New HoloLens 2: Microsoft

#News(General) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

Few people’s brains are good at translating between paper instructions and three-dimensional objects. New employees worry about slowing production with questions. Even when watching someone else install the bed that allows long-haul truckers to sleep comfortably, it was hard for Potts to see exactly where the other worker was putting his hands or figure out where the screw holes were.

Today, Microsoft is introducing HoloLens 2 — the next generation of its wearable holographic computer — with an integrated suite of new mixed reality services, out-of-the-box apps for businesses and sensors with the capacity to perceive and predict.

It’s exactly the device that Potts said she would have loved to have when she had that nerve-racking experience of first learning how to outfit a sleeper cab.

“If I had had this when I was trained, I would have been less nervous,” she said. “This shows you where the tools go and which way they turn and all the things you can’t see under a truck. It’s just there — step by step — however you want to learn.”
Also today, Microsoft is releasing a new Azure Kinect device providing developers new possibilities for creating AI-powered experiences. Azure Kinect combines the same depth-sensing camera technology found in HoloLens 2 with a circular microphone array and color camera and works with artificial intelligence services in Microsoft Azure. It enables developers to build new perception capabilities like identifying when a saw is operating dangerously based on the sound it makes, enabling robots to judge distance when packing pallets or identifying which item has been selected from a store shelf.

These new technologies are powered by intelligent services that can perform computations wherever it makes the most sense, whether that’s inside a device — so it could quickly spot unsafe conditions — or in the cloud, where virtually limitless computing resources can tackle complex problems. In short, this is the intelligent edge and intelligent cloud made real, Microsoft says.

Microsoft also says these mixed reality and perception tools will make it more practical for companies to adopt an entirely new wave of computing that bridges the digital and physical world. It’s only been made possible by recent advances in the intelligent cloud and at the intelligent edge — a diverse array of increasingly connected sensors and devices in everything from home appliances to warehouse floors to HoloLens 2 that can offer instantaneous insights about their surroundings.

The plan for Microsoft is to use the HoloLens 2 to be a front end for apps such as Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Dynamics 365 Layout as Microsoft’s pioneering mixed reality applications for business

A HoloLens 2 plus Dynamics 365 Remote Assist bundle for $125 per user per month (or $1,500 per year) for a three-year period; and a HoloLens 2 plus Dynamics 365 Remote Assist bundle for $325 per user per month (or $3,900 per year) for a one-year period. (The one-year bundle is meant for those who want to test-drive it before committing.) Or the HoloLens 2 is available for $3,500 for the hardware only.

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