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Does Microsoft have plan to add 4G or LTE to Hololens

I think it will be cool if we could have the ability to get internet connection on the street with 4G or LTE. It will be very useful for the navigation or something else. (Image that your destination is marked with a very tall yellow pillar which breaks the sky, just like what we see in the game. Or image that you could see an arrow flowing in front of you to guide you where to go)

Best Answer

Answers

  • BryanBryan ✭✭✭

    Would be cool some day. That said, the current HoloLens won't work very well outside as ambient infrared light and certainly direct sunlight will interfere with scanning as noted in the "lighting interference" section of the spatial mapping design documentation.

  • Chris_RowsellChris_Rowsell ✭✭
    edited March 2016

    I assume we will be able to tether our HoloLens to our phones, right?

  • @CoreyGoff said:
    We've released the hardware details... The device doesn't have a mobile broadband card. We'll bring this feedback to the team though.

    Yeah~ I have read the hardware details. This is why I ask for your future plan~~~ :D

  • @Bryan said:
    Would be cool some day. That said, the current HoloLens won't work very well outside as ambient infrared light and certainly direct sunlight will interfere with scanning as noted in the "lighting interference" section of the spatial mapping design documentation.

    Thanks for pointing out. Reading~~~

  • BryanBryan ✭✭✭

    @Chris_Rowsell said:
    I assume we will be able to tether our HoloLens to our phones, right?

    True. Wifi is wifi.

  • @Bryan said:
    Would be cool some day. That said, the current HoloLens won't work very well outside as ambient infrared light and certainly direct sunlight will interfere with scanning as noted in the "lighting interference" section of the spatial mapping design documentation.

    Hello Bryan, I read the page you gave to me. It looks like the sunlight will have the inference when the machine is trying to build the surface in the spatial mapping. But in fact, if I use Hololens outside, I think I do not care if it could create perfect virtual surface for me to anchor the APP. Most likely, I just want the APP to follow me and flowing somewhere near me in the air. For instance, I will like to video chat with my wife when I walk, or I would like to watch some online videos when I am waiting for the bus.

    What's more important for Hololens, I think, if Microsoft could add LTE to Hololens, then they could have many telecommunications companies as their partners to help spread this machine. And I think this is very important when they try to compete with other companies.

    I suddenly think I considered too much when I typed all these stuff :D

  • Chris_RowsellChris_Rowsell ✭✭
    edited March 2016

    That's a good point regarding distributing the device via mobile providers, you see for me, what makes the HoloLens so special is that not only the VAR and collaboration functionalities etch but also that the HoloLens is truly the next generation mobility device.

  • If the Hololens can remember 'spaces' then maybe it'll understand 'Outside' as a space where you won't be able to pin anything to the environment, but can still pin apps to yourself as an anchor. For example if I'm on the train I don't need he Hololens to scan the environment but it would be great to have a Media player that could be pinned in front of me.

  • @Ash said:
    If the Hololens can remember 'spaces' then maybe it'll understand 'Outside' as a space where you won't be able to pin anything to the environment, but can still pin apps to yourself as an anchor. For example if I'm on the train I don't need he Hololens to scan the environment but it would be great to have a Media player that could be pinned in front of me.

    Exactly, I agree with you. To find out if the space is "outside", I think we can complete it simply by switching mode. I mean the customer could tell Hololens stop scanning space but use the customer as the only anchor point.

  • @CoreyGoff said:
    We've released the hardware details... The device doesn't have a mobile broadband card. We'll bring this feedback to the team though.

    Much would rather have ability to Bluetooth link for outsourced functionality (e.g. Gps data from a phone 'close enough to you')
    as much as possible, then wifi (IP) for something that can't do that or is too fat a channel for Bluetooth link throughput.

    Battery consumption and weight versus ability to stand-alone balance.

    Phone inside let's device go for contract subsidized sale though, it's not likely to be cheap out of pocket.

    ...notice me senpais...

  • I wonder if there's any way to allow a mobile phone to assist with processing/memory storage when connected? (Could store extra 'spaces' or apps or even video to watch through an app on your Hololens)

  • @karma_terminal said:

    @CoreyGoff said:
    We've released the hardware details... The device doesn't have a mobile broadband card. We'll bring this feedback to the team though.

    Much would rather have ability to Bluetooth link for outsourced functionality (e.g. Gps data from a phone 'close enough to you')
    as much as possible, then wifi (IP) for something that can't do that or is too fat a channel for Bluetooth link throughput.

    Battery consumption and weight versus ability to stand-alone balance.

    Phone inside let's device go for contract subsidized sale though, it's not likely to be cheap out of pocket.

    Great idea! Something like hotspot could help us.

  • @Ash said:
    I wonder if there's any way to allow a mobile phone to assist with processing/memory storage when connected? (Could store extra 'spaces' or apps or even video to watch through an app on your Hololens)

    I think we could develop the new App to share information between our PC and Hololens, so that our PC could help us to store data. It should not be too hard, I think. To go a little further, we could even stream data from PC to Hololens, then we could do what you mentioned: watch videos on PC through Hololens.

  • @ghostship said:

    @karma_terminal said:

    @CoreyGoff said:
    We've released the hardware details... The device doesn't have a mobile broadband card. We'll bring this feedback to the team though.

    Much would rather have ability to Bluetooth link for outsourced functionality (e.g. Gps data from a phone 'close enough to you')
    as much as possible, then wifi (IP) for something that can't do that or is too fat a channel for Bluetooth link throughput.

