Today, Meemim announced the beta of its information management platform for HoloLens.

Mixed reality is here!

Launched earlier this year, Microsoft HoloLens is a set of futuristic looking goggles that transform how you connect and engage with your surroundings; you can see three-dimensional holograms as if they were real and in front of you, which is why Microsoft has defined this tech “mixed reality”. The business applications for a technology such as this are exciting and revolutionary.

Augmented reality is a relatively new concept that has been popularized with Pokémon Go. However, it is well positioned to disrupt industries. Quietly, the disruption has already begun. Porsche’s assembly line, for instance, employs tablet-based augmented reality apps to deal with production complexities and many other companies have followed suit.

The cost and benefits of being an early adopter

Being the first to make a case for a new technology can be intimidating. Adoption can be slow, so it takes visionaries that recognize the business value of a new technology to push it forward. These early adopters take risks, but often gain a competitive advantage in their industries.

HoloLens is no different. Companies such as ThyssenKrupp and Lowe’s identified the business value of HoloLens for their businesses and made substantial investments in the technology. The early signs are positive: in trials the use of HoloLens has reduced the average length of ThyssenKrupp’s service calls by a factor of four.

As the giants in their industries, ThyssenKrupp and Lowe’s have the resources to invest in promising technology and build out a custom solution that specifically suits their needs. Similar undertakings can be out of reach for organizations with smaller R&D budgets. The adoption of mixed reality in business is expensive, yet almost inevitable, and companies need to begin putting this potentially disruptive technology on their roadmaps.

Meemim bridges 2D and 3D

In October 2016, Meemim expanded its information management platform to HoloLens. The company aims to simplify HoloLens adoption by providing tools that help bridge the gap between traditional desktop and mobile-based 2D systems and HoloLens’ 3D.

Meemim’s unique collaboration platform helps businesses easily organize and share information across teams and departments. It uses an innovative image-based search to help people find information in the same way they think – letting them locate information quickly and easily. The platform is designed as a centralized information hub for teams and companies: an Intranet portal, a company Wiki or as a documentation delivery system.

Meemim is highly visual and is easy to use on any device, including desktops, tablets and even phones. However, its unique visual interface also makes the system ideal for mixed reality applications. Companies can use Meemim in their traditional 2D office environment, while delivering information in a convenient way to HoloLens 3D.

Using Meemim, information can be linked to specific objects – both physical and virtual. This simplifies accessing relevant information in the most natural way – just imagine how much easier it would be to maintain a fleet of vehicles if each car or truck had their service maintenance record or special notes displayed besides them when you glance at the vehicle through HoloLens. Or be able to see assembly instructions and special parts notes when studying a holographic object on the shop floor.

“Our goal is to provide a platform that simplifies HoloLens adoption,” says Alec Pestov, the CEO of Meemim. “We want to give organizations a way of displaying information in mixed reality without programming help. We also want to give developers a platform that they can incorporate in their solutions – much like ThyssenKrupp did with Skype – thus reducing cost to their customers.”

Meemim allows companies to display relevant information in the HoloLens environment without any special programming. Since the Meemim platform can interface with other tools, such as EPR and CRM, companies can take advantage of displaying automatically updated information in HoloLens without any development effort.

Meemim is built for integrations and has a robust API layer, making it a perfect candidate for embedding into other solutions. Much like ThyssenKrupp’s use of Skype in their HoloLens platform, Meemim helps companies avoid custom development where it is not needed. This substantial savings in both time and development cost means you can adopt HoloLens with smaller budgets and also launch your product sooner.

Meemim’s consulting team can help implement custom HoloLens-based solutions for your business, reducing development cost by employing 3rd-party components and customizing our platform to fit your unique needs and circumstances where applicable. Contact us today to find out how we can help you.