Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 can now make holograms capable of speaking other languages. The technology was unveiled in Microsoft Inspire partner conference on July 17th. Julia White, an executive for Azure, used a mixed reality capture studio and made an exact hologram of herself.
The hologram proceeded to translate her keynote onto Japanese. This new technology uses a combination of Artificial Intelligence provided by Azure and neural text-to-speech to achieve this. The system scanned White’s voice and created a voice signature, thereby translating it into Japanese. The signature allowed her hologram to speak the language fluently even though, as she admitted, she cannot speak it in actuality.
Source: Microsoft
Observing the video, it can be seen that the render was made possible through advanced studio setup comprising of high rig cameras and lights. The mass roll-out of this technology seems unlikely in the foreseeable future but appears to be promising for future communications through companies and individuals.
Microsoft has been aiming its HoloLens 2 towards businesses for a long time. Fields like medicine, engineering and development stand to benefit through ever-expanding hardware and additional software.
Source: Microsoft
Microsoft's Dynamic 365 Remote Assist is one of them which promises to "Empower technicians to solve problems more efficiently by working together from different locations with Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and HoloLens devices."
Moreover, other industry solutions by Microsoft include tie-ups with doctors to help them perform invasive procedures and increasing safety and productivity for workers in dangerous work environments.
Real-time translation technology stands to become more feasible to the point where it won't require an expensive setup to achieve translation. The 'ready for business' HoloLens 2 is currently just for the enterprise but is planning deployment towards consumer sectors in the future.