At a Windows 10 event held today, Microsoft made a number of announcements, including a new, wearable technology the company is calling Hololens.

Hololens is a headset device that's built around augmented reality technology. It creates 3D holographic images that wearers can interact with. Hololens is a standalone headset device--its CPU, GPU, and "Holographic Processor" are all on-board--that exists within a larger platform called Microsoft Holographic, an initiative the company says is intended to further blend your digital life with reality.

There is no projected price, nor exact release date yet for the Hololens. Wired has an extensive write-up of the device that's absolutely worth reading if you want to get a picture of what Microsoft envisions for this thing. You can also see the company's demonstration video embedded below.

Elsewhere in the event, Microsoft discussed Windows 10's applications in regards to its home gaming console, the Xbox One. Microsoft will integrate Windows 10 into the Xbox One in the future, though Xbox head Phil Spencer did not have specifics on how that integration would function. He did, however, offer a demonstration of Windows 10's new Xbox One streaming technology. Xbox One owners will be able to stream any game from their library to any Windows 10 PC or tablet.

Spencer also confirmed that the Xbox One will have its own Windows 10 app, allowing users to see games you've played on Xbox One and PC devices, and access your friends list and messages. Lastly, it was revealed that Lionhead Studios' upcoming online co-op game Fable Legends will also be coming to Windows PCs, with cross-platform play built in.

Windows 10 is expected to roll out later this year, and will be offered as a free upgrade for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 users for its first year.

I'm definitely in cautious/wait and see mode on this stuff.

I'm not really seeing a lot of use cases for streaming your Xbox games to your PC/tablet. True cross-play is interesting but I wonder how popular that will be and how many games will actually have that feature.

As for the AR glasses, it could be great. Although they're probably still too bulky for a lot of the uses they are proposing. It's one of those pieces of future tech which would be great to see but I'm not holding my breath.

WHAAAAAAAAAT... now this will be expensive

TEH. FUQ.

lol give me a break you guys.

Next!

Holy fuck that video is BS.It's never going to work like that. People forget all the promises of Kinect too quickly, all spin, no substance.

Remember the Kinect?

Yeah, they need to get that things size down to something like safety glasses that go over glasses or ski goggles. It still seems too big.

I'd be shocked if that thing came out and was under $500.

2015 is the FUTURE!! Or is it just another product that overpromises? Remember the original Project Natal video? (aka Kinect)

I'm somewhere between skeptical and burnt out on microsoft's futuristic tech endeavors.

Minecraft holograms woo.

So, resolution and fidelity wise I think the video may exaggerate things a bit. I don't think it will look as good as it does in the video. HOWEVER, I have personally tried technology in school that does similar things to this headset, so the tech is definitely viable and could work.

Price wise.... who knows.

After enough generations of pretty shameless XBox Dashboards, I have little faith that MS behind this potentially awesome tech won't jump at the chance to "holographically" adorn my house with ads for energy drinks and hot new shitty network TV.

Really hope they put out first-party games on Windows from now on, which would make a ton of sense. Finally use the platform that nearly everyone with a computer has and put your games out there, where there's already tons of partners in place to make hardware for you and there's no end, no cycle, no need to make and market a box every seven or so years.

Also yeah, that holotech pitch is crazy silly. Pretty sure people are going to want to work on CAD with Kinect hand gestures and air motions …

Dragonball is real life.

If it works as good as they are saying it will I'd be on board. However I won't be getting my hopes up. 2 words: Virtual Boy.

Hololens is a nice proof of concept but if it'll work in actuality is another thing, like it mapping correctly to your environment, thats like on the fly motion tracking.

I want to really, REALLY like this thing. However I own two Kinect devices, one on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One and I barely use them. So my skepticism meter is off the charts.

It's happening! Wah Bam!

Brought to you by the masterminds behind Kinect. Wait you don't remember Kinect it was that thing bundled with the xbox one before they had to remove it because no one was buying an Xbone. (also remember the natal project at e3 2009 MILOOOO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jmXEXBBaTI

ok

It's smart of them to not totally ape the direction VR is going. I guess it's kind of cheap too as AR already exists and is archaically done by Nintendo platforms.

