Tag: Windows Mixed Reality

Samsung has announced a new advanced display technology for the HMD Odyssey+, bringing true-to-life visuals to its entry in the Windows Mixed Reality space that delivers an improved life-like and immersive experience.

To push visual boundaries, the headset has dual 3.5-inch AMOLED displays and a combined resolution of 2,880 x 1,600. And on the audio end, it integrates AKG’s premium audio technology for exceptional and dynamic sound performance. You’ll feel truly in the moment with built-in 360-degree Spatial Sound support that simulates 3D sounds, delivering clear and precise acoustics from every angle. There are also built-in volume controls.

You’ll experience true, distraction-free immersive viewing with the Samsung HMD Odyssey+’s exclusive Anti-Screen Door Effect (Anti-SDE) Display innovation [1]. When fine lines separating pixels become visible in some displays, the “screen door effect” can hinder immersion and even lead to dizziness or nausea over time. This headset deploys its cutting-edge display technology to fight irritating fixed-pattern noise for an enhanced MR experience.

And for those moments when you need to get back to reality, its controller can act as a flashlight so you can see the world around you – delivering a more comfortable and convenient way to stay aware of your surroundings.

But while you’re wearing the headset, you’ll find you can enjoy it longer, thanks to its improved ergonomic design. It weighs only 1.3 pounds and has a wider eye box to help match your facial features.

And now, anyone can find that perfect fit because everything from the headband to the display position, to the Inter-Pupillary Distance (IPD) wheel, is easily adjustable. The breathable anti-fog material of the face padding ensures the inside of the eye box doesn’t mist up, so you can enjoy your MR experience in greater comfort for extended hours, while the detachable design makes the headset easy to clean.

When you’re gaming with the headset, you’ll find built-in Bluetooth and Inside-Out Position tracking features, along with an easy plug-in setup with a compatible PC – you can jump into MR from just about anywhere. It also comes with pre-paired controllers, so you can start playing right out of the box.

With precision 6 Degrees Of Freedom (6DOF) tracking, you can indulge in richer mixed reality experiences. The 6DOF controller can detect your every move and distance traveled inside your MR world, responding quickly to the slightest motion, ensuring your gameplay movements are more natural, and significantly reducing any dizziness from in-game motion.

The Samsung HMD Odyssey+ will be available in the U.S. starting Oct. 22 at the Microsoft Store and Samsung.com, and will be soon available in other regions including Korea, China, Hong Kong and Brazil.

It will also be on showcase at Unite Los Angeles at the Microsoft booth 309-310 from Oct. 23 – 25.

For more information about the Samsung HMD Odyssey+ visit: www.samsung.com.

[1] Samsung Anti-SDE AMOLED Display solves SDE by applying a grid that diffuses light coming from each pixel and replicating the picture to areas around each pixel. This makes the spaces between pixels near impossible to see. In result, your eyes perceive the diffused light as part of the visual content, with a perceived PPI of 1,233PPI, double that of the already high 616PPI of the previous generation Samsung HMD Odyssey+.

Hey everyone — I hope this month’s blog post finds you well!

Today, we are welcoming the solstice in the U.S., and I am very much looking forward to summer in Seattle. In addition to some planned vacation time, I will also be working with our team and partners on some exciting product development efforts for mixed-reality business applications. I can’t wait to share more about that in the coming months!

But before we look too far ahead, June has already been filled with some cool mixed-reality moments.

Earlier this month my colleagues Dio Gonzalez and Katie Kelly presented at the sixth annual Augmented World Expo (AWE) in Santa Clara, California. I was encouraged but not at all surprised to hear from them about the tremendous growth of the conference, with many more incredible and varied AR solutions than ever before. This mirrors the signals we’ve long observed at Microsoft and aligns with the level of activity we continue to see in this space: Mixed-reality technology is increasingly providing demonstrable value across a wide range of workplace scenarios, which is fueling further interest from developers and businesses alike. AWE is a great conference, and I hope to be able to join again next year.

Supporting this observation, Microsoft recently partnered with Harvard Business Review Analytic Services to conduct a survey investigating the unique role and importance of mixed reality within the context of the modern workplace. This research surveyed 394 executives of companies with more than 250 employees each and spanning several industries, from manufacturing, engineering, and construction to retail, defense, and education.

The results—which you can read here—were released today, and the findings are fascinating: Among a great many observations, we learned that 87 percent of respondents are currently exploring, piloting, or deploying mixed reality in their company work flows. Similarly, 68 percent of respondents believe that mixed reality will play an important role in helping to achieve their companies’ strategic goals over the next 18 months.

The survey results identified several exciting areas of opportunity in the growing mixed-reality space.

One of the key opportunities is with Firstline Workers, who make up 80 percent of the workforce but often have limited access to relevant, contextual information due to the on-the-field nature of their jobs. These are the workers who are typically on the frontlines of any business workflow: behind the counters, in the clinics, traveling between customers for field service, or on the factory floors. Several of Microsoft’s commercial customers, for instance, are already empowering their Firstline Workers today with mixed-reality solutions that enable remote assistance, spatial planning, environmentally contextual data, and much more. Mixed reality allows these Firstline Workers to conduct their usual, day-to-day activities with the added benefit of heads-up, hands-free access to incredibly valuable, contextual information.

Lastly, a couple of days ago Alex Kipman spoke about mixed reality in the modern workplace at LiveWorx in Boston. LiveWorx brings together BDMs, engineers, and developers to learn about the tools available to help drive digital transformation in the workplace – such as IoT, mixed reality, and robotics.

Given our mission to help empower people and companies to achieve more, the conference was a great fit for our team. Alex hit on Microsoft’s strategy for mixed reality, in particular how it will serve to accelerate our ambition for an Intelligent Cloud and an Intelligent Edge. For those who have been with us on our mixed-reality journey, and for those who are just joining us, his fireside chat with Jon Fortt is a must-watch.

I am already looking forward to next month’s blog. In the meantime, as always, I’m available on Twitter (@lorrainebardeen) and eager to hear about what you’re doing with mixed reality.

Talk soon!

Lorraine