Experiencing Mars with the Hollow Lens: A Surreal Experience

Sometimes, if you look down, you can see a little bit of a texture glitch where the rock is split in half or something, and then there's like crazy stuff going on in between them. But overall, just looking around the surface of Mars is really just such a surreal experience. It's so surreal that walking around with the hollow lands on you almost starts walking like a weird space guy. Take a look at these videos; he goes. The man and his hollow lens now there's one other amazing thing that this company is able to do with the hollow lens.

I mean, sometimes if you look down you can see a little bit of a texture glitch where the rock is split in half or something and then there's like crazy stuff going on in between them but overall just looking around the surface of Mars it's really just such a surreal experience in fact it's so surreal that walking around with the hollow lands on you almost start walking like a weird space guy take a look at these videos there he goes the man and his hollow lens now there's one other amazing thing that this company is able to do with the hollow lens and I'll let you hear the explanation from the actual demonstrator himself. One of the other ways that we use it and actually the thing is most valuable about this is cool as it is from me to wander around Mars all by myself the needest part is every day right now we have a teleconference with 75 planetary SCI and figure out what the R's going to do do you take volunteers well what we do now is we all do this and all 75 of us meet on Mars take off meet on Mars and then the person who's talking becomes visible and Avatar walks over to a Target and says this is where I want to go and everybody else can see what they're exactly what they're talking about and then we can then very quickly decide this is how we want to operate the Rob what we're want to do and those 75 people can be anywhere on Earth because we don't care where each other are going to located on her all I care about is that a medium on another planet.

Basically, what he's saying is that he actually works with NASA currently to determine where the Mars rover goes so they all get in a meeting all 75 people and they can actually walk around stand on some rock and say I want the Mars rover to go here to this rock and because it's an actual rock they can all agree on that and communicate with NASA who will actually send the Mars rover there in real life. That that is pretty amazing, the fact that we've gotten to the point where we can photograph Mars bring it back here put on a pair of sunglasses and walk around and say oh I want to explore over there rather than just looking at satellite images or or static images is amazing.

Let's Talk About What It's Like To Actually Have The Hollow Lens

What does it look like in a lot of the footage Microsoft has shown us? They portray the experience as very immersive, as though you're in a magical world and kind of all VR headsets portray this in a similar way. Where you're just standing a lone person in a full enveloping world that's not entirely the case. Here is a simulation that I've come up with to show you kind of what it looks like when you actually have the hollow lens on the screens are two little pieces of glass suspended right in front of your eyes now they don't wrap around and give you a fully immersive view rather it looks like someone's holding up a clear tablet in front of your face. You're sort of looking through a screen almost.

Now, in the virtual reality mode where I was they did a pretty good job of blocking out what was behind you but you could still see if you looked hard enough. The the the actual room behind the screen obviously that's important for augmented reality because you want to be able to see the actual world with the animations projected onto it, but when you're in virtual reality it's kind of weird to be turning around and then you see a guy just kind of ghostly figure standing on Mars. Don't go thinking that you're going to go out and get yourself one of these tomorrow because the hollow lens is still in developer mode and it hasn't really been finished yet, in fact they just recently a few weeks ago released the developer version that's semi widespread and that cost $3,000 now this particular unit is even earlier than that. It's one of the very first Hollow lenses and according to the developer cost over $200,000 so the technology isn't exactly ready for the consumer Marketplace.

Incredibility And Value Of The Technology

The work that is able to be done with the hollow lens with organizations like NASA to help explore Mars and the amazing incredible things that you can do with the hollow lens as it is right now far outweigh any of the drawbacks. Like the screen and the bulkiness, I am so grateful for the opportunity to be able to wear this on me and experience Mars in such a unique way. The value of this technology cannot be overstated, it's not just about seeing what Mars looks like but also being able to interact with the environment in a way that feels very real.

