1. AR is growing

The Venture Reality Fund now tracks more than 380 companies on the AR landscape, a 33% increase from 2018. Apple has been slow to launch its rumored AR hardware technology, but others aren’t waiting.

2. HMD (head-mounted display) AR is in a transition

It is moving from the first generation to a new generation. As a result, early players like Daqri, CastAR, and ODG shut down and Meta was resurrected as MetaView.

Current generation AR companies like MagicLeap and RealWear continue to be funded and Microsoft is about to release Version 2 of Hololens, which the Venture Reality Fund believes will have a big impact in further AR enterprise adoption.

For consumers, companies are launching specialized hardware, like North’s Focals smart glasses, Form’s AR swimming goggles or Bose AR’s audio-only sunglasses.

Neither Microsoft, Magic Leap nor others have announced when their consumer versions will be available. General purpose HMD AR devices are still a year or two away.

3. Enterprise continues growth trajectory

For software, the main growth is in enterprise solutions and content creation tools across multiple sectors, including automotive, pharmaceutical, and healthcare, among others. The US Army’s $479 million contract with Microsoft Hololens in late 2018 is the biggest validation of enterprise value of AR.

4. AR needs new types of content

The tools category saw expansion of general-purpose tools and for new content forms – specifically volumetric capture. The increased interest in volumetric capture content, which works for both AR and VR, is partially driven by 5G networks capabilities.

5. Consumer AR content is alive and well

Consumer AR fun continues to grow, mostly on mobile devices. Games are a big hit, such as Niantic’s Pokemon Go and Harry Potter Wizards Unite, Tencent’s Let’s Hunt Monsters in China, and the upcoming Minecraft Earth. And, of course, social hilarity from apps like Snap are growing, giving company’s install base a boost.

6. Mobile AR 2.0 is coming

With next-gen AR cloud-enabled software development kits (SDKs) due at year end, you can expect to see even richer interactions, persistence, global mapping, and multi-user features, all of which will result in a significant uptick in the mobile AR ecosystem.

7. Investments Will Continue

AR is still in early days, but with HMD AR and mobile AR platforms evolution robust ecosystems are building and worthy of continued investment. Overall, AR’s future is bright as we enter a new phase of its growth cycle.

Read the article in Full including use cases from Qualcomm Research.

Louis Aaron Cannon, MD (Cardiac & Vascular Research Center of Northern Michigan, Charlevoix), told TCTMD that the use of robotics may hold the potential to address disparities in population demographics.

“Wealthier people are treated very differently than people that don’t have access to supersubspecialists, and I think robotics is going to help address that,” he commented. “Already we’re developing robotic catheters and different haptics, and all this is going to converge in a situation where we are really going to be able to treat patients better.”

Cannon, who presented a keynote lecture on emerging cath lab trends, said the technology also may be useful in instances where patients in a remote location, who have MI or stroke and no access to an interventional cardiologist or interventional radiologist, could be treated by someone thousands of miles away.

“I think this is potentially going to change what we do in the field of battle; cruise ships also could use this technology because they have large elderly populations at risk,” Cannon observed. “If you just have a lab or a suite and you contract with a large medical institution, you would be able to take care of a patient with an MI or a stroke without having to get a helicopter in to them or move them.”

Gaps in Stroke Care, Improved Patient Experience

According to Cannon, remote care via virtual reality also may be a key to addressing stroke-care needs. He said it is expected that the United States will have an estimated shortage of 61,800 specialists to treat stroke in 2030. Of all US hospitals, only 3.8% are comprehensive stroke centers, leaving most of the nation with limited access to advanced stroke care.

“You can easily picture where you have robots in these areas with an interventional radiologist at the base that can manipulate catheters and take care of a stroke from a 100 or a 1,000 miles way, or on a cruise ship or on an island,” Cannon said. But turning this concept into reality will require, among other things, a system of rapid response, experts skilled in arterial access and catheter manipulation, and strong IT and telecommunications networks.

Virtual reality technology may also directly benefit patients during their procedures.

