The Government’s Industrial Strategy White Paper, published today, has confirmed £33m* immersive technology focusing on a challenge on Audience of the Future, focusing on virtual, augmented and mixed reality and how it is changing the way in which we experience the world around us – from entertainment and art to shops and classrooms.

The challenge is set to bring creative businesses, researchers and technologists together through a combination of complimentary R&D activities which will explore the future of creative content across the UK Creative Industries, including TV and film, games, music, sports entertainment, arts & culture and fashion.

This investment is designed to capture new global audiences and grow our leading market position in creative content, products and services by adopting, exploiting and developing immersive technologies.

Immerse UK will be supporting the development of a final business case through continued industry consultations and more information on the programme structure will be announced within the next few weeks.

For more information please visit Immerse.org.uk.

One of the AREA’s objectives is making sure the augmented reality ecosystem has enough skilled workers.  Readers can keep an eye out for professional roles in AR at our member organisations.

In the meantime, please do take a look at the MTC in the UK.  Their careers page can be found here. Since its launch in 2011, the MTC has grown rapidly: we now employ over 500 people at our Ansty Park campus just outside Coventry. To support this continued growth, we are represented by Consilium Recruit, our dedicated recruitment partner.

An exciting, vibrant place to work, the MTC and its subsidiary businesses offer unlimited opportunities to Research Engineers, Project Managers, IT Specialists, Apprentices, Graduates and many more. Our campus, facilities and research capabilities are unrivalled and we offer a competitive salary and benefits package.

Positions that may be of particular interest to readers of the AREA news site would be the following:

• AR/MR front-end/solutions developer with expertise using Unity 3D and SDKs related to the platform

• AR/MR back-end developer. Preferably with strong IT skills including networking, cloud, and C# is a must

• UX/UI/Artist covering the persona definition, user experience and interface design, Maya, 3Ds Max

Please follow the instructions on the MTC careers page for further information on how to apply. You can find out more about the MTC on their member page here.

A press release dated Nov. 16, 2017 on Globe Newswire, today announced the launch of Umajin Immerse, a development platform that includes 3D, Digital Agents, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), offline mapping and simplified and secure provisioning of enterprise data resources.

The platform is used to drive innovation and digital transformation for enterprises, allowing rapid deployment of digital processes for employees and customers while providing a common cinematic-quality experience across smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. The company also announced the opening of its Boston office and US headquarters.

Features are said to include:

• Collaborative features including concurrent multi-user editing and real-time visualization
• Instant publishing across all operating systems including iOS, Android, Windows and OSX, using a highly efficient proprietary rendering engine and providing full support for all device hardware capability including accelerometers, cameras, Bluetooth, and GPS
• Fully customizable animated digital agents with voice recognition and gesture control capabilities
• Built-in 3D, IoT, AR and VR development tools delivered as pre-tested, drag and drop modules
• Support for code-free and custom-built elements, enabling seamless cooperation between developers and line of business users
• Complete visibility into, and management of, user rights and roles to support more effective and secure management of enterprise processes

PTC has unveiled a reality lab that will advance the adoption and exploration of augmented reality technologies.  A press release today announced the unveiling of Reality Lab, a test center led by researchers who will create applications that leverage augmented, virtual, mixed, and physical realities with the purpose of improving people’s interactions with their physical environments. The lab will apply human-centered design and human-computer interaction to new technology, empowering people with more intuitive and practical computer user interfaces for managing the next generation of networked computer systems.

An early believer in the potential of AR for industrial use cases, PTC acquired the industry’s most advanced and widely adopted Vuforia^® AR technology platform for custom development in 2015. Since then, PTC has leveraged Vuforia to expand the capabilities of its market-leading ThingWorx^® Industrial Innovation Platform. Building on its proven history in helping customers optimize their product design, manufacturing, and service initiatives, PTC is helping to bring the power of AR technology to these traditional business activities with the ability to visualize, instruct, guide, and improve interactions with physical things.

Full details from their press release can be found here.

The solution, which combines Upskill’s Skylight AR platform on Google Glass with a smart wrench, enables mechanics to perfect the tightening of B-nuts.  This is a process that can be universally replicated in many different manufacturing and maintenance settings.

What was particularly compelling about this use case for GE was the potential impact Skylight on smart glasses could have on reducing errors: a cost savings well into the millions annually.  The pilot also drove an average boost in worker efficiency between 8 and 12 percent.

With Skylight displayed right in their line-of-sight, GE mechanics:

• Received guided instructions on how to perform engine assembly and maintenance tasks
• Tracked and confirmed real-time torque values provided by their smart wrenches
• Used voice commands to move through steps and collaborate with other team members
• Streamed their point of view through a live video connection to get help while troubleshooting

“This has tremendous potential to minimize errors, cut down on costs and improve product quality”, said Ted Robertson, Engineering Manager at GE Aviation. Upskill’s AREA member profile can be read here.

