Microsoft HoloLens

It can be frustrating when you're searching for an object, knowing that you may have looked right where it is without realizing you've done so. A new augmented reality system could help, by showing users where items are … even if they're hidden.

Steampunk is an impressive-looking pavilion that has been painstakingly created by steam-bending lengths of hardwood. The build process was helped along by a Microsoft HoloLens-based system called Fologram.

In recent tests, it has been shown that a depth perception-boosting headset could help legally-blind users to avoid collisions.

Overlaying 3D holograms on its wearer's view of the real world, Microsoft's HoloLens augmented reality headset has allowed users to do everything from reading emotions to taking a virtual tour of Mars. More recently, it's also been used to guide doctors performing lower limb surgery.

​Microsoft’s AR headset, the HoloLens, is an exciting prospect but isn't quite ready for the public. But as it inches closer to a consumer release, the company has revealed that the next version of the hardware will have an AI coprocessor built in, to help the headset recognize real-world objects.

Microsoft's HoloLens is still awaiting a commercial release, but we're already seeing some fascinating potential real-world applications. Air New Zealand has recently revealed it has been working with Dimension Data to use the mixed reality smartglasses as a way of enhancing its cabin crew services.

In order for AR glasses to become a mainstream tool, they need to be capable, comfortable and compact enough to be worn on the face while accommodating for the inherent complexities of human vision. Judging from a new prototype, Microsoft researchers are making important strides in that direction.

The first HoloLens augmented reality headset went on sale to US developers and businesses earlier this year and it's now hitting six new countries. It's available to pre-order now in Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, with shipping in November.

Until January, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will play host to Destination: Mars, an AR experience powered by Microsoft’s HoloLens that takes guests on a guided tour of Mars. The program was born out of OnSight, the scientific tool created by Microsoft and NASA’s JPL.

Reviewing HoloLens is like taking a trip to the future, coming home and then trying to describe it to your friends. Today’s version isn’t quite ready for prime time, and it may even be decades before AR headsets reach their full potential. But holy smokes, has Microsoft started something here.

We recently got our paws on a pre-release Microsoft HoloLens​, by far the most advanced AR headset, and we have some thoughts on the pros and cons of its augmented worlds, how they size up next to VR and where this could all be heading.​

After getting a Microsoft HoloLens in the offices, our first impressions are largely positive​, but the headset's big Achilles' heel is its limited field of view. We mocked up what it really looks like.