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. 

A recent article on Road ToVR reported on the partnership between Dell and Meta, manufacturer of AR headsets, which has been announced.

Dell claims that they will be capable of providing the Meta 2 Dev along with sufficient tools for making AR experiences for enterprise sectors including construction, healthcare, and manufacturing. The Meta 2 has been available since the end of 2016, but Dell will sell the Meta 2 AR Dev Kit on-site from February 15^th for $1500 in addition to offering a range of hardware bundles to frequent users.

Medical Holodeck, an AR application that enables healthcare professionals to collaborate, is also being delivered by Dell, as well as a plan for ‘AR in a box’ to “show off new Dell Meta AR innovations to potential customers.”

Items in the ‘AR in a box’ will include:

• Meta 2 AR Headset
• Headset Stand
• Set of 4 Universal Adapter Plug Kit
• 2 Exchangeable Forehead Supports
• Microfiber Bag
• Access to Unity SDK (Beta) and Meta Developer Centre

Joe Mikhail, Chief Revenue Officer at Meta, has said that Dell’s “seamless AR solution” is “considered to be the best on the market by many.”

If you’re interested in wearable technology for the enterprise, then AREA member BrainXChange’s round up blog post which assesses the most significant developments and use cases in wearable technology for 2017, is a must-read.

Enterprises which were reported on in 2017 for utilising wearable tech mentioned in the blog include:

• Manufacturing: AGCO, GE Aviation, Boeing, and Airbus
• Automotive: Ford, BMW, Audi, Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen, Porsche, and Peugeot Citroën
• Aviation: Cincinnati International Airport, San Diego International Airport, Helsinki Airport, and Changi Airport
• Medical: Stryker
• For training: UPS, Farmers Insurance, Walmart, Fidelity Investments, and KFC

Software released or updated in 2017 mentioned in the blog includes:

• AREA member, Upskill acquired Pristine; released next generation Skylight platform
• AREA member, Atheer: acquired SpaceView (MR app maker); released updates to AiR platform

Hardware released or updated in 2017 mentioned in the blog includes:

• Google: Google Glass Enterprise Edition, Daydream VR headset, ARCore (a new SDK), and Poly
• Vuzix: PTC’s Vuforia platform and Blackberry’s UEM software now support Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses; a tethered, custom version of the M300 is now available; the Vuzix Blade AR glasses now have a developer kit pre-order program; and VUZIX Basics was also announced.
• DAQRI’s enterprise AR smart glasses were launched; Trimble’s Mixed Reality app suite was integrated with the DAQRI Smart Helmet
• Microsoft: Mixed Reality Partner Programme; expanded MR headset sales to Europe; acquired AltspaceVR; Windows 10 powers Acer, HP, Samsung, Dell, and Lenovo VR headsets.

BrainXChange’s AREA profile page can be read here.

An article on TechCrunch explains how one of the issues to AR solutions is optics and display. This is the view of Lumus CEO Ari Grobman and the reason why they are highlighting a new form factor at CES 2018 that they hope to have ready for Q2 2018, bringing a complicated display technology smaller than it has ever been before.

As the article states, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook are all look towards getting augmented reality glasses out into the market to push their vision of the world directly into viewers’ eyeballs, however, they’re running into a common challenge in terms of displays.

Lumus builds reflective waveguides. The interesting, rather sleek pieces of display technology rely on microscopic etchings in transparent glass lenses that catch light being projected into their edges.

While these systems are limited in how much of a viewer’s field-of-view they can fill, they are unparalleled in the small form factors they can reach and will likely be what powers your first pair of smart glasses.

For further information see the full TechCrunch article.

AREA member Nvidia featured multiple times in an article on the AFR.com Financial Review website.  CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is currently on in Las Vegas.  Here’s a look at what analysts say investors will be looking for at the CES related to Nvidia and others:

• Automotive – stocks most likely to respond to CES-related events should be Ambarella and Nvidia, Morgan Stanley analysts led by Joseph Moore and Craig Hettenbach said.
• Nvidia is “at the centre” of many of the key innovations in consumer electronics.
• While Nvidia will probably remain at the top of investors’ minds when thinking about AI, Intel will probably feature recent advances in the field at the event;
• Look for updates from Nvidia regarding progress of Drive PX Pegasus platform, clarity on how the company plans to cut operating temperature and power consumption, and new partnerships and potential end-customers, KeyBanc analysts said.
• Updates on Intel’s long-term approach to the the AR/VR ecosystem are of interest given the company’s recent move to wind down its headset reference design, MKM’s Roy said.
• Nvidia is also expected to highlight its emerging AR/VR technologies.
• Companies will probably showcase mobile-based augmented-reality applications, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Jitendra Waral and Sean Handrahan said.
• AR hardware prototypes are bound to be shown by larger companies and start-ups, but the hardware may still be years away as a supply chain and standards are still missing; until then, mobile AR will be at the forefront and CES may preview some of the ways that companies leverage AR to differentiate their products;

Nasdaq First North-listed Crunchfish and Vuzix Corporation enter into collaboration to pre-integrate Crunchfish’s software for gesture control in Vuzix’s smart glasses and thereby make the software available for customers and partners.