An article on VR Focus discusses Electrolux’s investment in Augmented Reality. The technology company has begun to manufacture AR smart glasses and related software at sixteen factories in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

The mobile application, Tempestive Reamplia, works alongside AR smart glasses to enable remote collaboration between field experts and on-site engineers. This increases the efficiency of troubleshooting by providing visual instructions without requiring a site visit. Updated instructions, technical documentation, and annotated images can also be transferred using this system.

Carsten Franke, SVP Industrial Operations at Major Appliances EMEA, is quoted to have said that using AR technology and digitising enterprises is rapidly changing the workplace, allowing for quicker and easier problem solutions, competitive advantages, and reduced costs.

The article concludes by mentioning the significant influence of AR on industry and enterprise, in sectors such as retail, automotive, construction, and design.

An article on PR Newswire reported on the recently announced update on the collaboration between Fieldbit and BP. Fieldbit Hero, an Augmented Reality solution applicable to field services, has been operating at BP Lower 48 sites in New Mexico, Texas, and Wyoming for a few months, but its use will now be extended to the rest of BP’s Lower 48 US sites.

The Fieldbit Hero enables field experts to share the technician’s view via real-time video to improve accuracy of diagnosing issues. AR then allows visual instructions and real-time data to be overlaid onto the field worker’s view. Experts can also use the technology to extract visual records and store them for later use.

Advantages of Fieldbit Hero use in the field at BP Lower 48 include:

• Improvements in safety and efficiency
• Reduction in production losses, well downtime, and travel expenses
• Helps preserve practical field services knowledge of workforce

Brian Pugh, Chief Operating Officer at BP Lower 48, is quoted to have said that the company will continue to utilise advances in technology to improve various aspects of their operations, including safety and reliability.

AREA member XMReality launched the sixth generation of its XMReality Remote Guidance software on November 9 2017, which is said to further strengthen the company’s position within knowledge sharing through augmented reality (AR). The new version has been updated with an entirely new user interface for more efficient usage and speedier connectivity. New features in Generation 6 include phone-to-phone communication, which was not previously possible and is further proof that the software is hardware independent.  Full details can be read here.

A summary of new features in XMReality Remote Guidance Generation 6:

Entirely new user interface for more efficient usage Phone-to-phone communication

Flexibility to change between guidance mode, viewing mode, overlapping with finger and pointer mode and more

Addition of team concept to facilitate knowledge sharing and team collaboration

Simplified license management with self-service for easy tasks

Standardized protocols and encryption to suit common business policies KPI tools so that the customer can track progress and ROI

“We are very proud to present the sixth generation of XMReality Remote Guidance. It features several new functions but also a fantastic user experience,” says Johan Castevall, CEO at XMReality. “Our vision has been to ensure that all users will enjoy and will want to use our product. Our main focus has been to make it even easier to use. Together with new tools for analysis and statistics, we are allowing our customers to become even more efficient.”

“We see great opportunities in the new version of the XMReality Remote Guidance software, which will open up new opportunities for us to improve our internal knowledge transfer as well as with our customers. Digitization and Industry 4.0 is a high priority for us at Bosch Rexroth and we have many ongoing projects to realize it. We are actively working to find new collaborative tools within our service organization and we are always looking to find new ways to provide better service to our customers. The solution from XMReality is a very important piece of that jigsaw,” says Christer Eberger, Sales Service Machinery Applications and Engineering Field Service at Bosch Rexroth.

XMReality’s AREA Member profile can be found here.

An article on Iconics recently announced the integration of ICONICS’s human machine interface (HMI) software with RealWear’s head mounted industrial HMT-1™ wearable. The combination of these technologies enables users to have hands-free access to visual historical and real-time data KPIs.  RealWear is a member of The AREA.

Applications of the RealWear HMT-1™ include:

• Industrial IoT data visualisation
• Remote video collaboration
• Technical documentation
• Assembly and maintenance instructions and streamlined inspections

Russ Agrusa, President and CEO of ICONICS, is quoted to have said that the integration of their HMI software with the HMT-1™ hardware gives a solution to users requiring a hands-free interface for accessing untapped data. Sanjay Jhawar, President and Chief Product Officer at RealWear, is also quoted to have said that a safe and ergonomic human-machine interface was able to be developed from the combination of RealWear’s technology and HTML5, and that their partnership enables a complete wearable solution for field workers in sectors such as manufacturing, energy, and process control.

Software Engineering Daily recently released an episode of their podcast interviewing Scott Montgomerie from AREA member Scope AR. The article summarising it can be found here.

Significant points mentioned in the article include:

• Augmented Reality applications for industrial enterprises can have even more of an impact on that sector than AR apps for the consumer sector
• One Scope AR product enables remote collaboration to aid maintenance and construction of machinery
• AR assistance is said to be a flexible tool, as it can be applied in other sectors such as construction, education, and medicine

The article mentions that during the podcast, Montgomerie discussed the current state of AR, the similarity between mapping tools in AR and autonomous cars, and made comparisons between Apple and Google AR tools.

Scope AR’s member profile can be read here.