It’s tedious and time-consuming work for field technicians, who must photograph each pole, write down its location on a map along with other identifying information, and then manually enter those details in a database back at the office.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Kansas, but it’s hot and humid,” Wassenberg says of the Kansas summer. “A lot of times you can’t even read your own handwriting.”

But Wassenberg, who heads augmented reality initiatives at energy consultant Burns & McDonnell in Kansas City, has a trick in his toolkit to make the process more efficient. During the recent utility pole distribution survey, Wassenberg wore an industrial AR headset made by RealWear, which helped him turn a cumbersome, analog process into a streamlined and hands-free experience.

Vancouver, Washington-based RealWear’s flagship product, the HMT-1, is essentially a helmet equipped with a voice-activated Android computer, a computer and a drop-down display. Using voice commands during the recent survey, Wassenberg instructed the headset to take a picture of each utility pole and update its name in the database. And with the AR overlay, Wassenberg could look into his field of vision and see a landscape of green markers where poles had already been inventoried — thus avoiding any unnecessary work.

RealWear is particularly useful for communications back to base while workers are in the field, Wassenberg says. He adds that by allowing a worker to livestream a job to other engineers, Burns & McDonnell can reduce the number of personnel it must send out to a work site. Senior engineers can also use the technology to guide junior team members through tasks, enabling remote on-the-job training, he says.

Even without the livestreaming capability, the HMT-1 lets workers pull up any relevant documents, like schematics or manuals, using voice commands. They can easily switch back and forth between information and tasks — all without using their hands.

Such capabilities are essential for in-the-field workers, who need the technology to just work. Andy Lowery, founder and CEO of RealWear, says his company’s headsets offers features that are important in industries like field service that competitors like Google Glass can’t match. Each headset has enough memory to store about 10 GB of information locally, with a storage expansion slot to add 256 GB. It can also recognize a voice command the first time, no matter how much noise is in the background. And when the HMT-1 starts to run out of juice, its battery can be swapped out easily in the middle of a job.

Read the full article here.

When developing a pedestrian bridge at Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia, an architect working with High Concrete, noticed an error in the design through a HoloLens headset; a sheltered horizontal concrete surface that would have attracted roosting birds. The architect found the error because the glasses showed him the bridge in 3D, and if it was not spotted before the bridge was built, the customer would have had more expense due to adding another material to prevent birds from nesting there. Thomas Beam, 3D building information modelling specialist at High Concrete, is stated to have said that the company was able to make a design adjustment prior to the concrete pieces being put in place.

Beam is quoted to have said that High Concrete wanted to make their clients’ experience of viewing their projects more enhanced, and they did this by purchasing the developer’s version of the HoloLens for $5000, increasing their competitive edge. In addition to improving customer experience, Beam believes that HoloLens also helps him and his colleagues to be better design partners.

On any given project, High Concrete generally works with three different people: a project owner, general contractor, and architect. The HoloLens helps the project owner to visualise the project in 3D space, it helps the general contractor to visualise the project as well as an architect, and it helps the architect (who already knows how to read contract drawings) to gain a clearer idea of what Beam and his colleagues are delivering.

Beam has also said that the headset offers a view of the texture, finish, and structure of the concrete. He hopes to see AR being used in production and quality control in future, and is quoted to have said that this would allow the company to ensure that all the reinforcements and hardware are being placed in the right location by projecting a piece into the form as a one-to-one scale.

Ms. Hodge has also said that AR is become a vital part of the spacecraft division’s digital infrastructure, as it is increasing the efficiency, reducing troubleshooting time for design and manufacturing issues, and reducing defect rate for one spacecraft production line. She is quoted to have said that the tech can give them a competitive advantage and accelerate the company.

Many other companies, particularly in manufacturing, have been exploring AR. According to Forrester Research Inc., approximately 14.4 million US workers will use smart glasses such as Microsoft HoloLens and Google Glass in 2025, compared to 400,000 in 2018. They have also predicted that large companies will spend $3.6 billion on smart glasses in 2025, compared to $6 million in 2016.

Lockheed’s spacecraft division started exploring use of AR in production five years ago. In the last year, the company has begun experimenting with AR in the manufacturing of the Orion space vehicle being built for NASA with the purpose of travelling to Mars, due to advances in AR headsets and sufficient expertise on the software. Before this, technicians used paper instructions or 3D computer models in certain Orion manufacturing processes, whereas now, wearable AR devices overlay instructions rather than workers having to use binders of data or move across the room to view content on a computer screen.

