Bruce Wiggins, Adam Hill and soon-to-be MSc Audio Engineering graduate, Haydon Cardew, were recently invited to visit Microsoft Research in Cambridge.

As part of the visit, we were allowed to experiment with a Microsoft HoloLens (the only headsets currently in the UK are held by Microsoft Research at their Cambridge office).

We had a blast trying out the various demos, such as the following:

We were particularly impressed with the audio on the device, especially since we were initially skeptical seeing that it only contained two small speakers, one just above each ear.

As it turns out, those small speakers could deliver quite accurate localization and externalization, with the only drawback being a lack of low-frequency content (which is understandable).

It took us a little while to get used to the fact that what we were seeing through the HoloLens wasn’t visible to anyone else in the room (no, there wasn’t an alien about to devour Bruce’s head). Once we got the hang of it, it was fun watching the augmented reality kick in and transform the room we were in into a battlefield, a party and a street scene (not at the same time).

staff at Microsoft research staff at Microsoft research staff at Microsoft research.

We’re looking forward to getting our hands on one of these at some point in the future. So many possibilities for AR that we can think of!

Huge thanks to Hannes Gamper at Microsoft Research for having us over!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *