

Since Covid-19 restrictions in Switzerland made it impossible to try out the technology in a vehicle with another person at the time, Joshua Elsdon, a Microsoft senior software engineer who worked on the project, had to find solutions from his Zurich apartment.Įlsdon devised a mock platform using a plastic box, sticking bits of tape inside to add visual texture and give the HoloLens cameras elements to track. But testing the capability posed another challenge.

To address that issue, Pollefeys’ team developed an algorithm that models the discrepancies between the sensors and allows HoloLens to continue tracking. Connecting inside and outside of the vehicle: A navigation element positioned outside the vehicle complements the 3D map integrated into the dashboard. Together, the sensors mimic how humans see and move through the world.īut similar to how being in a car or boat can cause motion sickness when what appears to be a stable environment is actually moving, when the tightly coupled HoloLens sensors start disagreeing in a moving environment - with the inertial measurement unit recognizing motion and the cameras unable to - things fall apart. HoloLens uses two main types of sensors that measure its motion - visible light cameras and an inertial measurement unit, or IMU, that gauges acceleration and rotation speed. The two teams began collaborating around 2018 to develop the moving platform feature for HoloLens 2, which required solving a fundamental problem. They were eager to work with us to find a solution and be able to use HoloLens in those situations.”

“They presented their use cases and what they were hoping to enable. “We had extensive discussions,” says Pollefeys, now the director of Microsoft’s Mixed Reality and AI Lab in Zurich, Switzerland. The Volkswagen team traveled to Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington to show Pollefeys and his team its work with HoloLens and its vision for augmented reality technology. Kleen’s team approached Microsoft for help and connected with Marc Pollefeys, Microsoft director of science and an expert in 3D computer vision and machine learning. When the device was put into a moving vehicle, its sensors lost tracking and the holograms it normally displays disappeared. Volkswagen hoped to use HoloLens for the research project, but soon ran up against a problem.
#DIGITAL MOTION SICKNESS GLASSES DRIVERS#
Tested at Volkswagen’s track facility in Ehra-Lessien, Germany, the Race Trainer system used a head-up display that superimposed lines of arrows on the track for drivers to follow, and provided steering and braking cues to guide them through a gradated set of lessons. In 2015, for instance, Volkswagen embarked on a research project using self-piloted vehicles and augmented reality to teach driving on a racing circuit. family of electric cars in 2020 that projects navigation arrows, lane markings and other information onto the environment in front of the cars.īut Volkswagen was thinking about the potential of augmented reality even earlier, Kleen says. It’s not so abstract.”Īn early adopter of augmented reality technology, Volkswagen introduced an augmented reality head-up display in its ID. “Because what you see there, and what you need to process, is very close to what humans normally see and process. Andro Kleen, head of the data science team at Volkswagen Group Innovation. “We think mixed reality information is the most intuitive information we could provide to enhance our customers’ user experience,” says Dr. And while mobility is Volkswagen’s focus, the capability could in future be shared across other industries. The new “moving platform” mode for HoloLens 2 overcomes a major limitation of mixed reality headsets and creates potential for the technology to be used in new ways - training drivers to handle challenging road conditions, for example, or creating new user experiences for autonomous vehicles. To get a little closer to that vision, Volkswagen collaborated with Microsoft to enable the HoloLens 2 mixed reality headset to be used in moving vehicles for the first time. That’s the future of mobility envisioned by researchers at German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen, who see augmented reality as one of the key components of future mobility concepts. And as the day dawns, you can use holographic controls in front of you to adjust the interior temperature to your liking. As your self-driving car takes you to your destination, you get holographic displays of traffic information, weather conditions, shopping recommendations and architectural highlights along the way. Imagine putting on a pair of augmented reality glasses as you head out in the morning and get into your vehicle.