Shelley Peterson, Augmented Reality systems engineer at Lockheed Martin, is stated to have said that since using the headsets, the time taken for a technician to understand drilling processes has been reduced to 45 minutes from eight hours. The manufacturing process of drilling and inserting panels into the Orion spacecraft previously took six weeks, but recently took only two weeks. Ms. Hodge is stated to have said that AR has also helped technicians to eliminate defects due to ease of following instructions, and that analysing ROI looks at reducing defect rate and cycle time.

Ms. Hodge has also said that software programmes given by vendors like Scope AR make it easier for IT workers at Lockheed to design 3D representations of instructions and objects overlaid on the physical world, as they require less coding. Technological challenges remain, such as headsets encountering difficulties in 3D image rendering of complex machinery, as Ms. Hodge pointed out, which need to be addressed before AR reached widespread deployment. However, the spacecraft division is further experimenting with using 3D representations of jets and weapons systems to reduce design time for military members’ defense system-related projects. Lockheed’s innovation centre in Denver plans to offer clients the chance to visualise certain weapons systems or F-35 jets in certain environments, which would reduce design time due to Lockheed’s quick, instant feedback and customer collaboration, as stated by Ms. Hodge.

Lockheed Martin’s AREA member profile can be read here.

The market opportunity for AR goes far beyond gamers or consumers and has the potential to disrupt the enterprise market of technical and skilled workers – from engineers to architects, to healthcare professionals.

The potential for the technology is perhaps best underlined by the fact that major tech industry players are committed to developing AR marketing. For instance, global tech brands such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook are providing deep toolsets for developers to create apps targeting the use of AR.

Many have also quietly adopted the implicit assumption that a persistent, wearable artificial reality is the next big thing, according to Epson Singapore.

As AR adoption gains momentum and an increasing number of industrial applications being launched, some businesses are expected to start incorporating smart glasses into the core of their Internet of Things (IoT) systems, in their quest to enhance worker productivity and streamline backend operations.

According to Amy Kwa, regional manager of visual products at Epson Singapore, “Deploying AR will enable processes at work to be more efficient, by enhancing the reality of the user, so they can, for example maintain an engine or a complex electrical board in an intuitive and easy manner. They’ll be able to see the internal structure of a device and act on the information in real-time.”

Smart glasses have a wide variety of features that offer new AR experiences for a broad range of commercial and industrial market applications. For instance, Epson’s latest Moverio smart glasses offer video and can benefit several sectors, including healthcare.

The glasses have proven to be helpful for surgeons and clinicians, allowing them to fully concentrate on their patients by freeing them from manually handling data, allowing them to focus on complex tasks. Dentists have also been greatly assisted by smart glasses as they are capable of providing a precise heads-up overlay of their patient’s teeth. This allows them to have better hand-eye coordination and a more precise treatment time.

Augmented Reality through smart glasses

As smart glasses evolve to become a truly seamless experience that users interact with on a daily basis, one of the most important issues for developers of AR wearables is form factor. Future generations of smart glasses are expected to be equipped with Wi-Fi capabilities, stereo 3D graphics, and enhanced processing of images and audio.

The user’s choice of smart glasses will depend on their purpose. Key considerations include their ability to deliver digital information crisply and legibly, and also whether the smart glasses are comfortable, especially when worn for long hours.

For use in applications such as healthcare or at museums, galleries and tourist destinations, smart glasses have the benefit of enhancing the overall experience for visitors. With smart glasses and AR, background data on whatever the visitor is viewing can be shown in real-time as part of the tour they are experiencing.

In other applications, operators are using smart glasses in heavy industrial jobsites that may be hot and cramped. In situations like these, it is crucial that workers remain focused as any distraction could result in safety issues. The smart glasses, in this case, need to be in the form of a headset, secured with a firm headband, so that safety is guaranteed.

Looking ahead

According to Kwa, it is likely that adoption of AR technology will reach a tipping point this year. “Developers will launch innovative new apps to grow the commercial and consumer markets, and they will be working to overcome issues such as predictive head motion tracking to reduce ‘motion to photon’ latency, as well as the constraints on power and thermal factors necessary to keep the glasses cool.”

