Earlier this week, Microsoft released the specs of its HoloLens and the shipping dates for development kits. In addition to that information, the company has also posted documentation about how the device operates and what we can expect in real-world use.
One of the more interesting items uncovered is that there will be no black holograms, any content area that is black will be transparent. This shouldn’t come as a big surprise as HoloLens adds light to your eyes to make the holograms come to life and seeing as black is an absence of light, you can’t remove light from your eye.
The HoloLens clicker is more than a simple, one function, input mechanism. The clicker supports scrolling and panning by tilting the device which means that there are accelerometers in the device. Battery life of this device is quite good, the company says it should last for two weeks on a full charge and takes 2-3 hours to fully recharge.
Other Bluetooth devices are supported, like a keyboard and as long as a Bluetooth device supports HID or GATT profiles, it will be able to pair with the HoloLens.
If you plan to use the Mixed Reality Capture, videos are limited to three minutes in length. Also, the render rate is locked to 30hz at 30FPS. For those hoping for higher refresh rates and more frames per second, remember, this is the first generation dev ket.
Holograms have two basic modes, stationary or follow-along. Simply put, you can pin a hologram to any location or object and it will stay there for when you return. You can also have a hologram follow you too.
We will likely learn a lot more about the hardware limitations of the device once developers get their hands on the gear sometime early next month.
Thanks for the tip Nikolaus!