增强现实未来大热？看微软做了哪些准备

用不了10年，人们就可以经常跟投射到现实世界中的数字图像以及全息图互动了。

上周三在圣克拉拉召开的AWE（主题为增强现实和虚拟现实）年会上，微软负责Windows和HoloLens头戴式显示器体验的总经理洛琳•巴丁表达了这一观点。巴丁主要介绍微软为何认为这项刚刚起步的技术会成为使用计算机的新方式，仅次于移动设备触摸屏以及标准键盘和鼠标。

和虚拟现实不同，增强现实技术可以让人们看到叠加在真实世界之上的数字图像。这种技术被微软称为混合现实（mixed reality）的技术，问世时间并不长，去年夏天的手游大作《精灵宝可梦Go》流行起来之后才获得较多关注。

一年来，Facebook和谷歌等大公司都表示将投入大力气利用好增强现实技术。举例来说，Facebook今年4月新推出开发者工具和功能，用户可以用滤镜给照片添加特殊效果，比如卡通胡须。

巴丁解释说，微软推广增强现实技术的途径之一是调整经典的Windows画图工具，方便使用者绘制或设计3D图形，不再拘泥于传统的平面图。走出技术人员的小圈子，让更多普通消费者熟悉3D图形制作是普及增强现实技术的“根本基础”，大众可以借此习惯与3D内容互动。

巴丁指出，利用新版画图工具、安装了Window 10系统的电脑以及专用摄影机，今年秋天人们就可以把3D图像投射到现实世界中。当然，他们只能在自己的电脑屏幕上观看数字图像。但巴丁认为，这将帮助“数以亿计”没有增强现实头盔的人体验新技术。

巴丁还展示了一段微软custom studio的视频——106部摄影机环绕着一小块空间，制作出3D图像可供使用者嵌入自己的app中。微软可以捕捉一个人踢足球的动作或者羊驼缓慢踱步，然后转换成数字图像，人们用HoloLens头戴设备或者某些Windows 10电脑就能在真实世界里看到动态图像。

巴丁还说，企业可以利用这种图像“跟粉丝互动”或者“公司培训”，跟使用传统的图片库一样。

不过，目前公众还买不到可将数字图像投射到真实世界中的HoloLens头戴设备。仅供开发者或企业使用，售价为3000和5000美元。虽然巴丁没有透露微软何时会公开出售HoloLens设备，但表示今年晚些时候将与其他制造商联合推出新款增强现实头盔，新设备将成为“抢占未来计算机领域的切入点。”

戴尔和联想等公司也打算在今年底前拿出类似产品，不过都没有披露过售价。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

In less than ten years, people will routinely interact with digital graphics and holograms beamed onto the real world.

That’s according to Lorraine Bardeen, Microsoft’s (msft, -0.81%) general manager of Windows and HoloLens experiences. Speaking Wednesday at the annual AWE conference for augmented reality in Santa Clara, Bardeen discussed why Microsoft sees the nascent technology becoming the next way people use computers beyond mobile touchscreens or the standard keyboard and mouse.

Opposed to virtual reality, augmented reality technology lets people see digital imagery overlaid onto the physical world. Microsoft refers to AR as mixed reality, and it is still a relatively new phenomenon that generated much interest after the popularity of last summer’s blockbuster mobile gamePokemon Go.

Over the past year, major companies like Facebook (fb, -0.60%) and Google (goog, -1.13%) have indicated they will incorporate AR tech in significant ways. Facebook, for example, debuted in April new developer tools and features that lets users apply filters to their photos to add special effects, like cartoonish mustaches.

One way Microsoft is trying to popularize AR tech is by revising its classic Paint app to let people draw and design 3D graphics as opposed to traditional two-dimesional images, Bardeen explained. Getting more general consumers—not just tech professionals—familiar with creating 3D graphics “is a fundamental building block” to popularizing AR because it helps accustom the general public to interacting with 3D content.

This fall, people will be able to project their 3D graphics created via the revamped Paint app onto the real world via Windows 10-powered PCs with special cameras, Bardeen said. Of course, they will have to view the digital images through their computer’s monitor, but Bardeen said it would help the “hundreds of millions of people” who don’t have the appropriate headsets interact with AR tech.

Bardeen also showed a video of Microsoft’s custom studio, a small enclosure surrounded by 106 cameras being used to create 3D imagery people can embed in their apps. By capturing the motion of a person kicking a soccer ball or even a llama slowly walking, Microsoft can then convert those images into digital graphics that people will be able to see overlaid onto the real world with HoloLens or certain Windows 10 PCs.

Bardeen added businesses could use these stock images for purposes like “fan engagement” or “corporate training” similar to how they use traditional stock photography.

However, Microsoft’s HoloLens AR headset that beams digital imagery onto the physical world is not available to the general public. Right now, it is only available for developers or businesses for $3,000 and $5,000. Although Bardeen did not say when Microsoft plans to sell the HoloLens to the public, she said new AR headsets released later this year via partnerships with other manufacturers will be “an entry point into this future of computing.”

Some of the companies slated to release these headsets by year’s end include Dell and Lenovo, although none of the companies have said how much they will cost.