Companies mentioned in the article include RealWear Inc (AREA member), Tacit, Chevron, Microsoft, Honeywell and Trimble.

The equipment attaches to a hard hat or directly to the wearer’s head, allowing navigation of critical repair data by voice, even when the wind sounds like a jet engine. Unlike wearable devices that might be used in gaming applications, these wearables are hardened to meet the rigors of industrial environments.

They are still generally affordable—typically ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 per device before discounts—especially when you consider the potential ROI they can bring to industry.

“When the machine is down, the company is losing money,” says Andy Lowery, CEO of RealWear, which makes ruggedized wearables. Being able to make quicker repairs is a huge benefit, he adds, and so is increased worker safety.

Key points mentioned in the article:

• Return on investment
• Knowledge transfer from retiring workers to younger generation
• Remote assistance
• Training
• Ruggedized wearables that work in the most punishing of environments
• On call experts
• Remote assistance saves time and money

Read the full article here.

Augmentir’s flagship offering, the Augmented Operations™ platform, is the first of its kind to combine enterprise augmented reality (AR) with artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), empowering frontline workers to perform their jobs with higher quality and increased productivity while driving continuous improvement across the organization.

Available as a core feature of Augmentir’s Augmented Operations™ platform, the True Opportunity Index™ is generated from continuous analysis of frontline worker data by Augmentir’s patent-pending artificial intelligence algorithms.

These algorithms take in streaming worker data and combine it with other Augmentir and enterprise data to uncover and rank order the largest capturable opportunities and then predicts the effort required to capture them.

This helps manufacturers and other industrial companies focus on key areas of opportunity for time savings, performance, and quality improvements across their workforce.

With these newly available prescriptive insights and recommendations, manufacturers and service companies can now continually improve their operations, enhance their work instructions, provide tailored remote assistance, improve training techniques, and supply their frontline workers with better tools to perform their jobs at peak efficiency.

“For many organizations, their largest opportunity for improvement is in their frontline workforce. This group of workers has been historically underserved with little change to the tools they use to perform their job, while their jobs are becoming increasingly more complex,” said Russ Fadel, CEO and Co-Founder of Augmentir.

“By combining our legendary ease of use with our embedded AI engine, we are giving companies of every size the ability to maximize these valuable workers. We are proud to release our True Opportunity Index™ at this pivotal moment and are committed to using AI to innovate for the benefit of the frontline workforce.”

Augmentir software platform includes complete functionality that makes it easy for industrial companies to improve their operations across a range of manufacturing and service use cases. The platform provides software that helps guide frontline workers with augmented, step-by-step-instructions, assist workers with live remove expert collaboration, and utilizes its artificial intelligence engine to deliver organization-wide insights and recommendations that focus on improving the quality and productivity of frontline workers.

Augmentir is scheduled to present on May 15 in the Smart Manufacturing Hub at the EASTEC 2019 manufacturing conference and trade show in Boston to discuss the benefits of its platform and how industrial companies are utilizing its True Opportunity Index™ to gain insight into their frontline workforce to improve productivity.

Source: Original full press release by Augmentir.

According to a report from the Capgemini Research Institute, 82 percent of companies currently implementing XR say the benefits are either meeting or exceeding their expectations. This is laying a positive foundation for the widespread business adoption of XR.

The topics of training, return on investment and operations are covered in the article.

These use cases are compelling and show that XR can positively impact businesses, improve operations and ultimately cut costs. Some 46 percent of companies believe the technology will become mainstream in their organization within the next three years, while a further 38 percent think it will become mainstream in their organization in the next three to five years.

The author argues that the major barriers to this adoption will be a shortage of in-house expertise and insufficient back-end infrastructures.

In terms of expertise, the AREA’s mission is to gather thought leaders in this space to help advance the adoption of enterprise AR specifically, including providing expertise across a range of services, consultancy, software and hardware via our dedicated alliance members.

The article talks through a case study at company TradePMR, where advisors download an app and their phone projects a video of CEO Robb Baldwin onto the physical postcard, inviting them to his firm’s annual conference.  This is done through the use of augmented reality.

TradePMR also intends to use augmented reality technology to take its advisors on virtual tours of its headquarters.

This modest first step into the world of augmented reality is TradePMR’s first investment in such technology for RIA recruiting. Such technology is already being used in other industries, including medicine and entertainment. After the conference, TradePMR intends the app to be used with brochures to take advisors on virtual tours of its headquarters and to perform simulations of the custodian’s technology.

This first step and trial is intended to gather feedback as to

“The functionalities that advisors want to have to run their business on a daily basis need to be given to them in a way where they learn how to use them and start to adopt the technology that is out there,” he says.

The article looks at likely factors that will inhibit the uptake of Augmented Reality use.

The firm spent about $500 this year on its efforts, using Unity and Vuforia for a development platform, and built the rest in-house, according to Baldwin.

