An article released by Cio talks about Augmented Reality being the next frontier for competitive advantage. There is an inflection point where IoT, Cloud and AI started to converge together to lay the foundation for new set of business applications. They believe that one of the most interesting developments where this convergence comes together is the field of Augmented Reality.

The article suggests that AR is the blending of VR and real life; AR applications have virtual images that blend in with contents in the real world.  With AR, users are able to interact with virtual contents in the real world, and are able to distinguish between the two worlds within the same experience.  AR may have far greater applicability as it links the digital and analog worlds.

The article states that smart factories driven with Industrial IoT advancements also provide specific use cases where AR can add to competitive advantage of an enterprise. An AR enabled solution can enable monitoring of plant assets from a virtual control room with real-time sensor data that monitors heat, pressure, scrap and other key characteristics.  The IoT data can be visually overlaid with machine data such as schematic drawings, service steps and increase the efficiency and productivity of industrial facilities by enabling maintenance personnel to see the most pertinent sensor data in an AR view.

They believe that AR applications in the medical field can be significant and can change the way medical professionals interact with each other during a diagnosis or a surgery. A remote team of surgeons can get the first-hand view of an ongoing surgery with all vital stats overlaid along with medical records such as MRI on a head up display. The AR technology will also be of interest to architects and smart city planners who could create virtual 3-D walkthroughs from existing 2-D blueprints overlaid with construction equipment, people, interior decoration and other geolocation data.

They believe that the most important step in getting your enterprise AR initiatives off the ground is to evaluate and select an AR framework and have said “There are quite a few open source & commercial platforms that provide rich SDK. The purpose behind selecting a platform is that you can focus on the features of your applications and the platform provides the capabilities like 3D object tracking, face tracking, visual search, camera calibration, content APIs and support for various marker types (e.g. square, QR code). The platform needs to have support to recognize image targets through a cloud datastore as well as local image store. This improves application usability as it can work both in connected and offline mode.Eventually AR is an interface paradigm shift that would completely rewrite how we would interact with everything.”

A report by Cognizant says that technology is boosting learning and development (L&D) in the workplace. The report discusses innovation being constant in the information technology industry as it is continuously changing the way services are delivered to the business and to end users.

The report states “From the mainframe era on to the Internet stage, we’re now experiencing the fifth IT wave, an era in which social, mobile, analytics and cloud [aka the SMAC Stack] are forming a new digital foundation with which to power business. SMAC is already changing how IT is being deployed across industries, and as business becomes increasingly digital this new stack is expected to have a multiplying effect on operational efficiency and productivity.”

According to the report exponential growth in computer processing power and the steady increase in the number of computing devices and users is another constant throughout technologies swift progression with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality based hardware devices being part of this growing computing base too.

The report says “They leverage advancements in mobile technology and big data analytics to offer new communications channels for enterprise applications. Augmented and virtual reality is converging with SMAC and, as a result, businesses across multiple sectors are now able to tap their vast potential to help users visualize data and instructions that overlay physical assets in real time.”

Many companies are increasingly applying AR tools to create effective training programs that drive employee engagement and success in the highly competitive global marketplace and the report explains “This technology – augmented reality [AR] – is being deployed to more effectively mobilize workers across multiple industries,”

According to Gartner research, AR is poised to become an important workplace tool. AR technology has matured to a point where organizations can use it as an internal tool to complement and enhance key business processes, workflows and employee training. Visualization of content is among the many important business innovations that AR can facilitate.

AREA: Tell us about VanGogh Imaging and how the company started.

KEN LEE: The reason I started VanGogh was I noticed an opportunity in the market. From 2005 to 2008, I worked in medical imaging where we mainly used 3D models and would rarely go back to 2D images. 3D gives you so much more information and a much better visual experience than flat 2D images. But creating 3D content was a very difficult and lengthy process. This is the one huge problem that we are solving at VanGogh Imaging.

We started when Microsoft Kinect first introduced their low-cost 3D sensoring technology. It allowed you to map in a three-dimensional way, where you can see objects and scenes and capture and track them. Van Gogh started in this field around 2011 and we’ve been steadily improving our 3D capture technology for over five years, working with several clients and differentiating ourselves by delivering the highest quality and easiest way to capture 3D models.

AREA: What is Dynamic SLAM and how does it differ from standard SLAM?

KEN LEE: Standard SLAM has been around for years. It works well when the environment is fairly static – no movements, a steady environment, no lighting changes. Dynamic SLAM is a SLAM that can adjust to these factors, from moving objects and changing scenes to people walking in front and lots of occlusions.

