Designing for Mixed Reality

Chapter 6. Where Are the High-Value Areas of Investigation?

Understanding your employee’s perspective can go a long way toward increasing productivity and happiness.

Kathryn Minshew

The Speculative Landscape for MR Adoption

We’ve looked at a lot of the current uses of mixed reality (MR) for applications, and the way that we work right now, but what about new types of uses? What can MR do that might entirely change a given industry?

Health Care

MR allows people in the medical profession, from students just starting out, all the way to trained neurosurgeons, to “see” the inside of a real patient without opening them up. This technology also allows effective remote collaboration, with doctors able to monitor and see what other doctors might be working with. Companies like AccuVein make a handheld scanner that projects an image on the skin of the veins, valves, and bifurcations that lie underneath to help make it easier for doctors and nurses to locate a vein for an injection.

The biggest challenge in the healthcare industry is the certifications and requirements needed to allow this class of device into hospitals.

Design/Architecture

One of the most obvious use cases for this kind of technology is in design and architecture—it’s no surprise that the first Hololens demonstration video showcased a couple of architects (from Trimble) using the Hololens to view a proposed building. As of today, most 3-D work is still done on 2-D screens, but this will change and examples of creating ...