A Final Note

The hollow lens is an incredible piece of technology that offers a new way to explore and experience space travel. While there are still many challenges to overcome before this technology becomes widely available, it's clear that the potential for discovery and exploration is vast. As we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with this technology, we can expect to see even more incredible things in the future.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso over the weekend I was given a chance to try out the Microsoft Holo lens and today we're going to talk a little bit about what it's like to have an augmented reality headset on your head set so the Microsoft Hol lens is a headset obviously released by Microsoft that isn't just your standard run-of-the-mill virtual reality headset so while it's called a VR headset what it actually is is augmented reality and virtual reality all rolled into one so the Microsoft Hollow lens goes beyond just the capabilities of an Oculus Rift or a similar VR type headset so instead of just being in a world all to yourself closed in a scary box with nothing but a screen you actually get to interact with the world around you so from inside the hollow lens even in virtual reality mode by the way you can actually see the world around you so you don't have to worry about crashing into stuff this allows something called augmented reality which basically means that using fancy cameras and sensors and whatnot and Wizardry and the headset it can scan your surroundings and it can actually project animations onto them through through the actually clear screen that you have in front of you on the visor now wearing a Microsoft Holo lens is a little bit different from wearing pretty much any other virtual reality headset so the standard configuration for a virtual reality headset consists of the goggles and then you have a strap usually an elastic strap that goes around the sides and the top of your head now that's all well and good if it's welld designed and it can be very comfortable for short amount of time but after a while because they rest right here on the bridge of your nose and are fairly heavy they can get really really uncomfortable they can be pressing down on your nose for a long period of time which if you've ever had that experience it's not comfortable for a long period of time not to mention that a lot of them try to isolate you from the world so they have seals around your eyes that can get itchy and sweaty and kind of annoying this is true not only for the Oculus Rift but also for the Fon and a lot of the Google cardboard headsets that have an actual thing goggles in front of you the Microsoft Hollow lens Works a little bit differently the way it attaches is not via a strap but a band so it's plastic and it goes right up here right above your forehead and then it goes around your head like a Halo right here to the back and it sits right here like that and then the actual headset part is more of a visor so it's on hinges and it folds down and it's actually suspended in front of your face so there is nothing touching your face at all and that is awesome you don't have to worry about having goggles or a seal or resting on the bridge of your nose cuz it's not even touching your face you can reach up and scratch your eye while you're using it without having to move it out of the way and I think that's fantastic it actually puts me in mind of having a transparent iPhone suspended in front of your face it's very surreal and cool now if you look at the hollow lens what you'll see is two big pieces of glass that go across your eye that isn't actually the screen part the screen part is about the size of regular eyeglasses that are about right here on your eyes if you look at this picture you can see see them there see the two of them in fact most of the glass that you actually see on the front is obscuring the cameras and sensors that go right here above your eyebrows now these sensors include gyroscopes for motion tracking ambient light sensors cameras for seeing things and tracking stuff and of course there's a plethora of all of them to make it really really precise one thing that differentiates the hollow lens from a lot of the other VR headsets that are proprietary is that the hollow lens will eventually be open source so once it's released to the public you'll be able to develop your own apps and have basically an app store for your cool sunglasses so the demonstration that I was shown was by a man who actually works with NASA so where I was was actually on the surface of Mars so the company that the demonstration was given by actually works with the NASA rover that is on Mars right now and what happens is as the Mars rover goes around and takes photographs of the landscape they bring that back and convert it into a 3D world that you can actually walk around in so you can walk around and move around on the surface of Mars that's not a reconstruction they're actual photographs of Mars that have been stitched into a 3D map so that is just mindblowing every single rock that I could see is an actual rock on Mars and to be honest it's pretty good I mean sometimes if you look down you can see a little bit of a texture glitch where the rock is split in half or something and then there's like crazy stuff going on in between them but overall and just looking around the surface of Mars it's really just such a surreal experience in fact it's so surreal that walking around with the hollow lands on you almost start walking like a weird space guy take a look at these videos there he goes the man and his hollow lens now there's one other amazing thing that this company is able to do with the hollow lens and I'll let you hear the explanation from the actual demonstrator himself one of the other ways that we use it and actually the thing is most valuable about this is cool as it is from me to wander around Mars all by myself the needest part is every day right now we have a teleconference with 75 planetary SCI and figure out what the R's going to do do you take volunteers well what we do now is we all do this and all 75 of us meet on Mars take off meet on Mars and then the person who's talking becomes visible and Avatar walks over to a Target and says this is where I want to go and everybody else can see what they're exactly what they're talking about and then we can then very quickly decide this is how we want