HoloLens 2 delivers on features!

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Alex Kipman reveals HoloLens 2.

I must say HoloLens 2 delivers on so many of the features we hear every day as relevant to our clients. It's even more than I had hoped for as someone building applications for HoloLens these last 4+ years. It offers eye tracking, full hand gestures, more than double the field of view, all day comfort and much more. It is also designed to be seamlessly enhanced by a variety of cloud and AI services provided by Azure.

Field of View

One of the primary complaints about the original HoloLens was its narrow field of view (FOV). The FOV is substantially larger in HoloLens 2, in fact more than double with no sacrifice in pixel density. Although often not that important, there are certainly use cases where it is critical to have a wide FOV such as space planning or any situation where it is important to view large objects up close.

Eye Tracking

Eye tracking addresses several needs. First, no more measuring eye distance (IPD) to get accurate alignment with the physical world and maximum eye comfort. This is a huge advantage, particularly when multiple people share a single HoloLens. Second, iris scanning means no need to type user names and passwords to authenticate with a high level of security, and finally, it is considerably more natural to indicate our focus with our eyes rather than with our head direction.

Hand Tracking

Going from air-tap and bloom, to full hand understanding is such a leap forward. As someone who has seen thousands of newcomers try HoloLens, I can attest to the limitations of current HoloLens hand tracking. HoloLens 2 provides full real-time meshes of both hands and supports a wide variety of natural gesture detection so that we can interact with our virtual worlds as naturally as we do with our physical world. This unlocks more intuitive and more efficient experiences for both newcomers and experienced users.

Here's a visual of Julia Schwartz demonstrating some of the many slider control experiments the Microsoft team tried to determine what felt most natural.

Comfort

Although I never found HoloLens to be particularly uncomfortable, I still welcome improvement. By better balancing the weight and improving the contact points between your head and the device, HoloLens 2 makes it substantially easier to put on and adjust. With the center of gravity in the middle of your head, it feels balanced and strain-free.

All told, HoloLens 2 is an enormous step forward and is sure to continue to be the best solution on the market for solving genuine business needs and delivering real business value.

Summary of Top HoloLens 2 Features

1. The FOV is 2X the original HoloLens while maintaining the same 47 pixel / radian density. Displays are 2k 3:2 light engines.
2. Real-time eye tracking and iris security scan. Applications know where the wearer is looking and can authenticate without typing. This also eliminates the need to measure eye distance (IPD) for accurate placement of holograms.
3. Three times the comfort retaining one-size design, with carbon fiber to reduce weight, advanced fit system, still eyeglass friendly and a center of gravity moved to the middle of the head for maximum balance.
4. Flip up display for fast context switching between using technology and giving full attention in conversations.
5. Two-hand fully articulating hand tracking to support a wide variety of natural gestures and direct manipulation. Touch, grasp, and move holograms in ways that feel natural.
6. Robust voice commands even in noisy industrial environments.
7. Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 Compute Platform for improved battery life.
8. Best in class connectivity: WiFi 802.11ac 2x2, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C
9. 100M polygon model streaming from Azure when there is a need to deliver very large models in real time at 60fps.
10. Cloud-based spatial anchors provides a truly seamless world view of even the largest of physical spaces, eliminating the need to find awkward workarounds with fiducial markers.
11. HoloLens Customization Program allows other companies to partner with Microsoft and build OEM versions of HoloLens 2, like the Trimble XR10 below.

Two pricing models

1. $125/month/user plan for HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist application.
2. $3,500 for the HoloLens 2 alone.

HoloLens Customization Program

With the HoloLens Customization Program, companies such as Trimble are able to integrate the HoloLens 2 capabilities into custom form factors for specific use cases. Trimble co-announced their XR10 hard hat version of HoloLens 2.

New Prism by Object Theory v2

See how easy you can take 3D models and images on your desktop and bring them into HoloLens for a variety of tasks by trying our new Prism by Object Theory for free.

Newly released Prism 2 is an enterprise platform that's already delivering business value on HoloLens and other devices for a variety of enterprise clients. Each has unique use cases, such as AEC sales and review, product design, training, and topography analysis. Object Theory plans to release Prism on Microsoft HoloLens 2 as soon as it is available. Try Prism for free directly from the Microsoft Store on your HoloLens.

Object Theory is a trusted mixed reality advisor for enterprise organizations, having delivered dozens of strategic roadmaps and XR applications to brand-name clients. We help organizations with strategy, design, implementation and deployment of digital transformation solutions with XR at the core.

– Hoff, co-founder and partner, object theory

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Microsoft and HoloLens are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.