The guided missile technology that makes HoloLens work

Microsoft’s augmented reality development kit costs $3,000, and that’s because it shares some components that you’d normally find in spacecraft, guided missiles, and drones.

HoloLens, the head-mounted display that mixes digital imagery with the real world, starts shipping to developers March 30, and preorders are open right now. Of course, you’ll need to drain a few grand from your bank account to get one, and now specs reveal why that’s the case. HoloLens features a custom-built Microsoft “holographic processing unit” (HPU), four environment-understanding cameras, and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). This is some serious hardware that enables the wearable computer to track your location in 3D space without needing external sensors or a wired connection to a computer. That last bit, the IMU, is also one of the key pieces that helps the device keep track of where you are in the world. It’s a technology that humans developed to emulate a type of navigational intuition that you find in animals like geese and ants, and now it’s going to ensure that your virtual windows stay exactly where you put them in your office.