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Best Practices for creating ‘Experiences’ with HoloLens

  • Article
  • Applies to:
    HoloLens 2

Introduction

Our customers and partners create amazing experiences with HoloLens, and we see multiple fantastic applications and scenarios created in museums, aquariums, and attractions across the world. Our partners have multiple methods of deploying and maintaining these applications, and this guide focuses on the best practices for your application, your technical architecture, and your device management and provisioning.

By following the guidance in this section, you are able to ensure your experience is scalable, easy to manage, and ready for use with your experience partners, to give your customers a delightful time with your experiences.

Areas of focus

During this guide, we focus on several key areas that work together to form an overall solution.

  1. Application Considerations
  2. Environment Considerations
  3. Choosing the right Device Management options
  4. Policy configuration
  5. “Out of Box” production line
  6. Troubleshooting and device reset

We expect this guidance to be useful for small experiences of anywhere between 10-20 devices right up to larger deployments of 100+ devices.

Application Considerations

Your experience runs within the context of a UWP application that runs on the HoloLens device. Development support is outside the context of this document, however there are a few elements that are useful to consider during your development.

Single Self-Contained UWP Application

When deploying the application following our recommended methodology, we deploy a “Single App Kiosk”, which automatically launches your application. Users do not have access to the HoloLens Operating System (OS) or Shell, which means that all activities that are used by your experience should be contained within this one application.

Your application should be able to reset back to a “Starting” state and continue operating in a “loop”. Any calibration or navigation features should be contained within your application, as the app effectively controls the device experience. This practice removes any worry that a guest can modify or damage the experience and enables rapid turnaround for your experience.

Kick out to Settings

In any IT environment, there may be intermittent issues with networking, or a need to reset a malfunctioning application. In a single app kiosk, there's no way to kick out to a “Settings” screen to perform this minor troubleshooting.

Your application should have a method to get out to an “Operator” menu (protected by a shared passcode or similar) which launches the In-Box settings menu, to allow for functionality such as network configuration, Hologram map reset, or device reset). You can use the “Launch URI” capability to launch the device settings menu. Launch the Windows Settings app - UWP applications

Environment Considerations

HoloLens seamlessly blends holographic assets into real world surroundings appending stable and accurate holograms by tracking users in a space. Proper tracking is at the center of how HoloLens places experiences in your environment. To maintain proper tracking performance and for optimum usage, there are some Environment considerations that need to be adhered to for HoloLens to operate as intended. See HoloLens environment considerations.

Consideration Description
Lighting (Average Luxmeter - 500 – 1000 lux) Lighting is used to track location and the usage environment. It must not be too bright nor too dark. The recommendation is lighting should be bright, even and comfortable for a human to see without effort. See Lighting
Types of Lighting Different types of light can influence tracking and affect performance. For more information, see Types of Lighting
Items in a space HoloLens uses unique landmarks in your environment known as features. To ensure optimal tracking make sure your surrounding is feature rich, with posters, plants, unique objects etc., to aid tracking. See Items in a space
Wormholes Try to differentiate areas by making them distinctive. Areas that look the same can cause wormholes, where the HoloLens tracker thinks these areas are the same place. Use labels or other distinguishing features in your commercial environment to differentiate areas and help mitigate this problem. See Wormholes
Movement in a space Constantly moving, shifting and changing environments (including areas with lots of people) are difficult for the HoloLens to track. Try to provide a stable space clearly visible to the device for better tracking. See Movement in a space
Proximity of the user to items in the space HoloLens cameras can see no closer than 15 cm from an object. See Proximity of the user to items in the space
Surfaces in the space Less shiny objects are easier to track against. See Surfaces in a space
Wi-Fi fingerprint considerations With Wi-Fi enabled, map data is correlated with a Wi-Fi fingerprint even when not connected to a router. Without Wi-Fi info on the device, hologram and space recognition may be slower. Significant change in Wi-Fi signal can make the device believe it is in another space. See Wi-Fi fingerprint considerations
Temperature and Regulatory Information (Typical advised temperature range - HoloLens 2 is designed for use between +10 C and +35 C) HoloLens should be stored in an environment within the accepted temperature range (either when in standby or off for an hr before using the device). See the HoloLens Regulatory Information page for the temperature range and regulatory, usage and safety information.
Environmental Compliance Disclosure See details for HoloLens Materials and substances for Environmental compliance
Battery Information 2 - 3 hours battery usage time. USB-C battery packs can be utilized to extend this time.

