Microsoft’s new mixed reality platform could turn us all into teleporting holograms.
At this year’s Ignite conference, Microsoft unveiled a new mixed reality platform powered by Azure that brings holographic teleportation (or “holoportation”) into the forefront of today’s digital landscape. It is called Microsoft Mesh, and it uses 3D capture technology to beam images of people into a virtual scene, like when R2-D2 delivered a message from Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker (yes, we’re nerds). “This has been the dream for mixed reality, the idea from the very beginning,” said Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman. “You can actually feel like you’re in the same place with someone sharing content or you can teleport from different mixed reality devices and be present with people even when you’re not physically together.” For all the pain and suffering and devastation wrought by the pandemic, it may have also accelerated future-thinking concepts into the forefront, as we collectively cope with how to work and educate in a landscape where social distancing is still the smart play.
