• Lockheed Martin is using HoloLens 2 to build the Orion spacecraft and reduce touch labor—what used to require an eight-hour shift can now be completed in just 45 minutes.
• Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is using HoloLens 2 to limit healthcare employee’s exposure to patients with COVID-19, reducing the time staff are exposed to the disease by as much as 83 percent.
• Mercedes-Benz USA is using HoloLens 2 to improve service technician efficiency and reduce time to problem resolution, realizing a 35 to 40 percent decrease in service technician travel.

As part of listening, and always learning, we heard strong demand for HoloLens 2 to operate in environments that have rigorous requirements or are regulated by industry certifications. In the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries, partners require a device that meets particle emissions standards to enter and operate in their highly controlled clean room environments. In the energy sector, partners need a device that can function safely in potentially hazardous environments.

Enhance worker productivity and accelerate innovation

We are announcing the HoloLens 2 Industrial Edition, an untethered mixed reality device designed, built, and tested to support regulated industrial environments.

HoloLens 2 Industrial Edition meets the following industrial standards and certifications:

In addition to the industrial standards ratings, HoloLens 2 Industrial Edition is supported with a two year warranty and a Rapid Replacement Program. The Rapid Replacement program minimizes downtime, with advance exchange and expedited shipping.

With HoloLens 2 Industrial Edition, customers can now use HoloLens 2 in restricted environments without modifying your space, protocols, or workflows. Supported with a robust ecosystem of first and third party mixed reality applications that are backed by the reliability, security, and scale of Azure, HoloLens 2 Industrial Edition will empower enterprises operating in regulated environments to:

• Provide workers with access to remote experts any time they need it.
• Complete tasks faster and more accurately than ever before with interactive 3D guides.
• Train and onboard new employees faster with a “learning by doing” approach.

As the Head of XR at PwC UK, Jeremy Dalton saw a fundamental problem in the marketplace: too many enterprises had misconceptions about – or simply didn’t understand – the tremendous potential of AR and VR to transform their businesses. So, Dalton took it upon himself to get the message out. 

The result is his new book, Reality Check. Reality Check dispels common myths about AR and VR and details how business leaders can integrate immersive technologies into their organizations to deliver more efficient, impactful and cost-effective solutions. Dalton backs up his argument with compelling case studies from organizations such as Cisco, Ford, GlaxoSmithKline, LaLiga, and Vodafone. 

AREA Executive Director Mark Sage hosted a podcast with Jeremy Dalton recently to discuss the book and its findings. Go here to hear their conversation. To order a copy of Reality Check and receive an AREA 20% discount, go here and enter the discount code AREA20 before March 5, 2021. 

The project was to perform a “repair versus replace” analysis at an Indian Refinery for coke drums that were failing. Due to the pandemic and travel limitations, the team was unable to be on site for inspections and field walk-downs.

To solve this issue, Becht used Ingenero, an in-country subcontractor, to perform the walk-down virtually with RealWear smart glasses. This enabled the experts to be present for important field visits in real time.

Using RealWear’s AR glasses facilitated a better perspective. Photos and drawings are only two-dimensional, but the technology provided a helpful 3D view. Most challenges faced by Becht’s clients can be overcome using the latest technology.

To read the full article, visit here. For RealWear’s AREA member profile, click here.

AREA member Microsoft’s HoloLens has been significant in emphasising enterprise AR value. Key uses of AR applications include repair, maintenance, and equipment installation. Before the initial launch of HoloLens in 2016, Microsoft’s HoloLens Agency Readiness Program began. This involved AREA member Taqtile, an AR software developer.

CEO and Co-founder of Taqtile, Dirck Schou, has stated that 2.5 billion frontline workers use their hands on the job, and that this requires the help of AR technology. Taqtile’s goal was to “make everyone an expert” by implementing and scaling the HoloLens amongst frontline workers. Their use of the technology changes work and learning while maintaining safety. Taqtile’s enterprise platform, Manifest, captures and reuses knowledge for industrial workers in real time. Field-based experts can initially capture the knowledge, then engineers can refine, add to, or update it for field-based operators to access from Manifest, online and offline.

