In January 2015, Microsoft HoloLens came out of nowhere.
Four years later, on February 25th at MWC 2019, the "father of HoloLens" Kipman took the stage to announce that HoloLens 2 was born. Invited to attend the Lei Feng network (public number: Lei Feng network) site first time to send back a report "after four years, HoloLens 2 is finally here".
Lei Feng network also organized HoloLens 2 related information, and the first time to interview the industry a number of AR industry veterans for the interpretation of HoloLens 2, and from the product, technology and industry level analysis of HoloLens 2 impact and special features.
HoloLens 2: more powerful, better experience, more expensive
"The field of view is too small, uncomfortable to wear, and difficult to get started. generation have expressed similar feelings to Lei Feng network.
With Microsoft's significantly upgraded HoloLens 2 coming out, all of the above problems seem to have improved, except of course for the high price.
So what are the changes and upgrades in the parameters of HoloLens 2 compared to the 1st generation? Here's a brief comparison in a table.
Lei Feng net finishing found that, first of all, HoloLens 2 from the former Intel processor replaced with ARM architecture Qualcomm Snapdragon 850, at the same time, Microsoft developed specifically for HoloLens HPU holographic processor has also been upgraded to 2.0.
HoloLens processor: why change from Intel to Qualcomm?
There are a few reasons for this, firstly, Intel made an announcement back in August 2017 that it would be discontinuing the Atom X5-Z8100P chip in October, with the announcement stating that this product would be permanently discontinued after the deadline for delivery of ordered products.
I don't know if it's because of the high price of HoloLens and other reasons that lead to too few shipments of Intel's chip orders are too small, so Intel chose to discontinue the Atom X5. or as speculated, Microsoft is looking for a better power consumption and thus gave up Intel's program.
Lei Feng network has repeatedly experienced HoloLens 1 generation products, due to the high degree of integration of the front of the glasses processor, multi-camera and optics, etc., in the use of the need to deal with a large number of 3D image data, resulting in serious heat, coupled with not friendly wear design, resulting in the wearing of the experience has been very poor.
There's no doubt that Microsoft HoloLens 1 is an epoch-making computing device, but at this point in the experience, HoloLens has suffered enough blame to equal the praise. So Microsoft won't fail to understand the importance of experience.
In an interview with Lei Feng, Tu Yi, co-founder and COO of View+AR, argued that Microsoft HoloLens's switch from Intel to ARM this time around should be about lowering power consumption, allowing the device to standby longer and perform better. He went on to say that Apple is also planning to abandon Intel in favor of its own ARM architecture on its Mac series of computers, so it seems that in the mobile platform, Intel may be gradually marginalized.
Wang Peng, co-founder of AR optical module developer Longjing Optoelectronics, told Lei Feng Network that Qualcomm was already relatively strong in mobile SoCs, and that AR glasses are similar terminals to smartphones, and that Microsoft may have chosen Qualcomm purely because Qualcomm's chips are stronger and more suitable for mobile.
Responding to why HoloLens 2 chose an ARM chip, Kipman said simply that we have yet to see a mobile device that uses batteries that doesn't have an ARM chip.
Qualcomm also came prepared. With the smartphone market becoming saturated and the rise of the VR/AR wave, Qualcomm has been targeting this promising market for a long time. Whether domestic or foreign, many mobile high-end VR headset have chosen Qualcomm platform, last May Qualcomm for VR/AR market also launched a dedicated chip - Snapdragon XR1 platform, but also provide specialized VR SDK for developers to use. Xiaomi VR, HTC Vive, Aiki VR, Meta all use Qualcomm processors in their mobile headsets.
Display: 2x field of view is a misunderstanding?
As expected, Microsoft raised the field of view from 34° to 52° this time, while adopting a 3:2 display ratio, the effect of which is to increase the vertical display area, so that the human eye doesn't have to move up and down as it did previously to view the virtual image that wasn't being displayed.
