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Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Play

Alice — Mon, 29 May 2017 09:46:33 +0000

At #MSBuild2017 Microsoft’s Alex Kipman defined the company’s Mixed Reality vision for developing what he called the “Virtual Interaction Spectrum”

I first got in touch with Alex Kipman back in 2008, when I was writing an article for a gaming magazine about a secretively code-named “Project Natal,” which later became the Kinect motion sensing system for the Xbox 360. For me, it was interesting to see how this rising star at Microsoft – a Brazilian expat like myself – was finding new and intuitive ways for humans and machines to interact. And although the focus of that technology was ostensibly on gaming, one couldn’t fail to spot broader potential applications down the line if they pulled this off.

Alex Kipman sporting the new MR headset

Fast-forward to Microsoft Build 2017, and Kipman is something of a rock star figure, cheered enthusiastically as he took to the main stage for his day 2 keynote on Mixed Reality. Because if Microsoft now believes that MR represents “the new frontier of computing”, it’s in large part down to him pushing and developing that vision over the past decade. He is ultimately working towards a world where we can interact with computers in as natural a way as possible, and all devices eventually become lenses.

The terms Mixed Reality is often dismissed as a marketing ploy
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In his keynote Kipman also took the opportunity to address the sometimes controversial terminology surrounding that vision, referring to a “Mixed Reality Spectrum”, which goes all the way from simpler forms of augmented reality (think Pokémon Go) to fully immersive virtual reality to 3-D interactive holograms. It boils down to thinking about the interaction between the virtual and real worlds in terms of “and” instead of “or,” he said.

It makes sense to think of virtual interactions as part of a spectrum
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In keeping with that strategy, Microsoft unveiled hardware and platform features designed to support the growth of what it now officially calls “Windows Mixed Reality.” These moves are meant to enable developers to create compelling content that will in turn drive broader consumer adoption and treats all forms of Virtual and Augmented reality as part of this broader continuum.

And as much as some sceptical pundits might dismiss this terminology as a marketing play, it is actually based on a widely cited paper on the subject published by Paul Milgram. Even back in 1994 when the paper was first published, A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays already had difficulties in establishing clear-cut categories that differentiated between these different types of virtual experience, and predicted that in future they would increasingly blend into one another.

What people like Kipman argue is that different headsets and different experiences will mix the physical and virtual realities to varying degrees, and that each of those experiences will fall within a certain place within the Mixed Reality spectrum. We will increasingly have more versatile hardware and content which allows users to navigate through that spectrum seamlessly, so there will be no need to worry about which type of headset you have. The best possible experience will automatically be delivered to that HMD.

Mixed Reality devices will deliver the best experience to users automatically
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This context helps us to make sense of why Microsoft insists on calling the headsets unveiled at Build Mixed Reality as opposed to Virtual Reality – which is what most people would term the fully occluded experience they offer at this stage. Built in partnership with Acer and HP, these use the same groundbreaking inside-out tracking technology developed for the HoloLens. As of now developers can pre-order these in advance of a consumer launch scheduled for the 2017 holiday season. Additionally, Microsoft also plans on releasing a set of Mixed Reality motion controllers which – unlike systems like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift – will not require any external physical markers, working instead with the headset’s internal motion sensors.

Microsoft's new headsets use the same inside-out technology as the HoloLens
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In this Huffington Post article I look at the recent announcements the company has made and how that ties into their long term vision for the development of Mixed Reality Technology

As much as the hardware tends to grab most of the attention at such events, Microsoft’s bigger play is definitely all about the platform on which such devices – and many more to come – will run
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A hint of how that integration across devices works was showcased during the Cirque du Soleil demo (more on that below), where an avatar was remotely beamed in to join the HoloLens-wearing people on stage. That person was able to see what they were seeing and talk to them, using one of the new fully occluded headsets. The idea is therefore for people to be able to mix and match HoloLens with headsets such as the new Acer one as developers design apps where they both can share experiences in Mixed Reality. The “shell” of the user interface would of course vary depending on the display technology, but each experience would be running on the same software. And Microsoft wants that software to be Windows 10, which is why it has chosen to focus on platforms rather than devices. Instead of getting too hung up on defining and developing for each subset of the Mixed Reality continuum, they see the advantage in taking a holistic approach.

