The world gets its first real look at the Hololens UI today, thanks to a leaked two-minute tutorial video that shows off the interface in first person.
In the video a user launches applications using a layover called the “Shell,” which closely resembles the start menu from Windows 10. There are a few pinned tiles, and you can see a complete list of every application installed by clicking “all apps.” Users open things by “air tapping,” a technique the video demonstrates multiple times from its first-person perspective.
There’s a little bit of weirdness: at one point Kristina Horner, the tutorial’s host, explains that users “may have to look up and down, as well as left or right” to find an interface element. It seems like some taps don’t quite register, too. Still: it’s a computer interface overlaying reality, and that’s just plain cool.
The tutorial is for something called “Actiongram,” which allows users to drag 3D models, which the firm designates as holograms, into real-world surroundings and create 3D-supplemented videos. There isn’t an official Actiongram website right now, but Microsoft has applied for the trademark “Actiongram,” and other footage from the program has leaked recently.
Twitter user @h0x0d, who according to WinBeta.org first found the leaked video above, also found some early looks at Actiongram’s functionality. There’s this alien pet, for example, which creators can add to 3D videos:
Whip the Alien Pet pic.twitter.com/PyvYuPKd75
— WalkingCat (@h0x0d) February 23, 2016
And there’s footage of Horner dancing alongside a hologram:
VIDEO: Actiongram How-To videos 3 : Best Practices https://t.co/olVYOwDd5u pic.twitter.com/AUspFp79ez
— WalkingCat (@h0x0d) February 23, 2016
It’s not all flashy futuristic stuff, though: there’s also some old-school troubleshooting. For example, here’s a seemingly official, and totally mundane, tutorial for hard-resetting the HoloLens after a crash:
Tip: how to "hard restart" HoloLens when it crashed pic.twitter.com/1uENTjgtd2
— WalkingCat (@h0x0d) February 23, 2016
Microsoft has kept HoloLens information relatively close to the vest, so it’s fascinating to see these sorts of details. We’ll keep you up-to-date with anything else that emerges.
