Project Irides: Microsoft researches a cloud-based VR headset

Microsoft continues to push the cloud with their new research project into VR head-mounted displays.

Last year, we reported that Microsoft was working on a VR headset and had sent out prototypes to developers.

A couple of days ago, Neowin covered Microsoft's unveiling of Project Irides - a research endeavor that aims to improve VR headsets using Kawahi technology. Basically, this means offloading some processing to the cloud which increases image quality and streams it back to the headset.

Kawahi also uses predictive graphical processing, using “likelyhood-based foveation” that predicts player input to render parts of an image in higher quality than others, based on where it 'thinks' they're likely to look.

After testing it in Doom 3, Neowin remarked that "participants came away impressed and mentioned a noticeable difference both in quality, latency and overall experience when these techniques were used to render the game in VR."

Microsoft is already working on HoloLens, so whether this project is for a different piece of hardware, or a foray into improving what they're already working on is something we'll probably hear more about at E3.