Yet as much as the hardware tends to grab most of the attention at such events, Microsoft’s bigger play is definitely all about the platform on which such devices – and many more to come – will run. The Windows 10 Creators Update began rolling out last month to more than 500 million Windows 10 devices around the world, and the Fall Creators Update will follow later this year. It incorporates a new Fluent Design System that promises to deliver an intuitive, harmonious, responsive and inclusive cross-device experiences and interactions.

Getting things done across all your devices should be easy, and ultimately not something you need to think about at all
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What all that blurb translates into is the idea that getting things done across all your devices should be easy, and ultimately not something you need to think about at all. The user experience should flow seamlessly between Windows, iOS, and Android devices, and as more Mixed Reality-enabled devices join that ecosystem, that will become a bigger part of that content mix. One of the most popular demos at Build – the Story Remix app – showed how that looks in practice, leveraging the Microsoft Graph to create stories with a soundtrack, theme, and cinematic transitions as well as the ability to incorporate MR elements, adding 3D objects to photos and videos.

The Story Remix app leveraged the Microsoft Graph to create stories with a soundtrack, theme, and cinematic transitions
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A team from Cirque du Soleil demonstrated a scenographic Mixed Reality tool developed for them by Finger Food Studios, a Microsoft HoloLens partner based near Vancouver
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But as impressive as the Story Remix demo was, the pièce de résistance was brought to the Seattle audience courtesy of a bunch of creative Canadians. A team from Cirque du Soleil demonstrated a scenographic Mixed Reality tool developed for them by Finger Food Studios, a Microsoft HoloLens partner based near Vancouver. It enables the creation of interactive 3D blocks and shapes that can be quickly transformed into a full scale rendering of a stage. It’s designed to help creators make faster and better decisions around casting, costume, stage height and much more by giving them the ability to test out ideas at scale before even putting out a casting call.

What set this demo a notch above the rest was the addition of live performers, conjured up just as they would in a live Cirque du Soleil show
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Ryan Peterson, Finger Food’s CEO, said they managed to turn around in just three weeks, drawing upon their experience of producing large-scale holograms (having previously worked with truck manufacturers Paccar to improve the efficiency of its industrial design processes).

Yet while the manipulation and scaling of objects was good, what set this demo a notch above the rest – as befitted a keynote unveiling – was the addition of live performers, conjured up just as they would in a live Cirque du Soleil show; The contortionists and dancers gave what would have been an impressive technical demo a “One More Thing” kind of edge. This felt like the start of something big.

Later on, I asked Bernard Fouché, General Manager, Innovation, at Cirque du Soleil’s C:Lab how they got the moving holograms of the performers to look so good:

“A couple of weeks ago the Cirque just happened to be performing in Seattle, so they asked the performers to go the Microsoft campus in Redmond so we could hologram them,” he revealed.

Their overarching goal is always to use technology to support the creative process, explains Fouché. Putting together a Cirque du Soleil production is a process which takes almost two years, and they hope that by using HoloLens they will not only be able to better communicate their plans and vision with investors and partners at an earlier stage, but also avoid costly mistakes which only become apparent when seeing things in full 3-D scale. “That’s why our studio in Montreal is the exact same scale as one of our big top shows. Scale is extremely important as creative people are very visual.”

