Lowe's HoloLens

Lowe's Hologram Experience
2016

CLIENTS
Microsoft | Lowe's

RESPONSIBILITIES
Spatial User Experience Design | Technical Artist

OVERVIEW
Microsoft was announcing the paradigm-shifting launch of not just a new piece of hardware (HoloLens), but a technology (Mixed Reality) that will forever change the way we interact and experience daily living in the near future.

I was fortunate enough to be on the team that created one of the first HoloLens' consumer facing applications. One in which the public had an opportunity to experience first hand at selected Lowe's Home Improvement stores.

PROBLEM
The Microsoft Showcase Team was an internal team within Microsoft's Analog R&D that collaborated with external corporate partners to deliver first-of-kind solutions for many of the emerging technologies launching into the market.

Lowe's Home Improvement had an idea two years prior to, concepting a similar technology that would help their customers have a fun and engaging way to collaborate while designing real-time explorations for purpose-driven value.

APPROACH
I came into this project half way through, when a majority of the interaction models were defined; but I was also encouraged to discover new ways to design and test methods and techniques yet defined or implemented. Among some of the challenges included: direct versus indirect manipulations, location, placement and timing of introducing holograms, and proper implementation and drawbacks of using digital occlusion.

From a technical artistry perspective, some of the challenges I had to deal with was: optimizing polygon count, baking ambient occlusion and lighting into the textures/vertices, creating optimized shaders for metallic and reflective surfaces, deployment, problem-solving, testing and re-optimizing assets.

RESULTS
This project was successfully launched as one of the first campaign success stories for the new platform and the client. It made it's way out of the lab and went on to be deployed as a nationwide pilot program in Lowe's Home Improvement Centers throughout the country.

Microsoft went on to add features including "gaze-generated” heat-maps through telemetry data, "customer sentiment" via cognitive service API's, integrated Cortana Intelligence, Azure, PowerBI, and an external partnership with Pinterest.

TOOLS
3DS Max | Photoshop | Unity

LINKS
Lowe's Innovation Lab
Microsoft HoloLens: Ignite Innovation Keynote
Microsoft Lowe's Hologram Experience Case Study