Hello Microsoft HoloLens

On Wednesday at the Windows 10 launch event, just a week after Microsoft announced they were shutting down the Google Glass project, Microsoft unveiled HoloLens, and you can bet no one was expecting it!

Microsoft says the HoloLens could be the future of computing, but how does it work? The HoloLens fits over your eyes like a pair of glasses and then projects holograms into your field of vision, so basically it places virtual objects into the material world. A rectangular box will appear in front of your eyes and images will be displayed onto it, meaning you will be able to see reality beyond its borders using peripheral vision.

Have you heard of the Oculus Rift? Well, Microsoft HoloLens has a huge advantage over it. When you are using the Oculus Rift you cannot see anything beyond the headset, but with the amazing HoloLens you can actually see where you are, what you are doing and you are able to move and walk around.

What exactly can you use the HoloLens for? The HoloLens can be used for anything, work or play. In the video we see some different scenarios of what it could be used for – In one demonstration we see the HoloLens being used to play a Minecraft-like game, the awesome part is that the game graphics were projected onto the furniture! In another scene we see a wise father helping his daughter do some plumbing and all this happens through a HoloLens-enabled Skype call!

One of the coolest demonstrations of what the HoloLens could do was a design system called Holo Studio where you could design and build 3D objects with a flick of your finger! The system has some advantages for 3D design – the ability to manipulate and control objects when you change the position of your head.

The HoloLens is a do-it-all device, it’s not like an iPod with one easy killer app, that’s simple to understand, and instead it is designed to do almost everything! What it literally is a personal computer. It also has little in common with the late Google Glass, even though they both use augmented reality, HoloLens is meant to be used while you are performing specific tasks. It is not something you should be wearing all the time in your everyday life.

In the end we don’t actually know much about the HoloLens, but Microsoft has said that it will be out around the same time as Windows 10 so if you want to get your hands on one you won‘t have to wait for long. Even though we know little about the device, it gives you an awesome augmented reality experience you probably never knew you wanted!

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Written By: Christine Romans
CopyWriter at The Computer Guyz Cape Town