Mixed Reality Solutions

The practical difference between AR and MR is the depth of real-world integration. Standard augmented reality overlays digital content on a camera view of the real world the virtual objects are displayed on a 2D screen and do not truly interact with the physical space (they cannot be occluded by real objects, they do not understand the geometry of the environment). Mixed reality as demonstrated by Microsoft HoloLens uses real-time depth sensing and spatial mapping to understand the 3D structure of the environment: holograms can be occluded by real physical objects (a holographic display disappears behind a real table), anchored precisely to real surfaces, and persistently placed across sessions and multiple users. Apple uses the term spatial computing for Vision Pro. Microsoft uses mixed reality for HoloLens. Both represent a more sophisticated integration between digital and physical than standard mobile AR.

Azure Spatial Anchors is a cloud service that enables holographic content to persist in precise physical locations across sessions and multiple headsets. Without spatial anchors, each HoloLens session starts fresh holograms placed in the previous session are lost, requiring manual repositioning. With Azure Spatial Anchors: a maintenance instruction overlay anchored to a specific piece of equipment is automatically rediscovered and repositioned to exactly the same location in the next session. The HoloLens scans the environment, matches visual features to the stored anchor point in Azure, and restores the hologram position. For enterprise deployments with multiple technicians, the anchor positions are shared all HoloLens devices see the same holograms on the same physical equipment. Azure Spatial Anchors makes persistent, shared holographic content practical for industrial and enterprise MR deployments.