The Irides project represents Microsoft’s research into making VR better for the user by offering higher quality graphics and lower latency.

Neowin exclusively started talking about Irides a few days ago, when we described how this project is based on earlier work with Kahawai and Outatime, and how the technology could improve any head-mounted virtual reality display (HMD). But now, Microsoft Research has published a video showing the tech in action.

As you can see above: by employing Irides and off-loading heavy graphic computations to the cloud, an HMD could stay lighter, cooler, require less power and still show very high-quality footage. And by leveraging the low-latency capabilities of Irides, the overall experience of the user can be improved thanks to more responsiveness from the system as a whole.

As mentioned previously, it's unlikely that Microsoft is looking to build its own virtual reality headset, but technology such as Irides could no doubt show up in future versions of the HoloLens. On the flip side it could even be licensed out to other companies working on VR.

In either case it’s great to see Microsoft working on a project such as VR, which holds great potential for all.

Source: Microsoft Research | Thanks to @h0x0d and Eduardo Cuervo of MSR