In a recent article, AGCO a Minnesota based manufacturer of agricultural equipment, announced that the use of Glass-assisted reality wearables has helped increased workers productivity and accuracy while performing complex assemblies.

According to the article in a manufacturing workplace, the ability to be both efficient and see the details in assembly work  is critical to success. They believe that training employees from day one, using artificial assistance tools can be a good way to get them accustomed to the future of work.

AGCO reports that Glass wearable use has led to a 50% reduction in new employee training time and a 30% reduction in task processing. AGCO’s Director of Business Process Improvement Peggy Gulick said that the use of smart glasses in employee development is highly effective, particularly for new hire training, multi-operational concepts and new product launches.

To read the article and watch a video on AGCO click the link here.

The valuation of the Global Augmented Reality Market is estimated to reach USD 124.37 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 76.60% between 2016 and 2022, according to a new market report.

The global Augmented Reality Market report has been composed based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry professionals. The primary focus of the market report is to define and specify Past-Current Size, Augmented Reality Shares, Price, Segment & Forecast to 2022.

The report offers a detailed analysis of the Augmented Reality market dynamics which will influence the market during the forecast season and gives a proper understanding of the Augmented Reality major players, dominant Augmented Reality market segments, diverse geographic regions and Augmented Reality market size (revenue).

Augmented Reality market Key Players analysis

• Google and Inc.
• IBM Corporation
• Infinity Augmented Reality and Inc.
• Blipper.com Ltd.
• Metaio GmbH
• Microsoft
• Corporation
• Sony
• Corporation
• SamsungQualcomm
• Inc.Apple and Inc.

To read the report in full click here

Readers may be interested in a whitepaper named ‘Augmented Reality Technologies Offer Industry Changing Applications’.  The key topic area is advancing workforces with Smart Glasses. The author is Zachary Wassenberg of Burns McDonnell, a specialist construction engineering company.

The document discusses a range of topics including:

• Smart Glass Technology Terms
• Safety: Improving construction environments
• Disaster Recovery: Speeding emergency response
• Peer-to-peer Communication: Opening doors to remote collaboration
• Construction management: Helping projects run smoother
• Asset management: Improving maintenance and extending equipment life
• What’s next for Smart Glasses

The author of the whitepaper, Zachary Wassenberg, works in substations and Augmented Technologies, focusing on transmission and distribution engineer-procure-construction (EPC) projects.

You can download the whitepaper here.

AR/MR-assisted trading and data analysis platforms empower traders and investors with advanced fintech, which is capable of monitoring and visualizing financial markets with new depth. Holographic visualization presents a new enhanced view of dynamic data, with flat images evolving into 3D shapes and innovative heatmaps to reveal revolutionary new data insights. With an AR/MR-assisted user interface, users are no longer restricted by the physical size of a computer screen, mobile or tablet, and can get a true 360-degree view with unlimited applications.

Utilizing light portable MR headset technology or AR smart glasses, advanced holographic representations of financial data and feeds are overlaid on, and exist in addition to, the real-world view of the user’s workspace. The phrase “workplace everywhere” has new meaning with AR enabling users to simultaneously operate a laptop or smartphone, or speak with a physical person in the room at the same time as a virtual colleague via videoconferencing.

The AR financial landscape can remain completely private (safe from inquisitive eyes), or users can share data by mirroring their views to an external laptop and even enable “spectator view” for colleagues or clients who are also using AR/MR technology. Users can even invite clients or advisors located anywhere in the world to a virtual conference room, where they can collaboratively and seamlessly analyze and interact with their financial landscape.

The technologies behind the solution

Powerful AR/MR-assisted trading and market data analysis for the finance sector can be viewed through Microsoft’s MR HoloLens headsets, and new technology currently in development that will look and feel like ordinary eyeglasses. The inclusion of Unity, a powerful editor, enables the software to be transported to other wearable hardware. While the solution largely uses HoloLens gesture recognition technology, voice recognition is also possible using embedded Microsoft Cortana functionality, along with holographic object manipulation, which can be useful in certain scenarios.

