User Input overview

The HoloLens is a unique device, and the control scheme that it has been designed around is equally unique. Instead of your standard keyboard, mouse, or even touch screen, the HoloLens comes with three primary forms of input:

• Gaze: Here, you move a cursor with the direction of your head. A cursor is projected straight out and selects what you are looking at.

• Gesture: The sensor array is watching for certain hand movements. The Airtap, as well as Airtap and Hold, are the primary forms of interaction.

• Voice: The Cortana artificial intelligent part of the Windows 10 and Windows Holographic experience, as well as the Windows Voice Recognition system, allow the user to simply say their commands out loud and the system is really good at understanding even those with thick accents.

After some fairly extensive experiments, I have learned that even using fake words or gibberish will control the HoloLens. For instance, Rodbotter--a word that I just made up, as you will see later in this chapter--can be used to illicit change. As long as the words are pronounced correctly, the voice recognition system will understand and obey.

Together, these various forms of interactions have been labeled GGV. HoloLens has been designed around these user input types, which, as previously mentioned, should almost always be the primary source of control for holographic applications.