The Cleveland Clinic has partnered with Case Western Reserve University to release a Microsoft HoloLens app that allows users to explore the human body using augmented reality technology. The HoloLens is a headset that superimposes computer generated 3D graphics onto a person’s field of view, essentially blending reality with virtual reality.
The HoloAnatomy app lets people explore a virtual human, to walk around it looking at details of different systems of the body, and to select which are showing. Even some sounds are replicated, such as that of the beating heart.
The app uses hand gesture and voice recognition for controls, and using which labels can be inserted to learn different anatomical components. Additionally, the application has a test taking mode during which the labels are removed and the user has to identify the body parts being called out.
While the HoloAnatomy app is still a study of how this technology will be used in medical education, it’s already pointing to less time spent in the morgue for future med students.
Check out this video about the project: