NASA is building the next Mars rover in mixed reality

I poked my head inside NASA’s latest Mars rover. During a mixed reality demonstration at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, as soon as I strapped on a HoloLens, a vibrant holographic vehicle popped up in front of me.

I walked around a model of the next-gen rover, which was only visible to the headset wearers in the room, before crouching down for close inspection. As I leaned in to look at one of the corners, the spacecraft’s platinum gray exterior disappeared to reveal a set of neatly aligned internal parts. As I continued to inch forward, my movement kept peeling away the layers of the rover until I could see the floor beneath my feet again.

The ability to investigate the design of NASA’s latest spacecraft, which is currently being engineered for the next mission to Mars in 2020, makes ProtoSpace a unique use for Microsoft’s augmented reality headset. The project enables JPL designers and engineers to not only visualize their designs as virtual 3D objects, but also pinpoint potential problems that could affect space missions along the way.

ProtoSpace is one of two mixed reality experiments at JPL. With the other, more widely known application called OnSight, the team has been using the new visual medium to recreate a hologram of Mars based on the Curiosity rover’s current exploration. Strapping on a HoloLens can quickly transform the floor into a rusty red planet, complete with its rocks, cracks and craters.

The medium takes away some of the complexities of machines and tools to make space exploration more experiential even for scientists. “Mixed reality brings data from our missions and the environment they’re exploring to us in ways that feel familiar and natural,” says Jeff Norris, lead mission operations at JPL. “It [replicates] the ways in which we look at the world today. I see it as not only simplifying the process of space exploration for our explorers but also allowing them to gain insights that they wouldn’t access if we weren’t engaging their natural abilities as effectively.”

Back in Pasadena, ProtoSpace is engaging engineers in a new kind of interaction with their spacecraft design. The vehicle, which is essentially a Computer Assisted Design (CAD) model in holographic form, appears as a floating, dynamic animation. You can do things like slip your arm through the brightly colored parts and bolts that are projected in front of you. But what the rover lacks in definition it makes up in presence. Unlike the CAD design on a flat computer screen, mixed reality technology brings a full-scale replica of the rover to life inside a room.

“It’s very important for engineers to gain intuition for the actual size, shape and arrangement of the spacecraft,” says Norris. “They need to see these designs at full human scale so they can use their natural abilities for the feeling of how large a part is or how tight the clearance might be. It’s difficult to access that when you’re looking at a model on a computer screen.”

When working on the new model the team has been able to place metal prototypes against the exact virtual spots where they need to go. This overlay of physical objects on a holographic rendering has given them a new way to measure distances between objects for a precise alignment of the parts. “Being able to see it in the space, walk around it and put their arms in the hologram allows engineers to uncover a lot of solutions,” says Matthew Clausen, lead software engineer on ProtoSpace. “[They can] discover problems they didn’t even know existed.” While assembling the spacecraft in a “clean room”, for instance, engineers can position the hologram to see how the spacecraft would align with the crane and other moving parts to avoid delays during the final build.

Spacecraft design is a complex and collaborative process. It requires meticulous planning to keep a space mission that’s worth billions on track. “Our launch windows are often not very flexible,” says Norris. “They’re dictated by the motion of the planets. A problem that causes us to stop assembly for a while can put us a week off our schedule, we plan for those but when too many of them occur they can threaten the launch date and that’s a huge impact.”

“Being able to see it in the space, walk around it and put their arms in the hologram allows engineers to uncover a lot of solutions.”

Mixed reality is helping scientists predict and overcome obstacles in innovative ways. But as a new medium, it presents its own challenges. When designing in CAD, for instance, a designer can rotate objects or zoom in and out for context. “With a full scale spacecraft [hologram], rotating it can be really disruptive when you have this huge thing shifting in your space,” says Clausen. “Working out new modes of interaction has been fun and experimental. Every time there’s a new solution, there’s a new side problem that needs to be worked on.”