to operate the Rob what we're want to do and those 75 people can be anywhere on Earth because we don't care where each other are going to located on her all I care about is that a medium on another planet so basically what he's saying is that he actually works with NASA currently to determine where the Mars rover goes so they all get in a meeting all 75 people and they can actually walk around stand on some rock and say I want the Mars rover to go here to this rock and because it's an actual rock they can all agree on that and communicate with NASA who will actually send the Mars rover there in real life and that that is pretty amazing the fact that we've gotten to the point where we can photograph Mars bring it back here put on a pair of sunglasses and walk around and say oh I want to explore over there rather than just looking at satellite images or or static images is amazing calming down now let's talk a little bit about what it's like to actually have it on what does it look like in a lot of the footage Microsoft has shown us they portray the experience as very immersive as though you're in a magical world and kind of all VR headsets portray this in a similar way where you're just standing a lone person in a full enveloping world that's not entirely the case here is a simulation that I've come up with to show you kind of what it looks like when you actually have the hollow lens on the screens are two little pieces of glass suspended right in front of your eyes now they don't wrap around and give you a fully immersive view rather it looks like someone's holding up a clear tablet in front of your face you're sort of looking through a screen almost now in the virtual reality mode where I was they did a pretty good job of blocking out what was behind you but you could still see if you looked hard enough the the the actual room behind the screen obviously that's important for augmented reality because you want to be able to see the actual world with the animations projected onto it but when you're in virtual reality it's kind of weird to be turning around and then you see a guy just kind of ghostly figure standing on Mars now don't go thinking that you're going to go out and get yourself one of these tomorrow because the hollow lens is still in developer mode and it hasn't really been finished yet in fact they just recently a few weeks ago released the developer version that's semi widespread and that cost $3,000 now this particular unit is even earlier than that it's one of the very first Hollow lenses and according to the developer cost over $200,000 so the technology isn't exactly ready for the consumer Marketplace and honestly I think that the work that is able to be done with the hollow lens with organizations like NASA to help explore Mars and the amazing incredible things that you can do with the hollow lens as it is right now far outweigh any of the drawbacks like the screen and the bulkiness and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be able to wear one especially this early in its development and I hope that you guys gained something from hearing my experience with the hollow lens and continue to stay up toate on the creation of this incredible piece of technology so thanks guys for watching this video make sure to check back next week for next week's video obviously viously and as usual don't forget to follow me on Twitter at luk meani make sure to leave a like down below and subscribe for more videosso over the weekend I was given a chance to try out the Microsoft Holo lens and today we're going to talk a little bit about what it's like to have an augmented reality headset on your head set so the Microsoft Hol lens is a headset obviously released by Microsoft that isn't just your standard run-of-the-mill virtual reality headset so while it's called a VR headset what it actually is is augmented reality and virtual reality all rolled into one so the Microsoft Hollow lens goes beyond just the capabilities of an Oculus Rift or a similar VR type headset so instead of just being in a world all to yourself closed in a scary box with nothing but a screen you actually get to interact with the world around you so from inside the hollow lens even in virtual reality mode by the way you can actually see the world around you so you don't have to worry about crashing into stuff this allows something called augmented reality which basically means that using fancy cameras and sensors and whatnot and Wizardry and the headset it can scan your surroundings and it can actually project animations onto them through through the actually clear screen that you have in front of you on the visor now wearing a Microsoft Holo lens is a little bit different from wearing pretty much any other virtual reality headset so the standard configuration for a virtual reality headset consists of the goggles and then you have a strap usually an elastic strap that goes around the sides and the top of your head now that's all well and good if it's welld designed and it can be very comfortable for short amount of time but after a while because they rest right here on the bridge of your nose and are fairly heavy they can get really really uncomfortable they can be pressing down on your nose for a long period of time which if you've ever had that experience it's not comfortable for a long period of time not to mention that a lot of them try to isolate you from the world so they have seals around your eyes that can get itchy and sweaty and kind of annoying this is true not only for the Oculus Rift but also for the Fon and a lot of the Google cardboard headsets that have an actual thing goggles in front of you the Microsoft Hollow lens Works a little bit differently the way it attaches is not via a strap but a band so it's plastic and it goes right up here right above your forehead and then it goes around your head like a Halo right here to the back and it sits right here like that and then the actual headset part is more of a visor so it's on hinges and it folds down and it's actually suspended in front of your face so there is nothing touching your face at all and that is awesome you don't have to worry about having goggles or a seal or resting on the bridge of your nose cuz it's not even touching your face you can reach up and scratch your eye while you're using it without having to move it out of the way and I think that's fantastic it actually puts me in mind of having a transparent