I want to build an augmented reality app (that runs on, say, HoloLens) that blocks all ads in real life and replaces them with historic works of art.

Just a thoight, but in all likelihood it will be the exact opposite. With the eventual proliferation of functional VR tech that is available for everyone, we're likely to see every surface turn into an advertisement space. Every surface being re-painted in interior designs, and other content from the future VR advertisement conglomerates. Thus, with adblocked augmented reality, we may indeed be looking at a dystopian future of a world of plain and clean [morphing] surfaces that only exist to be augmented.

That is why I won't trust VR from Facebook. Imagine VR ads!

They live!

Something similar has been done. Real-world adblocking:

http://jonathandub.in/cognizance/

Wonderful idea. Show how it will transform some horrible highways like New Jersey Turnpike? But augmented reality and driving are a bad idea. Uber drivers can hand out the viewer

Many years ago, after the University of Toronto installed ads in the bathrooms, Steve Mann set up his Eyetap system to replace the ads with pictures of waterfalls.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/25/science/scientist-at-work-...

I'm thinking of that every morning when I enter the subway. Oh man, I wish I could use that advertising space like giant windows with live feeds of beautiful landscapes.

You're paying for the bus, correct?

No. The bus is paid for by taxes and ads. Lots of places have free public buses in big retail areas.

When websites are paid for by taxes and ads it becomes a good comparison

It's still a good comparison.

For some websites (like cbc.ca) it's a perfect comparison.

Whether the bus is paid for or given to me freely, what I do with my eyes is not under the bus company's purview.