computer science

HoloLens 2

HoloLens 2 is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand HoloLens 2 rather than just read about it. In short: Microsoft HoloLens 2 is a augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality head-mounted display developed and manufactured by Microsoft. It is the successor to the original Microsoft HoloLens.

Key takeaways

HoloLens 2 belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect HoloLens 2 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of HoloLens 2 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Microsoft HoloLens 2 is a augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality head-mounted display developed and manufactured by Microsoft. It is the successor to the original Microsoft HoloLens. The first variant of the device, The HoloLens 2 enterprise edition, debuted its release on February 24, 2019. This was followed by a developer edition that was announced on May 2, 2019. The HoloLens 2 was subsequently released to limited numbers on November 7, 2019. The HoloLens 2 is now discontinued, but will continue to receive software updates until December 31, 2027.

Description The HoloLens 2 was announced by lead HoloLens developer Alex Kipman on February 24, 2019 at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. On May 7, 2019 the HoloLens 2 was shown again at the Microsoft Build developer conference. There, it showcased an application created with the Unreal Game Engine. The HoloLens 2 are combination waveguide and laser-based stereoscopic and full-color mixed reality smartglasses developed and manufactured by Microsoft. The US military's Integrated Visual Augmentation System is a further development of Hololens 2. The HoloLens 2 is an early AR device. The displays on the HoloLens 2 are simple waveguide displays with a fixed focus of approximately two meters. Because of the fixed focus, the displays exhibit the Vergence-Accommodation Conflict, which is an unpleasant visual sensation for the viewer. On August 20, 2019, at the Hot Chips 31 symposium Microsoft presented their Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) 2.0 custom design for the HoloLens 2 with the following features:

7x SIMD Fixed Point (SFP) for 2D processing 6x Floating Vector Processor (FVP) for 3D processing >1 tera-OP/s (TOPS) of programmable compute 125 Mb SRAM 79 mm2 die size and 2 billion transistors TSMC 16FF+ process PCIe 2.0 x1 at 100 MB/s bandwidth to Snapdragon 850 On August 29, 2019, at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, Microsoft's Executive Vice President, Harry Shum, revealed that HoloLens 2 would go on sale in September 2019. The product started shipping on November 7, 2019.

Improvements over the previous model Microsoft highlighted three main improvements made to the device: immersiveness, ergonomics and business friendliness. HoloLens 2 has a diagonal field of view of 52 degrees, improving over the 34 degree field of view (FOV) of the first edition of HoloLens, although Karl Guttag states that it offers less than 20 pixels per degree of resolution (despite Microsoft's claim that it would keep a resolution of 47 pixels per degree). Holographic Processing Unit (HPU) 2.0 improvements compared to the HPU 1.0:

1.7x compute 2x effective DRAM bandwidth Improved hologram stability New hardware accelerated workloads such as eye tracking, fully articulated hand tracking, semantic labeling, spatial audio and JBL filter

HoloLens 2 Emulator The HoloLens 2 Emulator was made available to developers on April 17, 2019. This emulator allowed developers to create applications for the HoloLens 2 before the device was released to the public. The emulator continued to be updated after the device launched, and as of July 2025, the emulator was last updated in October 2024.

Integrated Visual Augmentation System

The HoloLens 2 provides the basis for the United States Army's' Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) augmented reality headset. In February 2019, after the contract for developing IVAS was signed between Microsoft and the US Army, more than 50 employees signed a petition calling for Microsoft to cancel the contract, saying that they "didn't want to become war profiteers". The petition stated that Microsoft had misled its engineers on how their products would be used; rather than being beneficial for civilians, they believed that the HoloLens is now being used to "help people kill". Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, defended the contract, saying that the company is "not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy". The US Army is also developing the technology to be used by dogs.

References

External links HoloLens demo at Mobile World Congress on YouTube Microsoft Documentation for HoloLens Emulator

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with HoloLens 2

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what HoloLens 2 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to HoloLens 2 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about HoloLens 2 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of HoloLens 2

In research: HoloLens 2 appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses HoloLens 2 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: HoloLens 2 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Augmented reality, Computer-related introductions in 2019, Computing input devices, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for HoloLens 2 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study HoloLens 2 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what HoloLens 2 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain HoloLens 2 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is HoloLens 2 in simple terms?

Microsoft HoloLens 2 is a augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality head-mounted display developed and manufactured by Microsoft. It is the successor to the original Microsoft HoloLens.

Why does HoloLens 2 matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study HoloLens 2?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on HoloLens 2.