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Ford Is Using Microsoft's HoloLens To Design Cars In Augmented Reality (theverge.com)

Ford is using Microsoft's HoloLens headset to let designers quickly model out changes to cars, trucks, and SUVs in augmented reality. This allows designers to see the changes on top of an existing physical vehicle, instead of the traditional clay model approach to car design. The Verge reports: 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. Microsoft is planning to hold a Windows Mixed Reality launch event on October 3rd in San Francisco. We're not expecting to hear about a HoloLens successor, but we should get a better idea of what apps and games we'll see coming for Microsoft's Windows Mixed Reality headsets.

31 comments

  1. Give it up Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    No matter how many ads you buy very few people want it

    1. Re: Give it up Microsoft by itamblyn · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's actually pretty neat technology. I was impressed

    2. Re: Give it up Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Are you willing to pay for it though?

      I agree the idea is nice but not nice enough to buy.

    3. Re: Give it up Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I must have missed all of the hololens ads.

    4. Re: Give it up Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you work at IBM?

    5. Re:Give it up Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      it has been incredibly hard to buy them ever since they were released as demand for them has been high. They have been very successful, remember this is not a product a home user or your average company would ever see or even be able to purchase if they wanted (3k a pop, plus a large project commitment in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to even be able to place an order. I hope the next version has a large FOV, but even with the current limited one it has been a hit.

    6. Re: Give it up Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      You wouldn't be if you actually saw the visual quality of one of those pieces of shit. It's a tiny, low resolution viewport fixed in the centre of view.

    7. Re: Give it up Microsoft by gravewax · · Score: 2

      No I wouldn't, but then I am not running a multi million dollar design/engineering project that these are designed for nor do I have a spare quarter of a million to drop on a set of devices and implementation. All indications are sales and adoption have been pretty good thus far.

    8. Re: Give it up Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then it doesn't take much to impress you.
      Do you work for Microsoft or something?
      I have also tried it and I can honestly say it's an expensive piece of shit.

  2. Pretty neat. by olsmeister · · Score: 1

    But I'll really be impressed when Ford engineers can have the computer quickly piece together a simulation of Henry Ford and then using the hololens and the Henry Ford simulation design the next best selling car in the world in virtual reality.

    1. Re:Pretty neat. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sell it in the virtual world to virtual customers ...

  3. Better title by spongman · · Score: 1

    Ford and Microsoft are now namedropping each other in a brand ad/press release.

    1. Re:Better title by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

      "now" ? where were you when sync came out? :)

  4. No they aren't. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What they are doing is using it to shape the exterior of a car model. There is a lot of engineering that goes into designing cars and this is used for exactly jack shit of that engineering. So no, they aren't designing any cars with it, they are just replacing real clay with virtual clay.

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    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:No they aren't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, yeah, and they design cars from clay so I am not sure your statement makes sense. They take point clouds of clay and feed those in to what ever cad systems they are using to design the car (at least the show surfaces). They actually go back and forth from clay to cad and in the last few years VR and AR have been used. The final design is worked out this way with some changes happening with the completed car because of build issues because in the end the car has to be able to be built. So to say this isn't a tool being used in the design is false. It's one of many.

  5. Are they using A.I.? by thesjaakspoiler · · Score: 0

    The holo lens is so 2016. Why use such outdated technology if you can have AI to come up with the best design.

  6. Found On the Road Dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    F.O.R.D. is still in bed with Microsoft, even after the MS-Sync fiasco?

    Some companies never learn.

  7. VRs been in auto manufacturing for a LONG time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Multiple car companies have used the CAVE VR systems since the 90s.

    Renalt
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wN40W_bBCE

    GM (their first system was back in the 90s using Silicon Graphics REs)
    https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/manufacturing-design/manufacturing-cars-with-virtual-reality
    http://wardsauto.com/industry/gm-uses-virtual-world-perfect-future-vehicles

    Jaguar
    http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/16/technology/jaguar-car-virtual-reality-cave/index.html

    Caterpillar (since the 90s)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9N1w8PmD1E

  8. BS from the fourth word on by stooo · · Score: 0

    The article is pure BS

    >> Ford is using Microsoft's ....
    That is wrong right there. you can't simply be just "using" a MS product.
    It's logically either one or a combination of these:

    - you can abuse a MS product.
    - you can be abused by a MS product.
    - you can misuse a MS product.
    - you can misused by a MS product.
    - you can fight with the support of a MS product.
    - you can pay a MS product.
    - you can be payed by marketing for a MS product, and regret it bitterly.
    - you can be disenchanted by a MS product.
    - you can deinstall a MS product.
    - your company can be bought and crashed by a MS product.

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    aaaaaaa
    1. Re: BS from the fourth word on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You might be the biggest stooge on /.

  9. Cynical? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You seem very cynical. Hololens really is transformative for its ability to leave voice notes in a 3D scene. We've never had a way to visualize 3D views of objects properly before, the ability to move the head and eyes and use that to set the view onto a 3D object instead of a mouse or trackball or keys is revolutionary and will allow Ford to leap ahead of all those competitors.

    Add to that a popup voice saying "Bob I see an issue here", that's as revolutionary as Second Life.

    Ford really are nailing it lately. Their announcement of the track to test self driving cars on is really what they need to get on the self driving band wagon. That lack of a test track for self driving cars was the only hurdle they faced.

    Soon, they'll be racing ahead like Kodak in the digital camera market.

  10. Re:Ummm..... clay... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    they do design in CAD, but they still make clay models so that designers can get a feel for how the car will look in real life. There is alot of value in having a real model to touch and feel as that is generally how people interact with cars.

    also the majority of 3d racing games use cars that already exist so more than often they just scan the cars if they cant get the models directly from the manufacturer.

    maybe you should go read up on the design process of cars, but you are right about this being a slashvertizement.

  11. The implications by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 0

    Ford cars will crash in weird and wonderful ways.

  12. So... by coofercat · · Score: 1

    So they'll be making nicer looking cars now, will they? No? oh :-(

  13. and as I replied when the Onion got ahold of this by swschrad · · Score: 2

    The next version will allow engineers to also see the safety recalls next to the virtual car.

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    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  14. Hololens Experience form a physics professo friend by Dripdry · · Score: 2

    I can see why Ford would try this move. A physics teacher friend of mine purchased a Hololens to work on a project that ultimately (finally!) landed him a tenure track position at a University. He showed me his demo, magnetic field lines given a point charge in space; simple stuff, but a neat idea to help students learn.

    When he put the thing on me it felt pretty nice. Bit heavy, but comfy. Booted it up and the whooshing of scanning the room was impressive. Then he showed me the Solar System program. It completely blew my mind, could walk around the room, lean in to see things, zoom and manipulate with my bare hands in the air; I've tried VR, but after a few minutes with AR I was ready to hand over my bucks for the next version of Hololens, no questions asked. The current one would be GREAT for engineers and architects, maybe medical applications too, but not quite there for consumer.

    I'm a convert, honestly. I'd love to get one.

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