Project Sidekick and the HoloLens are ready to become intergalactic. In collaboration with NASA, Microsoft is sending some devices to the International Space Station (ISS). The project is called Project Sidekick, and it will start by the end of 2015.
LOCATION: Ellington Field – NASA C-9 Aircraft
SUBJECT: Reduced Gravity Office's JPL research flights. Flight 3
PHOTOGRAPHER(S): BILL STAFFORD
Currently, when an astronaut has completed a task, they keep notes and receive new instructions from NASA only via voice.
The Project Sidekick will use HoloLens to create “spaces” of augmented reality, facilitating communication and more.
Thus astronauts will be able to receive detailed instructions and see precisely what needs to be done in the area they must work in.
The Project Sidekick will initially have two functions.
The Remote Expert mode that Skype will use for real-time commentary and will allow NASA to see exactly what the astronaut sees, and the Procedure function that will use holograms that the crew can interact with.
The NASA reports that Project Sidekick “will be used and evaluated during operations in an extreme environment of the (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations or NEEMO), a campaign that will start on July 21, by a team of astronauts and technicians living at the underwater research station Aquarius. The exercise will last two weeks.”
NASA did not specify exactly when the HoloLens will reach the ISS.
Watch the video.
