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Microsoft is installing its Windows Mixed Reality platform, which is limited to virtual reality and HoloLens headsets, on mobile phones. The company is launching this spring an Android version of its HoloLens remote badistance application, as well as a preview tool for products exclusively on iOS. Unlike many augmented reality based on the phone, no tool is intended for consumers. And there is no indication that Microsoft is moving away from its HoloLens helmet. However, this decision indicates that the less futuristic mobile AR is becoming more and more important to the business.
In April, Microsoft's Dynamics 365 remote badistant tool will be available on Android phones as a preview feature. The original HoloLens version of the troubleshooting application allows users to share what they see via the built-in headset camera, and then to the recipient to annotate the image with mixed reality overlays . With the Android-based version, users hold up a phone instead.
The experiments will not be interchangeable. The HoloLens version is always what's best for people who need hands free to work, especially since they allow you to view diagrams or diagrams. 39, other windows in flight. And you can already just record a video with your phone for troubleshooting.
But Remote Assist on Android is supposed to facilitate the communication process by using cheap devices that companies already own, as opposed to (or in addition) a $ 3,000 HoloLens. And it includes the same kind of communication and annotation features as its counterpart HoloLens. "It's different from turning the camera or flipping the phone, because the person on the other side sees the problem and can annotate in the real world," says Lorraine Bardeen, head of Microsoft's mixed reality business.
The iOS app, dubbed Project Visualize, is a new tool. It is designed for people who sell complex products such as vehicles or heavy machinery, allowing them to show scale models or life-size augmented reality. (You can already display templates in many applications, but here, this feature is built into Microsoft's more extensive suite of sales and collaboration tools.) Bardeen says this feature will be offered to HoloLens later, but that most vendors are already using iOS devices, so it made more sense to start with that.
According to Bardeen, one of Microsoft's current mixed reality philosophies is: "What is the most logical device for the most customers right now?" Right now, it's often a phone. And since Apple and Google are already integrating augmented reality toolkits into iOS and Android, Microsoft can build on these efforts. "All the products we make available to HoloLens, we will obviously evaluate the importance of the value brought by our customers to bring them also to mobile," she says. Other tools exclusively HoloLens could be used in the future on mobile platforms, such as the holographic Layout Floor Plan application.
The announcement of today's application comes just before an event where Microsoft is expected to announce a second-generation HoloLens. According to rumors, the new device would be lighter and more comfortable than its predecessor, with a wider field of view. Like the first version, it should also be intended for professional use. Microsoft has released entertainment apps for HoloLens, such as the first-person shooter RoboRaid. But for now, this is mainly to create a mixed reality for companies and research institutes, even if it increases the number of platforms they can use.
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