He hopes advisors will see an opportunity to utilize this new kind of tech in their own practices. “We think this could probably permeate down to where advisors can use this with clients,” he says, noting it could be a way to initiate conversations and demonstrate a technology release. “It gives you a separate method that is unique to get your message out.”

Baldwin wanted TradePMR to start using the technology as an introduction for advisors.

The original article can be read here.

It begins: “A whirlwind of forces has created a chasm between the needs of industrial businesses undergoing digital transformation and the skillsets of available workers.

While companies have been attempting to address the lack of properly trained workers for years, the lingering effects of the 2007-09 recession, increasing impact of an ageing workforce and widerning skill requirements have only heightened the need for a way to transfer knowledge effectively.

The full whitepaper by RealWear Inc can be downloaded from the following link:

RealWear Whitepaper: The Power & Value of Training And Knowledge Transfer Using Wearable Computers

It will demonstrate enhanced airspace situational awareness by visualizing EchoGuard sensor data through augmented reality.

During the conference, Echodyne will display how its EchoGuard radar offers superior performance for both primary UAS use cases: commercial mission safety, and counter-UAS.

The demonstration will feature an AR interactive experience using Microsoft’s Hololens and allows participants to experience unprecedented airspace situational awareness.

Echodyne has quickly emerged as the preferred airspace situational awareness provider with its small, commercially-priced ESA radar– the first of its kind in the industry.

“Having the ability to demonstrate how our EchoGuard radar contributes to airspace safety at the premier conference for the unmanned systems industry is just another exciting step for Echodyne,” said Eben Frankenberg, CEO of Echodyne. “This is another example of Echodyne delivering innovation that enhances both mission and public safety.”

The visualisation team at the Coventry-based MTC has been made a partner of Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Programme – one of a select group of organisations in Europe to gain the sought-after recognition.

The accolade recognises the MTC’s advanced work in the fields of augmented, mixed and virtual reality, in particular its ability to deliver high-value generating applications in an enterprise environment. It will mean that the MTC will be able to help companies remotely using Microsoft visualisation programmes.

The accolade came after a stringent examination by Microsoft of the MTC’s capabilities and breadth of mixed reality applications, concentrating on client and end-user experiences. The recognition means the MTC will have the opportunity to work with Microsoft on joint projects with companies who can benefit from the technology. They will also work with Microsoft to develop apps for advanced manufacturing and teach other companies how to use Microsoft’s mixed reality programmes.

MTC technology manager David Varela said the partnership was already opening doors.

Read MTC AREA member profile page.

Mixed/Augmented Reality glasses require a high bandwidth to effortlessly transfer the large amount of data that AR/MR requires.  With Verizon’s 5G network, this is finally achievable.

With a 5G network, ThirdEye glasses are able to offload the majority of their workload to the edge of the network due to the increase of bandwidth and reduction of latency. Since a large part of the workload is being handled on the edge, it allows for ThirdEye to decrease the weight and price of their glasses.

With ThirdEye’s Mixed Reality glasses, first responders can view a live drone feed or view other important AR information right in their field of view, all while remaining hands-free.  The glasses also have object recognition capabilities that makes working with unfamiliar objects easier and more engaging.

Read the full article featured on Verizon.

It’s the latest agreement between the two tech giants since Lenovo acquired IBM’s personal computing business in 2005. Lenovo’s server business includes IBM’s x86 server group that Lenovo bought in 2014.

The Lenovo-IBM server agreement covers more than 200 countries.

Here’s how IBM says the service will work:

“When a customer connects with an agent for Lenovo’s server, storage, or networking services, IBM’s Virtual Assistant for Technical Support uses its natural language capabilities and contextual recognition to personalize the conversation. It is designed to ask targeted questions about service issues and obtain solution advice. It will also access key customer information, aligning to Lenovo’s focus on driving a fast, effortless, and proactive customer support experience.”

Augmented Reality is set to enable more than 19,000 field agents to help deliver a consistent client experience around the globe by allowing customers and technicians to share real-time video of machines requiring repair with fellow IBM professionals to help diagnose problems and illustrate the best practices to solve them.

Read the full article here.

By leveraging their propriety global cloud communication platform, SightCall brings a robust, enterprise grade video solution to their customers.

SightCall allows field forces to leverage augmented remote guidance from offsite experts. By doing this, SightCall reverses the traditional field service model where expertise was in the field, by making expertise available to the field remotely.

When a tech cannot finalize a repair, by simply clicking the Video Expertise button in their FS App they will connect to a central or field expert. When a customer is having an issue, a field tech can use remote guidance to implement a quick fix or identify missing parts or complications to ensure the onsite visit will be effective.

By avoiding several tens of thousands of truck rolls per month, SightCall’s customers save millions and provide a better service to their customers.

“SightCall currently has over 200 enterprise customers and their field service solution is a natural fit with our M300XL Smart Glasses, so we are very excited to partner with them offer a see-what-I-see solution,” said Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix.

Read in full Vuzix press release dated April 25 2019