AREA: Are there certain use cases or applications that are particularly suited to dynamic SLAM?

KEN LEE: Dynamic SLAM is perfect for the real world, real-time environment. In our case, we are using dynamic capture mostly to enhance the 3D capture capability – so making 3D capture much easier, but still capturing at a 3D photorealistic level and fully automating the entire capture process plus dealing with any changes.

Let’s say you’re capturing a changing scene. You can update the 3D models in real time, just as you would capture 2D images with a video camera. We can do the same thing, but every output will be an updated 3D model at that given point. That’s why Dynamic SLAM is great. You can use dynamic SLAM just for tracking – for AR and VR – but that’s just one aspect. Our focus is on having the best tracking, not just for tracking purposes, but really to use that tracking capability to capture models very easily and update them in real time.

AREA: Once you have that model, can you use it for any number of different processes and applications?

KEN LEE: Sure. For example, you can do something as basic as creating 3D content to show people remotely. Let’s say I have a product on my desk and I want to show it to you. I can take a picture of it, or in less than a minute, I can scan that product, email it, and you immediately get a 3D model. Microsoft is updating its PowerPoint software next year so you will be able to embed 3D models.

There are other applications. You can use the 3D model for 3D printing. You can also use it for AR and VR, enabling users to visualize objects as true 3D models. One of the biggest challenges in both the VR and AR industry is content generation. It is very difficult to generate true 3D content in a fully automated process, on a real-time basis, that enables you to interact with other people using that same 3D model! That’s the massive problem we’re solving. We’re constantly working on scene capture, which we want to showcase this year, using the same Dynamic SLAM technology. Once you have that, anyone anywhere can instantly generate a 3D model. It’s almost as easy as generating a 2D image.

AREA: Does it require a lot of training to learn how to do the 3D capture?

KEN LEE: Absolutely not. You just grab the object in your hand, rotate it around and make sure all the views are okay, press the button, and then boom, you’ve got a fully-textured high-resolution 3D model. It takes less than a minute. You can teach a five-year-old to do it.

AREA: Tell us about your sales model. You are selling to companies that are embedding the technology in their products, but are you also selling directly to companies and users?

KEN LEE: Our business model is a licensing model, so we license our SDK on a per-unit basis. We want to stay with that. We want to stay as a core technology company for the time being. We don’t have any immediate plan for our own products.

AREA: Without giving away any trade secrets, what’s next in the product pipeline for VanGogh imaging?

KEN LEE: We just filed a patent on how to stream 3D models to remote areas in real time. Basically, we’ll be able to immediately capture any object or scene, as soon as you turn on the camera, as a true 3D model streaming in real time, through a low bandwidth wireless data network.

AREA: Do you have any advice for companies that are just getting into augmented reality and looking at their options?

KEN LEE: At this moment, Augmented Reality platforms are still immature. I would recommend that companies focus, not on technology, but on solving industry problems. What are the problems that the companies are facing and where could AR add unique value? Right now, the biggest challenge in the AR industry, and the reason why it hasn’t taken off yet, is that so much money has gone into building platforms, but no one has built real solutions for companies. I think they should look for opportunity in those spaces.

Taken from a press release on Business Wire dated Feb 13 2017.

Cubic Global Defense (CGD), a business unit of Cubic Corporation announced that Andre Balta, Chief Technical Manager of CGD’s Orlando operations, will be the sole defense industry representative on a government panel discussing Virtual and Augmented Reality for Naval Aviation Training at WEST 2017 in San Diego from February 21–23.

In addition, Cubic’s business divisions, CGD and Cubic Mission Solutions will showcase the latest in air combat and maritime virtual training systems as well as end-to-end Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance solutions.

Co-sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association International and the U.S. Naval Institute, WEST is the premier naval conference on the West Coast, bringing military and industry leaders together to network and demonstrate cutting-edge technologies for the Sea Service community.

“Cubic’s vast array of innovations puts us at the forefront of military training, mission support and end-to-end C4ISR solutions,” said retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Dave Buss, president of Cubic Global Defense. “We remain committed to providing our customers with the most effective, efficient and proven technologies to advance their aviation and maritime training and support their C4ISR capabilities for the most critical expeditions.”

At the event, Andre Balta will participate in the following panel:

• WEST Theater: Virtual/Augmented Reality in Naval Aviation Training: A Window into the Future.
  Wednesday, February 22, 1:40 – 2:40 p.m. (local time); Row 1900 on the Exhibit Hall Floor, San Diego Convention Center.

Cubic will also showcase advanced training and comprehensive C4ISR solutions.

