Main­ten­ance and service with Remote Main­ten­ance and Micro­soft Holo­Lens

Since 2018 we have been offe­ring our speci­ally deve­loped remote main­ten­ance soft­ware for the mixed reality headset Holo­Lens for down­load in the Micro­soft Store. Now it is also available for the Holo­Lens 2 and offers plat­form-specific exten­sions and impro­ve­ments. But how does the prac­tical use of the Micro­soft Holo­Lens in the indus­trial sector look like and what are the advan­tages? Here is an example of use.

Micro­soft Holo­Lens — simple opera­tion through speech and gestures

Compared to its prede­cessor, the Micro­soft Holo­Lens 2 has some addi­tional func­tions and impro­ve­ments. Parti­cu­larly rele­vant for working on machines and devices is the opera­tion of the headset: Both models can be controlled both by voice commands and gestures. With regard to gesture control, the Holo­Lens 1 is operated via a combi­na­tion of viewing direc­tion and air taps or tap-and-hold gestures.

The successor Holo­Lens 2 offers natural-looking inter­ac­tion possi­bi­li­ties in addi­tion to the exis­ting gestures, which are made possible by the inte­grated hand tracking. For example, buttons can simply be clicked in the room.

Remote Main­ten­ance via the Micro­soft Holo­Lens — func­tions and advan­tages

Let’s assume that a service tech­ni­cian is working on a complex machine and is suddenly faced with an error message that he cannot correct on his own. He cont­acts an expert via bitnamic CONNECT, who can quickly and easily connect to the Holo­Lens.

A live video trans­mis­sion takes place, which can be either with or without holo­grams. Speech commu­ni­ca­tion takes place via a micro­phone inte­grated into the Holo­Lens. Now the expert can guide the service tech­ni­cian through the problem solu­tion – from a distance and yet directly on site.

Several tools are available for this purpose, which are part of our remote main­ten­ance compo­nent and can be ideally combined with the func­tion­a­lity of the Micro­soft Holo­Lens. For example, the laser pointer trig­gered by the expert, with the help of which he targets a specific loca­tion, is not only tempo­r­a­rily displayed two-dimen­sio­nally in the wearer’s field of vision, but is also visua­lized spati­ally and conti­nuously at the appro­priate loca­tion directly on the compo­nent. In addi­tion, still images can be created from the current video trans­mis­sion and then displayed on the white­board. On this shared drawing surface, experts and service tech­ni­cians can make anno­ta­tions, which are synchro­nized with the oppo­site side. When using the white­board, the full poten­tial of the Holo­lens 2’s advanced gesture tech­no­logy unfolds: Drawing can be done directly with the finger as desired. Snapshots taken from the Holo­Lens’ video stream are used to addi­tio­nally place drawings on the white­board in the room. A view of the 2D image is thus no longer neces­sary.

bitnamic CONNECT – Remote Main­ten­ance does not only work in one direc­tion – the expert can also send his camera image, in this case to the Holo­Lens. This is espe­ci­ally helpful if the expert acti­vates the screen sharing func­tion: Now all visual content lands in front of the service technician’s eyes. Due to the increased sharp­ness and reso­lu­tion, this is parti­cu­larly useful with the Holo­Lens 2. The expert can also send addi­tional visual media to the service tech­ni­cian to help analyze or solve the problem that has arisen.

During the current support session, both the expert and the service tech­ni­cian have access to chat messages. The display elements called up in this way, as well as all other display elements, can be freely posi­tioned as desired.

Conclu­sion: Work more effi­ci­ently with Remote Main­ten­ance on the Micro­soft Holo­Lens

The use of the Micro­soft Holo­Lens in the indus­trial sector offers nume­rous advan­tages, espe­ci­ally in combi­na­tion with bitnamic CONNECT. The biggest one is that the service tech­ni­cian can work on the machine while simul­ta­neously follo­wing the expert’s instruc­tions – visually and acou­sti­cally. He does not need an addi­tional computer, smart­phone or tablet – in other words, no sepa­rate display to look at and hold or attach. He has both hands free, which not only makes his work easier, but also makes problem solving much more effi­cient and faster.

What speaks espe­ci­ally for the Holo­Lens 2 is the signi­fi­cantly improved wearing comfort. Longer support sessions are no longer a problem with the new model, and even spec­tacle wearers can now use the headset without any visual impair­ment.

Would you like to test our remote main­ten­ance solu­tion on the Micro­soft Holo­Lens? Feel free to book a demo with us.