Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Augmented Reality
Learn about HoloLens and how it compares to Magic Leap 2
HoloLens Case Studies
Lockheed Martin Orion Space Rocket Case Study
The Problem
Space craft technicians used to have to measure and resort to manual to identify where to correctly position 57,000 rivets used on the Orion Rocket.
- This was time consuming
- Also cumbersome IE not handsfree
- Prone to the occasional error
Solution
Deploy Microsoft HoloLens and project the rivet locations onto the hull of the ship, so that:
- Riveting was a hands free operation
- The technician could see the next rivet location
- Less Errors were made
The Results
- No Errors in the 2 years to date.
- What use to take 8 x 8 hour shifts now takes 6 hours.
- A reduction in time of 90.6%
- A huge increase in productivity
-
A Huge return on the HoloLens investment
Mercedes Benz Global Dealer Support Case Study
The Problem
Mercedes Benz have been building cars for 150 years.
The cars now are more complex, both hardware, software and full of integrated systems.
Far more demanding for dealer based technicians to resolve any challenges.
And the depth of knowledge required in any area - vast.
A Centralised support service was overwhelmed with cases that they tried to resolve with old school scheduling of meetings and referring to manuals and using video link technology.
Customer satisfaction and Dealer satisfaction were suffering.
Solution
Fix the communication and scheduling issue by allowing the remote expert to see what the technician in the dealership was seeing.
And to guide him/her to resolve it faster.
The Answer, HoloLens issued to dealerships loaded with car diagrams and enabling the remote expert to dial into the HoloLens headset and see what the technician was seeing. However, secondly to guide the technician through the resolution steps, within the HoloLens headset with voice interaction and pointing to areas and next steps. Visually guiding the technician whose wearing the HoloLens Headset.
The Results
Car issues were dealt with over 80% faster.
Often more than one expert could troubleshoot if the issue crossed areas of expertise.
The central backlog of issues was cleared and removed.
Dealer satisfaction rocketed.
Customer satisfaction was transformed.
Communication improved dramatically with HoloLens.
HoloLens 2 V Magic Leap 2
The Factors to consider are split into three areas:
- Hardware specifications and performance
- Software to use on the hardware to visualise/augment the real world and guide the user.
- Commitment to the solution
- Field of View - how much can you see?
- Dimmable technology - what can you see in bright or dim light?
- Wearability - how long can you wear the device comfortably?
- Compute Power - how much faster does it render digital aids?
- Spatial audio - can I tell the direction of sound when wearing the device?
- Input options - what options do I have?
- Weight - how heavy is the headset?
- Design - are they comparable or very different?
- Prescription lenses or glasses - can I use the technology with either?
HoloLens 2 and Magic Leap 2 Field of View
This is crucial and the two devices have very different performance numbers:
- Magic Leap 2 - 70% diagonal field of view
- HoloLens 2 - 52% diagonal field of view
Depending on how you look at it thats 30% more visibility with Magic Leap 2 or 20% less with HoloLens 2.
Dependant on the use case this will be noticeable and relevant or not, however in our opinion thats a substantial difference.
To help you gauge that we have put together a simple crude video that shows the difference so that you can visualise it.
Magic Leap 2 Dimmable Technology
So what is dimmable technology?
Dimmable technology allows you to see digital information in different light levels. That doesn't sound to innovative, but for those of you who know what trying to look at a mobile device screen is like in bright light, you "get the issue".
Simply put HoloLens 2 have not got Dimmable technology whereas a Magic Leap 2 has.
This dramatically affects the use cases you can deploy within and therefore we mention it early on.
Magic Leap 2 and HoloLens 2 Wearability
For a lot of use cases the end user wishes to wear the technology for extended periods.
The single largest factor involved with wearability is weight.
HoloLens 2 weighs - 566g
Magic Leap 2 weighs - 260g
Magic Leap 2 and HoloLens 2 Compute Power
This for us is important because how fast the device renders the digital images or information to help the wearer get there tasks done faster is important.
HoloLens 2 Has the snapdragon 850 with performance between 1.8 and 2.95GHz
Magic Leap 2 up to 3.9GHz
Magic Leap 2 and HoloLens 2 Spatial Audio
Both devices have spatial sound that helps you determine the direction of sound which is excellent for use cases that involve:
- Collaboration with other folk
- Sound based or supported situations
Ultimately feeling more like the real world where you can generally detect the distance and direction of sound.
Magic Leap 2 and HoloLens 2 Input Options
Both devices have Voice command, Hand Tracking or Gesture control and Eye control or Eye Gaze so that renders them relatively even in these three aspects, however Magic Leap has:
- Head pose where a tilt of the head will bring other digital information panel in that direction into view.
- A Hand Held haptic based controller
HoloLens 2 and Magic Leap 2 Weight
Weight was mentioned before:
HoloLens - 566g
Magic Leap 2 - 260g
However you have to be aware that whilst this is a massive 50% advantage for Magic Leap. The Magic Leap design where it has a separate compute pack and controller, so the weight is distributed (see below) make this achievable.
Magic Leap 2 and HoloLens 2 Design
Both are very different as per the last paragraph HoloLens have everything in the headset whereas Magic leap have three different connected parts.
The HoloLens will suit some use cases, the Magic Leap the other, just be aware and cognisant of the weight differences.
Magic Leap 2 and HoloLens 2 Prescription Lenses or Glasses
Both Deal with Glasses and Prescription lenses differently.
Magic leap enables you to add your prescription lenses to the device shell.
HoloLens has the designed space to keep your glasses on.
Magic Leap 2 and HoloLens 2 Software to Digitally Enhance the Device.
Here Microsoft had the advantage as they had a host of Microsoft Software packages you can enable to run on HoloLens from:-
- Microsoft Security.
- Azure.
- Dynamics 365.
- Microsoft 365.
- Microsoft Industry.
- Microsoft Teams.
- Small Business
Magic Leap adopted a "open platform" approach enabling developers to develop software for different use cases for the device, so therefore started from a position of being behind of the software front.
HoloLens Commitment to The Hardware Solution
Microsoft announced that the head of the division and the support team had left Microsoft in January 2023. See Bloomberg article Bloomberg HoloLens Article and Microsoft's multi billion Defence contract for HoloLens is openly in doubt HoloLens Military Contract reduced
As small amount of version 1.2 HoloLens Headset completed Military approval as reported in September 2023 Successfull 1.2 HoloLens tests.
This uncertainty and the layoff's have unsettled Enterprise customers and the Microsoft HoloLens development community.
We therefore suggest you talk to your Microsoft contacts before embarking on any evaluation.
Magic Leap are heavily committed to the Enterprise use cases for the Magic Leap 2 and have recently appointed a new CEO to make sure both sales of the device and software developed for Magic Leap move at a faster pace.
We would advise a test drive to ensure the Magic Leap device can deliver against your use case as a prudent measure.