Microsoft teams with Volkswagen to produce HoloLens Technology Car

Volkswagen

 

Microsoft has officially announced a new “mobile platform” feature for HoloLens 2 designed to make the augmented reality headset work in places like cars. It solves a longstanding problem with HoloLens where moving environments can clutter the headset’s sensors.

The improvement was developed in partnership with Volkswagen, which has been trying to integrate the headset’s technology into the car’s head-up display in its vehicles. As Microsoft’s blog post explains, its augmented reality headsets use a combination of camera sensors and inertial measurement units (usually including accelerometers and gyroscopes) to track movement.

But in a car, the readings from the two sensors can collide; the headset senses motion but sees a static environment. In other words, it’s getting motion sickness (don’t laugh, it’s true).

That’s what Volkswagen found after it started investigating the use of augmented reality headsets to teach drivers how to get around a race track faster. It began working with Microsoft in 2018 to solve the sensor problem, and eventually, the two sides worked together to develop a prototype system that would allow cars to display real-time information in AR.

The system can place virtual objects both inside and outside the car. An image released by Microsoft (above) shows the Hololens 2 projecting a virtual map onto the car’s dashboard, with navigation arrows appearing ahead at key intersections. The second image shows it alerting drivers to an approaching pedestrian crossing.

Volkswagen’s existing cars already incorporate some augmented reality elements, and the recent hot-selling ID line of electric cars has an augmented reality head-up display that projects the car’s data — including current speed and navigation instructions — onto the windshield, so drivers can see more easily without taking their eyes off the road.

Given that Microsoft is firmly targeting enterprise users with the $3,500 HoloLens 2, there’s no indication it’ll roll out to consumers anytime soon, other than to say it’s interested in consumer usage “in the long run.” Instead, Microsoft suggests that the first beneficiaries of the new feature could be maritime companies, which could connect workers with remote mechanical experts who can diagnose problems through the worker’s HoloLens 2.

Perhaps most importantly, it’s clear that Microsoft is still actively working on its augmented reality headset platform, despite reports earlier this year that the project was struggling. The company reportedly lost 70 employees from the HoloLens team over the past year, with more than 40 of them going to Meta to support its attempt to transform into a metaverse company.