Microsoft’s HoloLens headset has been slowly pivoting towards commercial markets over the past year. NASA, Volvo, Lowe’s, Audi, and Volkswagen are all testing HoloLens for various reasons, and now Ford is expanding its use of Microsoft’s headsets after an initial pilot phase. Ford is using HoloLens to let designers quickly model out changes to cars, trucks, and SUVs. This allows designers to see the changes on top of an existing physical vehicle, instead of the traditional clay model approach to car design.
Ford is still using clay models, but the HoloLens can be used to augment additional 3D models without having to build every single design prototype with clay. It’s one of the more interesting ways we’ve seen businesses use Microsoft’s HoloLens, and it’s something customers will never see. A number of other companies are also using HoloLens for training purposes, much like how VR is used in the same way by businesses.
It’s great to see tech like this get put into a practical use just like Google Glass is being used for the machine shops now.