Why HoloLens is truly the start of a Renaissance.

[Zackery_Mock]

This will be my first post in this forum and, without reluctance, I can say the HoloLens is about to change the world. To give you a basis for my perspective; I am a 29 year old father of 2, a US Army veteran, Robotic Layout Technician, and a pipefitter/steamfitter apprentice. I see so much potential in this device it is daunting to the point that my heart is racing. I'm sure many of the ideas I'm going to highlight have already been posted but, throwing them all into one bag, all at once, feels a little more impressive.

My day starts at 04:30. I get up, make a pot of coffee, and watch the news while making breakfast... but there's no TV over the stove. I hop in the truck and head to work. As I'm driving down the Interstate a small red line appears on the road, signifying there's been an accident, and a green line on the next off ramp shows the start of a detour so I won't be late. After a safety briefing with my crew, the foreman walks the job and points out the system I will be working on that day. I can see every twist and turn of the pipe, where the hangers attach to each beam, the columns that run throughout the building, and even the equipment into which I will be tying the system... but there's nothing but concrete slab. I can pull a virtual pipe from the air and see its exact dimensions. At lunch, I'm watching replays of last night's game, the game winning touchdown, and showing my partner over and over again why he lost that $50. After a 10 hour day I come home to smiling faces. I play ping pong with my son, on a table that isn't there. My wife and daughter are playing dress up in the living room, without having to change clothes. Once the kids are in bed, I do my nightly workout with 2 of my old Army buddies who live in different states.

The possibilities are endless:
Having dinner with your wife, while you are 400 miles away on a business trip.
A cop chasing a suspect and having a HUD fed to him from a helicopter, showing him which way the bad guy went.
Playing a FPS where your own home is the stage. (Don't let your buddy go Rambo and kick in your front door.)
A Marine, deployed halfway around the world, watching his son hit the winning home run in his little league game.
Attending your buddies bachelor party, from the office, and everyone is laughing at the huge mole on the strippers thigh.
On and on and on and on.

I'd love to see all the applications people come up with. Let the ideas flow, from generic to OH MY GOD that is insane.

 

[sl#WP]

I totally agree. This thing makes a 50 year old jump up and down like crazy. I have been coding since the DOS time. I sent emails when no one knows what the hell email is. I have never been so excited about technology. I have been following this development since many many years ago.

 

[JamesDax]

I completely agree. I'm 55 and I very excited to still be around to see this change in the way we compute come about.

Just a short story if I may.

When my oldest daughter was born 21 years ago my vision for her was to be and Engineer and an Astronaut. The plan was that she would be one of the first to go to Mars and that she would build me a retirement home there. Well, you know how things go. She's not an Engineer nor Astronaut but she is in her senior year of becoming an animator and game designer and she's very excited about the HoloLens. And you know what? I might yet still get that retirement home on Mars. Even if it is just virtual.

 

[Motor_Mouth]

Zack, a lot of what you talk about is stuff you can do now and I don't think some of it (having dinner with your wife from 400 miles away) will work the way you'd want it (you won't be able to see the other person's face, just the empty chair opposite). It's really only the work stuff that is revolutionary. That's OK, though, because I think incremental changes in many areas will lead to a revolution overall.

That's how I see it working for me. Right now, I can tell you I would never watch a TV show or a movie on my phone screen or even on my tablet. What's the point when I have a 32" TV on the wall? Sure, I could hunch over a tiny screen and have it fill my field of view but that's hardly the way to relax after a long day's work. But with HoloLens I won't just have a screen stuck on the wall, I'll be able to have one that completely covers the whole freakin' thing! It's a big step up, like going from my 14" CRT TV and VHS to a 32" plasma TV with a PVR, but it's still evolutionary. And, as far as I can see, that will be the biggest change for me. I can't see how I'd use HoloLens for my work (I do graphics for broadcast TV) or my main hobby, which is music, both enjoying and creating. I just can't see it being powerful enough, or having enough storage, for either of those things. But everywhere else it could easily make my smartphone, my tablet and my TV thoroughly obsolete.

The thing is, though, that when you add your little evolutions and mine and everyone else's, then add in the real revolutions (like your work), it is going to add up to a true, full-blown revolution. I doubt we'll see it in this first iteration but in a few years time, with more focussed R&D from more companies, the sky is the limit with something like this. And I'm determined to get I on the ground floor and enjoy as much of the ride as I can.

 

[rhapdog]

Zack, a lot of what you talk about is stuff you can do now and I don't think some of it (having dinner with your wife from 400 miles away) will work the way you'd want it (you won't be able to see the other person's face, just the empty chair opposite). It's really only the work stuff that is revolutionary.
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The thing is, though, that when you add your little evolutions and mine and everyone else's, then add in the real revolutions (like your work), it is going to add up to a true, full-blown revolution. I doubt we'll see it in this first iteration but in a few years time, with more focussed R&D from more companies, the sky is the limit with something like this. And I'm determined to get I on the ground floor and enjoy as much of the ride as I can.

Yeah, CURRENTLY it won't work seeing your wife in the chair 400 miles away. But, like that last paragraph, it will come in time through multiple iterations of this technology. There will come a point when all of what Zack talked about will be completely possible.

I don't think Zackery was stating he expected all of that with the first release of HoloLens, but instead he is talking about the incredible future it will bring to us over time, and I agree totally.

 

[Ed Boland]

I'm not quite as old as some of you old timers (I'm 45), but like you, I've been using Microsoft's software since the early DOS days, and I too am very excited for where we are going with this technology.

The driving scenario is interesting, where of course wearing a headset (the Hololens headset, more specifically), would probably be illegal in most states, as are headphones or anything that distracts the driver. So this hologram stuff, instead of a headset, would be implemented into the vehicles windsheild/glass. I think we've already seen something like this in some late model/higher end vehicles like the newer Cadillacs, Mercedes, and BMWs.

It's definitely some exciting times, with so much more innovation and new products just around the corner. Our children, and their children are going to be the ones who'll really benefit from this technology as it evolves, when one day they'll say "remember back in the day, when we didn't have holograms?"...