Mixed-reality HoloHuman interface upgrades anatomy class

by Boaz Feldman

As mixed reality (MR) gets more and more acceptance around the world, there are few industries showing more interest than the medical field, where virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and haptic technology are allowing future doctors and nurses to practice techniques in stunning real-time environments, and researchers are able to experiment with new treatments without putting a single living patient in harm’s way.
Those two ideals are a big reason why extended-reality solutions company GigXR recently announced a partnership with global educational publication house Elsevier to create HoloHuman, an MR anatomy application that has direct medical classroom implications for instructors and medical students alike, providing a first-of-its-kind holographic learning environment.


Fleshing Out HoloHuman

The purpose of HoloHuman is to “drive a deeper understanding of human anatomy in order to enhance clinical preparedness for real-life diagnostic, research, and hospital scenarios,” according to a GigXR press release.
The holographic interaction allows students to get the best view of the human anatomy ever developed.
The anatomy can be viewed by regions with 11 different systems and more than 4,500 structures that bear names and descriptions.

The system also allows views of multiple systems at the same time and the ability to overlay them in any combination to get a better look at how these systems interact and rely upon each other.
The interactive hologram also gives access to extraordinarily detailed information on every component visible within the holographic view.

It’s not just students getting a dazzling upgrade in their lessons: Instructors can customize the order in which the parts of the holographic model appear and classify them as ‘stages’ to be opened later in the lecture period.
They can also customize the text displayed next to the models as specific labels and save them within those aforementioned stages. It’s not just the students in a lecture hall getting the benefits of HoloHuman either; remote participation can be enjoyed through a Microsoft HoloLens headset and/or an Android or iOS mobile device. 

All students in the same classroom environment, be they in person or remote, can communicate in-session with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) capabilities, and students can directly access a previously saved session with a streamlined QR code login.

“Having built the most comprehensive software platform for rendering 3D anatomical models, we see the real value in having a mixed reality immersive learning platform because it allows instructors to share an entire structured anatomy curriculum and make concepts visual,”
said Niall Johnston, VP Sales at 3D4Medical from Elsevier and GigXR partner.
“This addresses the challenge that students traditionally have experienced learning in 2D while interacting in a 3D world.
Mixed reality learning prepares them so much better for hands-on application of knowledge and techniques.
That’s an incredibly important outcome and one of the many reasons why we’re thrilled to partner with GigXR in bringing human anatomy models to life.” 

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