According to RoadtoVR, due to differences in translation or understanding, some people have previously interpreted the HoloLens 2 launch phrase "Field of view increased more than 2X" to mean that the field of view has increased by a factor of two. , but what Microsoft is trying to say here is "field of view increased more than 2X". But Microsoft didn't specifically explain this in the demo, and it seems to have intentionally blurred the distinction between field of view and display area, leading to some misunderstandings about the field of view issue.
It's clear that Microsoft officially intended to publicize a more than 2x increase in display area, but RoadtoVR questioned the veracity of that. In response to RoadtoVR's query, Microsoft claimed that what was shown was just an image, and only a small part of the demo, and RoadtoVR feels that Microsoft has been a little less than discreet in their approach to the matter.
Regarding the improved field of view of HoloLens 2, Tu Yi, co-founder of Vision+AR, believes it has a lot to do with the fact that Microsoft filed a patent for a display solution in April 2017.
Wang Peng, co-founder of Long King Optoelectronics, told LeiFeng.com that it's not possible to determine the exact reason for this, as we haven't seen HoloLens 2 in the flesh for a while. But from the optical module level, he guessed that it should be the advancement of the design and production process, with some special methods to realize the dilated pupil, because HoloLens 2 is still using the first generation of the relief grating technology.
He described that the optics used by HoloLens is holographic optical waveguide (also known as holographic grating, holographic grating optical waveguide, diffractive optical waveguide), and the realization of this holographic optical waveguide includes Bragg grating, relief grating.
As for how to judge HoloLens 2 with or the first generation of relief grating technology, Wang Peng explained that, according to the HoloLens 2 product photos circulating on the Internet, which has a very obvious rainbow reflections, and the use of relief grating technology will be very obvious to see rainbow-like reflections.
In addition, HoloLens 2 has a new eye tracking feature, which is a technology not found in the 1st generation. But eye tracking and point-of-view rendering have been used in other VR/AR products for a long time, and point-of-view rendering is mostly used for gaming and video rendering in VR devices.
Cool eye tracking and gesture recognition
The Magic Leap One, which is often compared to the HoloLens 1, also has eye tracking built in. According to Qingting.com, the Magic Leap One has the ability to refocus the window, in addition to automatically measuring the pupil distance through multi-focusing. This is similar to the Tobii devices that come with gaming laptops, in that when the glasses are focused on an area, the mouse automatically moves to that location or refocuses, among other things.
Eye tracking in HoloLens 2 is similar to what was mentioned above, and in addition to measuring pupil distance to automatically fine-tune the position of the image display, it can also be used to depict the iris unlocking the device to sign in to Windows Hello, and to help the user interact directly with holographic content. Kipman also said that HoloLens 2's eye tracking is able to observe subtle changes in the human eye to sense and predict human emotions.
Tu Yi told Lei Feng network, from the launch site, the eye tracking demonstration effect is very accurate, which improves the previous generation must be in the field of vision in the center of the selection of the target of the awkward interaction, more in line with human instinctive habits are more like the mouse experience, greatly improving the user interaction experience and use of efficiency.
A noteworthy upgrade is the full node tracking of the hand. According to Qingting.com, Microsoft upgraded the gesture tracking module to Azure Kinect, which realizes full joint model tracking for both hands, covering every finger, and tracking up to 25 joints on a single hand, with a higher density. For example, you can use your hands to play the piano in the "air" or touch to manipulate the hologram to zoom in, zoom out, drag and drop.
Wearable design
HoloLens 2 is made of carbon fiber, and while the weight of HoloLens 2 has not dropped much, the overall design of the HoloLens 2 headset is much more humane and scientific, and the experience of wearing it has improved.
One is that Microsoft moved the battery module of HoloLens 2 to the back end of the glasses, thus alleviating the problem of weight imbalance between the front and back ends of the glasses, and increasing the area of support force, so that there will not be a generation 1, because of the weight imbalance of the human brain's abnormal sense of compression, the front end of the front end also increased the frontal mask, comfort has been improved. According to Lei Feng net understanding, love Qiyi VR had released last year on the VR all-in-one machine using the battery module rear design .
