Microsoft is busy showing some really very fascinating technology concepts, all of which find diverse applications in education, business and of course, gaming. We have already seen some recent works like the 3D desktop concept and the IlluminiShare remote sharing system. Now here is Holoflector, an augmented reality mirror.
Holoflector is an augmented reality mirror built using a large translucent mirror and separate LCD pane. Behind the large transluscent mirror, at a distance of 3 feet lays a large LCD screen.
The working of Holoflector is based on Windows Phone and Kinect integration. The idea is simple: when an individual renders graphics on the LCD he can view those graphics in correspondence to his reflections as the graphics are perfectly overlaid onto his reflections.
The graphics are first monitored by Kinect using its sensors and then displayed on to the screen of Holoflector as reflections. Also, the technology employs sensor fusion (couples your Windows phone sensors with Kinect sensors). Using a Windows phone you get nice orientation data while Kinect sensors provides postion data.
The idea has originally been developed by Steven Bathiche, better known as StevieB. This gentleman manages the Applied Sciences group at Microsoft that explores future of smart displays.
Thus, Kinect’s sensors and its motion capture capabilities leave us with a lot of capabilities to combine virtual reality elements with physical reality. It will be interesting to notice how Microsoft proceeds further.
I feel it is particularly noteworthy to mention earleir also the software giant showed Windows Phone and Kinect integration demonstrations, but none of them found any significant implementations to market.
Check out the Holoflector video below.
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