Project HALIA is a joint project between Telstra, QANTAS and Microsoft that was showcased at MilCIS 2018. It was work on by my colleague Gagan Singh, who leads Media & Immersive Experiences (Mixed Reality) in our team.

A colleague of mine, Gagan Singh, helped build and develop the application together with Readify, a consulting company within Telstra.

The application is targeting at reducing inspection times of aircraft that are struck by lightning.

If a lightning strike occurs on a place where crucial aircraft components lie, then the ground crew must inspect further. If there are no critical systems under the strike location, then there is no need for further work.

The Augmented Reality headset, the Hololens, allows users to see "through" the skin of the plane, and visualise the underlying electrical components.

Screen Shot 2018-11-15 at 9.27.21 am

It achieves these by aligning a 3D model of the plane, taken from the engineering drawings, with a fixed anchor that the user places down.

Screen Shot 2018-11-15 at 9.28.07 am

The application also allows the user to dial an expert, to provide assistance, if the subject matter expert is not available on site.

I'm told that more damage was caused during inspections (from the bumping into the plane with the scissor lifts) than is caused due to lightning strikes.

A great application by Gagan and the wider team, showcasing how emerging technology is able to solve real world problems!