Microsoft's latest research project is called Holoportation. It is a new type of 3D capture technology that allows high-quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed and transmitted anywhere in the world in real time. When combined with mixed reality displays such as HoloLens, this technology allows users to see, hear, and interact with remote participants in 3D as if they are actually present in the same physical space. Communicating and interacting with remote users becomes as natural as face-to-face communication.
The "holograms" are captured in a room with multiple cameras and sensors, they record and combine the 3d images for transmission to the person wearing the HoloLense. The recordings can be saved and played back later, and this new demo even shows them scaled down for viewing on a tabletop just like the Star Wars chess set. The videos are shot from a camera with 3d positioning sensors that can "see" what the HoloLense user sees, making it appear that the holograms are interacting with the person wearing the HoloLense. This is still in development, and the hardware is not available to the public yet.
Demo of the new Holoportation project
Ted Talk on the HoloLense and demo of Holoportation
Official Holoportation research website
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/holoportation/
The HoloLense developers kit was just released in March 2016 and is shipping now for $3000, the consumer version has not been priced or announced yet. It is expected to cost over $1000. Some lucky developers already have one and the youtube demos are starting to appear. These are the easiest to watch user demo's released so far.
Inside The HoloLens at SCSU VizLab
Top 5 Apps in the HoloLens Store on Day 1
For the latest information visit the official HoloLense site https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us