Microsoft teases HoloLens 2 and "Mixed Reality Cloud"

The Microsoft HoloLens is getting somewhat long in the tooth, getting ready to celebrate its second birthday in March 2018.

Microsoft has already teased HoloLens 2.0 in July 2017, when it spoke about its new Holographic Processing Unit, which features an AI coprocessor to natively and flexibly implement Deep Neural Networks on the device itself.

Posting on LinkedIn today, Microsoft Alex Kipman revealed some more around the use of all that power, saying the artificial intelligence will deliver “superpowers over space and time” and allow Microsoft to “build experiences where people, places and things become independent of their physical location and can interact with their digital counterparts.”

Specifically, the new HPU will allow HoloLens 2.0 to truly perceive its environment. Interestingly, despite the much more powerful hardware in the device, Microsoft will also be bringing more cloud processing to the device, with their new Mixed Reality Cloud.

Microsoft notes that they will combine cloud-assisted AI with Mixed Reality, allowing Microsoft to deliver a persistent mixed reality experience with people, places, and things.

While Microsoft is currently the only company with a real Mixed Reality headset on the market, they are expected to face competition from Apple, Magic Leap and Samsung in the near future, making a follow-up increasingly overdue.

Read more about Alex Kipman’s vision of the future of Mixed Reality in 2018 here.