HoloLens is giving a big lift to this elevator service company

Microsoft's HoloLens is already making a big impact in the business sector, with Thyssenkrupp Elevator announcing plans to put thousands of the headsets to work with its elevator service technicians. Thyssenkrupp has already seen HoloLens help to increase dramatically safety and efficiency in its tests, and the company plans to bring these gains to more than 24,000 of its technicians across the globe.

From Thyssenkrupp:

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 onsite – 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.

As shown in the video above, some of the unique applications enabled by HoloLens for technicians — like visualizing and interacting with a virtual model of the elevator ahead of time — are incredibly cool. Moreover, Thyssenkrupp's plans for the HoloLens are just an enticing taste of the ways the augmented reality headset could be used by a whole host of businesses and industries to innovate and improve productivity.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl

22 Comments
  • Win win for both companies!!!
  • Hololens is moving up in the world.
  • once they've fixed the lift
  • Good one
  • LOL
  • I heard it was moving to the East Side
  • It finally got a piece of the pie.
  • Excellent.  This is the kind of thing I've been hoping to see!  I think this type of application is where the HoloLens really shines, and can make the world a better place.
  • Thousands of units? WOW!
    Such a demonstration of use case.
  • Thinks about it from business. HoloLens is cost equivalent to one expensive airline ticket, and businesses pay for 10s of thousands of airline tickets each year. It's a cheap investment for service industry business. The video says the HoloLens would replace the technicians laptop. Wow.
  • Agreed, I've been trying to get my company to invest in shop level teleconferencing for years.  Instead, they send a few different people half way around the world twice a year.  Their airfare alone on one trip would cover a Hololens.
  • Hololens with x-ray vision would make real world application like this easier in future. ;)
  • Future is NOW (with HOLOLENS)
  • Those animations look a bit gimmicky, but it does the useful thing in the end. I like these examples that show that HoloLens is not a geek toy, it can help with tasks that would otherwise be very complicated or even dangerous.
  • Does Microsoft know that Apple has already invented this technology five years from now? Just ask Tim Cook. 
  • Apple will get to it right after they force their customers to buy all accessories for their iPhone all over again.
  • Hm, that technician is wearing a Band 2.
  • Well spotted..
  • This is amazing. Can't wait to get my hands on the HoloLens
  • Hope the consumer version will have better field of view. If it is not fully immersive then it would be a waste
  • VR is for fully immersive, HoloLens is for seeing your environment.
  • Very impressive! Kudos Microsoft.