In a small study, Sudheer Koganti, MD (Citizens Specialty Hospital, Nallagandla, India), and colleagues showed how it can be coupled with mindfulness to decrease sedation needs during diagnostic angiogram for suspected CAD. During the procedure, 30 patients wore a virtual reality headset that allowed them to have a personalized audio/visual experience such as being on a beach or near a quiet lake. No IV sedative was used, and all patients received 100 µg of nitrate into the radial artery. Only one case of radial spasm was documented, with no conversion to femoral access. Pulse and systolic blood pressure did not vary across pre-, intra-, and postprocedural periods. Additionally, pain scores were consistently low and patient satisfaction high. On the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), with 20 being the lowest and 80 being the highest, the average patient score was mild-to-moderate at 50. According to Koganti, after the procedure, several patients asked to be able to use the virtual reality device again for subsequent procedures.

Virtual reality “is feasible, safe, and for the first time ever demonstrated in the literature, efficacious in the cath lab at the time of interventional procedures,” Koganti said in his presentation. Although the study was small and limited to angiograms, he said other procedures that may be good candidates for this type of technology to reduce need for sedation, include PCI, pacemaker implantation, implantable cardioverter defibrillators, and some structural heart interventions, including TAVR.

We should not forget with all these technologies that we’re taking care of human beings.GIORA WIESZ“”

In the same session, Radoslaw Parma, MD, PhD (Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland), showed an early augmented reality attempt that went less smoothly. In the study, glasses worn by the operator were used in an attempt to improve TAVR by providing a patient-specific multislice CT overlay of peripheral vessels. The concept is that the overlays can enhance TAVR operators’ field of vision and aid in selecting optimal arterial segments to perform a safe puncture. The researchers used mixed-reality smart glasses known as HoloLens (Microsoft), but soon learned that they were too heavy, the resolution too low, and the battery life too short to be practical. Despite this, Parma said his group is hopeful that an updated version of the device that is lighter, provides better spatial mapping and allows the operator to pinch, slide, and push the overlay may prove more useful.

No Replacement for ‘Human Touch’

Panelist Giora Weisz, MD (Montefiore Medical Center, New York, NY), noted that communication will be the key to the success of remote or augmented reality procedures, to ensure that the operator has access to all patient data, including imaging “integrated in real time.”

Clearly more study is needed before many of these new technologies are ready for prime time, but panelist Chaim S. Lotan, MD (Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel), observed that the future may be here before we know it.

“I’m looking at my smart phone and thinking just 10 years ago, where were we?” he said. In the digital revolution, “things are going to change tremendously.” Lotan then wondered aloud whether robots may someday replace physicians completely in the cath lab.

But Weisz countered that while machines can do many things as well as men and women, that sentiment is not true for one thing: human touch. “We should not forget with all these technologies that we’re taking care of human beings,” he said.

There is little argument that automation, artificial intelligence, and other innovations will revolutionize the way that we think about “work.” In fact, some believe that the entire concept of “work” will be reimagined and re-examined in the near future, once industrial AR and VR applications take root. In this article, the following topics are considered meetings, training, retail, design and marketing and

Changing “Meetings”

First and foremost, augmented reality will change the way that meetings are conducted. We all might understand that videoconferencing is essential to large corporations because of the fact that they might have interests all over the globe, but augmented reality will allow for a new level of collaboration with respect to various projects.

If media needs to be viewed by all participants, augmented reality can allow for that capability.

A random wall can now act as a virtual “whiteboard” for a meeting, as well. Augmented reality may not only bring a new “excitement” to work meetings and videoconferencing, but it can help provide more context and information to a meeting that might not previously have been there.

It doesn’t matter whether you need to immediate share a 3D model or a contract with employees thousands of miles away; augmented reality can make this happen quicker and more efficiently than ever, which will lead to increased productivity.

Changing “Training”

Though it might sound outdated, there are plenty of jobs and situations that require a user manual. Augmented reality allows for digital information to be superimposed on the real world and provide new perspective and context to training.

It’s also a great way to make sure that new employees are completely engaged in the training process.

There are always organizations that require onboarding, which can be confusing or awkward for new employees, as a veteran employee might quickly explain aspects of the workplace needs to understand. Augmented reality can allow for a workplace to be “unlocked”, and virtual instructions to be given in a clear manner that can continually be accessed.

