Here is fresh "back-to-reality" report from Engadget journalist who just tried working HoloLens device prototype (at the same event where it was announced):

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"Does it work? Yes, it works. Is it any good? That's a much harder question to answer."

"I say this in the nicest way possible: Using Microsoft HoloLens kinda stinks. In its current form, it feels like someone is tightening your head into a vice. The model being shown today on Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus isn't what you saw onstage, but a development kit. The demos begin by lowering a tethered, relatively small, rectangular computer over your head, which hangs around your neck by sling."

"You can literally feel the heat coming off the computer's fans, which face upward. It feels like you're wearing a computer around your neck, because you are."

There doesn't seem to be full hand tracking (as suggested by the demo on stage). Instead it uses something they call AirTap which uses gaze for pointing and hand only for clicking:

"By looking at any of them and using "AirTap" (hold up your hand in front of your eyes, tap with your pointer finger), I could select any contact to call."

"While the effects of interaction were impressive, the actual interaction was less so. Rather than picking up a sheep with my hand by literally just grabbing it with my actual hand, my only means of interaction were voice (pickaxe! redstone torch! etc.) and the aforementioned "AirTap."

Overall impression is kinda mixed (especially compared to how well were received even very crude Oculus Rift early prototypes):

"HoloLens is clearly very early, and kinda sucks right now. It's uncomfortable. It's cumbersome. It looks and feels like a piece of hardware that's far from final."

"Is it bad? No. Lord no. Stop it. It's very impressive, but it's a brand new entry in a market that basically doesn't exist yet."

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http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/21/microsoft-hololens-hands-...

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Given Engadget description of the actual device, here is a screenshot from Microsoft promotional video that probably captured it:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B76axLVIUAA4egZ.png:large

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPmAwvmOXKM&t=12m21s

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Another journalist impressions (Andy McNamara from Game Informer):

"Important first impression. In the videos I thought it filled your entire field of view, but it's more like a screen floating in space."

"I'd say it's like a 16x9-ish monitor floating about 7 to 8 inches just in front of your face."

https://twitter.com/GI_AndyMc/status/558039828328357888

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Gizmodo report was more enthusiastic, especially about ability of display to hide real view, though noted "tiny" field-of-view:

"It's one of the most amazing and tantalizing experiences I've ever had with a piece of technology."

"It's not like the Oculus Rift, where you're totally immersed in a virtual world practically anywhere you look. The current Hololens field of view is TINY! I wasn't even impressed at first. All that weight for this? But that's when I noticed that I wasn't just looking at some ghostly transparent representation of Mars superimposed on my vision. I was standing in a room filled with objects. Posters covering the walls. And yet somehow—without blocking my vision—the Hololens was making those objects almost totally invisible."

http://gizmodo.com/project-hololens-hands-on-incredible-amaz...

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Verge folks also liked it:

"... you look down at the coffee table and there's a castle sitting right on the damn thing. It's not shimmery, but it's not quite real, either. It's just sitting there, perfectly flat on the table, reacting in space to your head movements. It's nearly as lifelike as the actual table, and there's no lag at all. The castle is there. It's simply magic."

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/21/7868251/microsoft-hololens...