Secondly, HoloLens 2 borrows the flip design from MR headsets, which means that users can always flip their glasses right back to the real world. This thoughtful design improves the user experience in many scenarios, such as reducing the pressure of prolonged wear, ventilating perspiration, and relieving eyestrain.
"The flip-top structure is quite good and practical, and it feels like Microsoft has actually done its homework on industrial scenarios. And again, a lot of highly customized solutions. See Microsoft's determination to the B-end market, because the B-end market is characterized by a high degree of customization, and many special needs are very subtle. Because one product can't hit all B-end markets." Wang Peng, co-founder of Long King Optoelectronics, commented so.
Finally, in addition to the price, which is too high for some industry insiders, there is also the fact that Microsoft did not mention much about the 5G technology that was a big hit at this year's MWC, and many smartphone brands at home and abroad have made support for 5G one of the key selling points of their products.
"The price of $3500 may still be difficult for everyone to accept, and as with the 1st generation, it ended up being bought by a few companies, developers, and colleges and universities, including optical companies like us. But compared to the actual sales, HoloLens this product for Microsoft's strategic significance is greater than the actual revenue significance," Wang Peng told Lei Feng network, and finally he emphasized that "even the B-side I think it is difficult to accept this price".
" A great pity is that HoloLens 2 does not support 5G, if it directly supports 5G plus cloud rendering, I believe it will have a particularly good effect in many non-enterprise applications, such as travel," said Tu Yi, co-founder and COO of View+AR. Because of Microsoft's lack of smartphone era, it did not launch a peripheral AR glasses connected to a smartphone, and this piece of the market is still very large, which also makes me feel quite regrettable, but this may be Apple, Google, Huawei or startups some opportunities.
Lei Feng network also noted HoloLens 2 in the system, the camera, resolution and other aspects of a number of improvements, which, together with the previously mentioned important features and experience upgrades, HoloLens 2 will be a powerful "productivity tool".
Obviously Microsoft is not satisfied with defining it as a hardware device, so at the launch event, the protagonist was also the Microsoft Azure cloud.
Hardware is just a carrier, Microsoft's real goal is cloud services
At the launch of HoloLens 2, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella began his speech by emphasizing the importance of Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge. importance. There's no doubt that Microsoft has Azure for the Intelligent Cloud, and HoloLens for the Intelligent Edge.
Because of Azure, even Kinect, the long-discarded somatosensory peripheral, has been resurrected. Then Julia White, Microsoft's global vice president, took the stage to release a developer toolkit-Azure Kinect DK, priced at $399. According to Thunderbolt, the Azure Kinect DK, like the HoloLens 2, has a TOF depth sensor, a high-definition RGB camera, and a seven-microphone circular array, with a focus on its ability to access visual and voice computing power through the Azure cloud.
Officially, Azure Kinect is an intelligent edge device that is able to sense people, environments, objects, and movements around it. In this way, Azure Kinect is more like a simplified version of HoloLens , which is cheaper, and this is still attractive to some developers, if they happen not to need some of the features of HoloLens 2, Azure Kinect is a good second choice.
Unlike the Xbox, which was previously treated as a consumer-grade peripheral, the upgraded Azure Kinect is positioned in the same way as the HoloLens 2, with a focus on B-support scenarios.
Microsoft demonstrated several use cases, such as a hospital room monitoring system that utilizes Azure Kinect to notify nurses to rush to the patient's side when Azure Kinect senses that there is a possibility of the patient falling.
Azure can bring Kinect back to life, and it can bring HoloLens even further.
Azure Spatial Anchors, which can be thought of as an AR Cloud, enables organizations and developers to accurately map, specify, and call points in mixed reality programs that are accessible on HoloLens, iOS, and Android. The implication is that it supports the other two major AR platforms - Google ARCore and Apple ARKit - and it's clear that Microsoft is taking a more open approach, which is still useful for developers creating content and collaborating across different AR platforms.
