Microsoft has debuted a new feature that helps to make the HoloLens better at remote use via a PC. The company’s augmented reality headset allows a PC to process holographic content. This is possible through a new app called Holographic Remoting Player. HoloLens users can now download the app from the Windows Store.
Holographic Remoting Player is a service that gives HoloLens the ability to off-load processing to a PC. This is achieved via the device export sensor using a Wi-Fi connection to send the data to a computer. Once the processing is complete, the PC will send the data back to the headset.
The advantages of this are obvious. The HoloLens does not have to do the heavy lifting of processing data. Outsourcing the task to PCs allows the headset to achieve better performance. With Holographic Remoting Player, performance as good a 60 frames per second is possible.
Microsoft describes the service:
“The Holographic Remoting Player is a companion app that connects to PC apps and games that support Holographic Remoting. Holographic Remoting streams holographic content from a PC to your Microsoft HoloLens in real-time, using a Wi-Fi connection.”
More Benefits
As well as bumping the frame rate capabilities, the service has other advantages. For example, with PCs doing the process there will be an ability for the HoloLens to deal with more complex data. This potentially allows improved augmented reality renders as data overlayed to the image is improved.
The remoting app comes with other new abilities. It can help to simulate directly into Unity Play Mode, something that will likely appeal to developers. This means Unity Remote Debugging can be done via the PC link. Using Unity in Play Mode, developers can run their own apps on HoloLens using the remote app.
