Mixed Reality is the merging of real world and virtual worlds to produce a new environment where physical and digital objects can co-exist and interact.
Introduction to Methodology
When we were told to find an interesting topic for our final Innovation project, both of us instantly knew what we each specifically had in mind. One of us was inspired by a recent trip to Disney World. There, in Disney World’s famed Haunted House, was the first real-life experience with a Hologram. With ceilings that stretch, holographic ghosts that accompany you on a buggy ride though a graveyard, flying books and headless horses, you can’t help but wonder what technology made this magic come to life.
On the other hand, one of us had an experience by taking notice of a reoccurring topic the media. Virtual Reality seems to be popping up all over the place in popular Tech magazines like Wired and the Verge. Growing up in the 90’s kept a soft spot for Virtual Reality in the back of the mind, especially when it seemed to vanish out of thin air. It was an experience fueled by advances in computing software but plateaued just as the technology did. Virtual Reality may have left the limelight (until recent) but parted with nostalgic memories of playing Sega’s head-mounted displays that put you in a whole new world. When we merged our ideas, we were surprised to find that there is a whole field of research on not just holograms or virtual reality separately, but the combining of the two to push technology further into what seems to be a living Sci-Fi movie. The term mixed reality, which is also sometimes called hybrid reality, is the combination of our two interests, with some other added bonuses. In simple terms it is the merging of real and virtual world to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. (Wiki) That clearly sounded peculiar to us at first, but after getting the correct terminology down and further developing our research, we realized there is a promising future for mixed reality in industries outside of entertainment. The innovation that stuck out the most to us as compiling all the important aspects of mixed reality was Microsoft's up-and-coming HoloLens that we explain in our "7 Thing's" essay. For our methodology, we saw that It incorporates reality with augmented reality. Seeing is believing with these ideas and Microsoft has made some powerful video clips that show exactly how this is done. Holographic figures appear interactively in front of you, intertwining with the real world around you. Thus, bringing a virtual world and the real world together. The extra features that HoloLens utilizes, such as revolving 3D images has potential to revolutionize the workplace in the next decade. Other features such as emotion detection could be a more controversial topic related along with privacy invasion. With controversial topics arising, Microsoft is making a strong statement that they are going to keep this innovation in the work environment to avoid issues that other head-mounted wearables have faced. Through qualitative research we step into the capabilities of mixed reality and how it is already changing the way we perceive and interact in the world, through the scope of the HoloLens and its predecessors. |