Another use case where the advantage of using Mixed Reality becomes apparent is data visualization. My demo of new Acer headsets at Build, for example, was done in collaboration with Datascape, and allowed me to quickly and easily wrap my head around complex datasets which mapped out weather conditions in such a way as to allow me to make fairly informed decisions about where to best place solar panels and wind turbines within minutes. It’s hard to argue that making this sort of thing available to every policymaker – and voter – out there wouldn’t be an incredibly valuable and powerful proposition.

Another use case where the advantage of using Mixed Reality becomes apparent is data visualization
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The challenge is to bring the power of vision into people’s everyday lives
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For certain kinds of data there is even more of an advantage, as is the case with Earthquake data. Since earthquakes happen just below the surface of the earth at varying depths, even looking at 3D visualization of that data on a 2D screen it is difficult to make sense of patterns. Yet the exact same data presented on a device such as the HoloLens – where you can place a globe in the middle of the room and walk around, it, instantaneously allows users to spot the position of seismic faults and gives you a distinct advantage in spotting patterns that you might otherwise miss.

According to Lili Cheng, a distinguished engineer, general manager FUSE labs, the challenge is to bring the power of vision into people’s everyday lives. She’s been working with Kipman’s team to figure out ways of combining 2D and 3D elements with AI to create meaningful mainstream experiences, including integration with Cortana.

“We know we need to design everything to work with rich voice interaction, because that’s such a big part of how you want to interact with the HoloLens,” she says.

There is a general feeling that a lot of elements – such as cloud capabilities, artificial intelligence and hardware development – are coming together much faster than predicted, and that the only limits to the experiences we’ll be able to create will be our own imagination. It feels like an exciting time to be involved in that ecosystem, a bit like the early days of the Internet or Mobile, but even bigger in a way, since it will be an evolution of those technologies rather than replacing them.

Kipman’s excitement for what Mixed Reality will achieve is apparent, even after all these years
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Kipman’s excitement for what Mixed Reality will achieve is apparent, even after all these years. After the keynote he wanders the show floor, trying out all the different demos, in fact while I was waiting my turn at the Viacom NEXT booth he was so enthusiastic to see their Withdrawal music video demo (which both of us found to be pretty awesome) that he inadvertently cut in front of me in the line. After he’s finished, I jokingly berate him for it and charge him a selfie, exchanging a few words in Portuguese along the way. After years living abroad, it’s always nice to see a fellow Brazilian helping to shape the future.

It’s always nice to see a fellow Brazilian helping to shape the future.
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Mixed Reality: Can Microsoft Build IT? https://t.co/slUpTKOje8 via @HuffPostBlog

— Alice Bonasio (@alicebonasio) May 17, 2017

For companies looking to gain a competitive edge through technology, Tech Trends offers strategic Virtual Reality and Digital Transformation Consultancy services tailored to your brand.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Play appeared first on Tech Trends.

Evolving Books into Virtual Reality Experiences

Alice — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 11:27:13 +0000

Immersive technologies will transform teaching resources, but while we probably won’t see the death of the book, reading experiences are set to change for the next generation of students.

One of the greatest fears people have about VR is that it will be socially alienating, but these experiences should not isolate students in alternative realities, but use social interaction as much as possible
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Most of us grew up with a schooling system based on Knowledge transfer. The assumption was that this knowledge was contained mostly in books, and should be delivered through mechanisms such as exercises, drills and tests. Teachers have, of course, always found ways of further engaging students with creative lesson planning, but in the digital age, there are a lot of new tools to help them do this.

In a recent trip to Brazil, I caught up with Felipe Rezende, CEO of EvoBooks, a start-up based near São Paulo that has supported over 1000 schools in integrating such digital tools into the curriculum.

“Increasingly, we will come to think of education as a series of enriching life experiences rather than a straightforward transfer of knowledge,” he explains “We now have Virtual Reality technology to enable us to create immersion and enhance engagement, but in order for those experiences to be truly effective, they must be well designed to be engaging, immersive and relevant. We’ve seen this shift over the past 4 years as we worked to build these on mobile and make them accessible to schools.”