Following the emergence of a recently leaked photo of Magic Leap’s prototype, reports this week have suggested details about Magic Leap’s new Augmented Reality product. According to various articles, such as the one in iTechPost.com, Magic Leap’s Augmented Reality hardware prototype is essentially a backpack.  A recently leaked image appears to reveal the interesting bit of hardware that comes with a simple clear casing allowing viewers to see the parts powering the visor attached by a thick cable. In the center, the board features a massive set of heat sinks, sitting on top of the GPU or CPU for the device.

What seems to be a USB port appears on the side of the board. The device is a specially-made desktop PC that resembles recent VR backpack PC’s made by HP, but tightly integrated with Magic Leap’s proprietary software and hardware.

A large battery pack can be seen in the wearer’s left hand. Rumors alleged that the device’s design had changed significantly since this prototype.

If Magic Leap is working on finalizing a consumer design and the hardware is mostly ready, this would corroborate previous reports that the company is preparing to launch the hardware on the market soon. The prototype hardware was referred by the leaker as “PEQ0.” Since the “PEQ” designation is reportedly meaning prototype, the 0 numeration could mean that this prototype is the initial design for prototyping or the very first one produced, which makes sense given the expandable port layout and the clear board.

The first Magic Leap Augmented Reality prototype was the size of a refrigerator. In order to enable images to have more depth and to look more realistic, it used a projector with a motorized lens. The articles states that the company plans to commercially release a final product in the form of spectacles.

Magic Leap has also attracted some negative media attention this week following a lawsuit on workplace sexism filed against the company by a former female executive.

Augmented reality startup Meta has hired longtime industry veteran Kari Pulli to serve as Chief Technology Officer of its core products division, so say a number of articles today (e.g. bizjournals).

Pulli has worked in senior positions at Nokia and Nvidia, most recently serving as CTO of Intel’s Imaging and Camera Technologies group, Meta said in a statement on Monday.

The San Mateo-based startup, Meta, makes an augmented reality headset that costs $950. It differs from other AR headsets like Google Glass in that people can interact with, and virtually pick up, holographic objects in the field of view. Promotional videos from the company suggest facial recognition could be coming, so that you could pull up supplemental information about a person and their work as you’re talking to them.

Eventually, proponents of augmented reality say, this tech will be small enough to fit discreetly in conventional-looking glasses — or even eventually inside contact lenses. Today, though, the Meta 2 headset still looks like a somewhat clunky, futuristic pair of ski goggles.

Pulli’s research has been nearly exclusively in cameras, imaging and augmented reality technology. Prior to joining Intel, he worked as a vice president at Palo Alto-based Light, helping develop software that combined multiple images from multiple cameras into a single high-resolution image.

Meta launched in 2012 and was accepted into Y Combinator’s summer 2013 class. It’s raised an estimated $73 million to date, and is led by CEO Meron Gribetz.

A news report was released this week relating to the findings of Transparency Market Research (TMR).  Companies such as BAE Systems plc, Nippon Seiki Co. Ltd., Rockwell Collins Inc., and Continental AG currently lead the global head-up display (HUD) market.  It is said that these players are mainly focusing on giving users a comprehensive experience through incorporating cutting-edge technologies. Many players are also taking recourse to strategic collaborations and business partnerships to strengthen their position in the market. Besides this, the leading companies are looking to add novel solutions to their portfolios to expand their geographical reach.

Research and development activities have enabled the leading companies to innovate for improving their existing HUDs in terms of wider angle of view, clarity in projection, and easy integration with other electronic devices. Such innovations are aimed at gaining the lion’s share in the market.

Two forecasts are discussed including (1) Demand for Improved Safety will Boost HUD Uptake in Automotive and Aviation Sectors and (2) High Cost of Manufacturing to Limit HUD Adoption in Mid-range Cars Segment.

Additionally, demand for HUDs is set to Increase with the Launch of Augmented Reality.  TMR forecasts attractive opportunities for the market in the forthcoming years. The launch of augmented reality in automotive HUDs holds immense potential for growth. The technology will provide real-time traffic information to drivers. It will also display information from driver assistance systems such as lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control.

The HUD technology has its root in the automotive industry, witnessing robust deployment in the luxury and high-end car segment. Furthermore, TMR expects the technology to gradually penetrate in the mid-range car segment, as its cost of production decreases. This will bolster sales of head-up displays in the near future.

By applications, the aviation industry accounted for approximately 79% of the overall demand witnessed in the market. However during the forecast period from 2015 to 2022, the application of HUDs in the automotive sector is expected to rise at a faster pace. Regionally, North America led the global HUD market in 2014. Besides increasing application in the aviation sector, the rising demand for luxury cars will boost the North America HUD market at a CAGR of 19% between 2015 and 2022.

