Engineers step into mixed-reality with the Hololens

Microsoft’s Hololens is one of the more impressive devices being engineered in the augmented reality world. However, Microsoft wants to do one better and integrate more virtual reality into the Hololens than previously advertised. They’re now calling the Hololens a  “mixed-reality” device that they hope will thrill consumers all around the world. The engineers have been working to bring an operating system to their Hololens as well. The new video they have released shows how far the company has come in terms of mixed-reality and virtual reality. The company showed off the new additions to Hololens at the Computex conference in Taipei. 

The company has also confirmed that Microsoft Outlook is now available for the Hololens. The augmented reality uses could assist engineers in projects they are involved in, in the future. As you can see in the video, collaboration between two people working on the same project is becoming multi-faceted and easy with a virtual landscape/canvas to work on. 

Microsoft confirmed that they are working with AMD, Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and more to bring their Hololens into the virtual reality world as well as display the already available augmented world applications. So, it is apparent that Microsoft is becoming more relaxed and lending their gear out for other companies to see what they can do with it. They will be opening up their platform to third parties. 

One of the third-party applications that might convince engineers that they should buy a Hololens is the Autodesk Fusion 360 app. Working with CAD software is something engineers do on a daily basis and now with the ability to bring engineering design software into “mixed-reality”, engineers could work more efficiently and practically. Now engineers can avoid making costly mistakes by first seeing what an engineering decision might result in, in mixed-reality. 

To see how it would work: