Microsoft's Mixed Reality Roadmap, Major Updates to HoloLens 2 Features

- Teams features such as calls, chats, and document work available on HoloLens 2 headset
- Provides convenience to frontline workers through hands-free immersive collaboration environment

[With the latest update to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides, HoloLens 2 users can utilize various Teams features such as calls, chats, and document work (Image provided by Microsoft)]

Microsoft announced updates to its mixed reality product lineup, represented by HoloLens. Investments in the next generation of HoloLens and industrial metaverse are expected to accelerate.

Over the past year, as demand for mixed reality products from corporate clients such as Toyota has increased, Microsoft has made significant investments in HoloLens and its underlying platform. The flagship mixed reality solution, Dynamics 365 Guides, received updates enabling various functions such as Teams calls, chat, and document work. Additionally, a new solution for managing multiple HoloLens devices was introduced. According to Microsoft, these features provide advantages to workers across industries including hospitals, semiconductor facilities, laboratories, and construction sites.

The main update trend for Microsoft’s mixed reality product lineup is to combine Dynamics 365 mixed reality applications and integrate them with various Microsoft products such as Teams, OneDrive, Azure, and Power Platform. This aims to enable cloud-based document work for field workers as well. HoloLens 2 users can collaborate, communicate, and perform document tasks using Microsoft products in an immersive 3D environment regardless of time and space constraints. Alisa Taylor, Vice President of Azure and Industry at Microsoft, stated, “We are providing a mixed reality environment based on the Windows OS.”

This key development trend is connected to the industrial metaverse that Microsoft pursues. The industrial metaverse refers to a metaverse environment that can significantly improve overall processes by converting physical systems into the digital world through human and AI collaboration. In the industrial metaverse, mixed reality products such as HoloLens are identified as core technologies. This is why Microsoft continuously invests in battery life, design, and related platforms.

A Microsoft representative said, “Field workers on the front lines play a pivotal role in the global industry but have been excluded from the benefits of technology.” By enabling frontline workers to access digital information beyond time and space through mixed reality solutions, Microsoft explains that this technology imbalance can be resolved and efficiency across industries can be improved.

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