This post appeared on Medium, by LucyD.

LucyD are admittedly ‘obsessed’ by Augmented Reality.  They say the massive potential for enterprise applications is what sets AR apart from VR.  They then go on to take a look at 3 specific industries where AR is being used:

Construction

Despite the fact that the construction industry utilizes advanced 3D tools to design buildings, most of the time workers still refer to an actual paper blueprint. While we don’t expect paper to go out of fashion any time soon, the fact is that workers lose a massive amount of time because they need to constantly refer to the blueprints.

With AR, it would be possible to refer to the blueprint with no more than a verbal command. This would allow contractors, even the architect, to leave precise notes on a digital blueprint. There would be no need to lug around a hard copy, either.

Car Maintenance

While this application is not strictly limited to car repair, Augmented Reality will make DIY repair tasks as simple as following a tutorial.

These days, if you have a problem with your car, you need to take it to a technician. You leave it there for a few days or weeks and hope that by the time you pick it up, the problem is fixed.

Imagine if you could pop the hood of your car, load the specs for your car and get detailed instructions on how to diagnose and fix whatever was wrong with your vehicle.

Repair shops could also use this technology to hire more mechanics. An increase in mechanics would mean more competition and lower prices across the board, as the barrier to entry into this field would be reduced. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Cooking

Augmented Reality can be used for anything that requires a tutorial — so why not take advantage of the ultimate tutorial-based activity: cooking.

Every dish requires a recipe, but imagine if you received the instructions in real time. A built-in timer would tell you exactly when to flip the burger, a visual sensor would let you know if you’re burning the pancakes, and an olfactory sensor could alert you that your chocolate chip cookies had reached their ideal golden-brown texture.

At the Tokyo Institute of Technology, a team is aspiring to do those things and more. While this tech is still in its infancy, great forward strides in the AR cooking industry can be anticipated in the near future.

That said, all of these potential technologies have yet to fully bloom. At Lucyd, we believe the reason for this is lack of a hardware standard.

Our Lenses and decentralized blockchain ecosystem aims to change all this. Similar to open-source frameworks like Linux, companies will be able to develop applications that solve all these problems and more.

For the AREA’s work on AR functional requirements please see this page.

There have been a high number of articles recently about the use of AR in healthcare and particularly surgery. One such article appears on the BT website which reports on the advantages of Augmented Reality in surgery.

A group from Imperial College London has conducted research involving medical procedures at St Mary’s Hospital using the Microsoft HoloLens. This involved overlaying Computerised Tomography (CT) scans onto patients’ legs so that surgeons could effectively see through the limb during reconstructive surgery.

Each of the five patients (all requiring reconstructive surgery on their legs) underwent a CT scan to map their limb structure, which was used to create 3D images of the leg. These images were run through software created specially to render them for the HoloLens.

Dr Philip Pratt, research fellow in the department of surgery and cancer and lead author of the study, is quoted to have said that they are one of the pioneering teams to successfully use the HoloLens headset in surgery. The research has shown that the technology is beneficial and practical for the medical sector, and the researchers now plan to trial it on a larger range of patients.

The abstract describes how the project will create a platform for enhanced surgical planning by developing a framework capable of displaying a virtual model of the tumour(s) on a patient’s breast.

The type of surgery involved comes with risks; the surgeon has to ensure that the disease will not return but also maintain clean margins. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans help with pre-surgical planning, although it involves the patient being in prone position as opposed to the surgery being in supine position, meaning that mapping the location of the tumour(s) is difficult. However, AR enables the tumour to be visualised in the corresponding anatomical position.

The project involves use of the Microsoft HoloLens, which is useful due to its display resolution and multitude of sensors. There are disadvantages to this technology as it is still under development, but they are compensated for by using existing software and hardware.

In the thesis, there is information about acquiring data from breast mimicking objects, discriminating between photometry-based info, offloading data onto a computer to create a correspondence between MRI data and acquired data, and retrieving processed info that can be used for accurately visualising the tumour.

The abstract mentions that time limitations resulted in an incomplete and unsynchronised system, although the project has established a basis for further research.