As smart glasses become the norm, we are likely to see them entering additional industries, such as fashion. Whether smart glasses appear on the catwalks of Paris and Milan or not, the potential for AR combined with wearables is huge.

“Following the personal computer, the Internet and the smartphone, AR and smart glasses are likely to be the world’s next transformative technology,” Kwa predicted.

Investments in customer loyalty technology and data for the ‘no strings attached’ generation of customers will be essential for the insurance sector. However, according to Virtusa, investments in Augmented and Virtual Reality are less likely to pay off in the long term.

Senthil Ravindran, executive VP and global head of xLabs at Virtusa, is quoted to have said that IoT, a current ‘hot topic’ in tech, is already contributing towards transforming the insurance sector, particularly auto-insurance. As artificial intelligence is starting to integrate into IoT, contextualised data will be able to be gathered from smart street and vehicle devices, allowing businesses to adjust premiums, instantly produce accident reports, and automatically pay claims out, all individualised to each customer.

The article claims that another key driver for insurers will be the changing nature of customer experience, as consumers increasingly prefer services that are easy to integrate into their lives while being tailored to the individual. Ravindran is quoted to have said that insurance companies need to accept that the loyalty of their clients is currently solely based on offered services, therefore insurers need to invest in technology approved by millennials to combat increasing competition.

However, Ravindran claims that a degree of cynicism concerning the maturity and business value of ARVR technology remains, therefore the chance of investors in the sector reaping significant benefits of the tech is low. He is further quoted to have said that insurance customers are unlikely to be as impressed with VR ‘gimmick[s]’ than general retail.

The research was fuelled by a sense of information overload concerning latest tech and trends, which the article claims companies can be dazzled by. The article concludes with another quote from Ravindran, instructing businesses to take the time to consider how technology can help them achieve their goals before implementing it, rather than being swept up in the newest tech trend.

The AREA have also conducted research, webinars, and case studies on ROI of AR which have been proven, therefore this should be considered by companies looking at investing in tech.  See our ROI calculator and best practice case study.

BP operates over 1,000 shale wells, and oilfield workers in the pine forests of eastern Texas are equipped with VR goggles to help BP’s shale business turn a profit. The tech functions by thousands of automated wells feeding data on the workers’ performance into the firm’s supercomputers each evening. If maintenance is required, a subcontracted repair firm is summoned to keep the shale wells flowing at optimal output and minimal cost.

BP’s progress in shale underpinned its $10.5 billion acquisition of BHP Billiton’s US shale operations in July. BP initially struggled to adjust to the fast-evolving methods used to tap shale via hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, but the company’s newfound confidence in a sector that has challenged oil majors was emphasised by the deal. When the shale boom took off ten years ago, BP and other majors that traditionally focused on large, conventional drilling projects such as Chevron were left behind. However, BP is now catching up with smaller rivals, using knowledge and tech to urge shale into a second phase that it hopes will reward its large scale over the agility of smaller competitors.

David Lawler, head of BP’s shale business, is quoted to have said after the BHP deal announcement that the company has the lowest production costs they have seen in a long time, therefore this model will be applied to the BHP assets to significantly improve performance and production.

Other large rivals of BP in US shale production include Norway’s Equinor, ExxonMobil, and Shell. These companies are all expanding drilling and acquisitions, particularly in the largest US oilfield and centre of the shale revolution, the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico. Their goal is to capitalise on the vast resources unveiled by new drilling technologies, allowing companies to quickly start and stop production in response to market changes.

BP will be transformed into one of the world’s biggest shale oil and gas producers as a result of the BHP deal; the company’s total shale output will increase from 315,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOED) to over 500,000 BOED, and its reserves will increase from 57 per cent to 12.7 billion BOED. BP’s output of shale oil is anticipated to rise from 10,000 barrels of oil per day (BPD) to approximately 200,000 BPD halfway through the next decade. The deal also looks to leave behind the $65 billion fallout from the 2010 explosion of its Deepwater Horizon rig in the US Gulf of Mexico, as well as re-establish BP as a major player in the Permian Basin.

