Researchers at Microsoft Research have developed a way to give HoloLens users a virtual touchscreen through a system called MRTouch. This allows users of Microsoft’s mixed reality headset an additional way to interact while using HoloLens, complementing gesture, voice, and controller inputs, according to a Microsoft Research video demoing the use of the MRTouch prototype.
Although Microsoft Research hasn’t announced plans to bring MRTouch to the market or allow third-party developers to make use of the multi-touch interactions at this time, the good news is that it works on an unmodified Microsoft HoloLens headset. All users would need to do is use their fingers and swipe across a flat surface to create a virtual touchscreen. You can do this on a number of surfaces, including walls and tabletops. This virtual touch area could be used to display content, and you can interact with the virtual screen using multi-touch gestures, similar to how you would use a tablet.
One application for MRTouch and HoloLens is the ability to launch apps that rely on touch inputs, like a browser. This allows you to use a mixed reality device as your day-to-day computer, Microsoft said. In the photos app, Microsoft showed that you can pan and zoom using your fingers, just as you would on the Windows 10 Photos app on your touchscreen-enabled laptop or convertible. MRTouch even edges ahead of traditional touchscreens if you need to render realistic 3D content. Here, touch input could be combined with in-air gestures for specific interactions in three-dimensional space.
MRTouch essentially allows HoloLens owners to overlay a touchscreen that’s capable of displaying and rendering content on any flat surface.
MRTouch works by utilizing the short-length depth camera on the HoloLens headset for finger tracking. A reflectivity map is also captured at 25 frames per second, and the data is fed to the tracker engine, Microsoft said. Microsoft’s study tested for accuracy, and the results show that touch was detected 97.5 percent of the time with a mean distance error of 5.4mm. According to Microsoft, the accuracy rate of MRTouch is very competitive with the capacitive touchscreens today used on many modern laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.