He emphasizes how the close relationships his team built with teachers, parents and students informed the development of hundreds of classroom hours of “deep and complete learning experiences” across core subjects such as Maths, Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, Languages, Physics, History and Geography.

“It is not enough to have digital learning experiences that are well-developed, interactive and aesthetically pleasing if there isn’t a clearly defined pedagogical strategy designed to boost learning outcomes. These new experiences must be in every sense superior to the traditional non-digital alternatives, so the educational community can see real value in these investments,” he stresses.

Rezende says his platform stands at the intersection between educational incumbents and technology, providing clear structure and detailed lesson plans with minute-by-minute suggestions of how to manage classroom workflow, but in a much more interactive and engaging way than what he describes as “your standard PDF, or Sage on Stage videos”

“Let’s be absolutely clear: teachers are the cornerstones of the educational process, and these tools in no way replace what they do, quite the contrary. Education is a much more complex process than most of us – who are not teachers – realise. The greatest danger in adopting new technology into the classroom is precisely that it will alienate teachers. It’s important that we see ourselves as an education company just as much as a technology company, as that mind-set enables us to push the limits of what is possible in the digital age without compromising on educational consistency.”

This involves providing an implementation framework, including training and professional development introducing teachers to the new technology and helping them put it to practical use in the classroom, within the context of what they are teaching. As we argued in a recent EdTech Trends post featuring Skoolee, education is about a lot more than just performing well in standardized exams, and also involves the development of social and emotional skills. This means empowering teachers through technology so that they can better leverage their personal knowledge of each student to build better social learning dynamics in the classroom.

Most of us grew up in a tranfer-based schooling system where the assumption was that knowledge was contained in books, and should be delivered through mechanisms such as exercises, drills and tests
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With only about US $1M in funding, EvoBooks has so far managed to grow its team to over 60 people, and now runs a successful business model where schools pay a fee per student enrolled in the program. Many thousands have used their materials since the company launched in 2012, but Rezende believes they have only started to scratch the surface of a market worth an estimated US$ 1Bn in Brazil alone, and about 50 times that amount globally. Yet he is keen to point out that in spite of being a for-profit company, these experiences are not exclusively aimed just at those who can afford them, and is proud of having rolled out the programmes at many schools in underprivileged communities as well.

With about US $1M in funding, EvoBooks has managed to grow its team to over 60 people, and runs a successful business model where schools pay a fee per student enrolled in the program
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“The future is probably going to be more exciting than any of us can imagine. I see all content – educational or not – evolving into a more organic, interactive and immersive experience. All our environments such as home, work, schools and public places will have many different screens with which we interact with the digital world to enhance our own reality. That includes augmented and virtual reality devices, which I believe will have a huge positive impact on education, and we’re already starting to see some of that.”

The company has, in fact, now set its sights on the booming Virtual Reality market, where they see huge scope for developing new educational content. Rezende points out that although VR technology has been around for decades, it is only within the last couple of years that advances in graphic processing, sensors, screens and mobile technology have allowed content developers to enable a true sense of presence in these virtual environments.

“One of the greatest fears people have about VR is that it will be socially alienating, but these experiences should not isolate students in alternative realities, but rather use social interaction as much as possible as part of creating truly immersive learning experiences. Personally I’m very excited about this, as I have always been very engaged with technology from a very early age. I got first Nintendo when I was 2, and never looked back…At 10 I was having robotics classes using Logo programming language and by the time I got to my teens I would build my own gaming PCs. It was all very compartmentalised from the core curricula disciplines, though, and the difference for students these days is that technology is embedded in everything we do, so our education methods and materials really need to reflect that.”

The future is probably going to be more exciting than any of us can imagine. I see all content – educational or not – evolving into a more organic, interactive and immersive experience
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Tech Trends’ Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Evolving Books into Virtual Reality Experiences appeared first on Tech Trends.