    Battery consumption and weight versus ability to stand-alone balance.

    Phone inside let's device go for contract subsidized sale though, it's not likely to be cheap out of pocket.

    Great idea! Something like hotspot could help us.

    Maybe we could write an App on the phone to get the location data and share them to Hololens. This App is like a location server~

  • edited March 2016

    @Ash said:
    I wonder if there's any way to allow a mobile phone to assist with processing/memory storage when connected? (Could store extra 'spaces' or apps or even video to watch through an app on your Hololens)

    framework guidance for outsourcing of processing would be handy; could be to a web service, could be to something similar running on a windows phone - I for one would would certainly prefer not to have to make it up home brew.

    My lack of knowledge on distributed processing frameworks and their applicability in realtime apps not withstanding.

    go do this enormous batch processing task and return the hololens the result is kinda different than a realtime feed of camera info (we can even get that?) to a predator/other algorithm on a web service to do facial recognition at a base level from its requirements for immediacy of response. Then again, it isnt really - ones just trying to do the same thing against a stream. Point being, many of us will be digging for implementation specifics without guidance / in void.

    We will have apps shutting down from processing (heat) overload, itd be nice to formally consider how we might alleviate that.

    @ghostship said:
    Maybe we could write an App on the phone to get the location data and share them to Hololens. This App is like a location server~

    we definately can 'force it' by feeding the data over IP from a device which is deemed to be 'close enough' (in the hololens wearers pocket). But we're going to end up doing so in many different directions without design guidance.

    ...notice me senpais...

  • From the documentation: Bluetooth-enabled phones and PCs are not supported to be paired and used for file transfer

    So looks like we can use phone/PC over WiFi only, for assissting functions like data or processing. UNLESS they are restricting file transfer only.

    @ghostship said:

    @ghostship said:

    @karma_terminal said:

    @CoreyGoff said:
    We've released the hardware details... The device doesn't have a mobile broadband card. We'll bring this feedback to the team though.

    Much would rather have ability to Bluetooth link for outsourced functionality (e.g. Gps data from a phone 'close enough to you')
    as much as possible, then wifi (IP) for something that can't do that or is too fat a channel for Bluetooth link throughput.

    Battery consumption and weight versus ability to stand-alone balance.

    Phone inside let's device go for contract subsidized sale though, it's not likely to be cheap out of pocket.

    Great idea! Something like hotspot could help us.

    Maybe we could write an App on the phone to get the location data and share them to Hololens. This App is like a location server~

    Healthcare IT professional by day - Indie GameDev for UWP and mobile platforms by night

  • Perhaps tether to mobile hotspot of Windows 10 phone which would then allow you access to an Microsoft Cloud/Azure built app which would provide lots of compute powerful maps and location software and of course you own apps and Azure Storage would keep all you spatial aware information, finally all this can be driven by using Cortana voice linked application software already available

  • I'd like to know if MSFT want this kind of 'core functionality' (accurate geolocation is imo) something they want to build in a companion device API that if run on say windows phone 10, would allow link via bluetooth for less power draw than WLAN - or if they'd rather leave this to us all to create whatever solution we'd need to feed 'nearby device' location to a web service that hololens would then access.

    something official or guidance for outsourced world sensing info feeds, or whatever arises from the community and becomes defacto

    ...notice me senpais...

  • Please, and I am serious about this, for security and health reasons, do not add a cellular radio device into future versions of the head gear.
    1. I do not want the device to be at the mercy of the strongest cell tower, which could send and execute arbitrary commands on any cellular device. With most modern cellular devices integrating tightly with the cellular signal processing unit, in that such devices boot from and essentially run inside a VM of the radio device, that means the radio device has full access and control over device memory and could access everything in it if it so pleased. Big no-no.
    2. Cellular radio devices may emit a signal up to 2.5W strong in the stringiest of regulatory restrictions (more under special conditions), which is far greater than the typical maximum rating of 100mW which most Wi-Fi devices use. There have been studies about this with cell phones as far back as the 1990, wherein it is proven that cellphone signals can slowly cook your brain. Now this is obviously not as bad with cell phones, because you aren't on a call for extended periods of time (and even if you are, after 2 hours your battery would die) and don't tie your handset to your head either. However, this is a device which is attached to and used on your head for extended periods of time (I don't know how long the battery would last) and especially in areas with poor cell reception where cellular devices crank their output to the maximum allowed (more if a reachable cell tower says such legal restrictions do not apply) this would not only be a lot more unhealthy, but cause the battery to drain unnecessarily fast, even if you aren't actively using the cellular radio for anything, because the GSM standard specifies that emergency services must be reachable from any cellular device. And even though most modern smartphones forego it, actually have to display a message on startup when you powered it off in airplane mode, which, if you do not confirm to want to keep it on, defaults to an enabled radio device.
    Also, cellular devices are essentially "on" unless not supplied with power (and taking the battery out can keep them active for several hours in standby with low intensity radio mode). I do not want to get into the details of this whole thing, but it's better to not have a cellular radio built-in and attach a USB one if you need it, or a battery powered Wi-Fi router with USB attached cellular modem would also work very well. Usually USB devices do not have full direct memory access to the host device, even if operating in some form of DMA mode.

    Cognitive augmentation is going to become real now. You better watch out!

  • Mobile tethering is the cheapest it works with most new (<2 year old) which support 4G.
    Each country and telecom regulator would need to pass this device expensive!.

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