Table Of ContentEnvisioning
Holograms
Design Breakthrough
Experiences for Mixed Reality
M. Pell
Foreword by Tony Parisi
Envisioning Holograms
M. Pell
Woodinville, Washington, USA
ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-2748-0 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-2749-7
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-2749-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017959386
Copyright © 2017 by Mike Pell
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Printed on acid-free paper
This one is for me.
Table of Contents
About the Author vii
Acknowledgments ix
Foreword xi
Introduction xv
Part I: A New Frontier 1
Chapter 1: What’s So Special About Holograms? 3
Chapter 2: Why is Holographic Design So Challenging? 17
Chapter 3: How Can Envisioning Help? 31
Chapter 4: When Should I Use Envisioning? 41
Chapter 5: Where Do We Start? 51
Part II: Envisioning Holograms 63
Chapter 6: Shifting Your Mindset 65
Chapter 7: Choosing a Technique 87
Chapter 8: Breakthrough Examples 119
Part III: The Envisioning Process 137
Chapter 9: Flow 139
Chapter 10: Frame 151
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Chapter 11: Prototype 171
Chapter 12: Test, Refine, Restart 189
Chapter 13: Invaluable Tools 201
Part IV: Holographic Designs 223
Chapter 14: HoloScenes 225
Chapter 15: Datascrapers 249
Chapter 16: HoloArt Gallery 275
Chapter 17: Design Insights 301
Closing Thoughts 311
Index 313
vi
About the Author
Bold, insightful, and uncompromising,
M. Pell is recognized as a thought leader in the
fields of Holographic Envisioning and Smart
Information.
Pell currently leads Design for The Microsoft
Garage, the company’s outlet for experimental
projects and curiosity-fueled explorations,
worldwide.
As a lifelong Designer/Coder, he has consistently been on the leading
edge of design and innovation over his thirty years in high- technology.
Career highlights include creating the first stylized Font menu at the
dawn of the Macintosh (MenuFonts), working with Pixar to pioneer 3D
type generation with RenderMan (TextMan), co-inventing electronic
document interchange (Adobe Acrobat), conceptualizing dynamic 3D
information (InfoSpaces), developing a rapid design method (Fast Design),
and being the inventor on over a dozen U.S. Patents.
Besides his writing, M. Pell is a dynamic presenter who delivers
entertaining talks on a wide variety of design topics. His evolution from
intrepid entrepreneur, to VC-backed startup veteran, to corporate man for
Adobe and Microsoft has given him a unique perspective to draw on when
discussing how to combine business, experience, and technology to create
experience breakthroughs.
You can discover more about M. Pell and see his current work at
futuristic.com.
vii
Acknowledgments
Who knew?
I thought writing and illustrating a book would be relatively easy. Writing
was fun for me, it came pretty easy, and I had endless things to say. How
hard could it be?
Turns out that writing a book for the first time is quite the endeavor.
Holy crap. So, it’s no surprise that I could not have done this particular
book without the help of a ton of people and decades of experience.
First and foremost, the team at Apress took my initial concept and
helped me shape it into what you see before you. Jonathan Gennick led
me through the book writing and editing process like the pro that he is,
Jill Balzano found innovative ways to accommodate my experiments, and
Welmoed Spahr had the vision to expand the publisher’s view of itself.
Many thanks for your support and hard work.
Next, there’s no question I continue to learn and grow every single
day of my life because of my amazing team in The Microsoft Garage
around the world. You all bring out the best in me and provide the right
environment to do epic work. Thank you for crushing it every day.
And finally, for the hundreds of people who have inspired me over a
lifetime of adventures (and expect to see your name listed here), you know
who you are, and already know how much I appreciate you. Thank you.
Until next time,
M. Pell
ix
Foreword
A Postcard from the Bleeding Edge
In the summer of 1977, I was one of millions of American nerd boys who
flocked to see Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Of its many iconic
scenes, one that really stuck with me was the scene where Princess Leia
delivered Obi-Wan Kenobi a message of vital importance to the resistance –
via a tabletop video hologram. Though George Lucas was telling a story
that happened long ago and far, far away to other people, he was really
envisioning our future. And as it turned out, it wouldn’t take that long to
become a reality.
Looking back, I think that scene from Star Wars is in no small way
responsible for drawing me to immersive computer interfaces. I eventually
became a professional software programmer, working on random boring
stuff for a few years, but at every job I would find excuses to work on 3D
graphics. 3D charts rendered to inkjet printers. Real-time wireframe
models to visualize data on workstation computers. Nothing fancy back
then; the tech to make the really cool stuff wouldn’t land on laptops for
another decade, and mobile phones for another decade after that. All
this 3D tinkering eventually led me to an absurdly ambitious project
to build the Metaverse: virtual people in 3D-rendered environments,
communicating in real time, transcending time and space. That project,
which came to be known as the Virtual Reality Markup Language, or
VRML, was ultimately too early by twenty years.
It was back then that I met Mike Pell. Since I’ve known him, Mike
has been on a quest to create software designs that put people at the
center. Mike was early with 3D as well, working through a series of startup
xi
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companies exploring how far he could push the boundaries of human-
computer interface. These days, years might go by between our face to face
encounters, but Mike is the kind of guy where when you do see each other
again, you pick up right where you left off. Our most recent reunion came
about a year ago, with Mike firmly ensconced at Microsoft and me with
a new job at Unity Technologies. Two old soldiers, with gray hair but the
same sparkle in our eyes, and the same mission: to make computers work
for us.
Forty years have gone by since the premiere of Star Wars, and
computers have come a long way. We appear to be at the cusp of a next
great wave of breakthroughs, including mixed reality, voice recognition,
artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things. Combined with genetic
engineering and advances in materials science, the possibilities are
magical and limitless, and without a doubt will shape the next several
decades of human endeavor.
3D interface is no longer a theoretical possibility; it’s the new reality.
And with all this new potential comes the need for a new approach to
design. To create mixed reality applications, the software designer must
transform, becoming parts and alternately architect, interior designer,
information designer, storyteller, filmmaker, game designer, and social
engineer. But most importantly, we need to learn to envision.
Can you envision what a 3D Wikipedia will be like? How 3D maps, with
elevation and physical features, operate when displayed as holograms on
your tabletop? Speaking with 3D video holograms of your loved ones in
some future version of FaceTime? Or a 3D PowerPoint, with persuasive
presentation graphics rendered all around you?
You can? That’s great! But sorry; pretty much anybody can do that. Now,
really challenge yourself: for any of these scenarios, imagine where and
when they are used, by whom, and for exactly what. Go even further: how
xii
