Shared Reality Prototype Lets You Spectate VR in AR

Virtual Reality is awesome, we’ve tried all kinds of different experiences and headsets over the years. One the other hand, Augmented Reality is pretty amazing too, so why not enjoy both at the same time?

Software developer Drew Gottlieb has been working on a concept that allows people using the Microsoft HoloLens to view 3D real-time artwork created by users in a custom drawing app for Vive, which is similar to the popular Tilt Brush.

“A friend was recently painting a 3D submarine in Tilt Brush. “Look at this periscope!” she said. I told her to look closer at it, and I leaned into my computer monitor to get a glimpse of what she made. We can do better than this. Why do I have to get up off the couch to see what my friend is creating? Why can’t I just lean back and see the art floating in the middle of the room?”

By creating a Unity app that a Vive users can paint in, but also render a 3D scene that can be viewed as an overlay in the real world on HoloLens, people can effectively spectate the Vive users work in the real world. Since the software basically relies on the Vive controllers more than the VR headset, technically even the artist can be wearing a HoloLens too, and there’s no limit to how many AR spectators there can be.

Gottlieb said on his blog that the “quick and dirty solution works better than expected,” and we’re impressed by the concept, and while there are some gaming aspects, there are some interesting opportunities here for digital presentations and visualisation tasks.