SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft inventor Alex Kipman was joined by holograms at a renowned TED gathering here as he gave a glimpse into a future where computer screens are relics.
Kipman slipped on HoloLens augmented-reality (AR) headgear that his team is readying for market and became a wizard of sorts, calling forth magical landscapes, cold-hard data, and even summoning the hologram of a NASA scientist for a chat.
Kipman spoke of HoloLens and other augmented-reality devices as a step in an evolution to a time when pecking at smartphone screens or computer keyboards are tales from generations
past.
“I am talking about freeing ourselves from the two-dimensional confines of traditional computing,” said Kipman, the creator behind Kinect motion-tracking accessories for Xbox video game consoles.
“We are like cave people in computer terms; we barely discovered charcoal and started drawing the first stick figures in our cave.”
He touted the HoloLens headset he wore as the first fully-untethered holographic computer; not relying on a connection to a smartphone or computer.
A camera showed the TED audience what Kipman saw through HoloLens as he used gestures to turn the space around him into a cave, a fantasy land and even the surface of the moon.
He made a virtual television screen appear in the air, demonstrating how augmented-reality gear could eliminate the need for real TV sets.
“Computers give us superpowers,” Kipman said as he transformed the world around him with holograms.
“In digital space, we have the power to displace space and time.” With another gesture, he launched a video phone call to his family in the US.
“I believe our children’s children will grow up in a world devoid of two-dimensional technology,” Kipman said.
“I can see holographical telepresence in our future.” To prove his point, Kipman had Jeff Norris of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory appear on stage in the form of a hologram seen through HoloLens. — AFP