Microsoft continues to push the cloud with their new research project into VR head-mounted displays.
Although much of Microsoft’s attention has been focused on augmented reality with their latest announcements and demoes of the Hololens, Microsoft research into VR technology continues.
According to Microsoft, the fundamental challenge of virtual reality head-mounted displays (HMDs), like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or Sony Morpheus, is offering high visual quality, responsiveness and mobility, all at the same time. Microsoft’s argument is that no solutions today provide all three properties.
With that, Microsoft revealed Project Irides which hopes to improve responsiveness, quality, as well as mobility for virtual reality experiences by off-loading rendering work to a “high-end” GPU in the cloud. This in turn should dramatically help VR headsets stay cooler, and require less power to function.
Microsoft has released a research video showing the Project Irides technology in action:
Whether Project Irides is for a different piece of hardware (the video demo shows the use with an Oculus Rift DK1), or a foray into improving what Microsoft is already working on in addition to the Hololens is something we’ll probably hear more about at E3.