24 PCWorld APRIL 2019NEWS TOUCHING HOLOGRAMS WITH HOLOLENS 2
exploring a construction site, examining
issues with the build, and tracking the
project through each stage of development.
Along the way, I interacted with sliders,
pushed buttons, and resized virtual objects
just by moving my hands.
When it worked, it was cool, but
stretching my arms out to touch things only I
could see was a little strange. There’s no
tactile response, and objects didn’t always
respond to my touch. Several actions
required repeated attempts at grabbing or
pressing a thing that couldn’t actually be
grabbed or pressed.
My session was with another journalist,
and while we were supposed to be working
together, the collaborative spirit that was
shown onstage during the keynote wasn’t
there. Unless he literally walked into my field
of view I had no idea he was in the room, as
the screen gave no indication that someoneelse was in the virtual
space. At one point we
were encouraged to
control the same slider
on different sides of the
room. When the slider
didn’t move, I couldn’t
tell whether my partner
was fighting against me,
or HoloLens just wasn’t
recognizing my
movements.LEAVE THE FUN AT
THE DOOR
Microsoft clearly has designs to bring the
HoloLens concept to the masses. Not only
did Technical Fellow Alex Kipman decide to
unveil it at the largest mobile electronics show
of the year, he also invited Epic Games CEO
Tim Sweeney to the stage to announce that
support for the Unreal Engine 4 that powers
Fortnite is coming to the HoloLens platform.
So there’s a dream that HoloLens 3 or 4
may be a device affordable and accessible
enough to sell to consumers. But at as it
stands, the HoloLens platform has some work
to do if it ever wants to be an Xbox
companion. Even the simplest phone-based
VR and AR applications offer immersive,
360-degree environments that transport you
to new worlds and entice you to stay. The
HoloLens 2’s more limited scope takes a lot of
the fun out of it.HoloLens 2 is technically proficient but not a lot of fun