Adaptive Learning Boosting ESL Skills

Alice — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 12:26:00 +0000

How this Brazilian-based EdTech start-up is leveraging AI to boost results for learners of English as a Second Language.

There’s no question that technology has its place in education. The question is how to integrate it in such a way as to help without interfering
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The answer, according to EduSynch Founder and CEO Sean “Lorenzo” Kilachand, is a blended model where students use technology – both in and out of the classroom – to help teachers understand what their particular strengths and weaknesses are, and tailor their learning accordingly. This also allows administrators to improve learning outcomes by better gaging what’s working, and what isn’t.

Growing up in Manhattan technology played a big part in Kilachand’s education:

“I was playing videogames like Duck Hunt and Super Mario when I was 3 years old, and by the time I was in second grade my class was selected to help teach computer skills to senior citizens. We were constantly exposed to technology, from typing classes to educational games and training on how to search the web. For me, learning and technology are natural partners.”

Since moving to Brazil, he started applying those principles to language learning. The market in the country is dominated by institutions charging outrageously high monthly fees for weekly classes lasting 1-3 hours on average. In that kind of environment, it is very difficult for the average student to receive the individualized training they need in order to succeed.

“What students usually get – at a very high premium – is generic test preparation materials that often don’t provide personalized correction and feedback for the speaking and writing sections of the exam, which are exactly the ones that are the most challenging.”

The limitations and price of these “Old School” courses and materials meant there was a big gap in the market for software that could support student learning in a more efficient way and help them prepare for specific exams such as the TOEFL, TOEIC and IELTS.

“We provide individualized practice and feedback for a fraction of the price of a normal TOEFL prep book or course. Most importantly, however, the EduSynch engine is able to actively identify which areas each student needs to improve, and automatically adapts the questions based on that information.”

They are still self-funded apart from a BRL 200,000 (about $50,000) grant received from the federal government as part of the Startup Brasil accelerator programme in 2014. But although the focus is inevitably in building up a viable business model, the Brazilian company is aiming to democratize the exam-preparation process by providing some of those materials free of charge.

Adaptive learning is merely the tip of the iceberg. Virtual reality, classrooms in the cloud…the future is going to be quite interesting.
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“We’re giving away the complete analytics, adaptive engine and over 700 exercises for the Reading part of the course, and then we will charge per module. Listening will likely work with a flat subscription fee, but Writing and Speaking will command a premium because of the complexity of simulations and individual exercises,” he explains.

While Brazil’s notorious bureaucracy remains a constant challenge, being part of the federal government’s accelerator programme allowed Edusynch to get a foot in the door, and led to partnerships with several national institutions to run beta tests of the product. Over 2 million people took the TOEFL test in Brazil last year, but the global market is much bigger, and Kilachand has his sights set firmly on global expansion. They’re about to launch four pilots in Brazil and one in India (Sean himself is half Indian) with a view of taking a larger slice of this enormous market.

“We have already reached 55 countries without spending a single dollar on marketing or advertising, so we will continue to build on that and also start covering many other exams. We developed our infrastructure to be content agnostic, so although we’re focused on English at the moment, there’s nothing to say that the platform can’t be used for other exams like Salamanca for Spanish.”

He also believes that technologies such as Virtual Reality will play a much bigger part in education in years to come, and considers how VR could enhance the value of products like EduSynch for students:

“Imagine being able to take any exam, meaning experience the actual environment of being in the exam room with other students, ambient noise…It has been shown that interactive activities, particularly ones that require students to be proactive, increases retention of educational concepts and material in general across disciplines. So imagine a kid in a public school in Acre, Brazil playing a game with a student in a public school in NYC…but instead of through computer w Skype as an interface, they are interacting in real time with the tactile sensation of high fiving when doing something right, really feeling as though they are in the same room. I doesn’t get more interactive than that.”

To find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers bespoke Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Adaptive Learning Boosting ESL Skills appeared first on Tech Trends.