I don't know, we'll see. I'm skeptical of how good/useful it will be.

Looking forward to this Surrogates future we're heading towards, though.

Edit: Getting windows 10 for free may be cool. If it's not broken.

Exactly what I was going to say. Remember the original Kinect video? Remember how it does none of that?

Xbox One owners will be able to stream any game from their library to any Windows 10 PC or tablet.

Wouldn't the exact opposite of this be infinitely more useful?

FINALLY. HOLOGRAMS.

The live demo made me suddenly slightly optimistic for a good solid first step in AR. The marketing video is crap. Make sure you see the live demo before you fully form your opinion. There are a lot of things to work out yet I'm sure but it seemed like the first fully formed implementation I have seen which more than anything I've else yet in the AR space. Check out a copy of th live demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCCXZ8ErVag

Um... so what's the DPI on a see-through visor? I sincerely doubt this thing would have the visual fidelity these target renders have.

Bull shit! lets all remember the Kinect proof of concept video

Hololens sound like something more useful in the engineering and business world than in the consumer world. I'm sure cool stuff could get made with it but professional use sounds more interesting to me for this technology.

Thing looks awesome. Apparently the "Wired" lady actually got to use a development model.

This is the only truth. All that tech is nonsense.

Why is Nolan North explaining fake hologram technology to me?

The streaming is nice.

The visor thing isn't real just yet, so I have to withhold judgement.

The Wired article is completely full of bullshit.

This machine gives pink eye

Remember the original Microsoft Surface with RUSE?

Hololololens. Sorry. I had too...

liars

Can't think of a single negative thing to say. Good on them and hope it turns out awesome!

Hoping that more and more huge companies will get into the VR field and develop their own ideas of how it will be used!

This is AR not VR.

It's Natal all over again. I bet this only gets used for HUDS in FPS and Racing games.

I didn't even realize I needed holograms in my life until now. What a fool I've been. Practically living half a life.

This reminds me of Virtual Nightmare. In the future we'll all live in piles of garbage and shit, but thanks to augmented reality technology all of that will simply be covered up and we'll never know! Our television sets will actually just be cardboard boxes with barcodes on them to tell our Hololenses what kind of resolution we purchased. Our meals will actually all be different variations on chopped crickets, but the device will cover the image of that with steak and celery and the nasal implants will cover the smell. I hate the future.

Going to be pessimistic and honest here. I'm getting too many Kinect flashbacks. Weird peripheral that makes you look like a fool while using it, relies on precise tracking of bodily movements without feedback in order to perform tasks that can already be performed in a reliably effective and tactile way, and is accompanied by an optimistic conceptual marketing trailer. Maybe it'll work and everyone will be using this in their everyday lives, but for right now it just looks like an unnecesary peripheral that some people will play with for a week until they go back to tools that actually work.

How did the kid see the rocket in the end when he didn't have the headset?

Neat. Not really holograms, but still pretty neat. I'd get an Oculus first though.

Can I log in to the Holonet and see what people in the Star Wars universe are blogging about?

My biggest concern about Hololens is that even if they get the resolution, latency, and the surface tracking right, since the holograms are being projected onto the glasses, your hands can only ever appear behind the holograms, not in front of them. It seems like it would be really weird to see a hologram supposedly sitting on a wall or table only for it to still be visible if you hold your hand up "in front" of it. Also the inability to interact with the front side of the hologram at all seems like it would be pretty limiting as far as UI goes. We'll see.

Sorry, but whatever type of R it is looking cool!! :P

This doesn't look real. It feels like more of a proof of concept than what it will actually do. I'm interested to see what it will be, but being able to go to Mars, having digital weather apps and TV screens, and playing Minecraft with just the visor seems like a bit much. Plus some of that stuff while may be possible also seems like a technical nightmare. Like having the digital apps and screens appear here, having Minecraft appear in the middle of your room like that, etc.

The video they showed looks really cool for the Hololens thing, but then I get bummed out remembering the promise of the first Kinect product video.

It's really weird that I'm kind of excited for their new web browser..