Microsoft is Making the Right Moves
Oculus, HTC, PlayStation, and Google are in the center of the stage, fighting it out with their VR headsets, vying for market dominance with new iterations of their respective devices. But in the corner, out of view for most of the audience, sits Microsoft with its own unique device.
Ever since Satya Nadella took over as CEO of Microsoft, Microsoft seems to have made a number of good moves, and this is another one. With the release of the HoloLens in 2016, the company has carved out a niche for itself in the realm of Augmented Reality (AR) for businesses.
Here at OneBonsai, we’ve already written about why we believe AR has the potential to be bigger than VR in the long run. Microsoft is well ahead of its competitors when it comes to AR, and last Sunday (24th of Feb 2019), they added another reason why many companies consider them the leading AR hardware and software provider.
During the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Alex Kipman, Microsoft’s HoloLens Chief, announced the HoloLens 2, as well as a host of other hardware and software that would accompany the new HoloLens.
More Immersive
It’s been four years since the release of the HoloLens, and Microsoft has made some significant improvements to both the hardware and the software of the device. First of all, they made the HoloLens more immersive.
Specifically, this means they’ve more than doubled the field-of-view (FOV) of the device. Whereas the first HoloLens had a FOV of roughly 30 degrees by 17.5 degrees, the new HoloLens will have a FOV of 43 degrees by 29 degrees, which is roughly equal to the Magic Leap One, Microsoft’s main competitor at the moment.
While this is still far narrower than a typical VR headset and doesn’t capture the full FOV of the human eye, it’s a big improvement that’s likely to lead to new applications in military, healthcare (AR assisted surgery), and manufacturing (AR assisted maintenance on important equipment).
Microsoft has also made the device more immersive by adding a time-of-flight depth sensor, which helps to quickly and accurately measure distances between the person wearing the HoloLens and objects within a virtual world, as well as built-in AI to make manipulating holograms feel more natural. New security features allow you to log in with Windows Hello through iris recognition, which is about as scifi as it gets.
More Comfortable
So that’s for immersion. But Microsoft has also made the HoloLens more comfortable. After all, wearing the HoloLens for hours on end wasn’t as comfortable as you’d wanted it to be. The HoloLens 2 has a more balanced center of gravity and use light carbon-fiber material, as well as a new mechanism for donning the device and better thermal management.
You can flip up the visor when you don’t need to use the device, and Microsoft claims it’s three times as comfortable as the original HoloLens (although it remains a mystery how they actually measured that).
New Software
Thirdly, Microsoft announced a whole bunch of software applications to accompany the HoloLens that will make it easier for companies and developers to build AR apps. One such application is called Azure Spatial Anchors, which allows developers to map, designate, and recall points of interest across HoloLens, iOS and Android devices.
What this means specifically is that multiple people can see the same AR world. Beforehand, this required a complex setup, often with shared QR codes and extra coding. Azure Spatial Anchors provides a common coordinate frame that people with different devices can log on to for a shared AR world. Pearson Education already uses this to enable nursing students and professors to practice diagnosing and treating ill patients with AR.
Azure Remote Rendering is another new application that allows developers to place their 3D content in Microsoft’s Azure cloud and have it streamed down to edge devices without losing detail. This is an improvement on the way it was previously done, where edge devices themselves had to render 3D content and would sometimes not have hardware that was powerful enough to do so. This would lead to a simplification of the 3D content and a general loss of detail.
While the above two applications were developed by Microsoft, the company intends to keep its ecosystem open to its partners and third-party app stores and browsers. In fact, Mozilla already announced to bring Firefox to the HoloLens 2. It seems to be part of Microsoft’s larger strategy to become more open and allow for collaboration with companies that are sometimes direct competitors.
New Hardware
Finally, Microsoft also unveiled the Azure Kinect Developer Kit (DK), which is a new Kinect sensor with AI capabilities, a time-of-flight depth sensor, a 12MP RGB camera, and a circular array of seven microphones for advanced computer vision and speech with Azure. It can capture environments in 3D and can be used as an addition with the HoloLens 2. You can preorder it for $399 and it will be available in the US and China.
In Conclusion
Just like the first HoloLens, the HoloLens 2 and the other hardware and software that was announced last Sunday is marketed as business technology. With a retail price of $3,500 for the HoloLens 2, it’s unlikely many consumers will buy or use the new HoloLens.
But the device has been a hit with businesses and governments from all around the world. Only last year, Microsoft won a $480 million contract with the U.S. government to bring AR, and more specifically the HoloLens, to the military. This hasn’t been without controversy, as more than 200 employees signed a letter against the contract, saying they don’t want their technology used to “kill people”. But it seems unlikely Microsoft will pull back from the deal.
Blind people, too, use the HoloLens. Researchers found out that the HoloLens can act as a visual prosthesis for the visually impaired. Audio cues and instructions can help them navigate a room in far less time than they otherwise would. Objects announce themselves with a noise as the user scans the room, so they can easily avoid them. Walls hiss (white noise, not a snake hiss) as the user approaches them, and audio instructions warn the user of obstacles such as stairs.
Use cases like the above will only improve with the HoloLens 2. As businesses become familiar with the device and with AR in general, it will be very difficult for any new competitors to catch up with Microsoft. Here at OneBonsai, we look forward to testing out the device and to start building new AR apps with it soon.
Curious to know more about how AR can impact your business? Or would you like to know more about the Microsoft HoloLens? OneBonsai helps companies understand the potential of AR and how it can help solve common business problems.
We also have several AR devices available for rent, including the HoloLens, so companies can understand which options are available before making a decision on a device.
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