I have a feeling Microsoft may well have come up with the Next Big Thing here. I saw the full announcement video and it looks incredible.

Yes, I can imagine the potential (ab)uses for this device, if you get my drift.
I suspect this is not holographic, but employs stereo images.The clever part is how they make the images block out the background. I think you will have to be careful not to walk into a wall !
If the gadget is as good as the video makes out, then they are onto a winner!

Could be a good approach, though because it is made by Microsoft, it will sure annoy* us with certain unnatural behaviour all the time, and get us to act pretty stupid most of the time.
Also, our new reality will now be sold on a monthly fee. The fact that the OS is advertised as 'free' now, does not mean the apps, service and content are ...

When will someone wearing this device hop on a motorcycle or get into a car and start driving? Fooling around with this in your home is one thing, but the presence of the motorcycle, real or imagined, is frightening. It will give stupid people stupid and dangerous ideas.

It already has "Hol" as part of its name, which makes creation of a deragatory term for its wearers all that much easier.....
But seriously, I'd like to try it.

I love seeing Microsoft's innovation and ambition and this goes back to my first time hearing about Microsoft Research labs. Their Portrait video conference program was more sophisticated than NetMeeting at the time and despite most of their innovation not becoming consumer successes, they were still influential in the development of other technology later developed. I also think about Johnny Lee's contribution to NUI development and repurposing of technology to increase acceptance and affordability. When asked by these two business investors who I most admired and I responded with "Johnny Chung Lee," they were like, "Who!?!?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Lee_%28computer_scientist%29

I like it and would like to combine it with simulators for movement, like Apache helicopter cockpit. How about heads up displays for inside of helmets too with some great sound?

IF this works as they claim, this will be great. But we need remember Microsoft was the one who killed the advent of the first VR goggles when the Commodore AMIGA made it possible in the late 80s. The goggles were the first to fit on your head and immerse you in a 3d world. Microsoft, rather than step up to the bat and make their software capable of similar things, instead used their marketing base to spread the rumor Microsoft had invented VR (using the same terminology) and showed off a 3D maze on a flat screen. They claimed it was VR b/c the software could keep track of where you were in a virtual 3D maze - it was a pathetic way of keeping the populous dumbed down to what other computers were actually capable of. Well - in the States people followed the masses. Europeans & Canadians were not fooled, and the AMIGA VR were used in arcades (I personally tried one of the units out in the Niagara Falls area back then).
No, the AMIGA unit did not put transparent objects into your world - which is a really great idea, but had Microsoft not been so actively involved in milking the public for everything they could instead of making their OS capable back then, it is very likely a system such as these Hololenses would have been commonplace 15-20 years ago!
And... again... Microsoft misuses a term for marketing. A real hologram is a much more cool thing than a hi tech "heads up" display.
So congrats Microsoft... you finally have somewhat caught up and decided to market something with computing power that was possible in the late 80s!
i REALLY hope it does what you say... but considering your staggering record of failure (not in your marketing department though - people still are willing to buy into your frustrating products!) , I won't hold my breath.

Bill Mosby - true. And porn is ten minutes behind the tech.

I am amazed. Looks like a Home-Run for Microsoft, maybe a grand-slam. Where can I pre-order ? :)