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Welcome to the future
Imagine a world where impressive, immersive eye-candy doesn't stop as soon as you step away from your computer screen. A place where smartphones exist but they're actually considered low-tech compared to the augmented reality-powered goggles you wear from dawn until dusk.
This is the world Avengers' Iron Man, aka Tony Stark, lives in, but more and more his world and our world are converging.
The one technology getting us closer to Iron Man-status? Microsoft HoloLens.
Of course, as exciting as it is, HoloLens can't quite help us live like Tony Stark yet. Microsoft has shown off some nifty use cases for HoloLens, but the reality of the AR viewer is that it's still a work in progress.
So instead of taking this feature as a hard-and-fast "HoloLens is the future, right now!," treat it as a side-by-side comparison of all the eye-candy from the Iron Man and Avengers movies and the best HoloLens demos that left me drooling and buying a ticket on Microsoft's hype train.
So, how is HoloLens going to make us into Iron Man? Here's five ways.
By controlling a robot remotely
When Microsoft rolled out a two-bit robot as part of its developer conference keynote last week, I had my doubts. How was a rolling stick, encased in LEDs and seemingly useless sensors going to change engineering?
Then, before I could ponder it any further, the robot sprouted a head and said, "Holo World." The head, of course, was a virtual one, only capable of being seen by the presenter wearing the HoloLens.
Using only touch gestures to plot movement paths and adjust settings using a somewhat basic interface that, most likely, would make Tony cringe if he ever saw it, the presenter moved the animated robot around the stage to the audience's delight.
Now, admittedly, a small, motorized stick with sensors isn't as cool as the Iron Man suit, but the idea of controlling a robot using Microsoft's new visor is actually pretty rad.
What did it look like in Iron Man?
By diagnosing a problem with a human body
Evolution has done wonders for the human body. From a highly specialized brain to the feedback mechanisms that dictate the release of hormones and start chemical reactions, the human body is no stranger to enhancements.
That said, at the end of the day we're still bags of meat - systematically flawed and bound by an expiration date. It's good, then, that technology has come a long ways in the past few hundred years and now allows us to diagnose more diseases more readily than ever before.
Microsoft may have shown us the future of the healthcare field at Build when presenters pulled up an anatomically detailed human figures they said could help medical students learn by seeing where organs are, how they function and visualizing broken bones.
Again, not as cool as when Tony Stark pulled up a real-time version of the gold and crimson suit, but still very cool.
What did it look like in Iron Man?
By designing a vehicle
Manufacturing is tricky. Parts need to come together in exactly the right way to produce a working, efficient and ultimately safe product.
The HoloLens demonstrated its ability to help automotive engineers cobble together the motorcycles of the future using augmented reality.
The finished result, a neon-green bike clearly inbound for Neo from The Matrix, may not be the pinnacle of eye-catching design, but it does make for a cool demo for engineers tired of seeing their designs on a computer screen.
What did it look like in Iron Man?
By making international video calls
Even the best entrepreneur/playboy/engineer needs to make a phone call every once in a while to keep business afloat.
Using the Windows 10 Universal Skype app, the HoloLens can connect you with friends, family and even potential business partners from around the world while beaming their faces onto any surface in your house.
Whether you use the technology to talk face-to-face with an arch-nemesis hacker who's sworn vengeance against you and your entire corporation, or simply to wish Mom a happy Mother's Day, however, is up to you.
What did it look like in Iron Man?
By creating a three-dimensional map
OK, so recreating a map in Minecraft may not have the same kind of impact that saving the city from a gang of auto-piloted kill-droids has, but it's still pretty nifty.
Microsoft clearly set out to show how HoloLens can apply to nearly every field, from enterprise to entertainment. For gamers, we see this in the form of Mojang's loveable, moddable and all-around-brain-building open-world game, Minecraft.
Using the HoloLens you'll be able to walk around the map, creating structures and terraforming the land however you see fit.
Overall, it feels a bit rudimentary to use an insanely powerful machine to display a game as simplistic as Minecraft, but this is only a small window of what gaming could look like with a truly powerful AR device.
What did it look like in Iron Man?
