What a year! As we begin 2019, we see so much opportunity for us to work with all of you to continue to define what the future of computing looks like with mixed reality. There are opportunities to reshape the way we work, learn, and visualize our world. Here are a few areas we are particularly excited about:
For many of our customers, equipment and processes are mission critical, and any downtime can have an enormous impact on their business, so ensuring employees are working safely and efficiently is paramount. With Microsoft HoloLens, employees can experience realistic 3D training at scale, and integrated with their existing productivity tools. This provides companies the flexibility to train their employees at lower costs but with high-quality results.
Beyond Microsoft, the growth of mixed reality as a category this year has truly been inspiring. There are now more end points that allow people to visualize data in the context of the real world, whether that be through a headset or a mobile device. With Dynamics 365, we deeply understand a customer’s workflow and believe there are contextual mixed reality solutions that are relevant across all the devices they use in their work – and we’re going to make sure we’re ready to help.
Through the insights we’ve learned from our customers and partners about their industries and workflows, it’s clear to us that there’s an incredible opportunity to better connect their physical space into their business applications. We believe that our customers will benefit from real-time insights from sensors, IoT devices, and computer vision enabled devices.
Mixed reality 2018 year in review
2018 was an incredible year for mixed reality, let’s take a quick look back on 2018.
- Dynamics 365 and MR have come together: Earlier this year, we shared a broad visionfor business applications at Microsoft.
- We launched Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Dynamics 365 Layout: our first two mixed reality business applications, which provide out-of-the-box value for our customers using Microsoft HoloLens and help address some of the unmet needs of Firstline Workers.
- HoloLens expanded to 41 markets and is available to rent:in the US and Canada companies can rent the device and evaluate prior to purchase or temporarily increase their inventory to support tradeshows or events.
- Trimble’s Hard Hat Solution and Trimble Connect:Our long-term partner, Trimble, announced Trimble Connect for HoloLens and a new hard hat solution for HoloLens that improves the utility of mixed reality for practical field applications.
- CAE, Visual3D, TeraRecon, Pearson, and others deliver game-changing mixed reality healthcare solutions:From more insightful ultrasounds and new ways of learning to performing live surgeries using mixed reality.
- PTC and BAE use mixed reality to change the way employees learn:BAE and PTC used ThingWorx Studio to easily create a guided, step-by-step training solution for HoloLens to teach workers how to assemble a green energy bus battery.
- Chevron:is already achieving real, measurable results with its global HoloLens deployment. Using Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, they can now put any inspector or expert anywhere in the world in under a minute.
- ZF:A great way to see Remote Assist and Layout in action is through the work of ZF Group, a German car parts manufacturer.
- Toyota:With their mixed reality solution, Toyota can now take their existing 3D CAD data used in the vehicle design process and project it directly onto the vehicle for measurements, optimizing existing processes, and minimizing errors.
- Mae Jemison and Defying Gravity: Women in Space: This year, Microsoft, Dr. Jemison, and Smithsonian Magazine joined forces with the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum to sound a rallying cry for representation and inclusion on Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day. They came together to create Defying Gravity: Women in Space, a mixed reality experience at the Intrepid that shares the stories of previously unsung women who’ve made critical contributions to the US space program.