The holographic medium presents a new way of assessing design objects in a room. But the interaction isn’t limited to real and virtual models. The ability to lean in and poke around a hologram while still being aware of other people in the room makes it an appropriate medium for designers. “It offers an opportunity for engineers to collaborate,” says Norris. “Many of JPL participants are overseas and it’s been a challenge to keep everyone on the same page when the physical designs and mockups are here in JPL. With ProtoSpace they can look at the full scale model — that’s a capability we’ve never been able to offer before.”

Microsoft wants you to share your 3D printer over your network

Sure, you can use your old-school paper printer from virtually any device in your home. But what if you want to use your 3D printer in the den while you’re lounging in the living room? Microsoft might just come to your aid. It recently released a Windows 10 IoT Core app (currently only for the Raspberry Pi) that lets you access a 3D printer from any Windows PC on your local network, whether it’s through Ethernet or WiFi. Once it’s running, it acts like any other networked gadget — you don’t have to be picky about the apps you use.

The initial version adds support for 13 3D printers, some of which you’re likely to recognize if you’re a fan of plastic printing: Ultimaker gets plenty of affection here, as do Lulzbot, Makergear, Printrbot and Prusa. And don’t despair if your hardware isn’t in the mix. Microsoft is taking requests for additional support, so your favorite 3D modelling box might soon print without a direct connection.

Source: Building Apps for Windows

Microsoft is purging terrorist content from its services

Microsoft is officially prohibiting users from posting anything that incites terrorist acts on its services, including Xbox Live, Outlook consumer version and document-sharing website Docs. In a blog post, the tech giant explained that it’s taking these steps, because it has “a responsibility to run [its] various internet services so that they are a tool to empower people, not to contribute, however indirectly, to terrible acts.” For Bing, however, the company will only remove links to websites if the authorities demand it. Search engines don’t host content, after all, and Microsoft has to respect people’s “right to access information.”

But what exactly constitutes “terrorist content” anyway? Redmond defines it as “material posted by or in support of organizations included on the Consolidated United Nations Security Council Sanctions List that depicts graphic violence, encourages violent action, endorses a terrorist organization or its acts, or encourages people to join such groups.”

Besides tweaking its consumer services’ terms to make things official, the company has also launched a page where you can report anything you think fits its description of terrorist content. Microsoft will take it down if it agrees with your assessment. While it’s clearly relying on reports from users to enforce this new rule, Microsoft might use an automated tool to scan its services in the future. It’s funding the development of a technology that can scan and flag known terrorist images, audio and video.

Source: Reuters, Microsoft

With Kinect, I made a Grimes remix just by moving my hands

When it comes to electronic music, it’s easy to see the ties between art and technology. In fact, that’s pretty much the entire goal of Moogfest, a music festival that celebrates more than just its synthesizer roots. At this year’s event, Microsoft created an interactive installation that allows attendees to remix Grimes’ “Realiti” by pushing in on a mesh panel. Kinect cameras track a person’s hand gestures to control different parts of the song.

Microsoft’s Music X Technology project, a collaborative effort with creative agency Listen, has been teaming up with artists for quite some time. Those collaborations aren’t just one-off exhibitions either. The company worked with Big Grams and Neon Indian to develop on-stage visuals using Kinect for live tours. It has also partnered with KEXP and Matthew Dear for similar “Inside the Music” installations where the person passing through a space manipulates the music. Dear’s version was the first iteration, complete with original music and design help from an architecture firm for the structure. The system itself relies on lights, speakers and those Kinect cameras to make the audio remix process possible.

“In this installation we’re using Kinect to follow people’s interaction with a mesh surface,” Amy Serokas, director of Microsoft Brand Studios, explains. “They can then change the way the music is performing in the space through their interaction. It breaks down the barriers between the artist and the fans.”

For the Grimes version at Moogfest, the space is divided into four “zones,” with each one corresponding to a particular piece of the song. As you move through the exhibit, pressing into a fine mesh screen controls a variety of options for the track’s instrumentation. The only two parts of “Realiti” that are constant is Grimes’ vocal track and the driving bass beat. All of the other sounds are literally in the hands of the 20 users moving through the space at any given time.

“Each time we approach this with a new artist, it’s a completely new challenge,” Listen’s founding partner Steve Milton says. “In this case, Grimes vocal is really commanding in this song, so we wanted that to envelope the space. We also felt there’s a danciness to the track, so we wanted to maintain that. The rest is up to the audience to fill in.”

