In the future, we'll have so much more space in our homes.
No televisions means no entertainment centers. No computers means no large desktop towers, no desks overtaken by iMacs.
This future is closer than you think, thanks to stuff like Microsoft's HoloLens: a "mixed reality" headset that projects entertainment, as well as standard computer stuff like web browsing, directly into your line of sight.
No screen. No projector. Just a headset. This is HoloLens:
Bulky? Absolutely. Sorta silly looking? You bet.
But what it can do is remarkable to see in action:
Not bad, right? That's from a new video Microsoft released, showcasing its headset's ability to transform how you watch football (even in a contemporary environment with television and several people). The Super Bowl is this coming weekend, after all.
But wait — there's more! Look at the headset translating hand movement into an executable command, like clicking a mouse in mid-air:
The concept of "mixed reality" (often called "augmented reality") delivered by Microsoft's headset is tantalizing. It adds layers of extra information seamlessly into the world around you:
Only if you have perfectly clean tables, of course. In the future we'll all share minimalist design aesthetics too, apparently.
Unfortunately, alongside the futuristic ideas advanced in this latest concept video comes the unfortunate reality that Microsoft's HoloLens headset still has one tragic flaw: a tremendously limited field of vision.
Microsoft actually owns the limitation in the video:
When you see through the HoloLens, that centered window is all that you see of this "mixed" reality. It's like you're looking through a window into an augmented version of reality, rather than seeing it all around you.
This, right here:
Microsoft's representation may even be a little generous. I've used HoloLens several times, and I remember it being a bit more narrow than what's shown here. The technology could've improved since I last used it, of course (in June 2015).
Still, the narrow field of view is a pretty big issue. Instead of a "mixed reality" experience, it feels like looking into bizarro reality.
We've talked about this before, repeatedly:
Microsoft's HoloLens headset is far from a consumer product. The company's selling it as a development kit starting this year so that software makers can get to work on supporting an eventual consumer product launch. But it'll need more than great software to deliver on the promise of mixed reality — the future of home entertainment (and so much more) — like the ability to relegate tasks to your peripheral vision.
The future is closer than we think, but still not here quite yet.
