Okay, so this gadget is not actually a product you can buy. It’s a concept that looks familiar because we’ve heard about it for 30 years or so, and there are dozens of devices that look very similar.

But this one is from Microsoft. That makes it news and lets us know that earth may be shifting on its axis. And it’s not just a “headset” but an entire computing device. And it’s Microsoft, so they get to do things like demonstrate the potential of the device by hooking it up with NASA to drive the Mars Rover Curiosity around. (No word yet on the cost of liability insurance in case Microsoft crashes it.)

The Microsoft HoloLens is a concept product that may fulfill the classic sci-fi notion that our real world should be easy to overlay with a virtual world, changing the ways we work, play and interact in all sorts of ways.

Will it work? We know it will play (as in videogames), but will it work, as in an office? As long as we don’t have to go out in public wearing such a goofy looking device, maybe it will.