Microsoft’s next HoloLens headset will come with built-in artificial intelligence

AI will make it possible to improve hand tracking on the device, as well as run object recognition and other computer vision tasks. The HoloLens virtual reality (VR) headsets during a product demonstration at Microsoft Developers Build Conference in Seattle,

Count Microsoft among the companies preparing to build specialised chips for artificial intelligence (AI). The next version of the company’s HoloLens augmented reality headset will come with a chip capable of complex AI computation, revealed Microsoft Research VP Harryn Shum at a computer vision conference Sunday. This will make it possible to improve hand tracking on the device, as well as run object recognition and other computer vision tasks.

Cloud-based server farms are getting very good at using artificial intelligence for advanced image recognition, something that Google and Facebook use to recognize persons and even objects in images uploaded to their services. But for HoloLens to work without delays, tasks like these have to be solved locally – which is why the company is putting AI straight into the headset itself.