In fact, it seems very clear that an automated augmented reality training experience could end up saving organizations a tremendous amount of money and time. There is also the idea of “performance

support” for various occupations. It doesn’t matter if you are a repairmen or a doctor – the idea of accessing real-time data through either industrial VR or AR can help with overall training and performance, and enhance your capability as an employee.

The Future Of “Retail”, Design, and Marketing

There are many companies that struggle when it comes to conveying a message to the consumer, which is why so many marketing and advertising dollars are spent on trying to educate and convince customers about the values of their goods and/or services.

Both augmented reality and virtual reality will allow consumers to potentially find out more information simply by pointing their smartphone at a product, for example.

Imagine if a grocery shopper is only interested in gluten-free products.

This will undoubtedly change the way that retail employees work, as augmented reality might help communicate information that allows for retail employees to handle other tasks and achieve other goals.

There are companies that might be able to highlight certain products for discerning consumers.

For example, let’s say that you are vegan. What if you walked into a grocery store, and augmented reality, through the grocery store’s app, would help you use your devices to find out which products were vegan or not.

Similarly, there could be a virtual reality headset, where you put on a headset, and vegan products can be highlighted to consumers.

This can clearly make for a more pleasant and productive shopping experience, and will also change the way that product designers and marketers work, as well, as they will have to take this into consideration.

There are already companies that are utilizing AR to allow shoppers to “try out” their products. One obvious example is IKEA, a well-known multinational company that both designs and sells furniture.

The IKEA app literally allows users to “place” furniture in their homes, using augmented reality, to find out whether furniture might be compatible with a certain room.

Industrial VR: Conclusion

We all live in reality, but that reality is changing because of technology. There are many companies that are already developing industrial VR/AR-related services, and the truth is that the global industry is only growing, expected to hit over $800 billion by 2025.

It doesn’t matter whether we are speaking about the media/entertainment sector, the retail sector, education sector, or the tech sector – both industrial VR and AR will be implemented more than ever in the coming years.

Work is already changing, in the sense that it is becoming more “flexible” than ever.

Millennials are becoming a more important factor in the workplace than ever before, and flexibility is something that they are prioritizing more than ever, whether it involves working from home or hours that they can adjust.

In conclusion, virtual reality and augmented reality will change the way that organizations operate. It will change the way that meetings are conducted, strategies are prepared, consumers are persuaded, and documents are viewed and accessed.

While time will tell exactly how AR and VR industrial applications will reshape the way that work gets done, whether it involves training, repair, design, or otherwise, one thing is for sure: it will be reshaped, and this reshaping is already underway.

Fink writes: “This one is fairly straightforward.  Instead of solution providers like Upskill, Scope AR, Wikitude, and UbiMAX, developing for one specific device, Qualcomm will help them create solutions for their Snapdragon XR chips, making enterprise solutions much more portable across platforms. On the OEM side, Vuzix, nReal, and RealWear are part of the program.

The Qualcomm XR Enterprise Program allows enterprise solution providers to be part of a global community that offers access to technical support resources, promotional opportunities, co-marketing, joint planning and business development and matchmaking with other members for the collective goal of accelerating the enterprise XR segment to help increase operational efficiencies, worker satisfaction & safety and impact the bottom line. Since Qualcomm is already the common denominator across all head mounted displays (HMDs) including Oculus’ new standalone Quest VR, and enterprise HMDs like HoloLens 2 and Glass Enterprise Edition 2, it makes sense for them to leverage this unique position to support market growth.

Qualcomm promotes virtual collaboration and other applications for its Snapdragon XR technology. “Qualcomm Technologies views the enterprise as a critical segment for growing the overall XR industry and we are committed to furthering adoption by bringing together the best hardware and software solutions providers to meet the respective demands of a business’ function and use cases,” said Brian Vogelsang, senior director of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “We are excited to be working with companies enabling solutions for the enterprise customer by optimizing performance, productivity and improving accuracy and safety in areas such as field service, maintenance and repair, inspection, assembly, material handling, remote collaboration, data visualization and training.”

