Microsoft BUILD announcements

This week Microsoft had several interesting announcements at this year’s BUILD conference keynote.

1.  All retail Xbox One consoles can become development kits free of charge.

a.  Xbox Dev Mode is available starting today as a preview and will be finalized as a full release this summer.

2.  The Hololens development kits started shipping this week, still cost $3,000 though.

a.  Showed off Holoportation- Full 3D Holographic video capture and transition. Princess Leia Star Wars scene.

Holoportation is a new type of 3D capture technology that allows high-quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed and transmitted anywhere in the world in real time. When combined with mixed reality displays such as HoloLens, this technology allows users to see, hear, and interact with remote participants in 3D as if they are actually present in the same physical space.

b.  https://youtu.be/tIl7UMUxKJo

3.  The cornerstone of the keynote was the Microsoft Bot Framework.

a.  This tool in preview lets developers build their own chatbots into apps.

b.  Chatbot- Programs that chat-based conversations between a user and an automated response system. Can be so realistic some users don’t realize they’re talking/texting with a chatbots.

c.   Skype will get chatbots built in for desktop, iOS and Android and its own Skype Bot platform. Examples included booking a hotel room and arranging delivery of cupcakes.