iPhone suspended in front of your face it's very surreal and cool now if you look at the hollow lens what you'll see is two big pieces of glass that go across your eye that isn't actually the screen part the screen part is about the size of regular eyeglasses that are about right here on your eyes if you look at this picture you can see see them there see the two of them in fact most of the glass that you actually see on the front is obscuring the cameras and sensors that go right here above your eyebrows now these sensors include gyroscopes for motion tracking ambient light sensors cameras for seeing things and tracking stuff and of course there's a plethora of all of them to make it really really precise one thing that differentiates the hollow lens from a lot of the other VR headsets that are proprietary is that the hollow lens will eventually be open source so once it's released to the public you'll be able to develop your own apps and have basically an app store for your cool sunglasses so the demonstration that I was shown was by a man who actually works with NASA so where I was was actually on the surface of Mars so the company that the demonstration was given by actually works with the NASA rover that is on Mars right now and what happens is as the Mars rover goes around and takes photographs of the landscape they bring that back and convert it into a 3D world that you can actually walk around in so you can walk around and move around on the surface of Mars that's not a reconstruction they're actual photographs of Mars that have been stitched into a 3D map so that is just mindblowing every single rock that I could see is an actual rock on Mars and to be honest it's pretty good I mean sometimes if you look down you can see a little bit of a texture glitch where the rock is split in half or something and then there's like crazy stuff going on in between them but overall and just looking around the surface of Mars it's really just such a surreal experience in fact it's so surreal that walking around with the hollow lands on you almost start walking like a weird space guy take a look at these videos there he goes the man and his hollow lens now there's one other amazing thing that this company is able to do with the hollow lens and I'll let you hear the explanation from the actual demonstrator himself one of the other ways that we use it and actually the thing is most valuable about this is cool as it is from me to wander around Mars all by myself the needest part is every day right now we have a teleconference with 75 planetary SCI and figure out what the R's going to do do you take volunteers well what we do now is we all do this and all 75 of us meet on Mars take off meet on Mars and then the person who's talking becomes visible and Avatar walks over to a Target and says this is where I want to go and everybody else can see what they're exactly what they're talking about and then we can then very quickly decide this is how we want to operate the Rob what we're want to do and those 75 people can be anywhere on Earth because we don't care where each other are going to located on her all I care about is that a medium on another planet so basically what he's saying is that he actually works with NASA currently to determine where the Mars rover goes so they all get in a meeting all 75 people and they can actually walk around stand on some rock and say I want the Mars rover to go here to this rock and because it's an actual rock they can all agree on that and communicate with NASA who will actually send the Mars rover there in real life and that that is pretty amazing the fact that we've gotten to the point where we can photograph Mars bring it back here put on a pair of sunglasses and walk around and say oh I want to explore over there rather than just looking at satellite images or or static images is amazing calming down now let's talk a little bit about what it's like to actually have it on what does it look like in a lot of the footage Microsoft has shown us they portray the experience as very immersive as though you're in a magical world and kind of all VR headsets portray this in a similar way where you're just standing a lone person in a full enveloping world that's not entirely the case here is a simulation that I've come up with to show you kind of what it looks like when you actually have the hollow lens on the screens are two little pieces of glass suspended right in front of your eyes now they don't wrap around and give you a fully immersive view rather it looks like someone's holding up a clear tablet in front of your face you're sort of looking through a screen almost now in the virtual reality mode where I was they did a pretty good job of blocking out what was behind you but you could still see if you looked hard enough the the the actual room behind the screen obviously that's important for augmented reality because you want to be able to see the actual world with the animations projected onto it but when you're in virtual reality it's kind of weird to be turning around and then you see a guy just kind of ghostly figure standing on Mars now don't go thinking that you're going to go out and get yourself one of these tomorrow because the hollow lens is still in developer mode and it hasn't really been finished yet in fact they just recently a few weeks ago released the developer version that's semi widespread and that cost $3,000 now this particular unit is even earlier than that it's one of the very first Hollow lenses and according to the developer cost over $200,000 so the technology isn't exactly ready for the consumer Marketplace and honestly I think that the work that is able to be done with the hollow lens with organizations like NASA to help explore Mars and the amazing incredible things that you can do with the hollow lens as it is right now far outweigh any of the drawbacks like the screen and the bulkiness and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be able to wear one especially this early in its development and I hope that you guys gained something from hearing my experience with the hollow lens and continue to stay up toate on the creation of this incredible piece of technology so thanks guys for watching this video make sure to check back next week for next week's video obviously viously and as usual don't forget to follow me on Twitter at luk meani make sure to leave a like down below and subscribe for more videos\n"