Azure Spatial Anchors works with ARKit and ARCore, which was unexpected. He believes this validates the existence of a cross-platform AR Cloud service in the future. And while cloud services are Microsoft's strategy, Microsoft will focus on going to sell their Azure cloud services.
He further explained that with the development of 5G technology, the future trend is to move to the cloud, and the future hardware will be more and more "thin", and a lot of computing will be put into the cloud. And HoloLens 2 also noticed this trend, in the conference clearly released two versions, one of which is the version that includes cloud rendering services, the future must be cloud sales than hardware sales, which is very important. Microsoft Azure Cloud also wants hardware terminals to build AR Cloud, also known as Spatial Anchors , map data will become an important part of the cloud service, and there are also cloud rendering services that will reduce the computing load of hardware.
Microsoft demonstrated how to collaborate and interact with HoloLens 2 across platforms and devices, previously Microsoft has demonstrated more collaboration between HoloLens devices and with other Microsoft terminals. On the floor, a staff member demonstrated how to collaborate with a HoloLens 2-wearing Kipman on a virtual industrial machine through an Apple iPad, using ARkit.
Azure Remote Rendering helps people experience 3D content without sacrificing image quality, which is appropriate for scenarios where a smartphone interacts with an MR device. The service renders high-quality 3D content in the cloud and transmits it in real time to edge devices with every detail intact.
HoloLens hardware and software technology is even more powerful, it may be a high-tech "toy", but Microsoft has given it the wings of the Azure cloud. Through the terminal + cloud strategy, focusing on B-end application scenarios, and then integrating a variety of technical services, a business ecosystem around HoloLens is beginning to take shape.
Microsoft's focus on B-side business scenarios was revealed at the first anniversary of HoloLens commercialization in May last year. Microsoft showed the media at its headquarters in Beijing the development of HoloLens and mixed reality technology in China over the past year. Officials highlighted business users and partners from the architectural, healthcare, automotive, and education industries, and showcased a number of customized solutions and practice cases for users in different industries.
There is a growing sense that Microsoft's openness is accelerating, especially in the HoloLens ecosystem.
Toward the end of the conference, the big screen behind Kipman played a big "Open". He introduced the open principles of Microsoft's mixed reality ecosystem*** which consists of three parts: an open app store, an open browser platform, and an open API and underlying platform. Does this remind you of the Windows PC or IOS, Android ecosystem?
The Mozilla Foundation will be bringing the Firefox prototype to HoloLens 2, and Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, was on hand to announce that Unreal Engine 4 will soon support HoloLens.
Pragmatic Route: making HoloLens
After the open PC era and the closed smartphone era, Kipman believes that the world is entering a "third era of computing," so Microsoft has been changing and becoming more open over the years to build a unified architectural platform around mixed reality.
Microsoft has been changing and becoming more open over the years to build a unified architectural platform around mixed reality.
Google and Apple might be thinking the same way, but Microsoft is a little further along.
"At present, Microsoft HoloLens 2 is the only AR hardware that can form an open platform, other AR hardware startups basically do their own hardware and applications, there is no way to form an ecosystem, and now only Microsoft has done it, which is of extraordinary significance for HoloLens 2." Tu Yi told Lei Feng network.
Another industry veteran talked to Lei Feng network about his feelings, from the hardware level, he felt that the HoloLens 2 form is more mature, although this time there is no over-the-top black technology, but it is more reasonable. Microsoft has taken a pragmatic route, and everything is designed to serve the actual application scenarios.
"It's important to look at it from the perspective of an industry productivity tool that in a sense drove the start of the MR ecosystem, and HoloLens 2 is starting to deliver value in a serious way." He concluded that HoloLens 2 is already a competent productivity tool .
Individual consumers tend to chase black tech, and there's not much official emphasis on black tech points in contrast to Gen 1. Because Microsoft's positioning for HoloLens 2 is more clear, it is designed for the B end to build, the B end to experience a stable, functional service.
So the black tech expectations are left to the rest, the industry insider chimed in at the end.