In addition to customers in the defense industry, Taqtile has many private sector customers, such as PBC Linear. The machine-bearing manufacturer has one of Northern Illinois’ largest machine shops, consisting of approximately 120 machinists. Due to a recent lack of vocational high school programs, a talent gap has formed. Therefore Beau Wileman, Manager of the “Factory of the Future” program at PBC, explored AR-based training with Taqtile’s technology.

Tim LeCrone, a long-standing manufacturing manager at PBC, has expressed enthusiasm about Taqtile. The process allows him to record himself teaching a typical task with 30 to 40 steps in about six hours, capable for training new employees. In six or seven months, PBC has created approximately 70 training templates with 30-40 steps each. This removes a great deal of stress from the user, as there are many tasks and order of operations to remember.

A recent engineering graduate at PBC, Sam Aluko, has used the Taqtile system to understand new machines. The technology enables him to go back through the steps if he doesn’t understand it properly, allowing him to learn at his own pace.

LeCrone claims that Taqtile and Manifest have improved quality of work, and enabled faster learning. Their talent issue has also largely been solved, as they now have a competitive advantage with using AR tech. New engineers enjoy working with AR, and are likely to stay in the job for longer. Supporting customers is another benefit of AR, as PBC are now occasionally supplying AR headsets along with products. This allows customers to create AR training modules themselves.

Using AR to maintain and diagnose machinery is now a much easier method of knowledge management. Industrial organisations can get up and running much faster than before with AR’s packaging of information.

Read the full article here. See Microsoft’s AREA member profile here, and Taqtile’s profile here.

When AREA member Augumenta participated in an AREA webinar about implementing AR on factory shop floors recently, we thought it would be worth catching up on the company and its activities. So we spoke the Eve Lindroth, the company’s head of Marketing Communications. Here’s our conversation.

AREA: Augumenta has distinguished itself as a leader in industrial shop floor uses of AR. To what do you attribute your success so far?

Lindroth: We have a large number of big and well-known industrial companies as our clients, and within these projects, our solutions have been adopted with very few changes. That tells us that we are taking the right approach to developing solutions for the industry. Our clients also praise the ease-of-use of our applications, and appreciate that there is no steep learning curve to start using them. Quite the opposite, they are considered easy to learn.

AREA: What’s a typical Augumenta client?

Lindroth: Most of our business is outside Finland. We have many manufacturing customers in France and Germany, for example, such as Siemens. We also have a presence in Japan and Taiwan which is important considering our focus on the Asian markets and the key customer projects we have ongoing there.

A typical client is a larger industrial company that is active in developing their operations – or during the pandemic, companies that are simply looking for the most efficient and practical ways to keep operating.

AREA: Speaking of that, in October, you announced a partnership with IISI of Taiwan. Tell us about the partnership, its goals, and its progress to date.

Lindroth: IISI is a system integrator and they have a very strong customer base in the fields of manufacturing and government. In our partnership, Augumenta acts as a technology/applications provider and the IISI experts do the final customization and integration with the end customer’s backend systems. Both companies can focus on their key strengths: we on the cutting-edge AR technology, and IISI on developing and managing the overall systems.

We started working together in the springtime and we have finalized all the customization needed for the end customer, a major semiconductor factory in Taiwan. We continue working in close cooperation with IISI and believe we are in a good position to advance enterprise AR in Taiwan together with them.

AREA: What do you see as the most significant barriers to AR adoption, and what is Augumenta doing to overcome them?

Lindroth: We have seen in many pilot projects that the organization has identified the problem they are looking to solve with a pilot, but for example, there are difficulties in defining the current status with an accurate number. For example, there’s downtime – how much there is and which factors exactly are causing it? That can be hard to come by. Another issue is user acceptance, but that can often be tackled by involving the people in planning the solutions from an early stage.