For experiences that are likely to last more than 5 to 10 minutes, launch eye calibration at the start of your experience.

Choosing the right Device Management Option

Device management is a key consideration to deploying HoloLens at scale with ease. This outcome can be achieved through the following options: Provisioning Package or Mobile Device Management with Microsoft Intune both have pros and cons to use but view the following considerations to make the correct decision for your environment.

Provisioning Package

Follow the steps at Configure HoloLens by using a provisioning package (HoloLens).

Pros Cons
All configurations can be placed in the same package including Wi-Fi, VPN, Kiosk Mode, using Windows Configuration Designer Some familiarity with XML is desirable
Use low code or GUI to configure settings. New package must be generated for each update.
Ideal for offline secure deployments, with limited to no internet access allowed If you deploy certificates via MDM or certificate manager, the certificate must be deployed to the local machine store to sign apps installed with a provisioning package.
Apps and certificates may be installed via the same provisioning package
Provisioning packages can be stacked to meet specific needs should you want to change a setting later

To configure HoloLens 2 by using a provisioning package, follow the steps at Configure HoloLens by using a provisioning package. Download Windows Configuration Designer from the Microsoft Store to build the package

Intune

Follow the steps at Using Microsoft’s Endpoint Manager Intune to manage HoloLens devices. Use Windows Autopilot to simplify setting up HoloLens for scale by following the steps at Windows Autopilot for HoloLens 2.

Pros Cons
Devices can be grouped together, and configurations can be applied to groups of users of devices Intune license is required. However, a shared Intune Device License would cover this requirement.
Great for scale deployments over 15 – 20 devices Requires familiarity with Intune or other Modern Mobile Device Management services.
Allows implementation of configuration in a hands-off way. Configurations and application updates can be built and pushed out to multiple devices remotely.
Configuration can be made using the Endpoint Manager portal through configuration profiles in easy-to-use GUI. Additionally, OMA-URI offers flexibility to create customized settings and profiles.
Allows for tenant restrictions to prevent devices being stolen or reused in unauthorized ways.

Policy configuration

Policies are used to define the settings that govern the HoloLens devices. In this section, we share the configurations that should be applied for the Experience solution. As discussed in previous sections, policies can be applied through 2 provisioning methods: Provisioning Package or using Microsoft Intune for Mobile Device Management.

Single App Kiosk with Settings app AutoLaunch and Visitor Mode (Sample XML Policy)

For Provisioning packages, configurations can be shown in a hierarchical XML structure as shown here.

<AssignedAccessConfiguration
            xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/AssignedAccess/2017/config"
            >
            <Profiles>
                <Profile Id="{8739C257-184F-45DD-8657-C235819172A3}">
                    <KioskModeApp AppUserModelId="BAEAEF15-9BAB-47FC-800B-ACECAD2AE94B_cw5n1h2txyewy!App" />
                </Profile>
            </Profiles>
            <Configs>
                <Config>
                    <SpecialGroup Name="Visitor"/>
                    <DefaultProfile Id="{8739C257-184F-45DD-8657-C235819172A3}"/>
                </Config>
            </Configs>
        </AssignedAccessConfiguration>

AUMID of the Settings App: BAEAEF15-9BAB-47FC-800B-ACECAD2AE94B_cw5n1h2txyewy!App

Single App Kiosk with Microsoft Intune

Intune uses Kiosk templates or custom OMA-URI configurations, which can be remotely applied to HoloLens. For details see Steps in configuring Kiosk mode for HoloLens, and then follow the Microsoft Intune Single App Kiosk Template to set up a configuration profile.

