ICCV Daily 2019 - Thursday

20 Exclusive Interview DA I L Y Continues from page 9 . . . The team in Zurich have been very much focused on contributing some of the key computer vision work to enable that. It’s a service that wilbe one of the fundamental services under Minecraft Earth which is a new augmented reality game currently in early access release. In it, you can have multiple people play together in the same spatial context. So, I would see some Minecraft elements somewhere in the world, and someone else that is in the same experience as me can see that in the same place in the world on their device. This service works on iOS, Android, as well as HoloLens, so it’s cross-platform. Azure Spatial Anchors enables real world sharing of these holograms and experiences in games, in the same way that HoloLens and phones allow people to communicate and share information. Think of it like Post-its that you can attach to the world. You are clearly very passionate about this, and the community is very passionate about HoloLens. I think we can safely say that your gamble succeeded! Before we move on, do you have a funny story or something that we wouldn’t know that you could tell us about HoloLens? Before I joined the project actually, as they were ramping up production of the first HoloLens device, one of the machines in the production process had problems and the experts needed to help were far away in Redmond. The person in the factory was trying to fix it and was on the phone with people in Redmond but it was difficult. They suddenly thought: ‘Hey, we have a few HoloLens’s here, I’ll put one on and then you can see what the problem is through Skype.’ This enabled them to solve the problem quickly without needing anyone to travel. This is actually now a built-in feature on HoloLens 2 called Remote Assist which can be deployed right away for enterprises! It is a tool available now in Teams, which is our modern communication platform for enterprises. The remote assistance capability can be integrated directly in your company communication platform so that people out in the field or in the factory can contact the experts to help them resolve a problem. Marc, this has been a really fascinating interview. I knew that we would run out of time to talk in detail about ETH Zurich. It’s such an important institutionthat itdeservesan interview all of its own. Briefly though, what can you tell us about your work there? ETH is indeed a fantastic place. Outside "Think of it like Post-its that you can attach to the world."