Vuzix is a leading supplier of smart glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets. Crunchfish’s gesture control in combination with Vuzix’s glasses creates opportunities for efficient and user-friendly interaction, where the user becomes less dependent on touchscreens and buttons.

For industrial use, gesture control can for instance be used to browse through instructions, manage phone calls, check video streaming, and zoom in/out drawings and documents. Nasdaq-listed Vuzix focuses on design, manufacturing and sales of smart glasses and is represented in USA, Great Britain and Japan. Since 2015, Intel is one of the shareholders, who together with Vuzix’s management owns nearly 40 percent of the company.

“As a leading supplier of AR smart glasses for both the consumer and enterprise markets, it is vital for us to secure suppliers with tools that can be easily used by our partners and solution developers on our platform. Crunchfish is an important partner that provides new and effective ways to interact with our devices.” says Paul Travers, CEO of Vuzix. “The market for AR glasses grows and we are very pleased to work with an influential player like Vuzix.

Their market focus is in line with Crunchfish’s and they see an increasing demand for gesture control from customers and partners, which provides a foundation for a successful cooperation, “says Joakim Nydemark, CEO of Crunchfish.

For further information, please contact: Joakim Nydemark, CEO Crunchfish [email protected] +46 706 35 16 09

To read Crunchfish’s AREA member profile please see here.

A 6-minute read piece that appeared on Medium.com this week by Ajay Sharma is a great run through how augmented reality is transforming the aviation industry. Not only that, but the sources of all this fantastic information are: The AREA, Upskill (an AREA member), and Airbus.

For the visual amongst you, there’s a superb infographic that represents all the productivity and efficiency benefits to the aviation industry that AR is making possible.  What’s more, these are based on real life case studies, not pie in the sky dreaming.  Plenty of examples are discussed in this highly readable piece.

A run down on some of the key benefits of AR in the aviation industry are:

• Error reduction
• Improvement in quality and speed when assembling mock aircraft
• Higher quality maintenance work
• Step by step visual guidance
• Faster repairs
• Improved comms between airfield workers and central offices
• Better, more effective training

A press release dated December 6, 2017 revealed that Novarad Corporation’s OpenSight Augmented Reality system received the Business Intelligence Group’s BIG award for Business and was named 2017 New Product of the Year in the category Healthcare. The organization’s annual program was launched to reward companies, products and people that are leading their respective industries.

Novarad Coproration is a developer of medical imaging software.  They created OpenSight to render patient studies into 3D and present them in an interactive manner accurately overlaid directly onto the patient’s body. This leverages a host of advanced technologies including 3D imaging, advanced segmentation and rendering, registration, motion correction, virtual tools and 3D annotation technologies.

“The ability to used mixed reality where we can merge imaging data with the actual patient is a revolutionary concept that will have a major impact on training, preoperative analysis and intraoperative care,” said Dr. Wendell Gibby, Novarad CEO and practicing neuroradiologist. “This is a rapidly emerging technology—earlier this year, we performed the first surgery using augmented reality.

The OpenSight software has proven beneficial in overcoming certain obstacles with surgical operations, and has the potential to improve accuracy, increase operational efficiency and to decrease mistakes in surgeries.

Congratulations go to AREA member Atheer for their work with Porsche. As stated on the Atheer website:

This week’s announcement by Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (PCNA) of “Tech Live Look,” an Augmented Reality (AR) technology designed to improve technical services at Porsche dealerships in the United States, is making an impact.

“Tech Live Look” uses Atheer’s AiR Enterprise – and it has gained the attention of the business press as well as automotive and augmented reality media.

Atheer has rounded up the best of how this has been reported on the internet and by the media. See the full round up on their blog here.

Key takeaways are below:

• Instead of a dealership employee being forced to contact the team about troubleshooting issues by way of phone and email, Tech Live Look allows both parties to view the car simultaneously together in real time
• Hoping to shorten diagnostic times, Porsche has developed a system to help factory engineers see what dealer technicians are seeing even from thousands of miles away.
• Next year, the sports car importer will deploy Atheer AiR Enterprise AR software to its US dealerships under the name Tech Live Look

BrainXChange is an AREA member who you may know as the organisers of the EWTS events (see here for the next one). They also have a great Enterprise Wear blog which is worth keeping an eye on if you’re interested in new technology wearables for the enterprise.

In one of their November blogs the following topics are discussed:

• See the video, where Picavi’s Johanna Bellenberg talks about head-worn devices with the very people implementing the technology at Walmart, GE Transportation, Gensler, USPS, and FM Global
• AR/VR is helping the Postal Service meet the demands of a changing digital world
• Postal Service also using AR/VR for vehicle maintenance and to eliminate 50% of training time for new employees.
• Walmart is using VR at its training academies to simulate exceptional customer experience problems
• FM Global, a commercial property risk insurer that counts one out of every three Fortune 1000 companies as a customer, is using AR for remote engineering surveys of client facilities and VR as a selling tool.
• GE Transportation is using AR/VR to design and build kits of locomotive parts for operators, thinking through the presentation of these kits and how they align to manufacturing or service processes.
• From a plant layout perspective, VR is also incredibly useful for designing and planning operations.
• At Gensler, visualization technologies are impacting how architects design and develop structures of every kind. The architecture and design firm is also considering how these tools will impact the places it designs as those buildings and environments mature.

You can read BrainXChange’s member profile here.