Meet Microsoft’s HoloLens:

Microsoft unveiled its new headset, which will layer elements of virtual reality onto the real world. It will use holograms to facilitate fully immersive gaming, enhance conferences and help with day-to-day tasks.

Author Jessi Hempel got to try them for a preview in Wired Magazine. “This is a little bit like virtual reality … except nothing like it, because it takes all the best elements of virtual reality and layers them into the real world,” she says.

For instance, she used the goggles to fix an electrical issue while on a video call with an electrician. From his screen, the electrician circled the pieces Hempel needed to work on, and the drawings appeared directly on the wires. Likewise, this device allows wearers to digitally interact with the physical world. Hempel describes wearing the glasses: “I’ll see the room around me but I might also be able to reach out and draw a circle on the wall that looks like a real circle on the wall.”

Microsoft is not the first to create holographic goggles, but Hempel says that the HoloLens surpasses beta versions like Google Glass. The goggles probably won’t hit the market until next year, but the good news is they���ll probably be affordable.