The core of the AR/MR-assisted financial trading and market data analysis platform is built on an existing data solution called dxFeed, which is one of the world’s largest cloud-based fully-managed data tickerplants focused exclusively on the Capital Markets industry. dxFeed uses unique technology called QD, designed and built by Devexperts, for market data distribution. The result is a powerful tool that can transform and adapt any data feed into an AR/MR-assisted virtual market data infrastructure. Gathering and storing historical data from the key exchanges in the USA, Canada and Europe, every single change of price (tick-by-tick market data), is streamed live and can be accurately viewed and interrogated through the AR/MR headset.

What it means for traders and analysts

The advent of AR/MR-assisted trading and data analysis delivers many benefits to financial services firms:

• Organizations can replace multiple monitors in a fixed location with a lightweight wireless MR headset or AR  smart glasses, freeing users from the physical size restrictions of computers, mobile devices, and tablets.
• Companies can implement “workplace everywhere” – with a 360-degree view, users can work literally on any surface and even in the air.
• Colleagues and customers can collaborate on projects from anywhere in the world via videoconferencing; point-of-view capabilities enable users to monitor and jointly analyze financial data, limiting miscommunication and strengthening decision-making.
• Users can increase their productivity and dramatically improve market visualization with advanced holographic data representation – a key element for traders needing to make important data-driven decisions quickly.
• A more intuitive user interface makes it easier to view, analyze and manipulate large quantities of complex data.
• Users can gain rapid access to stored historical market data and use tick-market replay and back-testing while simultaneously keeping a sharp eye on current market activity.
• Users stay better informed with streamlined integrated news feeds and financial information, aggregated from multiple providers in text view – with support for live streaming of news channels.

Who are the target users?

Fintech is more than a buzzword. In order to stay ahead of the competition, banks, investment-funds, hedge funds, FX desks, proprietary traders, and exchanges are adopting AR/MR technology. The driving force behind AR/MR-assisted trading and data analysis, however, is individual traders, investors and advisors working for financial institutions across the globe, who will find ease of collaboration from anywhere hugely beneficial.

Some typical scenarios

• An investor can connect an advisor to a virtual conference room, enabling them to share their point of view and explain how a drop or rise affects the portfolio and what decisions they can make now.
• A trader can take action faster as a result of a more intuitive interface highlighting hotspots and revealing opportunities.
• An investor looking to enter new markets can accurately view historical data, use tick-market replay and back-testing and make informed decisions based on the hard facts.
• A financial analyst required to monitor a particular stock on a major exchange can access and visualize full-depth data, explore how well the stock has performed in the past, and instantly communicate that information to a client, in the form of a holographic data representation.
• Students or new employees learning to trade can use AR/MR-assisted fintech to study and analyze patterns using historical data and market replay, and immerse and interact with the financial market.

Dmitry Parilov is Managing Director of Data Products at Devexperts and Simon Raven is a technical writer.

AREA member Appearition released a 5 minute read blog this week where they interviewed Tomi T Ahonen with 5 questions.  Tomi T Ahonen is “a thought leader in Tech Space with a distinct passion for Augmented Reality”. He’s the author of 12 books on mobile.  

Topics covered include

• How the Augmented Reality Industry has evolved over the past 5 years
• Where he’d like to see the industry in the next 5 years
• The more influential players in this industry
• Where he sees the most potential for development
• Top 3 benefits of AR technology
• Challenges faced by companies looking to adopt Augmented Reality at an enterprise level
• Thoughts and advice for newcomers in the industry

Tomi T Ahonen believes that ‘AR is truly magical. As such, it appeals remarkably strongly to young people.’  With discussions on how AR is ‘illustrative’ it really is worth a read!

To read the interview in full click here.

An article by ndmcolumns.com discusses the latest smart glasses market report by QYResearch. The report, named ‘AR & VR Smartglasses Market’ brings to light the comprehensive study and factual information of the global market.

