A potential leak of Microsoft’s next HoloLens may have surfaced online. A video demonstrating’s NASA’s AR Mars exploration application for the new HoloLens shows us what could potentially be Microsoft’s next version of the company’s HoloLens AR headset (via MSPU). The space agency has also been using the headset to build its new Orion spacecraft.
The HoloLens showcased in this short video seems to have significant design changes. Most notably, the device in the video appears to only have a single camera, replacing the five that the current generation headset sports. The new headset is expected to have a much more efficient depth camera, potentially eliminating the need for more than one. The upgraded headset might also get an increased field-of-view over its predecessor.
According to MSPoweruser, the leaked could headset potentially be either Microsoft’s cancelled HoloLens v2, which Microsoft decided to skip due to lack of significant improvement over the last iteration. Or, alternatively, maybe this is Microsoft’s significantly-improved upcoming headset, which has been given the codename, “Sidney.”
Whatever the case, only time will tell for sure what the next HoloLens will look like and what can be achieved. Feel free to share your thought below.
Update: HoloLens boss Alex Kipman just tweeted that no, actually it’s an early v1:
Congrats to the #OnSight team and check out this cool video our friends at @NASAJPL made. For the curious, what you see here is a prototype of #HoloLens v1. So what’s next? Let me just say, the future of #MixedReality truly is out of this world ?https://t.co/pEEsPfxfnG
— Alex Kipman (@akipman) October 11, 2018
We agree, the NASA video is cool 🙂
Further reading: HoloLens, HoloLens 2, NASA
