I left this comment in a prior HoloLens related thread on HN the other day, but I'd like to reiterate (so I'll just copy/paste it) so I can get some more opinions on the concept. I'll add that the functionality I describe below would have limited use cases without a GPS or a device that's really useful/wearable outdoors and available to the public. But I think this should be the long term vision for holographics, as opposed to "apps" that run individual experiences.
> We need a search engine for holographic layer services. It would be like Google, but for MR experiences. Holographic services would use a protocol that defines a geofence to be discovered by the layer search engine's crawler over the internet (this could just be a meta tag on a classic website). The HoloLens or whatever MR device would continuously ping the search engine with its location, and the results would be ordered based on their relevance (size of geofence and proximity are good indicators). The MR device would then show the most relevant available layer in the corner of the FOV. Selecting the layer would allow enabling it either once or always, and the device would then deliver the holographic layer over the internet. The holographic layer would behave like a web service worker (in fact, it could be a web service worker) and would augment a shared experience which contains other active holographic layers. For example, your Google Maps holographic layer could be providing you with a path to walk to the nearest Starbucks, and once you're outside Starbucks, the Starbucks layer is also activated, which allows you to place an order.
> This concept of activated layers, I think, is a great way to avoid a future where we're being bombarded with augmented signage and unwanted experiences. In fact, you could go further and enable blocking notifications about specific/certain types of available services. (ie. don't notify me about bars or fast food restaurants.)
I also think this could have applications within intranet environments in corporate/enterprise contexts: several teams could each develop their own layers used for different purposes. That would make something like this worth while to pursue today, seeing as HL2 is solely targeting those environments for now.
It doesn't matter if it is 'layers' or 'apps' basically
the problem begins when you have more than one layer/app at a time.
So I guess for a long time we will stuck with one app a time, and some kind of manual switching.
Also there is privacy angle, I don't think nobody wants pinging their location all the time, maybe some QR code/ beacon solutions can help, but I am not much optimistic there too.
> Also there is privacy angle, I don't think nobody wants pinging their location all the time, maybe some QR code/ beacon solutions can help, but I am not much optimistic there too.
Maybe you could have something like K-anonymity? You discretize your location into chunks of maybe 100x100 m, take the hash of the chunk ID, and request results for all chunks whose hash starts with the same 4 or 5 digits as your chunk's hash.
Would probably require some more thinking since a consecutive series of requests for adjacent chunks could be used to uncover which particular chunks you were interested in.
If you own a cellphone you’re already carrying a device that pings your location all the time. I don’t think anybody actually cares enough to change what they’re familiar with, let alone some future potentially amazing technology.
> We need a search engine for holographic layer services. It would be like Google, but for MR experiences. Holographic services would use a protocol that defines a geofence to be discovered by the layer search engine's crawler over the internet (this could just be a meta tag on a classic website). The HoloLens or whatever MR device would continuously ping the search engine with its location, and the results would be ordered based on their relevance (size of geofence and proximity are good indicators). The MR device would then show the most relevant available layer in the corner of the FOV. Selecting the layer would allow enabling it either once or always, and the device would then deliver the holographic layer over the internet. The holographic layer would behave like a web service worker (in fact, it could be a web service worker) and would augment a shared experience which contains other active holographic layers. For example, your Google Maps holographic layer could be providing you with a path to walk to the nearest Starbucks, and once you're outside Starbucks, the Starbucks layer is also activated, which allows you to place an order.
> This concept of activated layers, I think, is a great way to avoid a future where we're being bombarded with augmented signage and unwanted experiences. In fact, you could go further and enable blocking notifications about specific/certain types of available services. (ie. don't notify me about bars or fast food restaurants.)
I also think this could have applications within intranet environments in corporate/enterprise contexts: several teams could each develop their own layers used for different purposes. That would make something like this worth while to pursue today, seeing as HL2 is solely targeting those environments for now.