geological features for the rover to investigate.

HoloLens and Windows Holographic are expected to be available "in the same timeframe as Windows 10," Kipman said. The APIs will be part of Windows 10, and the platform will be open to other hardware and software developers.

The other, somewhat less mind-blowing device introduced by Microsoft today was the Microsoft Surface Hub, a commercialized version of the collaborative business presentation display technology that has been in development at Microsoft for some time.

An 84-inch touch-sensitive display and computing platform, Surface Hub is essentially a giant tablet computer purpose-built for collaborative meetings. It integrates with Skype Business, Microsoft's upcoming business collaboration tool based on the video chat platform. This allows users to push slide decks and other content to Hub, mark it up with ink on a virtual whiteboard, and share the content with all participants of the conference.