“Through the Qualcomm XR Enterprise Program, we’ve received access to hardware prototypes, technology roadmaps, access to new features like eye-tracking and had the opportunity to showcase our technology to enterprise partners,” said Tony Bevilacqua, CEO and founder, Cognitive3D.

The Qualcomm XR Enterprise Program will provide members with Qualcomm Technologies-supported benefits including XR industry insights, connections with end customers, visibility into upcoming Qualcomm Technologies hardware and software product features and the Qualcomm XR Enterprise Program badge to display on their website and promotional material to identify themselves as companies who are helping to drive excellence in quality and adoption of XR in the enterprise.

Companies wishing to participate in the Qualcomm XR Enterprise Program can find more information here.

XR promises more intuitive and natural ways of interacting with information. In both VR and AR, we can use our hands, gaze, gestures and voice to directly interact with content and manipulate virtual objects, but perhaps we’ve be lead to assume that immersive tech is already usable out of the box.

Today, we consistently find evidence that the UX is still in its infancy and improvements to UX design are not being focused on enough in the immersive technology space. AIXR have covered accessibility issues with UX design recently, check that article out here. 

At Threesixty Reality we have an immersive tech usability lab, where we test a wide range of AR and VR applications with target users. We repeatedly see most users struggle to use these devices effectively, and even mastering the basic controls can take some practice. Let’s not forget that humans have been trained for the last 20 years or so to interact with flat 2D menus on screens, with their finger or with a mouse. The transition to immersive tech isn’t automatic. The interactions are mostly all new and UX design conventions for virtual and augmented reality are just starting to emerge.

Ryan Gerber, Systems-level UX and product design at Vive VR points out: “Even though we’ve begun to see enterprise readily adopt XR solutions, largely due to a quantifiable return on investment, the much more massive market of normal humans is still largely skeptical around this technology’s ease of adoptability.”

In fact a survey of 140 industry professionals in 2018 by global law firm Perkins Coie found the top rated barrier for both VR and AR adoption was poor UX for a second year in a row. Although, in many cases these UX barriers relate to setting up the hardware, we need to also pay attention to the many challenges around how to best design immersive software and new UI paradigms, that are easier to adopt and provide a sense of familiarity as users move from application to application. Vik Parthiban, XR graduate researcher at MIT Media Lab highlights the need to prioritise interaction design for XR, “People underestimate the importance of interaction in AR and VR.”

In the XR industry, we tend to focus a lot on the immersiveness, the compelling 3D world, the sense of presence, low latency tracking that makes you think those are your real hands, the spatial audio, the 3D holograms that seem to obey the laws of physics. In other words, there is a fascination with the potential of the technology and what it can do and less with the step by step journey a human will go through to actually get things done and interact with the system effectively.

This sense of ever improving presence and graphical realise are qualities that make users say “wow!” the first time they experience modern immersive tech, but what we find in user research is that the vast majority of issues occur when the user tries to interact with objects and get the same level of return for their efforts as they would from a usable mobile application. These issues are often quite severe to the point where the user is frustrated and confused and quickly loses the motivation to continue. We hear comments like “I couldn’t get it to do what I was trying to do” or “I could have done this faster on my phone” all the time.

Read the full article on UX Design and Immersive Tech by ThreeSixty here.

“Our commitment to academic excellence is longstanding,” Philbert said. “The XR initiative will provide significant opportunities to explore how these new technologies can bolster excellence—in student learning, in new research possibilities and in serving the world more effectively.”

XR encompasses augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality and other variations of these forms of computer-generated real and virtual combined environments and human-machine interactions.

Philbert charged the Center for Academic Innovation with establishing and facilitating the new priorities, to seed new projects and experiments that integrate XR into residential and online curricula, and to create innovative public/private partnerships to develop new XR related educational technology.

“We are eager to explore possible breakthrough innovations that enhance teaching and learning across disciplines, foster equity and inclusivity, and increase access and affordability.” James DeVaney

“XR applied thoughtfully in an educational context has the potential to fundamentally change the way we teach and learn,” said James DeVaney, associate vice provost for academic innovation and founding executive director of the Center for Academic Innovation. “We are eager to explore possible breakthrough innovations that enhance teaching and learning across disciplines, foster equity and inclusivity, and increase access and affordability.”

