What will the world be like in another 5 to 10 years? Microsoft is answering that question with a new installment in its “Productivity Future Vision” video series.

msvision1The elaborate, highly produced video shows jaw-dropping technologies like a SCUBA mask that annotates the sea with 3D holograms, a multipart bracelet that joins together to become a communications device, and interactive, flexible displays that automatically “rehydrate” with information specific to the people using them.

Watch the full video above. Microsoft explains the principles behind the vision on this site, describing how emerging technologies will help people collaborate more easily, live smarter, and experience “friction-free creativity” and “fluid mobility.”

The company is already headed in some of these directions, with products including its HoloLens “blended reality” headset, unveiled by the company last month. And with Skype, the company has a foundation, at least, for many of the telepresence scenarios envisioned in the video.

Previous installments in the Productivity Future Vision series were released in 2008 and 2011. Microsoft has historically made these videos to help give its customers, particularly in the corporate world, an idea of how it sees the future, providing a better sense for what they could be getting into long term when they make bets on the company’s technology.

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