As the Internet of Things (IoT) is getting built out and becoming much more popular there are many aspects of the technology that need to mature. Security will become a bigger issue over time, but the actual usability of IoT devices will likely become a problem even sooner. After all, if it’s too difficult to manage all the devices within a home or office then things will quickly become too cumbersome. The Microsoft HoloLens brings a unique and innovative ability to IoT management from an end user perspective. This unique ability is to enable mixing Augmented Reality with IoT.

Augmented Reality is the method of taking some kind of view of the real world and overlaying some kind of digital content over the top. With Microsoft HoloLens, the real world view is a first person view (FPV) since HoloLens is basically a set of 3D glasses with transparent displays placed directly in front of your eyes. This allows for the most seamlessly integrated Augmented Reality to be built since the overlays (called Holograms) are seen directly within the users vision as they look around.

Here’s a short video that demonstrates a little of what it looks like to have digital objects overlaid on top of the real world with Microsoft HoloLens in a first person view (FPV) recorded directly from the Microsoft HoloLens:

Now imagine being able to overlay holographic representations of Internet of Things (IoT) objects over those very devices as you look at them. This could be used to implement a much more intuitive user experience for IoT that’s superior to a simple smartphone app with simple controls. You could simply look at any visible IoT device and control it with holographic controls or even voice commands.

Here’s a demo video from Morten Neilsen demonstrating a concept he’s been working on that shows this in action:

The addition of Augmented Reality is the user experience advancement that will take Internet of Things (IoT) usability to completely new heights. The Microsoft HoloLens makes this IoT interaction possible in ways that no other previous technology could. There are many other novelties that HoloLens can enable, but this is one major advancement that will likely become an everyday use by everyone that adopts these 2 technologies!

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