Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. Krzanich has articulated the company’s vision for the future of technology, spanning virtual reality, autonomous driving, the industrial Internet, and the important role developers play in bringing this future to life.
Krzanich calls this merged reality — a new way of experiencing physical and virtual interactions and environments through a suite of next-generation sensing and digitizing technologies.
“Merged reality delivers virtual world experiences more dynamically and naturally than ever before – and makes experiences impossible in the real world now possible,” Krzanich says.
Among the initiatives announced at yesterday’s Intel Developer Forum keynote is Intel Project Alloy, an all-in-one virtual reality solution that features the compute and sensors integrated directly into the headset and leverages Intel RealSense technology.
Project Alloy will be offered as an open hardware platform in 2017.
A clear example of the future of merged reality today, the Alloy platform completely redefines what is possible in an all-in-one VR platform.
Alloy delivers a set of new and immersive experiences thanks to Intel’s RealSense technologies that are optimised for VR usages. These include:
* Go untethered: Operate without pesky cords dangling from your VR headset connecting to the computer. The computing power is located in the Alloy Head-Mounted Device (HMD), which allows the user to experience VR untethered. That means you can “cut the VR cord,” allowing a free range of motion with 6 degrees-of-freedom across a large space. This, combined with collision detection and avoidance, enables the user to utilize physical movement to explore a virtual space.
* Immersive experience: Through merged reality, see your hands, see your friends … see the wall you are about to run into. Using Intel RealSense technology, not only can you see these elements from the real world, but you can use your hands to interact with elements of your virtual world, merging realities.
* No external sensors: Alloy’s merged reality is made possible by Intel RealSense cameras attached to the headset and is not dependent on setting up any external sensors or cameras around the room.
* Available to make your own: The Alloy HMD is an example of how Intel’s suite of sensing and computing technologies, such as Intel RealSense technology, are being made available to developers, makers and inventors to deliver the future of immersive experiences. Additionally, Intel is collaborating with Microsoft to optimise Windows-based content and experiences on Intel-based VR devices such as Alloy.
Intel will open the Alloy hardware and provide open APIs for the ecosystem, allowing developers and partners to create their own branded products from the Alloy design, in 2017.
Krzanich also introduced the new Intel Joule platform for the Internet of Things (IoT). This new high-end compute platform is capable of delivering human-like senses to a new generation of smart devices and is now available.
Intel Joule is a sophisticated maker board with an Intel RealSense depth-sensing camera targeted at IoT developers, entrepreneurs and established enterprises.
The Intel Joule module enables people to take a concept into a prototype and then into production at a fraction of the time and development cost. The Intel Joule platform is a high performance system-on-module (SOM) in a tiny, low-power package thus making it ideal for computer vision, robotics, drones, industrial IoT, VR, AR, micro-servers and other applications that require high-end edge computing.
The module is available in two models: 570x and 550x.
Krzanich also announced a collaboration with Microsoft to bring virtual reality to mainstream PCs, as well as the availability of the Yuneec Typhoon H drone with Intel RealSense technology, the Intel Aero Platform Compute Board and the Intel Aero Platform Ready-to-Fly Drone.
At IDF, Intel announced the Intel Euclid Developer Kit for researchers, makers and robotics developers. This device integrates sense, compute, and connect capabilities in an all-in-one candy bar size form-factor that gives developers the ability to quickly and easily create applications with Intel RealSense technology.
Meanwhile, Intel Custom Foundry announced its 10nm design platform will now offer access to ARM Artisan physical IP to enable foundry customers to achieve best-in-class PPA (power, performance, area) for power-efficient, high-performance implementations of their designs for mobile, IoT and other consumer applications.
