Intel Unveils Project Alloy 'Merged Reality' Wireless Headset

MojoKid writes: Intel CEO Bryan Krzanich took to the stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco today to kick off this year's Intel Developers Forum. Kyrzanich unveiled a number of new projects and products including a product code-named "Project Alloy." The device is an un-tethered, merged reality Head Mounted Device (HMD) that combines compute, graphics, multiple RealSense modules, various sensors, and batteries into a self-contained headset that offers a full six degrees of freedom. Unlike the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, Project Alloy does not need to be wired to a PC or other device and it does not require externally mounted sensors to define a virtual space. Instead, it uses RealSense cameras to map the actual physical world you're in while wearing the HMD. The RealSense cameras also allow the device to bring real-world objects into the virtual world, or vice versa. The cameras and sensors used in Project Alloy offer full depth sensing, so obstacles can be mapped, and people and objects within camera range -- like your hand, for example -- can be brought into the virtual world and accurately tracked. During a live, on-stage demo performed by Intel's Craig Raymond, Craig's hand was tracked and all five digits, complete with accurate bones and joint locations, were brought into the the VR/AR experience. Project Alloy will be supported by Microsoft's Windows Holographics Shell framework.

in other news

[lucm]

A study conducted on Slashdot indicates that the lack of punctuation makes it more difficult to understand what a headline means

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[wierd_w]

Cue endless debate from the grammar nazis about which would be more appropriate to insert: Colon, or double dash.

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[wierd_w]

Unnecessary, but not necessarily incorrect to include. ;)

Some English style guides assert that a comma should be inserted in lists with two members.

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[BeauHD]

You got me. I was going to incorporate Microsoft into the story, but MojoKid did it for me.

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[wierd_w]

No, it would be more clear with Alloy in italics (to make it clear that the project is named Alloy, not that the project is a metaphorical alloy.), with either a colon (indicating the supporting phrase that follows is descriptive of "project alloy"), or an emdash, indicating a continuation on the thesis statement (the unveiling of project alloy by Intel corp.)

Grammar nazis get their panties all soiled when there is ambiguity, and either of those suggestions would make the headline very clear. But, there is

Re: the devil is in the details

[hackwrench]

But don't you just love ot VR? So much better than just plain ordinary VR!

Re: the devil is in the details

[hackwrench]

Wait... I am on my phone and the limited space tricked me into mistaking an earlier post of mine for the summary, which apparently my brain skimmed without telling me. Physician, heal thyself!

Re: the devil is in the details

[hackwrench]

Wait... I am on my phone and its limited space and the Slashdot mobile site conspired to lead me to believe that an earlier post of mine was the summary, which apparently my brain skimmed without telling me.

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[hackwrench]

Curse you, Slashdot, and your wily ways! you told me I had to wait to post again and between you and my browser ate my original message, so I typed it again, and you actually posted the first version.

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[lucm]

Barbra Streisand's lawyer called, he said you can't steal her effect

Re: the devil is in the details

[hackwrench]

Hiw am I stealing her effect when the whole point of my pists is puurely an exercise in whimsy. Except maybe a little bit about Slashdot's interface being rotten. About that, I was serious. And despite the composing flaws of the post I was referring to, I think I made a few good points and it wouldn't hurt to read it.

Getting closer and closer to AR HUDs.

[wierd_w]

This device does realworld object mapping and tracking already. It's just a few tweaks away from mapping a stereographic camera feed over each eye (digitally corrected for angle) with AR elements superimpsed. That's basically what the HUD in modt FPS games have these days. Having vector computation for something like a handgun's pointed direction for assisted targeting is getting much closer to reality.

I dont see ordinary people using these, but i could see physicians using it with backscatter and terrahertz imaging sources, and i can see the military using it.

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[Iamthecheese]

Guns and surgery? That's all you see? We've already talked about superimposing, for example, instructions for repairing a car over the car itself. A gun for "shooting" wildlife for the sport without the harm. Ikea has a virtual kitchen, so not too much longer and we'll have VR recipes showing timers for various items, the size you need to cut things to, and outlining the spices you need for quick selection from your spice rack. Intel's showcased technology will make it safe to bring games into the real worl

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[wierd_w]

You will have the same problem that plagued Google glass. People won't know you aren't recording them In full stereoscopic 3d, and wi presume that you always are.

