While HoloLens is being used by developers and companies alike to create wholly new and interesting experiences, it also has the ability to greatly enhance existing experiences. That's how hakuhodo-VRAR, a Japanese lab specializing in VR and AR technologies, is looking to leverage Microsoft's mixed reality headset to help people learn more about an important cultural artwork.

The team at hakuhodo-VRAR has applied mixed reality technology to The Folding Screen of Fujin and Raijin (Wind God and Thunder God Screens), a seventeenth-century artwork regarded as a national treasure, to help visitors learn more about its artist, Tawaraya Sotatsu, and his motivations. The ten-minute experience combines narration from a Kennin-ji monk with 3D graphics that illustrate what Sotatsu was trying to convey with the work. Microsoft explains: