Microsoft's HoloLens can offer up some truly awesome experiences for those wearing the headset, but sharing those experiences in a high-quality, compelling way can be a challenge. Now, Microsoft is attempting to address the problem with a pretty cool, albeit somewhat hacky, "Spectator View" rig.
Essentially a camera rig with a HoloLens mounted on top, Spectator View makes it possible to show an entire audience of people what someone wearing a HoloLens is seeing with high-quality mixed reality capture. According to Microsoft's instructions for developers, using Spectator Mode will require 4 main components:
- An app built specifically to enable spectator view, which is based on shared holographic experiences.
- A user wearing HoloLens using the app.
- A spectator view camera rig providing a third-person perspective video.
- A desktop PC running the shared experience app and compositing the holograms into a spectator view video.
That said, putting a spectator view rig together is no easy feat. While the documentation is open to anyone on Github, building the rig requires not only a second HoloLens and DSLR camera, but some 3D printed mounting components as well.
Once set up, the rig will help developers and companies show off a high-quality view of what their HoloLens apps can do. And while HoloLens does have a Mixed Reality Capture mode built in, it has its own quality limitations that this rig can overcome. For more, be sure to check out Microsoft's spectator view instructions.
