Microsoft found a new customer in Kawasaki for its so-called “industrial metaverse”. Through this, the Japanese MNC’s factory floor workers will wear a HoloLens headset to help with production, repairs, and managing supply chains.
HoloLens headsets enable the wearer to experience augmented reality (AR). It overlays digital imagery in a real-world environment. In terms of Microsoft’s industrial metaverse, this means putting together many of the company’s technologies like cloud computing to help factory workers and managers build products faster and more efficiently. The headset can be used to chat with workers on-site and walk them through the repair process with visual cues from AR.
Jessica Hawk, the corporate vice-president of mixed reality at Microsoft, said the industrial metaverse is a taste of what technology can accomplish today before it’s fully immersive in the future. Hawk highlighted this as one of the reasons for a lot of energy in the space. She said having a technology solution to help unblock the supply chain challenge is incredibly impactful.
Microsoft is selling its mixed reality technology to companies while giving developers the tools they need to make their own metaverse experiences. Hawk pointed out that the tech giant is really seeing differentiation in the way it’s going about with its strategy. Microsoft recognizes that people are going to experience the metaverse across a variety of devices and platforms. Hawk gave an example of metaverse products that work on 2D screens, like the new features Microsoft added to its Team chat app last year – people can appear as digital avatars. Those features can be translated to headsets and other platforms in the near future.
Hawk shared that Microsoft is looking forward to the innovation’s potential. The company acknowledges many more things that it hasn’t fully realized yet.
