MR App Holo4Labs Expands Utility of HoloLens

Microsoft’s HoloLens is quickly emerging as the industry standard for mixed reality in the workplace. However, there is still a lot that it can’t do. After all, XR technology is still working at catching up to our desires and imaginations. However, a new MR app helps to bring HoloLens a little closer.

What Can the MR App Do?

Holo4Labs is an MR app compatible with HoloLens. An update will be released in the near future to allow it to run on the newer HoloLens 2.

The app, made by the Polish company Solution4Labs, is specifically designed for use in a laboratory setting. Scientists in the laboratory often find themselves in situations in which they have their hands full. Literally, putting something down may jostle sensitive hardware or risk upsetting – or starting – a reaction.

That’s why Holo4Labs works with voice commands. Of course, if one’s hands aren’t full, one can use them to make the gesture commands that we are coming to expect from XR user interfaces.

With these commands, the user can manipulate and store data, move 3D models generated from the data, and more. Scientists can also superimpose data over the field of view, which allows them to consider complex operations without taking their eyes off of a sample.

How Does It Work?

Holo4Labs works through the Thermo Fishe SampleManager, a popular laboratory information management system. Through this system, users can create a custom sample database. They can then enter scans of samples made with Holo4Labs into the database or compare them with existing samples.

The MR app also allows users to share information gathered through the app with other users making collaboration, especially remote collaboration, easier.

Holo4Labs also threatens to replace the trusted laboratory scratchpad and pencil. By connecting the app to laboratory hardware, things like device readings can be used and stored directly on the app. This is quicker and easier than using a pen and paper to record weights and other metrics and to perform calculations.

This MR App Is Going Places

If you haven’t heard of Holo4Labs before, don’t feel left out. However, it is starting to generate more than a little buzz. Two weeks ago, the MR app was awarded Best Innovation Initiative of 2019 by intelligence and networking platform Emerging Europe.

“By introducing mixed reality within a unique interface for the HoloLens goggles, we hope to change the way lab technicians work, no matter where in the world they’re located,” Solutions4Labs chief operating officer, Pawel Gawkowski, said in a statement. “For us, this win is especially meaningful, as it helps to put Polish innovation on the map.”

Unfortunately, the MR app isn’t available on any app store. However, interested parties can learn more about the service by contacting Solutions4Labs directly.