The report focuses on regional as well as global markets, its key players, along with market segments including a detailed study on various divisions and its applications. It also covers the precisely studied and evaluated data of the global market players and their scope in the market using a number of analytical tools.

Main topics that are discussed in the report include:

• A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent market.
• Important changes in market dynamics.
• Market segmentation up to the second or third level.
• Historical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volume.
• Reporting and evaluation of recent industry developments.
• Market shares and strategies of key players.
• Emerging niche segments and regional markets.

To request a free sample of this market report click here.

AREA members Atheer have announced their acquisition with SpaceView.  SpaceView is a company which creates technologies that allow other organisations to combine their digital and physical work spaces which then transforms their mobile industrial professionals work.

According to WeAreWVProud.com this acquisition will allow Atheer customers to enhance ways they visualize and place 3D virtual objects in the real world, creating richer Mixed Reality experiences. This acquisition means that Atheer will have extended their growing portfolio of innovative AR and MR technologies and capabilities. The article believes that SpaceView have held several patents relating to the representation of 3D objects in 2D environments which will complement Atheer’s own patent portfolio.

Soulaiman Itani, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Atheer said “We’re constantly looking for ways to enhance our offerings and SpaceView has an amazing product and solid team for us to build on. By bringing this new technology to our AiR products, we’ll be able to give our customers the ability to build better mixed reality experiences across the broadest range of smart glass and other AR platforms.”

According to an article on Business wire the first Augmented Reality surgical procedure took place using a technology known as Novarad’s OpenSight. This technology uses the Microsoft HoloLens, and can help with 3D imaging, advanced segmentation and rendering.

Novarad Corporation, a leader in the development of medical imaging software, 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 doctor who performed the operation, Dr. Wendell Gibby said “This is very new stuff. It’s the first procedure I’m aware of that has done this in the world. People have performed some work with 3D models and simulations. We had some papers recently at the ASNR [American Society of Neuroradiology] about this, but it’s the first time we’ve tried it on a patient.”

Using the HoloLens technology, OpenSight registers medical imaging studies such as MRIs and CTs over the patient in real time, enabling the wearer to both see the patient and see through the patient with dynamic holograms of their internal anatomy.

To read the full article, click here.

A recent article this week by MobileMarketingWatch.com discusses the research by ABI Research which forecasted that Enterprise Wearable camera shipments will reach nearly 24 million by 2022. It points out that security protocols will need establishing, since as growth increases, so will privacy and data protection concerns.

The research indicates that the enterprise wearable camera market will continue to see growth through law enforcement, field services, and first responder applications due to their ability to collect evidence and record interactions.  They do express their concerns, however, about privacy and data protection.

Stephanie Lawrence, Research Analyst at ABI Research said “Despite clear advantages to the usage of this technology, enterprises fear attacks from cybercriminals and data theft. With massive data leaks often reaching mainstream news, public concern is rising over the security of wearable camera recordings, including who has access to such footage and for how long.”

To read ABI’s research on the Enterprise Wearable Cameras: Devices, Use Cases and Supplier Ecosystem Analysis report click here.

The construction industry has many companies turning to wearable technology to help manage risks and incidents at work according to an article on Insurance Business Mag. They believe occupational injuries and illnesses are estimated to cost the US £250 billion a year but companies using wearables are gaining huge insurance benefits.

The article discusses how Triax Technologies is one such company in the construction wearable technology industry, who is launching their sensor technology this year.

Chief Operating Officer at Triax, Pete Schermerhorn has said the company’s product is worn on all workers’ belts on a construction site. The sensors track all workers whereabouts and have an emergency locator button for accidents and injuries.

“It’s a safety system for construction. If someone slips, trips, or falls on site, this sends an automatic notification [to a site supervisor] that someone has hit the ground. The system logs how high they fell, where they fell on site, and who else was in the geographic area – so that’s important information, obviously, from a claims perspective,” Schermerhorn said.

The wearables provide, according to Triax, “real-time, data-driven visibility in the challenging construction site environment. It helps to improve worker safety and reduce incident response times, while enabling general contractors to better manage projects and labour productivity”.