HALO®, HALO AI, and HALO Link 4.0 Features and Functionalities
In this blog post, you can learn about some of the new features in the latest release, when to expect your chance to upgrade, and where to find user guides, release notes, and tutorial videos.
The 4.0 release offers researchers unparalleled ease of use, performance, and AI-powered image analysis in an open digital pathology ecosystem. In version 4.0, we have continued to expand the integration of AI-based tools within the platform while maintaining a focus on improving the most common workflow in our products, slide viewing.
What new features are included in the 4.0 release?
HALO 4.0
The 4.0 release brings a new GPU accelerated viewer to improve the slide navigation experience, enable seamless loading of extensively annotated slides, and an updated user interface to HALO. Pretrained AI nuclear and membrane segmentation for brightfield and fluorescent images without HALO AI is another key addition. These changes were not taken lightly because the minimum hardware requirements are impacted. However, the benefits of leveraging hardware to improve the viewing and AI analysis experience in HALO, particularly for highly multiplexed images was necessary. Additional functionality allowing customization of analysis outputs with any module and improving the image registration workflow are two of the other big features in this release. Be sure to check out supporting documentation to view all the changes in 4.0.
HALO AI 4.0
While AI tooling was incorporated into HALO, many additions went into HALO AI also. A new AI-powered annotation tool leveraging the Segment Anything model lowers the burden of adding training data for users. The much desired ability to daisy chain multiple classifiers to run in sequence or embedded in HALO analysis modules is now available in HALO AI 4.0. A number of new and improved pretrained models are packed in this update, including: additional IHC support in SlideQC, a new fluorescence membrane segmentation network, updated fluorescence nuclear segmentation network, and support for Stardist ONNX import. Finally, there are many quality-of-life improvements ranging from updated training region display to indicate priority to batch delete and hiding of classifiers and more!
HALO Link 4.0
The 4.0 release of HALO Link includes the first add-on for the product. The compliance add-on supports system level auditing and reason for change capture intended to be used in conjunction with a site’s standard operating procedures to support Good Laboratory Practice. The next gen image server enables improved performance and stability for HALO Link slide viewing. Additionally, the image server update supports interaction with HALO generated interactive markup images to better understand analysis results and a fluorescent channel blending workflow with a preview window to quickly view channel adjustments and apply to the entire slide.
Minimum Hardware Requirements for 4.0
HALO requires a GPU. The GPU must have a minimum of 4GB of RAM and support OpenGL (version 4.3 or greater) and CUDA (version 11.1 or greater). For more details including recommended specifications, GPU Hardware Requirements document on the Learning Portal. No change in requirements for HALO AI or HALO Link installations.
Where can I learn more about HALO, HALO AI, and HALO Link 4.0?
Check out these resources to learn more about the latest release. Over 40 new documents and videos were created for this release. A few of the most relevant are listed below and all are posted to the Learning Portal. You will need a Learning Portal account to access these resources. If you do not already have an account, you can create one here.
SUPPORT DOCUMENTATION
Tutorial Videos
- HALO
- HALO AI
- HALO Link
Webinars
When can I expect to receive my 4.0 upgrade?
Indica Labs’ Technical Solutions team will be sending an email out to customers with eligible Software Maintenance and Support (SMS) plans.
If you haven’t already, please add the following emails to your safe sender list to make sure our emails make it to you and not your spam folders: support@indicalab.com, info@indicalab.com, and marketing@indicalab.com.
Once you receive this email and submit your upgrade request, our Technical Solutions team will work with you to schedule your installation. If your HALO, HALO AI, or HALO Link licenses do not have an active SMS plan or you are unsure of your plan status, submit this form and we’ll be in touch with you soon.
If you have questions regarding the release, feel free to reach out to support@indicalab.com.