Faced with the revolutionary technology of VR\AR, what tricks did the world's most technological companies make? In this article, let's take a look at the deployment of VR\AR by Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook. 　　
Google: DayDream is not a daydream, but a weapon that dominates the mobile VR market.
In May of this year, at the Google I / O Global Developers Conference, Google VR leader Clay Bavor announced to the world that Google will launch the VR platform DayDream. The DayDream platform based on Android N system is divided into VR mode, head display, controller standard solution and VR application store.
The young man, who was the head of Google's VR division in January, said that DayDream optimized the VR algorithm to effectively reduce latency and reduce vertigo. It can support smartphones and reduce performance to less than 20ms. Previously, in the last 4 months, in the latest version of AndroidN, you can see the application that supports the VR function. Google's layout intentions are very obvious: grab the banner of the mobile VR market.
The emergence of the DayDream platform has brought significant benefits to the mobile market that was not valued. It is understood that Google will announce the detailed parameters of the DayDream compatible mobile phone and the corresponding parameters of the headset to the top hardware developers. It is hoped that the products of the mainstream hardware developers will be able to access the DayDream platform without any problems. Most mobile phones developed by mobile phone manufacturers are running on Android systems, so that even if Google does not do VR hardware, it can dominate the mobile VR market.
Google’s passion for augmented reality has been around for a long time. As early as 2012, Google developed a smart eyewear, also known as Googleglass. Although the launch of Googleglass has excited many countless tech fans, it is considered a "connected future" device, and even triggered a global wave of wearable devices, but because of its slow entry into the market, high price, privacy, security and other issues. This portable glasses is not as sought after as expected, and in January 2015, it no longer accepts orders, and is interpreted by the outside world as a completely failed project. Even so, Google still insists on the route of mobile VR. It believes that the key to the future VR boom lies in the smartphone, not the headset of the desktop and game console.
Clay Bavor was the head of the Google Cardboard project. At the 2014 I/O conference, each developer received a yellow recycled cardboard box that simply plugged the phone into this simple paper box and turned it into a 3D glasses. After installing the corresponding application on the mobile phone, it is a simple VR device. This is GoogleCardboard: it is cheap and easy to carry. Although it is not very immersive, it is easily accepted by the public. Such products have become the preferred development products for entrepreneurs. Nowadays, most of the startups who want to share in the VR market first develop VR glasses. Compared with PC-side VR equipment, the market education role of GoogleCardboard is indispensable.
At this year's Google IO conference, Clay Bavor said that the Cardboard application has been downloaded more than 50 million times, which indicates that Google's insistence is not blind, although Oculus and HTC's high-end VR devices are more immersive, but its high price. And the high-performance computers needed are still an obstacle in the popularization process.
Clay Bavor said in an interview: "We recognize the importance of 'mobile'. People don't need to go somewhere to experience VR, they can bring VR devices with them at all times. Everyone has a smartphone, thinking that smartphones can only Call, browse the web, send and receive emails, but VR can completely change the phone - it will become a mobile cinema in the pocket, a 'conveyor' that can carry people, and a game arcade that you carry with you. So we want to promote GoogleCardboard The right place – mobile, comfortable, accessible and low cost.†Daydream's compatibility will make this mobility and low cost even higher, there will be countless GoogleCardboard products without a threshold. Into the daydream platform, Google's popular VR is in the near future.
Microsoft: There is a huge ambition behind "jumping"
Microsoft, the technology that once dominated the world, has been overshadowed by Silicon Valley rookies in recent years. On April 22, 2016, Microsoft released its third-quarter earnings report for the fiscal year. The report showed that Microsoft's third-quarter revenue was $20.531 billion, down 6% from $21.729 billion in the same period last year; net profit was $3.756 billion, down 25% from $4.985 billion in the same period last year.
In recent years, Microsoft’s transcripts have really had no bright spots. Except for the performance of Surface product line, cloud computing and servers, other businesses are not satisfactory: after the smartphone operating system WindowsPhone is pulled down by the iPhone, No one has been interested in it until now; the Xbox sales of the game business is far less than that of Sony's PS4. It is difficult to compete with Sony's game content after the number of players is behind; while the stable Windows operating system has been updated, but it has been criticized. The Internet overlord urgently needs star products to restore the glory of the past.
On June 21st, 2016, some developers received an invitation from Microsoft to purchase Microsoft's HoloLens products from a private store. This is the fourth batch of developers who have been invited to buy, and some lucky ones will be invited to Boston. , San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York to attend the HoloLens Developer Conference.
HoloLens, a $3,000 device, is a holographic eyewear technology product released by Microsoft in January 2015. It is an MR product.
Although HoloLens can't create a 3D world that everyone can see like Star Trek, it only allows the wearer to see some computer-generated effects superimposed on the real world, but the vivid effects still marvel at countless people.
In the promo, people wearing HoloLens show the news flow, video and weather projected in the air, and can play multiplayer games, assist 3D modeling, etc. The combination of virtual projection and real environment is really "It’s true and false."
2016 is known as the first year of VR, the whole industry is still in the initial stage of development, and Microsoft has developed this MR product in 2015, can not help but feel: Microsoft directly crossed VR, to "jump" to occupy "MR "Market? In fact, Microsoft has already carried out VR layout, and the ambition is not small, trying to recreate the glory of the windows system to dominate the world.
HoloLens runs on a platform called Windows Holographic. If you compare HoloLens to a PC, then the Windows Holographic platform is the operating system. Microsoft wants to use this platform to dominate the world again.
The Windows 10-based Windows Holographic platform provides holographic image frameworks, interactive models, perceptual APIs, and XboxLive services. Hundreds of holographic UWP applications can now be found in the Windows store, showing that it is expanding on a large scale.
At the 2016 Taipei Computer Show, Microsoft announced the opening of this mysterious Holographic platform. Other vendors' VR, AR and MR devices are using the Windows Holographic platform to make the Windows Holographic platform the same as Windows in the PC industry.
Just as Google is trying to dominate the mobile VR market with the DayDream platform, Microsoft wants to take advantage of the VR device's operating system to capture the PC VR market without having to consider hardware development. As a result, "Sima Zhao's heart is well known", Microsoft's ambitions have been completely exposed.
At present, high-end VR products Vive and Rift are running on Windows systems. If the mainstream PC VR products on the market can access Windows, it is not a bad thing for consumers. Although Microsoft has monopolized the market, it is good. In the user does not need to replace the computer system, coupled with the competitors of Apple and other competitors, it is expected that Microsoft can only provide better software services and compatibility.
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