Science Fiction fans no doubt will be familiar with the famous thermal head-up-display (HUD) shot from “The Terminator” which allowed them to see the world through the eyes of the T-800 character. Since the release of this 1984 James Cameron film, technology has come a far way, and Microsoft yesterday published a blog post which detailed how HoloLens developers can replicate the HUD display from the film, and become androids from the future.
The post is very technical, and even guides developers through the process of hooking up the HUD to Microsoft Cognitive Services so they could perform an analysis of objects in the room, face detection, and even some Optical Character Recognition. Overall, one of the first steps in the process is recreating the HUD UI in Unity, followed up locking the HUD into place, just as it is in “The Terminator.” Microsoft even details how to re-create the heat vision effect of the HUD by playing with shaders, followed up by instructions on how to make the text dynamic, and even some more in-depth details on how to connect to Microsoft Cognitive Services.
As Microsoft continues to push mixed reality, it’s definitely interesting to see that the company can find fun and creative uses for the technology. If you’re the technical type and also own a HoloLens, we invite you to head over to Microsoft’s post now so you can start the process of recreating the HUD from “The Terminator.” As always, let us know what you think by dropping us a comment below!
