HoloLens developers make progress with Galaxy Explorer, watch their progress here

Vu Anh Nguyen

Galaxy Explorer HoloLens

Galaxy Explorer, the winning app idea for HoloLens in Microsoft’s “Share Your Idea” contest, is on a smooth track to completion, as shown in the second video in the mini-series chronicling its development, recently uploaded to Microsoft HoloLens channel on YouTube.

A quick recap: Galaxy Explorer, as its name suggests, is a space exploration simulation app that takes users through the Milky Way, during which they can get cool facts and stats about the galaxy and its planets (even visiting the surface of some of them), all using the AR capabilities and gestures of the HoloLens.

The new video is the second episode in the series, and continues from the brainstorming session of the small team making Galaxy Explorer depicted in the first episode, to actual development of the app, and seeing some of its components in actions. The developers’ thought process, how the app works, as well as the HoloLens’ surprising rendering power are depicted; one developer even expresses his amazement at the “tactile” feeling of interaction HoloLens provided with its gestures, comparing to just seeing the app in action on a computer.

https://youtu.be/q1ee8a-84Ro

All in all, Galaxy Explorer seems to be a cool way to demonstrate the capabilities and potential usages of HoloLens, and indeed, Microsoft is intending to open source its code to make it a blueprint for other HoloLens projects. Interested in joining the test of a new paradigm of computing? You can sign up to get a developer’s kit of the HoloLens, which will be coming out in the first quarter of 2016 in US and Canada for $3000 apiece.