---
title: "Incredible Augmented Reality Demo Conjures Up Ghostly Versions of Your Coworkers"
description: "An incredible augmented reality demo populates an empty room with ghostly — yet bustling — versions of your coworkers. Work will never be the same."
date: "2018-10-24"
modified: "2018-10-24"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/augmented-reality-demo-spatial"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
  - "Virtual Reality"
tags:
  - "hololens"
  - "microsoft"
  - "spatial"
  - "the digest"
---

# Incredible Augmented Reality Demo Conjures Up Ghostly Versions of Your Coworkers

![Default Futurism featured image](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Futurism-Filler-Image.jpg>)

## Ghost World

An augmented reality startup called Spatial [popped out of stealth mode](<https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/spatial-debuts-minority-report-inspired-augmented-reality-collaboration-tool-1202991877/>) Wednesday with an [incredible AR demo](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG3tQYlZ6JQ>) that shows how its service can populate an empty room with ghostly — yet bustling — versions of your coworkers.

"We think the future of work is going to be increasingly distributed," CEO Anand Agarawala [told *TechCrunch*](<https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/24/spatial-raises-8-million-to-bring-augmented-reality-to-your-office-life/>). "When you put on Spatial, \[your coworkers\] are in the room with you. It feels like they’re all sitting at the table, and they feel like they’ve been teleported into the space with you."

## Augmented Reality Check

Spatial claims its "collective computing environment" will let remote workers share data with each other in seemingly physical space. All they have to do is don an AR headset, such as Microsoft's HoloLens. But that could prove to be Spatial's Achilles' heel — the current generation of AR headsets [are uncomfortable to wear](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/how-nasa-is-using-augmented-reality-to-build-its-next-capsule>) and have [narrow fields of view](<https://mashable.com/2018/05/08/microsoft-hololens-field-of-view-big-weakness/>).

Still, the demo is a powerful vision of what virtual work environments could look like in a post-Slack world — even if we need to wait for the hardware to catch up with the concept.

**READ MORE: [Spatial Debuts ‘Minority Report’-Inspired Augmented Reality Collaboration Tool](<https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/spatial-debuts-minority-report-inspired-augmented-reality-collaboration-tool-1202991877/>)** \[*Variety*\]

***More on augmented reality: [Amazon Has Plans for Headset Free Augmented Reality to Transform Your Home](<https://futurism.com/amazon-proposes-headset-free-augmented-reality>)***

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)