Tag: xbox ar glasses

It has been reported from a number of technology news sources that Project Fortaleza is on hold.

Although the rumors have been flying about a pair of augmented reality glasses that were expected to be released at some point in the not-too-distant future, by Microsoft, reports are suddenly being released that suggest that the wait is going to be considerably longer than expected because the project, as a whole, has been put on hold.

Expectations for AR wearable technology have been high since a Microsoft patent was leaked last year.

The augmented reality device had been in the works as a peripheral for Xbox One. The codename for this product was called “Project Fortaleza”. That said, since that first leak, there hasn’t been a great deal of information that has come available from the company. Moreover, Microsoft, itself, has never confirmed or denied that the wearable technology exists, at all. Now, it looks as though the Project Fortaleza work has been “temporarily cancelled”. The original report was made on WPDang, a Chinese website.

This suggests that the augmented reality project is simply on hold and not actually stopped altogether.

According to the source, the reason that the AR glasses are being placed on the back burner has nothing to do with the actually implementing the technology. The development of the device didn’t seem to be coming with any hitches, at all. However, a considerable number of the tech patents that are involved in the process of making this device do not actually belong to Microsoft. Therefore, the company would be required to license those patents – an action that is now keeping Fortaleza from becoming available to Xbox One owners.

Some of the patents have already been licensed for the Kinect sensor’s second generation, but those licenses are specifically meant for that one device and cannot be carried over to be used for anything else.

Until those issues are sorted out, it is clear that the primary push being made by Microsoft will not be in augmented reality. This could end up presenting the company with some challenges as it looks as though Sony and its Oculus are hoping to be the next breakthrough in VR gaming.

The company is tinkering with the idea of incorporating the wearable devices in its game console.

A patent application that was newly published by Mircrosoft has revealed that it appears to be tinkering with a head mounted display device for multiplayer games, and which has technology followers wondering if augmented reality may be in the future of the Xbox game console.

None of these speculations have been officially confirmed by the company, other than its patent application.

The patent application details look as though Microsoft is working on augmented reality glasses and a way to be able to match the players by way of these wearable devices. Provided in the description is a system and related methods for being able to invite a potential additional player to participate into a multiplayer game by way of a device with a head mounted display, to be worn by the user.

Augmented reality could be a central part of being able to form a full experience among several players in a virtual space.

Within one of the examples, a potential additional player invitation program would receive data by way of the user’s voice and determines that the this data is an invitation to be able to take part in the multiplayer game. From that point, eye tracking information is received by the program, in addition to facial recognition data, depth info, information related to the head mounted display device of the potential user and/or the voice data of the potential player.

The program makes a match of the potential player with the potential player account. From that point, the program receives a response of acceptance from that additional player so that he or she can have his or her potential player account with a multiplayer game participating user account.

What is central to the filing of the patent from Microsoft was the use of the potentially augmented reality based eye tracking, facial recognition, depth information and other sensor data use in order to make it possible for a number of different players to participate within the same virtual game arena.

For example, to make it possible for two players to fight using swords. Within the patent filing, it explains that “depth information comprises a measured depth of an interaction space in which the user and the potential player are located, and the potential player invitation program is further configured to use the depth information to select a suggested multiplayer game that is physically compatible with the measured depth of the interaction space; and suggest to the user the suggested multiplayer game.” This has suggested to many that augmented reality would be required to complete that experience.