You’ve heard that Microsoft is trying to build the holodeck, yes? With a visor called Hololens that you wear on your head? It turns out Hololens is a full Windows 10 computer, and using it looks totally awesome.
Sure, you can see crazy holographic objects that appear to exist in the real world, like I saw in my hands-on demo a few months back:
But apparently you can also use it as a real Windows computer, by pinning your desktop and applications on the walls of a real room!
Here’s the room, just so you can see that this isn’t all CG:
Not that you need to be close to a wall to manipulate head-worn Windows 10, though. You can take your Windows with you, floating in the air, drag them, resize them, etc.
Here’s Skype:
And, of course, they don’t need to be flat. Take a look at this slick “app”:
As with most virtual reality / augmented reality pioneers, Microsoft sees Hololens becoming an incredible education tool, too. Imagine cutting a virtual human body right open, looking inside, and showing students exactly how a heart works in glorious animated form. That’s something Microsoft demoed on stage.
Oh, and they also imagine Hololens extending more personality to real-world objects—like this adorable hand-crafted robot:
It sounds like the company’s not going to be quite as crazy secretive about Hololens and Windows Holographic (the version of Windows 10 that does these crazy things) from here on out. Tomorrow at Microsoft Build, there will be hundreds of Hololens stations for developers to try it out for themselves. Looking forward to giving it another go!
Contact the author at sean.hollister@gizmodo.com.