Amazon Breadcrumb

I've been fairly confident that Amazon is on board for some time.

Part of the story has been relayed here before.. I still won't name names, but I will say Amazon now.... (A Story That Can Now Be Told)

This is some new Sleuthing that's pretty good, how much weight you might give permissions, etc. (are they dropping a hint? I don't know.)

I know the reaction from an Amazon engineer when asking about an interactive display told me all I really needed to know.

I've also asked enough people who sell this thing that the addition of the screen is the number one requirement for the second speaker purchased.

Thank you Walt!


Microvision has a new Data Sheet

The Poached Salmon Platter seems pretty innocuous...

But it is the exact listing from The Whole Foods (wholly owned by Amazon) from Bellevue Washington... right down the street from MVIS HQ... 

Chevron Hololens

Collection of IVAS Articles

Thank you Walt!

It appears that the Army is taking this very seriously.


Soldiers Test new IVAS Tech

The final product -- officials say it will likely be fielded in the fourth quarter of FY21 -- will include a variety of features: a color see-through digital display that makes it possible for the user to access information without taking his eye off the battlefield; thermal and low-light sensors that make it possible to see in the dark, literally; rapid target acquisition and aided target identification; augmented reality and artificial intelligence, to name just a few.
 
How the Soldier Lethality Team



 Army's Tactical Network...

When optimized, the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) is a single platform that features advanced goggles connected to a body wearable computer, or puck, to perform multiple situational awareness functions, including a simulated training environment (STE), advanced night vision, target acquisition and language translation for enhanced situational awareness. 

 Soldier Feedback Drives Modernization

Real World 3D For Operations

Natick Experts... 

Army Tests Augmented Reality Headset

New Night Vision Goggles

Marines try out Mixed Reality  

Third IVAS Evaluation Slated for July 

New Goggles bring AI to soldier Training

Thoughts on the price currently

A lot of people have asked me about this lately. Here are my thoughts.

There are a lot of people who never look at their stocks except to make decisions once a quarter or so. 

If you were holding MVIS five months ago, you may be one of those people and just put a sell order on --- "when it gets to $1 sell."

I think that happened. Then your sell order becomes a market order, and the default at target price -15% or better. (That's how it worked with my broker, when I did such things)

So if 15% of the shares were targeted that way we'd need to sell off about 18 million shares before the price can keep going higher after $1.00. I think that's what's happening.

I think the price is going to close @ .85 +/- a couple of pennies, until there are that many shares traded below a buck. at the current rate, that will be next week...

Just Tried Hololens 2

It's awesome.

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

Quantas Virtual Cockpit

This would make me very happy. Right now, I'm doing some initial training with a few posters hung up. This would be fantastic.

Hey Microsoft, do you have this in CRJ-200?

Microsoft

Smithsonian

Smithsonian
No one will want this

For $3500 you have access skills it takes years of training to develop.

Buy Hololens

I’m in Redmond, Washington, in a room at Microsoft, pondering an all-terrain vehicle that has a busted engine. I have no idea how to fix it. I’ve never done engine repair before.

But I do have some help: On my head, I’m wearing the HoloLens 2, Microsoft’s “augmented reality” device. It has a see-through visor, almost like the one on a motorcycle helmet, and the HoloLens projects images onto the visor so they appear to float in the air before you.

When I look at the vehicle, the HoloLens flickers to life, and a guide to fixing the engine pops up in the air. A blue arrow points at a tableful of tools, and when I walk over to it, the arrow indicates that I should grab a torque wrench. Once I take that tool, a new arrow appears, beckoning me across the room to a case of bolts. I grab a bolt, and a third arrow shows me where on the engine to install and tighten it. In under two minutes I’ve completed the repair.

The sensation is bizarre, like living in a world of Harry Potter magic. I can even touch the holograms. While I’m doing another repair job, a virtual screen with the face of a remote mechanic materializes before me to talk me through the job. The screen is in my way, though—so I grab it by the corner with my fingers, right there in the air, and drag it off to the side.

Trimble announces Mixed Reality solution.

Press Release


Trimble announced the availability of the Trimble XR10 with HoloLens 2 system, a worksite-ready mixed-reality solution that enables workers to visualize 3D data on project sites for more efficient planning, collaboration and reporting.

The new solution is enabled by two central components:

• Trimble XR10 with HoloLens 2 - a mixed-reality device purpose-built for integration into an industry-standard hardhat for use in safety-controlled environments
• Trimble Connect for HoloLens - cloud-based software that allows for open and collaborative communication across all stakeholder types, optimized to maximize the benefits of HoloLens 2

Enabling front-line workers in the construction, oil and gas, manufacturing and mining industries, the Trimble XR10 meets international certification standards for impact and electrical protection in most major markets.  The device includes all of the new functionality of HoloLens 2, including a flip-up-visor, wider field-of-view and more instinctual interaction enabled by state-of-the-art hand-tracking technology.  

The XR10 enables users to overlay Constructible Building Information Models (BIM) and other digital project data onto the physical context of the jobsite.

AR Use case

Things like this show what developers are up to with AR.

It's Magic Leap, but you can be sure that they'll have a Hololens app as well. (And that Magic Leap will use the best Near Eye display they can find.)

(I tried both Magic Leap, and Hololens 1 and believe they were using the same display.)

Next Reality

Yahoo News
 

Race to Replace Smart Phones

Got the heads up on this from a couple of different sources last night and this morning.

This is where we are.

Given that Microsoft is shipping... it will be happening sooner than CNBC thinks.

CNBC

Fox News

The video is from Fox news.... I've had trouble getting it to play.

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Most of the biggest names in Big Tech are racing to create smart glasses that we wear everywhere and that may replace our phones.

Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Snap, Facebook Apple, Magic Leap and others are all working on some form of smart glasses or headset that will change how we view the world around us. Instead of pulling a phone out of our pockets to talk to people or interact with apps, we may do these things simply by speaking to, and looking through, a set of glasses.

There’s a race to be the first to make a set of glasses that everyone will wear, which means they have to be fashionable and sleek enough to wear all day and everywhere you go. Advocates of the technology hope that you’ll one day be able to replace every screen in your life with just one pair of smart glasses.