In commenting on the technology’s system of rating contractors after completing work, Brian Pugh, Chief Operating Officer of BP’s shale division, is quoted to have said that it means the company is not constantly hiring and firing staff as market conditions shift. Field workers are connected to experts in BP’s Houston offices via headsets to receive guidance while working. Many problem solutions are now collated in a video library so staff can search up videos to help fix problems themselves without consulting an expert. Algorithms crunch data compiled each evening and form a report altering operators as to which wells may require repair. BP have said that the systems cut downtime for wells needing repairs by half, boosting production last year by 70 million cubic feet of natural gas across its shale portfolio.

BP’s success in cost reduction reflects its ability to spend money automating its oilfields and overhaul work processes to reduce service and equipment costs. The shale business, now headquartered in Denver, was separated from the main company to allow the business to form its own culture.

It’s a valid question, which Scope AR goes on to address in their blog.  The WorkLink platform was built primarily around the concept that organizations would be leveraging their own products’ CAD models to create augmented reality training and instruction materials.  Many of our clients are using it in exactly that way, and having no difficulty in achieving that workflow.

The scenarios where this approach doesn’t fit tend to be in a few general categories.

• “We need to assist our employees on equipment that is supplied by a vendor”
• “The CAD files exist and we own them, but we are struggling to get them released to us”
• “This equipment pre-dates our CAD software”

In actuality, most of these scenarios are likely to be short-lived. Where IP protection is a concern, for instance, CAD files can be converted and simplified at source to maximize the value to instruction while minimizing the exposure of proprietary information. In addition, the very nature of self-authoring keeps that exposure limited to your internal content authors and a pre-approved workforce working across a secure network. As the benefits of AR instruction and assistance become more commonly understood, these barriers are starting to fall.

The rest of their blog is devoted to sharing some useful techniques for these situations.

See Scope AR’s member profile page. 

Wearables have the potential to increase value of workers by improving physical and perceptual abilities, according to the report. Wearables such as smart glasses, sensors, smart watches, and exoskeletons are reducing in size, weight, and cost for enterprises, as well as offering the ability to collect and process data in real time.

The report is quoted in the article, finding that wearable technologies can improve workers’ productivity as well as fill in the gaps in their skills or overcome physical limitations. Wearables are being increasingly offered as a service and end-to-end solution, which increases ease of adoption in the enterprise. Other factors that make wearables more attractive for enterprises in the US include:

• The aging workforce
• Skills shortage
• Rise in remote working
• Increase in workplace safety regulations

Wearables enable business leaders to navigate these problems via augmentation of workers’ abilities, e.g. increasing physical strength, providing instructions, alerting for hazards, and facilitating virtual interactions, all of which can potentially increase safety and productivity.

The four ways in which wearables can benefit your workforce as listed in the report are:

• Enhancing strength and endurance. Workers can be equipped with exoskeletons in organisations that require physical labour, helping them to conserve energy and avoid straining. Examples of this include Lowe’s robotic exosuits released in 2017, and Ford’s use of exoskeletons for manufacturing workers. Audi, Gammon, and the US Navy are also utilising or evaluating the tech, which is claimed to be particularly useful for aging workers as it helps to avoid injuries and overexertion.
• Augmenting vision. Instructions offered in a worker’s field of view via AR or VR can aid duration and quality of work, design and data analysis abilities, and improve team collaboration. An example of this is GE Aviation’s use of smart glasses improving efficiency by 8-12% and reducing errors.
• Empowering speech and hearing. Voice-controlled wearables and hearables offer workers hands-free access to instructions to increase efficiency. An example of this is Lufthansa using voice-based headphones that enable a two-technician job to be completed by just one, as one would have to read out instructions. Instead, the maintenance checklist is converted to voice commands which the technician can respond to.
• Improving awareness. Wearables can provide quicker task and situational awareness to workers to aid work quality and productivity. An example of this is the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport’s use of smart watched to alert cleaning crews when / where they are needed.

Worker safety can be improved by these tools by monitoring the worker’s physical status in addition to environmental conditions, notifying them when either becomes dangerous.

With a broad range of system-related technical trainings and advanced trainings, a total of 31 Bosch Training Centers worldwide support automotive workshops in keeping up with technical developments concerning vehicle servicing and repair. The training center in Plochingen close to Stuttgart (Germany) develops the courses and trains more than 3 500 workshop employees annually. For the first time ever, Bosch will now use the innovative Augmented Reality technology for its technical service trainings thus literally increasing the transparency of the training contents for the participants.