In one quadrant, hand movements control the volume of a certain piece of the song while another adds effects like delay or reverb. “As people interact with the mesh, they’re bringing to life different parts of the music,” Milton continued. “They’re not only affecting volume and pitch, they’re affecting a number of different parameters: different types of EQ or adding delays, reverbs and all sorts of effects to those tracks.”

So, how does this whole thing work? There’s one Kinect camera for each of the four sections of the installation. Those map the surface of the mesh netting, tracking hand movements into and out of the space. The motion is then translated to control the stems, or different parts of the song, with a combination of MaxMSP and Ableton Live. Think of it like a mini nightclub that lets you control the music as you move to the beat.

The remix that’s created when you’re inside the installation is one of a kind, but that’s the whole idea. Sure, we’re seeing what Microsoft’s Kinect is capable of, but those of us experiencing the setup in person are also creating a one-of-a-kind remix that will likely never be repeated.

“Every time anybody goes through the space, their movements and interactions change the song just a little bit,” Serokas said. “I’d guess that it would probably be really hard to have you go through and have the same thing happen.”

While the first version of the project was being produced with Matthew Dear, Microsoft was careful to document the process so that other creatives could tap into the resources afterwards. You can grab the code that’s used to drive the Kinect sensors on GitHub and play with it at home. “If you want to build a 20 by 40-foot structure and put the Kinects up, you can recreate this, or try some things for yourself on a smaller scale,” Serokas explained.

The “Inside the Music” project will continue to evolve; Both Microsoft and Listen say they learn new things each time they team up with another artist. And thankfully they’re sharing that knowledge with all the hackers and tinkerers who helped make the Kinect famous in the first place. Microsoft is taking notice of the ways musicians are using its tech as well, so this won’t be the last time we’ll see the company collaborate with an artist on an interactive installation.

All images courtesy of Listen/Drew Reynolds

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft ends Windows 7 updating pain with massive patch

You can still buy Windows 7, but installing it has become a giant pain thanks to the numerous updates and restarts necessary. Thankfully, Microsoft has finally done something about it by releasing a new “convenience rollup” that will cover five years of updates from 2011 until April, 2016. It’s the first major patch since Service Pack 1, launched in February, 2011, so it covers hundreds of security, stability and usability fixes.

However, the rollup is not technically a service pack itself. It’s completely optional — if you’ve been keeping your Windows 7 machine up-to-date, you won’t need it. Also, it’s not being offered through the Windows Update service, so you’ll have to download and install it manually. Microsoft adds that you’ll need to install the April 2015 servicing stack update for Windows 7 prior to installation.

Going forward, Microsoft will offer monthly non-security rollups for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 via Windows Update. In other words, a single monthly patch will cover all non-security related fixes, while security releases will roll out whenever they’re needed. If you still prefer to download things manually, however, Microsoft is shifting those releases to the Microsoft Update Catalog. That means, bizarrely, that you’ll need to use Internet Explorer to get them, because the download scheme still requires ActiveX. Redmond has promised, however, to “eliminate the ActiveX control in order to support other browsers.”

Via: Thurrott

Source: Microsoft

Windows 10’s next update will double the number of Start menu ads

Microsoft is going to double the number of promoted apps in folds into the Start menu when it launches its Anniversary Update for Windows 10. Revealed at the WinHEC conference last week, the typical stable of five apps will be upped to ten: these will be links to drive app buyers to the Windows Store, with each country typically offering different items for different tastes and regions.

While some promoted apps are pre-installed, they can be cleared away — although the latest version of Windows does ensure they appear in your apps list, lock screen, as well as your Start menu.

If it’s any consolation, the Anniversary Update will more than likely include some desirable improvements (like collaborative tool Windows Ink) alongside reiterating that there’s plenty of apps to buy. Lest we forget, free upgrades to Windows 10 will stop in a few months’ time. You’ll then have to cough up $119 to stay up to date.

Via: Neowin

Source: WinHEC presentation (PDF)