As per TMR, the global head-up display market stood at US$1.76 bn in 2014. TMR forecasts the market to reach US$7.05 bn by 2022, exhibiting a CAGR of 19.1% from 2015 to 2022.

On a post on Globes this week, Israeli Augmented Reality company TIPIT have raised $2.5 million. TIPIT according to this article have developed a cross-platform engine aimed at innovating in the space of Augmented Reality thanks to an investment from Atooro Fund.

This new technology provides developers, cameras and brands with a software development kit of computer vision as well as AR technologies that increases platform users’ retention, engagement and boosts revenue.

The post states that TIPIT developed graphics to interface with AR and image processing technologies which is said to be extremely difficult however TIPIT’s technologies eliminate these difficulties for developers so they can design AR graphics without writing a single line of code.

CEO, Jonathon Rimon from TIPIT said “TIPIT is the only true cross-platform in the AR world, providing the means to seamlessly create and integrate new graphics with customers’ products. We have found a way to bring these innovative technologies to developers for a much lower price than other AR or image processing SDKs”.

Not only do they offer their own graphics but they also allow software for customers to effortlessly design thousands of their own graphics and interface with the SDK. Atooro Funds Managing Partner, who have invested with TIPIT, Yonatan Brender, said “We’re proud to support the advancement of TIPIT, demonstrating its position as a truly unique outlier in the AR space with advanced and intuitive technologies that will no doubt play a large role in the way developers create AR and image processing effects for social media.”

In a recent news report, ABI Research have forecasted the Augmented Reality Enterprise applications will hit an inflection point in 2018. Smart glass shipments are increasing to 20 million in 2021 with a compound annual growth rate of 227%.

ABI Research have also forecasted total market revenues across many devices, platforms and licensing and have said that this market is to reach $96 billion in 2021. The fastest growing markets with a 323% compound annual rate are energy, manufacturing and logistics however the healthcare and media and entertainment markets are the fasted with a 400% CAGRs.

Senior Analyst at ABI Reasearch, Eric Abbruzzese has said “2016 was a year of discovery for AR, with the industry focusing on initial ROI metrics, pilot phases will continue into 2017, with early adopters moving to more substantial deployments.

“New AR customers will be excited by positive performance indicators across the market, with the promise of increased workforce efficiency and error reduction. 2018 will be the year all verticals experience a significant jump in AR adoption rates.”

This can be attributed to three factors:

1. Significant time in market for pilot phases and small deployments to provide success indicators
2. Greater breadth and depth of use case support through platforms
3. An overall more mature market in terms of deployments, integrations, and usage.

In this weeks’ news there have been many market reports. Firstly, released by Whattech a market report about the Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality apps global market forecast to 2022.

This report about 2017 Global Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Apps Market Report is an in-depth research report based on the world’s major regional market conditions of the AR and VR apps market.

Main regions from this report:

• North America
• Europe
• China
• Japan
• Southeast Asia
• India

Key companies talked about in this market report include:

• Augmented Pixels
• Aurasma
• Blippar
• Catchoom (AREA Member)
• DAQRI (AREA Member)
• Wikitude

The second report by Einnews talks about a new market report, the Augmented Reality Market Key Players, Industry, Overview, Supply and Consumption Analysis Worldwide to 2022. Some of the key topics talked about in this report include:

• Augmented Reality
• Digital Workflow
• Smart Headset
• Smart Glasses
• Internet of Things
• Shop-floor AR
• Wearable Computer
• Process Image

There is a long list of market participants including AREA members: APX Labs (now Upskills) Atheer, Augmate and DAQRI.

The last report this week by newsmakers talks about the Global Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Healthcare Market. This market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.2% during the forecast period. Applications covered in this report include:

Fitness Management 
• Pharmacy benefit Management 
• Education 
• Diagnostics 
• Rehabilitation and Therapeutics 
• Medical Training 
• Pain Distraction 
• Surgical and Diagnostic Imaging 
• Patient Care Management 
• Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) 
• Simulation 
• Other Applications

Products Covered: 
• Augmented Reality (AR) 
o AR Displays 
o AR Sensors 
o AR Input Devices 
o AR Semiconductor Components 
• Virtual Reality (VR) 
o VR Semiconductor Components 
o VR Devices 
o VR Sensors

Technology Covered: 
• Augmented Reality (AR) 
o Wearable AR System 
o Vision-based AR System 
o Mobile Device-based AR System 
o Spatial AR System