Google Glass has now become a workplace tool to help companies increase productivity; the computers are now known as Glass, and are made under the auspices of Alphabet’s X Lab, Google’s parent company.

Other companies which have tested or used Glass listed in the article include Coca-Cola, Volkswagen, GE, McKinsey & Co and Boeing.

The article mentions that additional organisations have tested Microsoft’s ‘mixed reality’ HoloLens. A study by Forrester Research anticipates that over 14 million US workers will use smart glasses by 2025.

AGCO’s director of business process improvement, Peggy Gulick, is quoted to have said that the glasses help to make employees safer and more productive, and are more beneficial than workers carrying tablets, which caused them to be damaged. Gulick has also said that instructions embedded in the safety glasses at AGCO can be customised to suit the employee’s level of experience, altering the detail of instructions on screen. Voice commands can be used to leave notes for the next shift, and workers can scan a machine’s serial number to access a manual, photo or video for tractor building.

Google offered AGCO a pair of smart glasses to try after the debut of Glass for the consumer, and the company now has approximately 150 pairs in use at its Jackson facility. In addition to this, smart glasses are being tested at AGCO’s facilities in Germany, Italy, Brazil, Kansas, and Illinois. Gulick has estimated that AGCO will be using around 1000 pairs by the end of 2018.

AGCO has also found that the smart glasses have resulted in:

• 30% reduction in inspection time
• 25% reduction in production time for certain assembly jobs
• 50% reduction in time needed to train new employees

However, the article mentions some downsides to using the smart glasses:

• Some employees are reluctant to embrace the technology
• Ergonomic issues, e.g. headaches and eye strain
• Fears of employees becoming obsolete as a result of technology
• Cost
• Comfort of use

Topics for discussion include:

• The session will firstly dissect what augmented reality is
• How AR differs from VR
• Discussion of benefits of AR, and highlight
• How this type of technology can be used as part of a communications strategy to help increase staff engagement with employee benefits
• Bryant will explain how AR can be utilised as an engagement tool, particularly when employers are segmenting their workforce in order to target their communications approach. As a relatively new tool in an employer’s communications arsenal
• Potential challenges around AR, including its use of personal data, especially in light of the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the UK, effective from May 2018.

The 2018 conference will take place on Wednesday 28 February 2018 at Park Plaza, Westminster, London.

For more information see EmployeeBenefits.co.uk

The UK Government announced back in November that 2018 would be the Year of Engineering, and they have also launched the Industrial Strategy and Made Smarter Review. This has been said to help make the UK a world leader in the Fourth Industrial Revolution by 2020.

Real applications of Augmented and Virtual Reality mentioned in the article include:

• Boulting uses VR to allow immersion for their clients as well as developing designs more clearly before construction begins and reducing mistakes
• VR helps design of a facility and could have applications for building information modelling; inputting computer aided design files into a VR app can enable the designer, engineer, and client to move around and view the product from different perspectives
• VR can revolutionise training by allowing engineers to explore and manage situations without risk
• AR can provide important info to engineers wearing headsets while allowing hands-free manoeuvres
• When combined with remote monitoring and dashboard user interfaces, the status of a motor control centre can be visualised next to the system via AR
• When combined with a risk-based maintenance schedule (e.g. Boulting’s BRISK), pieces of machinery can be colour-coded according to risk

Points made about Artificial Intelligence in the article include:

• One of the benefits of AI is advanced data analysis, which collects, stores, and analyses data automatically
• Based on the results from the analysis, processes can be altered which increases productivity, reduces costs, and prevents production downtime
• Combined with trend prediction and predictive maintenance schemes, yield and efficiency can increase

The article concludes by stating that plant managers are focusing on connecting system and taking advantage of the benefits of the Industrial Internet of Things, such as interpretation and enhanced data collection.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computerised Tomography (CT) scans take a long time for medical students to study and learn to interpret. Therefore, AR and VR can provide visualisation to aid training. The technology can provide a 3D rendering of a scan that can even be scaled larger, externally manipulated, and internally explored. This can help physicians with surgical planning as well as train medical students.

