Microsoft reveals $3000 HoloLens dev kit, hardware specs

You will no longer have to be an astronaut to get your hands on Microsoft’s latest hardware development.

The emulator will allow developers to test holographic apps on their PCs without a physical HoloLens, according to the company.

“We believe that the future is holographic, and as a result, we will continue to empower the developers who will help bring that future to life”, said Microsoft’s Alex Kipman. Offering a self-contained and untethered system that uses holographic computing natively, with no markers or external cameras, wires or smartphone required. As per the plan of the company, developers, who first enrolled themselves to develop holographic app for HoloLens will be receiving invitations to preorder the device.

The HoloLens developer kit, which maps hologram-like images onto the real world through a transparent viewing window, will start shipping on 30 March.

On the official Microsoft page for the developer edition of the HoloLens, it is stated that preordering developers will have to be located in the United States or Canada, which is where the Development Edition of the device will be available first. “The HPU is custom silicon that allows HoloLens to understand gestures and gaze while mapping the world all around you, all in real time”.

Powered by a custom-built Microsoft Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) and an Intel 32-bit architecture, the device has see-through holographic lenses that use an advanced optical projection system to generate multi-dimensional full-color holograms.

Check out the promotional video below to see HoloLens in action, and also watch this demo of a first-person murder mystery game, the next generation of Skype calls powered by the headset and even more early HoloLens projects.

“We have introduced new partners like Volvo Cars, Autodesk Fusion 360 and have continued to make progress in our partnerships with Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic, Trimble, and NASA”, the company said in its blog post.