I do not believe that people in general will be interested in having permanent digital displays attached directly over their field of vision. Maybe specialists. Doctors. Mechanics. People who have their hands full but still need to access informational resources. But for general use, they're just too distancing. And intimidating, frankly.
(Don't get me wrong -- they look cool and I'd love to try it out. And there might be a business, here. But it reminds me of the Segway: Touted as the revolutionizer of cities, but in the end something with limited utility once the hype-wave settled.)
Given high enough resolution and light enough hardware, I can see it happening. Many already drive or walk outside wearing sunglasses, or wear glasses for reading. A pair of very light-weight goggles that could switch quickly from fully opaque display to translucent overlay to what appeared to be standard vision (but was replicated by cameras) could be useful.
Add in ear buds that can open a valve (rather than be removed) and you could do all sorts of things. Virtually furnished rooms, watching virtual displays in any position, any angle, etc. TVs and monitors could well become obsolete if the resolution is enough to simulate them.
I wonder if it would even be possible to set your goggles to show other wearers in your home and office as though they weren't wearing theirs, even if they were. Some sort of internal eye-tracking could potentially simulate their eyes realistically enough if the uncanny valley could be surpassed.
I don't doubt the hardware can exist and work well. The question is what is it for?
Okay, I have a display on my head that is aware of the world around me, with perfect latency and extreme accuracy (still two of the biggest unsolved problems, but let's assume).
I'm walking around on the street. What would this thing be doing? I'm cooking dinner. What would it be showing me? I'm hanging out with my friends. What would...?
There are certainly a lot of niche, professional uses: technicians and engineers can get information hands-free while on all fours or strung up on a high pole. Realtors can use it to show prospective tenants virtual layouts (as you brought up). Professional drivers can use it to get dispatches without taking their eyes off the road.
None of this particularly compels the everyman to wear one regularly. What does it do for the average joe, in their average joe lives?
I don't know that people would wear them all the time, but in a kitchen you could have a recipe HUD or a virtual screen somewhere within glancing distance for watching news/TV/doco without needing to have a physical screen taking up space in your kitchen.
Watching TV while lying in bed or anywhere.
When driving, traffic alerts or directions overlaid on the road in a way that wasn't too distracting. Shop numbers superimposed on the road so you needn't study signs for inconsistent numbering.
Gaming applications are obvious and will be an early driver.
Until they're available as contact lenses, I don't think people would wear them all day, but certainly multiple times per day once they're streamlined and improved.
I'm pretty sure I'd do it, but I'd actually prefer an audio system, which is trivial with tech had even 10-15 years ago -- basically 24x7 microphone and headset, connected to something with less computation than Siri, giving me essentially an "audio tour" of wherever I am, mixed in with internet content (e.g. reading me mail), etc.
(Don't get me wrong -- they look cool and I'd love to try it out. And there might be a business, here. But it reminds me of the Segway: Touted as the revolutionizer of cities, but in the end something with limited utility once the hype-wave settled.)