A cardboard optical see-through mixed reality toolkit
2017–2019
Overview
Amber Garage, a Silicon Valley based creative art & tech studio, on June 1st, 2017 at Augmented World Expo launched HoloKit, the low cost open source mixed reality experience, which includes the HeadKit cardboard headset and TrackKit software. With your smartphone and Mixed Reality apps, HoloKit provides you access to the world of Mixed Reality right in your hands, affordably.
HoloKit features super sharp optics quality and a 76-degree diagonal field of view. Pairing with a smartphone, HoloKit can perform an inside out tracking function, which uses the changing perspective on the outside world to note changes in its own position. HoloKit merges the real and the virtual in a smart way. While you see through the real world, virtual objects are blended into it. Powered by the accurate gyro and camera on smart phones, HoloKit solidly places virtual objects onto your table or floor, as if they were physically there without physical makers. These virtual objects will stay in the same place even if you walk away, just like real physical objects.
HoloKit is different from screen-based AR experience. You can directly see through the headset and view the real world as is, and in the meantime the virtual objects are projected on top of the real world, as opposed to viewing both the real and the virtual through a smartphone camera.
Hardware and software
The original kit pairs HeadKit, a cardboard optical viewer, with TrackKit software. The phone supplies the display, camera, motion sensors, and computation; the viewer combines its rendered imagery with a direct view of the physical surroundings. This arrangement makes the existing smartphone the centre of the system.
The Unity SDK provides a starting point for building spatial experiences. HoloKit 1 is the first generation of the project, launched at Augmented World Expo on 1 June 2017; HoloKit X later develops the concept into a reusable headset and creative toolkit. Original project and SDK.
Exhibitions
Future of Storytelling. "Project: HoloKit". New York, U.S..
Media and Talks
TechCrunch: HoloKit is like Google Cardboard for augmented reality Read more
Gizmodo: Make Your Own Bootleg HoloLens With the Cardboard HoloKit Read more
MIT Docubase: HoloKit is a low cost open source augmented reality experience. Read more
HoloKit: Google Cardboard for AR @ TED Talk 2018 Read more
Credits
Concept Designer: Botao Amber Hu
Concept Designer: Fengyuan Zhu
Prototype Engineer: Fengyuan Zhu
Interaction Engineer: Yang Liu
Interaction Designer: Miao Tian
Project contributors: Botao Amber Hu, Fengyuan Zhu, Yang Liu, Miao Tian