In addition to bridging the vital medical information asymmetry, AR and VR can help patients to further understand their diagnosis and lead to higher engagement with their treatment. The tech also has the potential to be used during medical procedures and surgery

Ochsner’s medical 3D lab initially had the goal of giving clinicians and patients access to medical data. It leverages platforms such as 3D printing and immersive tech to enhance medical training, facilitate patient education, and improve clinical care delivery.

• Vuzix, a Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technology supplier, has teamed with H-E-B, a major U.S. grocery company to pilot Vuzix Basics Video (VBV) glasses within the company’s manufacturing operations, according to a company press release.
• The model in use at H-E-B is the M300, known for strong audio and noise cancellation excellence. Employing augmented reality on the plant floor allows H-E-B to provide faster technical education and knowledge transfer abilities.
• The M300 is believed to offer speedy ROI and easy deployment for users.

More on the story can be read on Supply Chain Dive.com  

The system, called ProjectDR, allows medical images such as CT scans and MRI data to be displayed directly on a patient’s body in a way that moves as the patient does.  “We wanted to create a system that would show clinicians a patient’s internal anatomy within the context of the body,” explained Ian Watts, a computing science graduate student and the developer of ProjectDR.

The technology includes a motion-tracking system using infrared cameras and markers on the patient’s body, as well as a projector to display the images. But the really difficult part, Watts explained, is having the image track properly on the patient’s body even as they shift and move. The solution: custom software written by Watts that gets all of the components working together.

Vast applications

“There are lots of applications for this technology, including in teaching, physiotherapy, laparoscopic surgery and even surgical planning,” said Watts, who developed the technology with fellow graduate student Michael Fiest.

ProjectDR also has the capacity to present segmented images–for example, only the lungs or only the blood vessels–depending on what a clinician is interested in seeing.

For now, Watts is working on refining ProjectDR to improve the system’s automatic calibration and to add components such as depth sensors. The next steps are testing the program’s viability in a clinical setting, explained Pierre Boulanger, professor in the Department of Computing Science.

Next steps

“Soon, we’ll deploy ProjectDR in an operating room in a surgical simulation laboratory to test the pros and cons in real-life surgical applications,” said Boulanger. “We are also doing pilot studies to test the usability of the system for teaching chiropractic and physical therapy procedures.” added Greg Kawchuk, a co-supervisor on the project from the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine. Once these pilot studies are complete, the research team expects the deployment of the system in real surgical pilot studies will quickly follow.

Watts is co-supervised by Boulanger, Cisco Chair in Healthcare Solutions and professor in the Faculty of Science, and by Kawchuk, professor in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine.

ProjectDR was presented last November at the Virtual Reality Software and Technology Symposium in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Information source: Eurekalert.org

An article on Business Insider addresses how companies are creating technology to aid the booming agriculture sector, which is necessary for the ever-increasing world population.

Some ag-tech companies mentioned in the article include:

• Plenty: a highly praised startup that produces vertical, indoor farms in urban areas, and has raised the largest amount of money for an ag-tech company to date (a Softback-led $200 million Series B round).
• Grownetics: a Colorado-based startup that installs greenhouse sensors to increase efficiency of plant growth and recently raised a $1 million seed round.
• Prospera: an Israeli startup that uses artificial intelligence to aid farmers’ understanding of crop data.
• Granular: uses a software system to gather data at various points on farms to aid efficiency.
• Huxley: an Amsterdam-based startup that developed a hands-free AR greenhouse system, enabling farmers to use the tech while actively working on their farm.
• Abundant Robotics: is in the process of developing “the world’s first commercial apple-picking robot”, as quoted by CEO Dan Steer.
• Blue River Technologies: has created the Lettuce Bot (which allows lettuce heads to grow more effectively by automating the process of lettuce-thinning) and See and Spray technology (which identifies plants and manages their needs by drawing on machine learning).
• Iron Ox: has developed greenhouses that deploy robots to maintain each plant in California.

The article source can be located on Business Insider.