This site has long been preoccupied with the future of work: how new technology is changing our jobs, and can possibly change our ecological footprint. I saw a bit of that future in New York City, with the demonstration of the use of Microsoft’s Hololens by thyssenkrupp Elevator.
The Hololens is described by Microsoft as “the first fully self-contained, holographic computer, enabling you to interact with high‑definition holograms in your world.” It’s not virtual reality, but what they call “Mixed reality”, which blends 3D holographic content into your physical world, “giving your holograms real-world context and scale, allowing you to interact with both digital content and the world around you.” You can see it in action in this video:
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If you are on site, you can look at components and describe the problems to an expert back at home office to get a second opinion. You can order parts by looking at them, seeing them pop up and just hit a virtual button. You are looking through these goggles; they are not like a virtual reality headset that replaces what you see. Instead you see the virtual and the reality together as it augments the view. As they note in the press release:
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Using HoloLens, service technicians will be able to visualize and identify problems with elevators ahead of a job, and have remote, hands-free access to technical and expert information when on site – all resulting in significant savings in time and stress. Initial field trials have already shown that a service maintenance intervention can be done up to four times faster than before by using the device.
And possibly a lot fewer technician’s trucks on the road. CEO Andreas notes that it will change the way his employees work, introducing…
….processes and training to enable technicians to do a better job with less stress and more fun. Our goal is to dramatically increase efficiency, raise elevator uptimes and speed up service interventions to ensure mobility equipment is always running as it should, providing each passenger with the safest and most comfortable travel experience possible.
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Elevators, with their importance, cost, complexity and legally mandated maintenance programs, are particularly well suited to this technology. But one can imagine entire buildings put together like this, where you can walk through the halls and see into walls, see where every valve and every switch is. It’s not just elevator technicians whose jobs are going virtual; this technology will affect every building professional and every trade.
I always worry when I go on these press trips and get in the bubble that I am going to lose perspective and perhaps gush too much. But this is seriously impressive technology, being put to work by a company that has taken a big staid industry and made it very exciting. So forgive the gush.
Source: Treehugger