Augmented reality doesn't have to be a solo act. A Microsoft lab is reportedly working on a shared multi-person AR experience under Project Comradre but it's not using HoloLens.
"Researchers in the Microsoft lab of Jaron Lanier are experimenting with multi-person augmented reality, and the results of their work could help shape the way the technology is commercialized and used," MIT Technology Review said.
As the website pointed out, Lanier is a pioneer of virtual reality and augmented reality in the 1980s.
Although Microsoft is already working on the HoloLens AR headset, Lanier reportedly stressed that Project Comradre is a separate entity "and does not reflect how that product will develop."
Tech Times reported that Lanier and his team presented what they have so far at SIGGRAPH 2015 using their own augmented reality headsets called "Reality Mashers."
The said devices are reportedly made from smartphones and laptops and come in several forms and deliver a field-of-view past 60 degrees. External sensors were used to track the user's head movements. Displays used also vary but all of them are "always untethered," according to Lanier.
"The team used various trackers, including OptiTracks, communicating with each other using a wireless LAN with low latency," Tech Times said.
But Project Comradre's goal of a shared augmented reality experience isn't without difficulty.
"The critical aspect for multi-person virtual reality is that you have to track everybody's movements very accurately in their own scene," Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University director Jeremy Bailenson told MITTR.
Tech Times chimed in saying multi-user AR is more difficult than a VR one because the latter combines a digital environment and the real world.
Nevertheless, Bailenson said he's impressed with Microsoft's HoloLens, its research and Lanier himself saying, "Jaron is the guy to do this. He's been thinking about this for decades."
