Microsoft Has Been Quietly Working on the Future of Consumer AR

When it comes to flashy augmented reality (AR) glasses for consumers, all eyes are on two companies these days: Magic Leap, which released its Magic Leap One developer headset last summer, and Apple, which is reportedly getting ready to unveil an AR device next year.One company that isn’t getting quite as much attention, despite having worked in AR for years, is Microsoft. That’s largely due to the fact that Microsoft’s Hololens headset has been positioned as an enterprise device, made for healthcare professionals instead of gamers. But make no mistake: Microsoft has had its eyes set on the consumer AR market for quite some time — and it is increasingly hinting at plans to show off its vision for how we all may use AR one day.Case in point: When the Redmond-based software giant unveiled the second generation Hololens device last month, Microsoft’s Alex Kipman was joined by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. The game industry executive was ostensibly at the event to announce the addition of Hololens support to Epic’s Unreal game engine to give developers another tool to create AR and VR content.