Hillrom: Augmented reality

Our client asked:

Hillrom asked Sagentia Medical to develop an augmented reality app to help them to demonstrate how spatial sensor data from hospital bed mattresses could be used for quickly and easily monitoring patients. Their aim was to demonstrate how novel visualisation techniques can be used to make sense of complex data sets in a clinical environment.

The project story:

Sagentia Medical developed an augmented reality application to run on an iPad that demonstrated how this technology could work. By presenting the information in an app, it would enable nurses to quickly and easily check patients for signs of medical issues such as pressure sores.

We used image processing to detect specific bed images, overcoming the technical challenges of superimposing 2D contour map data on a three-dimensional patient and of maintaining the link between that 2D map and the patient regardless of the viewing perspective.

We also designed an interface to view the Braden Scale for bed sore risk and used the Unity-generate 3D model to display pressure data on a patient model.

Results: deliverables and outcomes

Hillrom is now taking the app to Voice of the Customer trials with healthcare professionals.