Hololens and Occulus Rift at c4di

I got to the c4di Hololens and Occulus Rift demos slightly later than planned thanks to a succession of red lights on the way. By the time I arrived the room was pretty much full and there were queues to try out the latest in virtual and augmented reality.

The interesting thing for me was the contrast in the devices. The Occulus  Rift is a fairly bulky device attached to a large, powerful PC. The Hololens just sits on your head with no cables, no external computers, just the device itself. It ran happily on batteries for the time I was there. I had a brief go with it and the experience was just as impressive as it was when I played with it last year. The thing about these devices for me is that, unlike things like stereo TV or multi-channel sound, people try them and just decide that they want more of this.

The Rift (and my weapon of choice - the HTC Vive) take you somewhere else. The Hololens takes where you are and adds value to the surroundings. They are both awesome technologies and I'm racking my brains to think of an area where they couldn't have an impact. Interesting stuff. Thanks to Trident for arranging the session.