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Microsoft finally delivers X-Ray specs

by on07 October 2015


Project XRAY is comic-book genius

For decades comics used to promise that for a tiny amount of cash you could amaze your family and friends with x-ray specs.  Now it seems that Microsoft is finally delivering.

Some of us are old enough to remember that at the back of the Justice League of America there were kitsets for working submarines, hypnotic disks, and X-Ray specs.  These showed a drawing of someone wearing a pair of sunglasses and seeing through their own hands.  Oddly we  have never met anyone who spent a dollar to own a pair so we don’t know how they were supposed to have worked.

x ray specs

The new HoloLens is a different being and it was demonstrated before with its ability to be used in work environment or in the classroom. NOw it seems that Redmond has come up with a serious game for  it. A chap was playing what Microsoft calls the mixed reality game. We call it embarrassing yourself with a holographic wearable gun.

He can be seen making virtual holes in the real wall and fighting robots. The glasses are untethered which is a great feature compared to a competitors and the game looked fun.

The chap named Dan, can even use a holographic shield to protect himself from the larger enemies. The only issue we had is that the game looks ok when the mixed reality game robots move slowly. It would be fun to see them actually moving faster. We didn’t get to see what happens when the Dan gets hit by the robot. He probably won't lose an arm or a leg, but some kind of damage indicator should be visible to him.

Microsoft didn’t mention the price of the glasses, or if this will need the Xbox One to play or it will support PC too. The developer version of HoloLens will ship in Q1 2016 for $3000 and probably ship much later in 2016 at the earliest.

Nasa, Audodesk and some universities like the product and are tested it for other uses. We can see quite a few gaming developers exploring this option too. It will be hard to commit the developer dollars and chose between the Oculus by Facebook, Re Vive by Valve or HTC, Project Morpheus by Sony or Microsoft HoloLens.

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For decades comics used to promise that for a tiny amount of cash you could amaze your family and friends with x-ray specs.  Now it seems that Microsoft is finally delivering.

Last modified on 07 October 2015
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