> Hardware, algorithms, attention to details like blend key-based lip syncing, markerless tracking algorithms, low latency posture correction, mocap compression

> Hardware, algorithms, attention to details like blend key-based lip syncing, markerless tracking algorithms, low latency posture correction, mocap compression and keyframing, fresnel optics, thin layer physics... Microsoft R&D built and patented many of those things and already pushed things through the entire loop from R&D to practical "fun" hardware (Kinect) to boring Enterprise hardware ("Azure Kinect" and HoloLens) and allegedly back to plenty of closed doors R&D again. It's easy to ignore Microsoft because they "failed" in the consumer space a few times in that loop already, but since no one has proven yet that there is a long-term consumer space (and don't forget the Kinect actually was a very successful consumer item for a brief Wii-epoch moment) and their "unsexy" Enterprise tech has found comfortable niches to serve it is still very possible to see them as the easy "leader" in this space, even if they've never been crazy enough to rename the whole company after it.