At Augumenta, we’re working to address those issues. For industrial pilots, for example, we created a simple checklist, just to remind the project managers and team leaders responsible for the pilot to consider the factors we have learned to be essential for an AR pilot’s success. These are related to things like target setting, planning together with your people and getting them involved throughout the process, or measuring the results. The checklist is available on our website.

AREA: What can we expect from Augumenta in 2021?

Lindroth: In the future, we believe that discrete industrial AR applications will become more integrated solutions. That means, for example, that there aren’t separate apps for alerting a user and guiding a user in tasks. There will be one solution that can do all of this – without the end user even noticing that there are many use cases included in the app. At some point, things like AI will make the end user’s job even easier by guiding him to the right data or expert automatically, for example.

A key success factor in such a solution is usability. Apps have to integrate seamlessly and be simple and intuitive to use independent of the use case at hand.

The pandemic has meant growth in demand for our services along with our clients’ need to find new ways to do things. In 2021, you’ll see closer integration of our apps. We’re working with new app features that are enabling efficient and sustainable working methods in the new normal. We’ll keep you posted with the latest developments during 2021.

AREA: Finally, how has Augumenta benefitted from its membership in the AREA?

Lindroth: The AREA has provided us with access to research, and there have been some great and very interesting research projects completed. We have also made many new contacts within the ecosystem via the AREA, and it’s always great to see and hear what’s going on with other ecosystem members. The AREA updates its social media channels very actively, and we appreciate the visibility they provide us.

Arvizio may have the solution to that shortcoming with an update to its AR collaboration platform.  Canada-based Arvizio revealed Immerse 3D, an app for iOS, Android, HoloLens, and Magic Leap (listed as Arvizio Immerse 5.0) that works in conjunction with Arvizio Director PC collaboration software and Arvizio Cloud service to enable video conference participants to interact with the same 3D model simultaneously in AR.

After meeting moderators initialize an Arvizio Director session and load up the content, they share a QR code during a web meeting. Participants then scan the code with the Immerse 3D app via their mobile device or AR headset.

As they interact with the 3D content, participants will be able to see their colleagues represented by avatars in their personal space. Users can scale models from tabletop to life-size and annotate the model as well.

Immerse 3D is capable of rendering CAD, BIM, and 3D models in AR and works with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, BlueJeans, Amazon Chime and other video platforms that support screen sharing.

Because there is an Android version of the app, it works with stereoscopic smartglasses running on Android. According to a company spokesperson, the company has tested the app on a number of Android-based AR headsets, and it has found that some porting is necessary (stereoscopic headsets are necessary to enable the 3D experience).

While AR collaboration tools aren’t nearly as mainstream as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, Arvizio’s solution helps the average office worker dip their toe into the waters of AR interaction.

“Bringing augmented reality to web meetings provides a more impactful experience – it’s visual, interactive and immersive,” said Jonathan Reeves, CEO of Arvizio, in a statement. “We are empowering our customers to use 3D visualization with stakeholders around the world and use augmented reality for more efficient and realistic project reviews. We’re excited to deliver this capability to our customers as remote interactions and digital meetings become the norm.”

Read AREA member profiles of Arvizio Microsoft and Magic Leap 

L’Oréal have recently launched several AR projects, such as AR tech from ModiFace. This application connects customers with beauty experts for a tele-consultation, and also allows them to virtually try on makeup. HoloLens 2 was also utilised by L’Oréal last summer for troubleshooting and installing equipment with remote expert assistance. Users can see 3D images, instructions, and data in their real-world view. Digital objects can be manipulated using hand gestures, and headset-wearers can share their view via remote assistance software.

