The first Windows 10 Mixed Reality-compatible headsets are expected to ship later this year for $299 and up. But you don’t necessarily need a headset to interact with mixed reality.

Microsoft has announced a new featured called “View Mixed Reality” is coming to Windows 10 this fall, and it’ll let you use any Windows PC with a webcam to superimpose virtual items on real-world environments.

Essentially, the feature is a lot like something you can already do with a variety of smartphone apps: take a virtual item and superimpose it on the image captured by your camera.

At an education-themed event in New York City today, Microsoft showed off an example: see how big the Mars Curiosity Rover is by putting a digital version next to yourself in a photo or video, giving you a better sense of the size and shape without having to travel to NASA (or Mars).

The feature should roll out as a free update for Windows 10 this fall.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,457 other subscribers

One reply on “Any Windows 10 PC with a webcam will support mixed reality this fall”

  1. Just a webcam? They must have solved some profound problems. How can you tell the proper scale for the rover? Does it just judge by the height of the person in frame?

Comments are closed.