Microsoft Hololens was thought to be dead as the company that made parts for the device stopped receiving orders. This got everyone to believe that the company was going to discontinue the Microsoft Hololens but it seems that is not the case and that the Hololens 2 is in development. The Microsoft Hololens 2 has been teased by Alex Kipmen in a recent blog post and we are going to talk about that here.
The AR and MR industry is expanding quickly as more companies are looking to get part of the pie. Apple has released AR features for the iPhone X and other smartphone manufacturers are also trying to do the same. The Microsoft Hololens is currently the most powerful AR headset on the market and is being sold around the world. Because the device is pretty expensive Microsoft also offers the option of renting the Hololens.
While we do not have many details regarding the Microsoft Hololens 2, Kipman did say the following in his post:
We announced last July that the next version of HoloLens will further incorporate AI into our custom silicon in the HoloLens the Holographic Processing Unit or HPU for short. This continues our journey of enabling computers to truly perceive their environments, and we’re just beginning. The computing power delivered by the cloud is one of the catalysts accelerating AI, and this is the year that the mixed reality cloud becomes real. Cloud-assisted AI for understanding physical objects is happening today. Combining this with mixed reality will enable us to deliver persistent mixed reality experiences with people, places, and things.
Other than that we also know that there will be cloud assisted AI that will solve some of the issues faced by AR and MR. The device will also feature a new, custom HPU chip that will be designed to run deep neural networks. All this is very interesting and Kipman also said that there is much planned for 2018 and that he could not wait to share the information with everyone.
All things in mind, it seems that Microsoft is not giving up on the Hololens and that there will indeed be a Hololens 2. The Hololens 2 will also cost a lot of money keeping in mind all the tech that it comes with but if you are interested in getting a much cheaper mixed reality headset then Asus has pre-orders open right now.
Let us know what you think about the Microsoft Hololens 2 and whether or not this is something that you are interested in.
