TEMPO.CO, Houston - The United States’ space agency NASA is teaming with tech giant Microsoft to bring along HoloLens headsets to the international space station in the seventh SpaceX mission on June 28, 2015. In the collaboration named Sidekick, astronauts will use HoloLens as a virtual assistant, International Business Times reported on Friday, June 26.
The report says that Sidekick will assist the astronauts in two ways, namely Remote Expert Mode and Procedure Mode.
The Remote Expert Mode setting is used to enable direct connection to the operator on earth via Skype application. This will also allow astronauts to get a real-time help because the operator will be able to see what the astronauts see.
“This is very different to the voice and written instructions that astronauts currently receive”, IB Times wrote on its website.
The Procedure Mode uses animated hollographic illustrations on top of objects the crew is interacting with, which could lessen the amount of training required for future crews. NASA said that Sidekick could help future explorations to Mars.
"Sidekick is a prime example of an application for which we envisioned HoloLens being used -- unlocking new potential for astronauts and giving us all a new perspective on what is possible with holographic computing,” said Alex Kipman, technical fellow for Microsoft’s OS group, as quoted by IB Times.
Prior its travel to the outer space, HoloLens is tested in a zero-gravitation plane Wonder C9 Jet.
Sidekick, which is the second NASA-Microsoft collaboration, will also be tried by astronauts and scientists in a two-week underwater expedition.
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