There's one glaring flaw with Microsoft's futuristic headset that no one's talking about
Microsoft's got an amazing, futuristic headset that's poised to change how we all use computers. It's called HoloLens, and it's genuinely incredible: a standalone computer as a headset that maps the world around you, enabling the user to insert their digital life into reality.
All the items in this image marked with a red arrow are actually holograms, only viewable by the person wearing the HoloLens headset:
Microsoft
There is, of course, one major catch: while wearing the headset, the view of the world that HoloLens creates is far more limited than what the image above would have you believe. Here's the video that image is cribbed from, depicting Microsoft's vision of what HoloLens can do for your life:
In the video, the man wearing the headset is able to walk around his apartment with holograms surrounding him, coming to life all over the room.
The actual experience of wearing HoloLens is similar, but the holograms are only visible through a relatively small window in the headset. Though you can see the world around you, the holograms only show up if you look through a relatively constrained "window." Not an actual cutout window, but a rectangular space where HoloLens alters the world you see with holograms. Like this:
Microsoft
Microsoft
It's honestly very eerie seeing "real" things in the world in front of you pop in and out of existence. Instead of feeling like reality is being altered with holograms, it's as though you're looking through a window into another version of your reality. Which, yes, is just as weird as it sounds.
Microsoft
For its part, Microsoft has repeatedly said that the HoloLens headsets demonstrated thus far are prototypes, and the specs are subject to change. That said, Microsoft has also repeatedly said the the viewing window - the field of view - will not change dramatically between now and when the headsets become commercially available.
When that will happen is another question altogether; Microsoft's only said the headset will launch "in the Windows 10 launch timeframe." Given that Windows 10 launches on July 29, it sounds like you'll be able to experience HoloLens for yourself sooner than later.
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