If you haven’t heard of HoloLens you need to see this Microsoft announcement. HoloLens is more than Google Glass in that it presents 3D images overlaid onto your view, but not the total immersion of the Oculus Rift which completely replaces your view with CGI. While both Glass and Rift have been in the public eye under development for more than a year, Microsoft has been very hush about this product until its recent release. You may have felt the ripples in the force on that day but did not know it’s source until now.

The device looks like a cross between Oakley Sunglasses and light snow goggles. They are first generation, but by no means are they clunky or goofy looking — where a lot of people had problems seeing themselves wearing the Glass in public, the HoloLens will gain a following very quickly, and they are only first generation.

Here is the scary part if you make displays or install them;

With HoloLens you don’t need a projector, or flat screen, or cables, or switchers or wall mounts or service policies, you just need the headset and it generates the display where ever you want it. Significant AV hardware will be replaced by software. If you are still looking at the VTC image above and missed that last sentence – There is a significant cultural change on the horizon, and it is going to greatly affect the AV industry to it’s roots. If you are in the Residential side of the business, don’t feel left out;

Yes the Netflix screen is virtual and not a real life big fat 100″ display.

Personally I’m thinking I may go open an auto body repair house, because with everyone wearing the HoloLens as they drive around the city they are going to be constantly bumping into other folks on the freeway.

Richard’s visionary exploits include; the first patent awarded for VTC integration into Banking, the first HTML based Monitoring and Control of an Auto-Assembly Line at Saturn Car, the first web based Scheduling and Resource Management Application, NeighborLink an early pre-Face book social application and most recently the Linked2 Dashboard for Cloud based AV Monitoring and Control.