A physician has a legitimate reason to be wearing a great big scanner on his head, as does a soldier.

The kids playing full AR Pokémon go across the street? Not so much. When the kids are all ogling your lawn, and you don't see the epic Pokémon battle going on there, you just see them all waving their arms and making throwing m

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[wierd_w]

Again, without seeing what the person is doing, standing there waving their arms around, there is no context to answer the internal question: what are they doing?

The guy waiting for the subway train could have a pronographic extrapolation app installed that renders all the women walking by in the subway naked. You would never know, because you don't see what he sees in his headset.

Likewise, again, kids looking like they are throwing things, possibly at each other, from a distance. They are throwing virtual

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[mikeiver1]

Wait, does this mean I can be a gargoyle and stringer for the NSA/CIA now?

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[wierd_w]

Possibly.

If the headsets ever DO become mainstream, people will be looking through them all the time. If the devices are Internet enabled, and hackable, the NSA would be foolish not to make use of the millions of stereoscopic, highdef, and mobile camera feeds out there. They could be looking through your "eyes" any time they wanted, and if they did it right, you would never know.

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[mikeiver1]

Exactly my point in a round about way... Also see "Snow crash"

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[Darkness Of Course]

And how many products are on the market that are really Intel products? Not very many, yes you can buy chips and systems with Intel chips. But products? Not very many. Oooh, let's not forget the LUC. There's an over priced product that fits perfectly with Intel. Slow to ship, high priced and appears its main focus is to advertise their chips. So other companies can make better, cheaper versions - which they already were doing. Or we can talk about Edison; also overpriced, also very slow to ship and trying

Cords and cameras

[hackwrench]

When I tried ot VR and found myself clumsily going over the cords I knew I had to wait for something like this. Also inserting reality should ne done wilth cameras and not via clear lenses like Google Glass. Maybe it is clearer in the article, but the summary does not make clear which this implements. Also, I don't know how Microsoft implements HoloLens.
Sorry for sounding like boasting about my ignorance and laziness, but it might be a waste of time to look futher until it really matters. After all, isn't

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[Troed]

Also inserting reality should ne done wilth cameras and not via clear lenses like Google Glass

Lag is the reason why inserting via cameras, processing, then displaying fails. We humans aren't really good at tens of milliseconds of disconnect from what our senses tell us and what we see.

Clear lenses (like Sony SmartEyeglass, in front of your eyes, unlike Google Glass) has zero lag on real world content (of course).

The Demo looks very underwhelming

[schweini]

The Demo looks like it's behind state-of the art tech quite a bit. Their hand-tracking was abysmal (the years-old LeapMotion seems way more precise and quick), the latency was noticeable even under the presumably perfect conditions, HoloLens does the 3D tracking better it seems, and any Android phone can do better graphics with a cheap VR viewer.

It might be impressive that this unit is all self-contained, but this really doesn't seem state-of-the-art at all!

a product code-named "Project Alloy."

[swell]

Where can I buy this product?

I hope it's not like other 'products' that are only speculative future imaginary development projects. I hope that it is real; it is something that has been honed to perfection and eagerly waiting for my purchasing dollars to lift me to the heights of virtual bliss.

Yes, I hope, but...

Not interested

[WaffleMonster]

Wake me up when there is an HMD available better than Rift or Vive.

Current reality 980ti burning 250 watts can barely run VR at a cringe worthy PPD. Self contained = watered down experience from decades past I have no interest in wasting my time with.

Thanks for creating another stupid name intel

[drinkypoo]

It's already called Augmented Reality. We don't need a new name for it.

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[Darkness Of Course]

You're right, however ... you cannot trademark it.

What?

[Anonymous Coward]

"The RealSense cameras also allow the device to bring real-world objects into the virtual world, or vice versa."

I don't get how that would work. Is it attached to a 3d printer?