Microsoft on Tuesday announced Mesh, a service for creating applications for people to collaborate in augmented reality.
Augmented Reality (RA) shows computer-generated images superimposed on the real world and almost all major technology players are working on the technology as they strive to create the next computer platform that will replace the smartphone. However, today’s RA headphones are often expensive and costly (Microsoft’s HoloLens start at $ 3,500) and have so far been used primarily in industrial applications. According to reports, Apple and Facebook are building their own RA headphones or glasses to launch them over the next two years, which could help validate the market for consumers and create a kind of gold rush.
With Mesh, Microsoft wants to make sure that people who don’t have RA systems can participate in virtual meetings with those who do. The goal is to allow people to join Mesh-enabled meetings on any device, such as a PC, tablet, or smartphone. It will also work with virtual reality (VR) headphones – a slightly different kind of device that immerses people in a computer-generated world but blocks the physical environment and is generally cheaper and more common than AR headphones. . For example, HP sells a Windows-powered VR device, the Reverb G2, for $ 600.
To illustrate what Mesh can do, Microsoft created a sample application that runs on HoloLens.
After putting on a HoloLens and opening the app, a person can design an avatar to represent themselves and join a meeting with other people, whose avatars appear as holograms. People’s heads, bodies and hands can move thanks to the information captured by the headset and it is possible to talk to everyone, in a similar way to a video call. In addition, users can import, display, and manipulate ready-made, custom three-dimensional holograms. Three-dimensional drawing tools are also available.
To demonstrate the technology more broadly, the company is introducing a version of AltspaceVR that supports Mesh, a virtual reality meeting application. Customers can request to download the application. Microsoft acquired AltspaceVR in 2017 on undisclosed terms.
Over time, Microsoft plans to incorporate Mesh into its own applications, such as the Teams collaboration application, which has been used most during the Covid pandemic as a form of meeting non-coworkers. office.
Mesh will be an Azure service and an associated software development kit. Selected customers can start testing the Mesh cloud service now in preview before it is more available. Microsoft has not revealed how much it will cost to use the service. Azure is a public cloud service for hosting applications.
Microsoft gets less than 5% of its revenue from devices, while one analyst estimates that Azure accounts for 17% of revenue. Azure revenue grew 50% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, while device revenue rose less than 4%.
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