Microsoft showcases HoloLens augmented reality version of Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go created ripples in the mobile gaming market and now, Microsoft has demonstrated the game running on its HoloLens 2 augmented reality (AR) headset.

Software development company Niantic has joined hands with Microsoft to create the AR version of Pokemon Go.

The demonstration showed the potential of the Pokemon GO experience built on Niantic's planet-scale platform that has enabled millions of people to have augmented reality (AR) experiences in the real world.

The announcement came at the company's 'Ignite 2021' virtual event where it announced 'Mesh', a new mixed-reality platform powered by Azure that allows people in different physical locations to join collaborative and shared holographic experiences on many kinds of devices.

The Microsoft Mesh platform will, in coming months, offer developers a full suite of AI-powered tools for avatars, session management, spatial rendering, synchronisation across multiple users and holoportation to build collaborative solutions in mixed reality, the company said in a statement late on Tuesday.

"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."

Microsoft Mesh will also enable geographically distributed teams to have more collaborative meetings, conduct virtual design sessions, assist others, learn together and host virtual social meetings.

People will initially be able to express themselves as avatars in these shared virtual experiences and over time use holoportation to project themselves as their most lifelike, photorealistic selves, the company said.

Microsoft Mesh also benefits from Azure's enterprise-grade security and privacy features, as well as its vast computational resources, data, AI and mixed reality services.

"More and more we are building value in our intelligent cloud, which is Azure," Kipman said. "In these collaborative experiences, the content is not inside my device or inside my application. The holographic content is in the cloud, and I just need the special lenses that allow me to see it."

--IANS

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