Star Trek's holodeck is within our reach. Microsoft's remarkable HoloLens, first seen in January, and then again at Build, is a holographic platform that blends virtual reality with the real world.

This week, Microsoft put out the call for researchers to create HoloLens applications. It's handing out five grants of $100,000 each, and "we expect that researchers will envision novel ways of using HoloLens—from interactively teaching students, to creating mixed-realty art installations, to manipulating holographic data to reveal new relationships…to who knows what," Jeannette Wing, corporate vice president at Microsoft Research, wrote in a blog post.

HoloLens is already making its way into space travel. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are using it along with the Curiosity rover to walk the surface of Mars right from Pasadena, California. "It fundamentally changes our perception of Mars, and how we understand the Mars environment surrounding the rover," Dave Lavery, program executive for the Mars Science Laboratory mission, said in a statement.

Closer to home, there are ways to fit HoloLens into more everyday scenarios. It holds promise for medicine, architecture, and even for those grappling with loss. Check out the slideshow for more.


1. Architecture and Home Design Zebra Imaging has been using Zebra Imaging has been using holograms to help architecture firms and their clients better envision projects. HoloLens could change the scale of this completely by enabling the projection of life-size plans for walk-throughs right from the conception of projects. Likewise, it could do the same with interior design, taking the heavy lifting out of figuring out what looks best in a room.

2. Surgery Real View Medical Holography has put patients' hearts into surgeons' hands. In a trial at Schneider Children's Medical Center in Israel, the company created holographic versions of eight patients' hearts that floated above them during minimally invasive surgery. The three-dimensional, unobstructed view gave surgeons more information than they traditionally had. Using HoloLens could be used in a similar way. It also can be used in physician training to better prepare a medical student before they interact with a real patient.

3. Visiting With the Dead In Charles Yu's dystopian novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe , the protagonist (also named Charles Yu) visits his mother and watches a holographic version of her serving him dinner. Disturbing as it may seem, a holographic post-mortem visit could be possible.

4. Projected Directions One thing Google Glass seemed like It would be particularly good for was augmented-reality directions. In reality, though, it did not project a turn-by-turn outline over the landscape; it was up and off to the side . The promise of a three-dimensional map in actual surroundings is a promise HoloLens could deliver on. ( Image

5. Pain Reduction Because of its subjective and ongoing nature, the treatment of chronic pain can be a frustrating experience for doctors and patients alike. Pain management is most often achieved with medications that can lead to addiction well after the pain is gone. Augmented-reality treatment of pain holds promise. A study of patients with phantom-limb pain found that pain-free periods could be reached with the use of augmented reality by projecting a restored limb and engaging it in tasks in which it could relax.

6. Empathy Training The overriding theme of this year's interactive Storyscapes exhibit at the Tribeca Film Festival was the empathy that can be invoked by experiencing someone else's life through virtual reality. Using the Oculus Rift to stand in front of Palestinian and Israeli soldiers discussing their points of view, or to sit in solitary confinement for even a few unbearable moments is perspective-shifting. In the words of filmmaker Chris Milk, "it's a machine, but through this machine we become more compassionate, we become more empathetic, and we become more connected. And ultimately, we become more human."

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