Visitor Auto Login

The Auto Logon to a visitor profile allows you to jump straight into the action without ever seeing the login screen. The device is launched straight into the kiosk experience using the visitor profile. This behavior is a required setting and can be managed using the custom policy OMA-URI.

Setting Value
URI ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/MixedReality/VisitorAutoLogon
Type Boolean
Value 1 (0 – Disabled by default)

Tenant Lockdown

The Tenant Lockdown CSP keeps devices on the organization's tenant by locking them to that tenant even through device reset or reflash. It enables HoloLens 2 to be tied to MDM enrollment using Autopilot only and can be managed using the custom policy OMA-URI here …

Setting Value
URI ./Vendor/MSFT/TenantLockdown/RequireNetworkInOOBE
Type Boolean
Value True

Limiting Settings options available

To limit the options available as part of our Settings, use the Page Settings Visibility CSP. This practice allows the admin to reduce the settings available to the user.

Setting Value
URI ./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/Settings/PageVisibilityList
Type String
Value Showonly:network-wifi;holograms;reset;

Note

Given the value shown here… Wi-Fi, Holograms, Reset is available in settings.

Application Deployment

To deploy the application using Intune, see Deploying applications using Intune and Company Portal for more information.

Application Updates

For Application updates of the experience, see Add apps to Microsoft Intune for more information. To update an Experience, upload a new app package file with the latest version of the application and deploy using Intune.

Consistent LOB App deployment and update

To ensure that LOB Apps are deployed and updated as quickly as possible, there are several steps that can be taken:

Out of Box Production Line

Preparation

It is a best practive to keep all devices updated to the latest build using Advanced Recovery Companion (ARC) which can be downloaded from Microsoft Store.

Provisioning package

  1. Make sure the provisioning package (.ppkg) is copied to the root of a USB drive, only packages at the root are applied and if multiple packages are present these are applied sequentially.
  2. Plug in the USB drive with the provisioning package during the Out of Box Experience (OOBE)’s “first interactable moment” (i.e., the hummingbird screen for HoloLens 2).
  3. When the device is ready to be provisioned, a prompt automatically opens with the provisioning page.
  4. Wait for provisioning to be complete.
  5. The specified experience above is then automatically loaded.

For updates with a provisioning package, reflash the device using Advanced Recovery Companion (ARC) and apply a new provisioning package with your specific configurations for any updates.

Mobile Device Management – Microsoft Intune

  1. Autopilot requires internet access and one of the following options must be used to establish internet access
    1. Connect the device with Ethernet using a USB-C to Ethernet adapter for wired internet connectivity and HoloLens 2 completes the Autopilot experience automatically.

Note

Wi-Fi network is also possible as part of the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) however more interaction is required to get Wi-Fi setup for your device.

  1. The device automatically starts the Out of Box Experience, which shouldn't be interacted with once the internet connection is established. The device may restart during the OOBE but allow the process to finish before interacting with the device.
  2. When the OOBE process is complete the device automatically loads into the visitor profile single app experience if set up as dictated above.

For updates using Mobile Device Management – Microsoft Intune, follow the steps set out in Installing, updating or removing required apps.

Best practices for Charging and Re-use

For busy working environments, there are some best practices to follow to ensure the HoloLens device is always ready and prepared for use. Here's a list of cleaning and charging information to ensure optimal use. Best practices for Charging HoloLens 2 Battery and Charging Best practices for HoloLens cleaning HoloLens 2 cleaning FAQ

Troubleshooting

When challenges arise with the device, there are some steps to carry out to troubleshoot and get back to active usage. Visit the troubleshooting documentation at Restart, reset, or recover HoloLens 2 to cover the main routes to resolving issues with the device.

In many cases restarting, reset or recovering your device is enough to resolve issues with the device hardware.

Additionally, it's important to report any issues, through the Feedback Hub app available on the HoloLens device. Give us feedback