In partnership with Volkswagen, Microsoft has improved its mixed reality glasses, the HoloLens 2, to allow the device to work in the car. The technology solves an age-old problem where equipment sensors did not function properly in moving environments.
According to information released by the Redmond company, HoloLens 2 tracks movements from a combination of camera sensors and an inertial measurement unit with accelerometers and gyroscopes. By car, on the other hand, the two fields collided, unable to manage the continuous movement of the car. At the same time the holograms disappeared in the confusion of signals.
And this is where Volkswagen came into play. Lat home in Wolfsburg he made a prototype that allowed the car to display information in real time over a two-way data connection. At the same time, Microsoft developed an algorithm that models sensor discrepancies and stabilizes HoloLens 2 tracking in a car. The partnership between the two companies began in 2018.
“We connected a positioning system that tracks the position of the vehicle, explains Michael Wittkamper, VW’s augmented reality specialist. “In this way we were able to also place 3D elements as information on points of interest outside the car. This opens up entirely new possibilities not only for displaying holograms within the driver’s forward-facing field of view, but also wherever the wearer wearing glasses looks. “
Microsoft and Volkswagen, with HoloLens 2 also improves safety
Virtual objects can be placed inside and outside the vehicle. In an image released by Microsoft, HoloLens projects a virtual map onto a car’s dashboard. Another shows a warning to the driver of pedestrian crossing.
It is worth mentioning that in this sense Volkswagen’s ID electric car family already features elements of augmented reality. ID.3, for example, features a head-up display that projects data onto the car’s windshield, including speed and navigation instructions. In this way, the driver can analyze the information without taking his eyes off the road.
It is not yet known when HoloLens 2 will be available to consumers: Microsoft initially focuses on business users. According to the American company, the first beneficiaries of the resource should be the shipping companieswho will be able to remotely connect with specialist mechanics to diagnose, through their glasses, possible problems with boats when they are at sea.