By 2025, the total AR market value is anticipated to grow to $140 billion, raised from around $10 billion in 2020. This includes:

• Hardware (including HoloLens and Glass)
• Software
• Content
• Advertising
• Platforms
• Licensing
• Connectivity

For AR smart glasses alone, total 2020 shipments reached around 1.8 million units, expected to increase to 27 million in 2025. This forecasted growth is attributed to long-term pandemic impact and technological advances.

In some sectors, increased AR demand is part of wider business digital transformation, alongside videoconferencing and cloud computing investments, as a result of the pandemic. CEO of AREA member Vuzix, Paul Travers, claims that this is only the beginning, and that they don’t see AR adoption slowing down. In the last quarter of 2020, Vuzix’s sales doubled compared to the same period in 2019, to over $4 million.

Additionally, Microsoft experienced a “44-fold rise” in HoloLens 2 remote assistance usage between January and December of 2020. Charlie Han, Principal Program Manager of Microsoft HoloLens, has stated that growth has increased rapidly in auto and semiconductor manufacturing for remote guidance on installations and complex tasks.

Last summer, Mercedes-Benz USA trained over 1200 automotive technicians on how to operate HoloLens 2 at all 383 US dealerships. Vice President of Customer Services at Mercedes-Benz USA, Christian Treiber, has said that previously, technicians could wait days for field service engineers to travel to them for help. Using the HoloLens 2 headset, 60% of complex problems can be solved within 24 hours. Technicians can now connect with specialists immediately, and share the same view to solve problems efficiently.

Since 2019, Mercedes-Benz had plans to deploy HoloLens 2 headsets to dealerships, but the increased value of the technology due to the pandemic accelerated this. However, Treiber acknowledges that it will be around three years before AR headsets are as widely accepted as other tools

Read the full article here.

Here are the benefits discussed in the article:

1. Speed: real-time feedback leads to minimum machine downtime.

Quick responses to shop floor issues are required in many industries. Using smart glasses, experts can help in real-time by giving advice, zooming in on details, and asking certain tasks of the on-site operator. The real-time aspect of this allow for problem diagnosis, two people working on the same problem, and different solutions to be tried out. This in turn means minimum machine downtime and process delay, and shorter intervention time. As well as faster problem-solving, time is also gained from removing travel, as the expert no longer has to commute.

2. Efficiency: improved availability, performance and quality of industrial activities.

A key objective in any manufacturing company is improving productivity, especially those that adhere to strict principles. Smart glasses for remote assistance has been shown to improve business’s performance, availability, and quality rates:

• Performance – Performance rate represents speed losses. Overall productivity is supported by information accessibility, enabling workers to complete tasks correctly first time and efficiently resolve issues. Reducing rework needed has a positive impact on performance; correct machine setup is also vital for production speed.
• Availability – Availability rate represents downtime losses. By using smart glasses for remote assistance, technicians can improve quality and speed of maintenance and repair work. Complex changeovers and setups can be done quicker and with fewer mistakes, which limits the number of adjustments needed.
• Quality rates – Quality rate represents quality losses. Quality defects, complaints, claims, and returns can all result from lack of compliance with work procedures. Digital work instructions support standardised work, which reduced rework by improving first time setups and production activities.

3. Health and Safety: having both hands free to focus on the job.

Embedded cameras capture the wearer’s perspective during remote assistance, therefore the expert can share the exact same view. Hands-free operation also allows for greater safety. During complex maintenance tasks, technicians can focus on the job better with available hands and eyes fixed on the job.

4. Training and Knowledge Sharing: smart glasses shorten training time.

Due to retirement, a widening skills gap, and economic expansion, manufacturers are facing a skilled worker shortage. The most important positions (e.g. skilled operators, control engineers, technicians) also require the most training. Exacerbated by the pandemic, companies are struggling to train workers quickly enough. Smart glasses enable remote training with shorter training times, and a guarantee of getting work done correctly the first time. Knowledge can also be shared with younger workers or students using the technology.

