Microsoft brings its versatile HoloLens mixed reality device to Spain 2

The company has also introduced Azure Object Anchors technology, through which HoloLens 2 can more richly recognize objects in the real world for interaction in mixed reality.

Microsoft announced at Ignite 2020, your annual event for developers and IT professionals, HoloLens availability 2 in Spain, Italia, Netherlands, Swiss, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Poland, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“We are looking forward to what people can do with HoloLens 2 and very excited to have enough production to be able to supply this new set of countries”, Alex Kipman has pointed out, technical fellow from Microsoft.

The company has also announced a new mixed reality service, called Azure Object Anchors - available at preview private- thanks to which HoloLens 2 can recognize an object in the real world and map its relevant instructions or images without requiring expert knowledge or the use of barcodes to provide additional information.

HoloLens space travel 2

The American aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin is developing Orion, the interplanetary ship of the NASA, which will be used in the mission Aremis II, whose goal is to establish a stable presence on the Moon and pave the way for humanity's arrival on Mars.

Building a spaceship requires millions of complex tasks, each of them with zero margin of error, ranging from fixing electrical wiring in position to precisely locating thousands of small sensors and devices that measure the ship's performance under stress.

For this, and specifically to assemble the seats of the spaceship, the Lockheed Martin team didn't need paper instructions or tablets with manuals, since all the necessary resources - from the animations of how the pieces had to fit into the engineering schemes, up to the specific tightening torque required for each screw- were represented in front of their eyes thanks to the HoloLens mixed reality glasses 2 what they were wearing.

The devices left technicians' hands free to manipulate parts and tools, while they could interact with HoloLens 2 with voice commands that guided them step by step. All of this, at the same time they saw the holographic instructions superimposed in their field of vision, and about the pieces where each intervention was carried out.

The aeronautical company has obtained significant savings, both in times and costs with HoloLens 2, since technicians did not have to interrupt their tasks to consult manuals or write on a computer.

In a critical job, such as the assembly of the heat shield that protects astronauts when they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, the written instructions are extremely complex.

“Usually a technician spends about half the time reviewing engineering drawings., the steps to follow and enter data on your PC, while the rest of the time is spent installing each component. “With HoloLens 2, we have been able to reduce the amount of time technicians spend analyzing data by over 90%.”, explica Colin Sipe, senior manager de Lockheed Martin.

For example, as part of critical verification processes, technicians have to put down their tools and return to a PC to dump information about the step they just completed. Con HoloLens 2 They can use a simple voice command to have the device take a photo or record a video, which can be used for validation purposes, quality control or training without interrupting workflow.

HoloLens 2 and the use of mixed reality also achieve a drastic reduction in assembly errors. In this sense, Lockheed Martin has not experienced any errors and, thanks to it, It has not been necessary to carry out any intervention in the tasks in which the specialists used them..

“The fact that we have not had any errors in all these activities is fantastic. In general, When we consider new technologies we ask if there is an improvement in quality, if it is faster or cheaper, and most maintain that only two of the three advantages can be obtained. Con HoloLens 2 “We have discovered that we can achieve all three.”, says Shelley Peterson, who oversees the company's mixed reality initiatives.

Applications in different industries

Since last November, Microsoft started shipping HoloLens 2 to their clients and, during these months, demand for devices and solutions, especially during the spread of COVID-19, has increased. An example of this is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, that allows you to collaborate and solve problems in a shared mixed reality environment being in different physical places.

So, If a field worker who is assembling a spacecraft, a plane, a truck or repairing an elevator encounters a complex incident, another specialist, which may be in the same location or hundreds of kilometers away, can, via HoloLens 2, evaluate the situation as if you were there to work collaboratively to resolve the incident.

This is also the case with the care of COVID-19 patients in the Imperial College Healthcare NHS in UK, where they are using HoloLens 2, Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Microsoft Teams to minimize potential exposure to the virus for healthcare personnel.

Con HoloLens 2, a doctor can treat the patient in person, while the device broadcasts live video to a computer screen in a neighboring room, which allows other doctors to carry out a complete diagnosis while maintaining a safe distance.

In the United States, Mercedes-Benz is also using HoloLens 2 to help your dealership technicians repair vehicles more quickly and efficiently. Using remote assistance, can solve a problem in real time.

“In some industries we have seen that companies are willing to take a qualitative leap with HoloLens 2. In a time when traveling can be risky, “It is much easier to ‘teleport’ to a place and see things through the eyes of the operators.”, adds Alex Kipman.