Florent Pelisser, product manager for Microsoft’s HoloLens mixed-reality headset in France, described personal computers and mobile devices as the cores of the first and second waves of computing, respectively.

“We think at Microsoft that the third wave of computing is about mixed reality,” he said. “We really think that, now, we are transitioning from a 2D world – learning through screens and through paper – into a 3D world.”

Pelisser emphasised the value of mixed reality (which encompasses VR and AR) to businesses, particularly in training employees to perform new tasks: “If you start to learn in 3D by doing immersive training, then the amount of information you keep will be much higher than just reading or seeing a video; it’s more natural,” he said.

“We are seeing clear signals from our partners that there is real niche in the enterprise space for that type of technology. We have seen for a few years that mixed reality is really changing the way we learn, we work, we communicate, and we play. There is a market [for it].”

The benefits that mixed reality could bring to businesses – rather than to consumer entertainment – were enthusiastically discussed at the French conference, with dozens of companies touting mixed-reality hardware and software for training, reskilling, improving efficiency, and other workplace applications.

Microsoft launched its own mixed-reality smart glasses for businesses – the HoloLens – in 2016, a successor of sorts to the motion-sensitive Kinect device (which was primarily intended for gaming). The company announced the next generation of the HoloLens – HoloLens 2 – at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month. The HoloLens 2 is intended to provide “the most comfortable and immersive mixed-reality experience on the market”.

Pelisser revealed to delegates that the HoloLens – which has not yet received authorisation by US and European regulators – would be likely to go on sale around the end of the summer or early autumn this year.

Pelisser told the conference that the HoloLens 2 was fully customisable with a modular design, a wider field of view, fully articulated hand tracking with 25 individual sensors (allowing for the wearer to “grab” and manipulate holographic images), improved spatial mapping, eye tracking, and the ability for multiple people to save their unique settings on a single device: “If you use one [HoloLens] between a group of five to six people, each of them will be able to authenticate themselves with their eyes to the HoloLens, which will be configured to those people, like you do on your PC.”

He told Laval Virtual 2019 that the new HoloLens would use Microsoft’s Azure enterprise cloud-computing services for a smoother experience, such as by rendering the very detailed 3D images necessary for an immersive experience in the cloud, which are then streamed to the device.

Pelisser also noted that Microsoft believed this third computing paradigm should be more open and cooperative than previous waves: “We want to be the ones to follow open standards.”

Last month, Microsoft employees called on senior executives to drop an almost $500m (£480m) contract with the US Armed Forces. Under the terms of the contract, Microsoft could eventually supply more than 100,000 HoloLens headsets to the army for immersive combat training to “increase lethality”. In an open letter, the employees argued that the company had “crossed the line into weapons development” with this contract, and called for Microsoft to commit to a public policy of rejecting work on weapons technology.

Florent Pelisser, product manager for Microsoft’s HoloLens mixed-reality headset in France, described personal computers and mobile devices as the cores of the first and second waves of computing, respectively.

“We think at Microsoft that the third wave of computing is about mixed reality,” he said. “We really think that, now, we are transitioning from a 2D world – learning through screens and through paper – into a 3D world.”

Pelisser emphasised the value of mixed reality (which encompasses VR and AR) to businesses, particularly in training employees to perform new tasks: “If you start to learn in 3D by doing immersive training, then the amount of information you keep will be much higher than just reading or seeing a video; it’s more natural,” he said.

“We are seeing clear signals from our partners that there is real niche in the enterprise space for that type of technology. We have seen for a few years that mixed reality is really changing the way we learn, we work, we communicate, and we play. There is a market [for it].”

The benefits that mixed reality could bring to businesses – rather than to consumer entertainment – were enthusiastically discussed at the French conference, with dozens of companies touting mixed-reality hardware and software for training, reskilling, improving efficiency, and other workplace applications.

Microsoft launched its own mixed-reality smart glasses for businesses – the HoloLens – in 2016, a successor of sorts to the motion-sensitive Kinect device (which was primarily intended for gaming). The company announced the next generation of the HoloLens – HoloLens 2 – at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month. The HoloLens 2 is intended to provide “the most comfortable and immersive mixed-reality experience on the market”.

Pelisser revealed to delegates that the HoloLens – which has not yet received authorisation by US and European regulators – would be likely to go on sale around the end of the summer or early autumn this year.

Pelisser told the conference that the HoloLens 2 was fully customisable with a modular design, a wider field of view, fully articulated hand tracking with 25 individual sensors (allowing for the wearer to “grab” and manipulate holographic images), improved spatial mapping, eye tracking, and the ability for multiple people to save their unique settings on a single device: “If you use one [HoloLens] between a group of five to six people, each of them will be able to authenticate themselves with their eyes to the HoloLens, which will be configured to those people, like you do on your PC.”

He told Laval Virtual 2019 that the new HoloLens would use Microsoft’s Azure enterprise cloud-computing services for a smoother experience, such as by rendering the very detailed 3D images necessary for an immersive experience in the cloud, which are then streamed to the device.

Pelisser also noted that Microsoft believed this third computing paradigm should be more open and cooperative than previous waves: “We want to be the ones to follow open standards.”

Last month, Microsoft employees called on senior executives to drop an almost $500m (£480m) contract with the US Armed Forces. Under the terms of the contract, Microsoft could eventually supply more than 100,000 HoloLens headsets to the army for immersive combat training to “increase lethality”. In an open letter, the employees argued that the company had “crossed the line into weapons development” with this contract, and called for Microsoft to commit to a public policy of rejecting work on weapons technology.