Remote assistance using smart glasses has many benefits across a range of industries due to its numerous features. These advantages demonstrate the importance of digital transformation for enterprises.

Read the full article here, and see Iristick’s AREA member profile here.

As a systems integrator (SI), Fujitsu has integrated PTC’s award-winning ThingWorx^® Industrial IoT and Vuforia^® Augmented Reality (AR) platforms into its Smart Factory framework, enabling manufacturing customers to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives by addressing growing skills gaps, providing support against increasing macroeconomic and cost pressures, and pioneering new ways of working.

“Our alliance with PTC will be pivotal in helping manufacturers thrive in an increasingly challenging business environment. Our enhanced Smart Factory framework, bolstered by the ThingWorx and Vuforia platforms, will enable our customers to create real-time operational insight and intelligence across manufacturing domains, helping to improve tactical and strategic operations,” said Paul Bresnahan, Head of Manufacturing at Fujitsu America, Inc. “Together, Fujitsu and PTC are enabling our customers to bring in new business that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise — it’s a ‘win win’ for everyone.”

The Fujitsu Smart Factory framework, deployed with ThingWorx, supports shop floor efficiencies, enabling customers to reduce costs, increase productivity, and redeploy previously tied-up assets. Paired with the Vuforia AR platform, the Fujitsu Smart Factory solutions will enable customers to empower their front-line workers with the critical information they need to do their jobs safely, efficiently, and accurately, while also enabling customers to build resiliency and agility in their respective sectors.

“We are pleased to enter into this new phase of our relationship with Fujitsu. Fujitsu and PTC share a common vision to help manufacturers accelerate innovation in the factory to deliver meaningful business impact with speed and at scale,” said Catherine Kniker, Divisional Vice President and Global Head of Corporate Development, PTC. “We both understand the challenges that come with migrating to a digital factory, and believe our robust experience positions us well to help our customers quickly achieve value with their digital transformation initiatives.”

ThingWorx is PTC’s award-winning platform designed to deliver Industrial IoT solutions at scale, across the enterprise, and enables organizations around the world to gain competitive advantage and reduce costs. Since its initial launch, thousands of industrial companies, including discrete product and process manufacturers, have used ThingWorx to successfully optimize business processes, improve manufacturing operations, modernize field service delivery, and more. PTC’s Vuforia AR platform, recognized by industry analysts for its depth and breadth of capabilities, offers some of the fastest, easiest, and most advanced AR content development solutions, enabling increased workforce safety and efficiency, better customer experiences, and reduced cost, among other business benefits.

Vuzix develops AR displays in the form of smart glasses (e.g. the Vuzix M400), some of which are regular glasses, and some of which attach to safety glasses and hardhats. Most of their current use cases are with the enterprise and medical industry, but Travers expects that adoption will soon increase in logistics and warehousing as well.

With remote assistance having become increasingly valuable in the medical industry, Vuzix’s smart glasses have been used by medical professionals to get expert advice from another hospital and to film operations. Throughout the pandemic, the technology has also been used for “virtual rounds”, allowing an individual practitioner to receive real-time feedback from a remote support team while making rounds. Soon, Vuzix will also be collaborating with Verizon to bring 5G-enables smart glasses to EMTs, allowing for emergency care to be provided before a patient has reached the hospital.

Storing and transporting the COVID vaccine is another complicated and specific medical task. Envirotainer, a company involved in this, now uses Vuzix headsets to allow for safe and correct handling of vaccines as cargo. This is a particularly vital use case. Travers acknowledges that XR is important for tradespeople and maintenance staff, since they’re not allowed into hospitals anymore.

As the article points out, COVID-19 didn’t create a demand for XR products and service, it only served to accelerate existing trends. Travers believes that AR smart glasses are the future of computing and will replace the phone.

Vuzix will be a part of this paradigm shift. Their next-generation model is anticipated for release later this year, and is a result of user feedback and improving technology.

Read the full article here, and see Vuzix’s AREA member profile here.