Sorry the report is late, family came first for the last few days.
So, Saturday morning, 20 minutes after the exhibit opened, I was at the museum.
Luckily, when they asked if I had an appointment and did not, there was one available in 20 minutes.
In the room there were some chairs to wait, and this amazing model of Mont-Saint-Michel. The model was interesting, but I was more interested in HL2.
This is a Mont-Saint-Michel exhibit, not a Hololens exhibit -- as you can see from the link to the exhibit page. People were using the Hololens, but were intently focused on the display and what it offered. (Which is exactly as it should be. It was seamless.) 70 & 80 year old people (or so they seemed) were using it without any fuss -- completely seamless and instinctive to use it.
I sat down as they fitted HL2 to my head. The host staff here didn't have long experience with the HL2 (One that I talked to had tried HL1.) It is MUCH more comfortable than HL1. I wear glasses, and with glasses on, I can take about 20 minutes with HL1 before it becomes very uncomfortable. I would easily be able to wear HL2 for most of the day and enjoy it.
There was little interactivity with the exhibit. You looked at the model, it gave instructions: when the ball moves around, focus on the ball with your eyes, and it will continue. Easy enough.
The first thing it did then was add moving surroundings to the model... instead of just looking at the model, you were looking at the model with waves and water surrounding it. (Cool!) It was clearly scanning the model because when I moved around it would only put the waves where they belonged, around the outside of the model castle.
I followed the ball, it added and subtracted from the model, superimposing graphics over the physical thing in front of me. If I changed my position, it would compensate, and I could effectively walk around the model and see the changes from whichever position I had.
At one point the ball launched upwards, and I scanned around looking for it... then I was IN the cathedral. The room was maybe 20 by 30 feet, but I could see the other end of the cathedral 150 feet away. In any direction I looked, there was what I would see, and it changed as I moved. (I was tempted to see if I could walk all the way to the other end, but decided they wouldn't appreciate it.)
At another point, there was another completely computer generated model floating in the room. I could walk around that one too and see if from different angles.
One of the more interesting uses of the Hololens was it showed the INSIDE of the model. Here's how they used this part of the structure -- that and it showed pop-up illustrations, and narrated... you could hear it perfectly, but you couldn't hear the sounds from other headsets (I think there were 5 in use at a time.)
This wasn't the HL2 demonstration I was hoping for however. This presentation was designed on Hololens 1 and seemed like the display hadn't changed from HL1. I looked around the outside of the display, and it seemed like there was some display "acreage" that was unused. I was puzzled by this, but I strongly suspect what happened is that they took the presentation that was designed on HL1, and transferred it directly to HL2 -- with the same display dimensions and the same resolution that they were using on HL1.
1 Year Ago
MOHAI - Museum of History and Industry - SeattleMont-Saint-Michel exhibit
Gulf Air Mechanics
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