Tech giant Microsoft has recently added a new client to their “industrial metaverse”. Automobile company Kawasaki’s workers will now wear a HoloLens headset, which will help with production, repairs and managing supply chains.
The headsets, which let the user experience augmented reality overlaying digital imagery in a real world environment, will be used to build robots.
In the ‘industrial metaverse’ of Microsoft, these headsets also incorporate other Microsoft products such as cloud computing, helping factory workers and managers build products faster and more efficiently.
The idea behind this product is to create a “digital twin” of a workspace, which helps speed up the repair process, develop new manufacturing lines and increase production solving supply chain problems.
The industrial metaverse product is also used by Heinz in its ketchup factories.
Talking about the industrial metaverse, Jessica Hawk, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of mixed reality said, “That’s why I think you’re seeing a lot of energy in that space.”
“These are real world problems that these companies are dealing with … so having a technology solution that can help unblock the supply chain challenge, for example, is incredibly impactful.”
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Microsoft is currently selling mixed reality technology to companies while also giving developers the tools they require to make their own metaverse experience.
“We really see differentiation in the way that we’re going about our strategy here that recognizes people are going to experience the metaverse across a variety of devices and platforms,” continued Hawk.
What this means, is that Microsoft is working on product features that work on 2D screens as well. For example, last year Microsoft added a new feature to its Teams chat app that lets people appear as digital avatars.
Hawk continued, “We’re just really excited about it’s a moment in time that is unlocking so much innovation.”