Practical insights into future learning

During the Automechanika fair in Frankfurt, Bosch offers daily accredited trainings on high-voltage engines. Automotive mechatronics can get acquainted with the new training technology free of charge after pre-registration. By means of Augmented Reality technology, the differences between hybrid and fully electric vehicles, the functions and features of different high-voltage components as well as troubleshooting strategies – among others – are explained to the participants. The transparent AR-assisted depiction provides the mechatronics with a detailed insight into the structure and the functionality of high-voltage components. Besides information on electric vehicle components, the participants are also provided with exciting insights into future learning. Supported by experts on site, they are able to experience the new Augmented Reality training method live. In addition, AR experts will also show and explain this new technology at the Bosch exhibition stand in hall 9.

Different training scenarios using Augmented Reality

Starting in autumn/winter 2018, Bosch will offer the first service training supported by Augmented Reality, the two-day apprenticeship for “high-voltage technicians – working on intrinsically safe HV vehicles” carried out at the Bosch Service Training Centers in Plochingen (Germany) and Ballerup (Denmark). Once they passed the final exam, the trainees are allowed to de-energize HV systems of hybrid, electric and fuel-cell vehicles and to work on HV components. An additional service training for the “calibration of driver assistance systems” supported by Augmented Reality is planned as well.

Bosch developed a special Augmented Reality Platform (CAP) specifically for AR applications. It allows publishing new contents and applications – also for the training sector in particular – in a device-independent manner. Fed with locally and centrally stored contents, the platform compiles the required data for each specific AR application. This even allows different training scenarios to be implemented. In “Trainer Mode”, the trainer controls the devices of the participants and decides which case shall be displayed on their devices. And yet each participant keeps an individual point of view – for instance onto the engine compartment. The whole group of participants and each and every one of them can actively follow and experience the explanations the trainer provides for each training situation. In “Trainee Mode”, the trainer accesses any participant’s device. He can thus provide useful hints and tips and explain the next steps lucidly.

Augmented Reality (AR) complements reality overlaying useful additional information. In case the workshop employee points his smartphone or tablet camera – or even his smart glasses – onto an area on the vehicle’s engine compartment featuring AR information, explanations, 3D objects or videos are added to the real image. In this manner, AR technology shows structures hidden behind panels, for instance, such as the cable harness behind the dashboard.

For further detailed information on the Bosch AR workshops and online registration.

What signs should enterprise customers look for that an AR platform is truly enterprise-ready? We’ll look at that question in more detail in the second part of this series, but here’s a sneak peek at what’s on that list:

1) Security – A great AR platform needs to provide you with a way to secure the data that will flow through it, whether that data is the content of a video call, a set of proprietary work instructions or data from IoT devices. The security solution could be supplied on-board by the hardware vendor, be a feature of the operating system or be third-party technology that works with your AR productivity software.

2) Ability to scale – You don’t want an AR platform that is stuck on a particular make or form factor of smart glasses, smartphones or tablets. To be really useful, your AR platform needs to be able to “scale up” to match the changing needs of your organization and not be limited by fixed numbers of allowed users or supported mobile operating systems.

3) User management – People work in your organization, not machines. You want to have information stored with each user profile that ensures that a given employee gets the information that matches their needs, job role and task – and gets context based on previous work.

4) Integration – Just as no person is an island, you don’t want your AR platform to act like one. It needs to integrate appropriately with your existing  enterprise infrastructure, tools and device management.

5) Ease of deployment – A great AR platform shouldn’t be tough to deploy. You are more likely to have success with something that can deliver real, measurable ROI quickly and easily – and achieve greater adoption by the workforce – if it’s as simple as possible to roll out and use.

6) Interaction flexibility – To deliver the best and broadest possible solution for your enterprise, your AR platform should support modes of interaction that match the scenarios faced by your workforce. In many cases, that will mean supporting hands-free interaction using technologies such as gestures, head motion, gaze tracking and voice recognition.

7) Technology partnerships – Who does your AR platform provider work with? To be broadly successful, you want a provider that tightly partners with industry leaders, innovates around standards and can bring the right team to the table when you tackle sometimes complex and thorny integration issues.