You know the trope in Sherlock-esque detective shows where some brilliant sleuth cracks a case by drawing on their nigh-photographic memory? Well, one of the most fascinating and terrifying things about augmented reality glasses is that they turn everybody into that sleuth — and as a new Microsoft patent filing shows, that can be used for things besides crime-solving. The recently published application covers a system that would let its HoloLens glasses track small items like car keys, stopping wearers from misplacing them. More broadly, the patent describes a system that can monitor the status of objects without any instructions from users, keeping tabs on anything that’s important to their lives.

The patent’s basic idea is pretty…

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