A new XR Innovation Fund will provide the U-M community access to financial and in-kind support for new innovative projects.

The center will work closely with units across campus and across disciplines to fully understand the potential for these new technologies to enhance learning. Many faculty and academic units are already thinking deeply about these technologies, DeVaney said.

In fact, U-M faculty are using the technology across various disciplines to treat and diagnose illnesses, test cars of the future, teach students in the sciences why architectural structures fail, help those in education practice teaching before stepping into a classroom full of youngsters, and allow students in screen arts and cultures to take a look at the work of Orson Welles through a different lens.

Image courtesy: U-M Center for Academic Innovation, via news.umich.edu

“An important part of this project, which will set it apart from experiments with XR on many other campuses, is our interest in humanities-centered perspectives to shape innovations in teaching and learning at a great liberal arts institution,” said Sara Blair, vice provost for academic and faculty affairs, and the Patricia S. Yaeger Collegiate Professor of English Language and Literature.

“How can we use XR tools and platforms to help our students develop historical imagination or to help students consider the value and limits of empathy, and the way we produce knowledge of other lives than our own?

“We hope that arts and humanities colleagues won’t just participate in this [initiative], but lead in developing deeper understandings of what we can do with XR technologies, as we think critically about our engagements with them.” Patricia S. Yaeger

“We hope that arts and humanities colleagues won’t just participate in this [initiative], but lead in developing deeper understandings of what we can do with XR technologies, as we think critically about our engagements with them.”

Joanna Millunchick, associate dean for undergraduate education at Michigan Engineering and professor of materials science and engineering, is working with augmented reality in her courses to help students better understand crystal structures at the molecular scale. She believes the technology has the potential to impact STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) retention.

“The language of the STEM fields is math. But for many students, math is too abstract and not linked to the physical world,” Millunchick said. “Using XR in the classroom could bridge that gap in ways that is not currently possible.”

At present, an interdisciplinary team of faculty from several U-M departments, led by the School of Information, is working on an augmented, virtual and mixed reality graduate certification that provides advanced training and research in computer-generated technologies.

Through the XR Initiative announced today, U-M will explore additional curricular and co-curricular offerings, research opportunities, and multi-institutional and industry collaborations, said James Hilton, vice provost for academic innovation.

“XR is exciting because it has the potential to touch all of the disciplines at Michigan,” he said. “While it will initially be physically located in the Duderstadt Center, in order to take advantage of the VR technology and expertise that is already there, the scope of the initiative is campuswide and builds on Michigan’s long-standing commitment to continually ask, ‘What’s next?’—to experiment with leading edge technology to discover how it may change the ways we learn, create and educate in our third century.”

The center has named Jeremy Nelson as director of the XR Initiative. Nelson, a graduate of the College of Engineering, returns to U-M from the health care and public sectors where he worked to leverage innovative technology to solve customer problems. Most recently, Nelson was a managing partner at Afia, a health care consulting firm based in Ann Arbor that he co-founded in 2007. Prior to Afia, Nelson was the chief information architect at the Washtenaw Community Health Organization.

The XR Initiative will be an inflection point for the University of Michigan to continue to lead and engage the world to solve the problems that matter most.
Jeremy Nelson

A first objective for Nelson will be to engage a wide range of stakeholders across and beyond campus, DeVaney said.

“We are embarking on the next great shift in how human beings interact with technology and use it to alter the future,” Nelson said. “The XR Initiative will be an inflection point for the University of Michigan to continue to lead and engage the world to solve the problems that matter most.”

The AREA is not affiliated with the producers of market reports however, many headline findings coming out of these reports will be useful for enterprise buyers, investors, researchers and providers alike who may seek to find a suitable supplier, provider, or to monitor trends in the industry.

The Augmented and Virtual Reality in Healthcare Market Report helps industry leaders and business decision makers to make assured investment decisions, develop tactical strategies and improve their businesses.

This report presents the worldwide Augmented and Virtual Reality in Healthcare Market size (value, production and consumption), splits the breakdown (data status 2014-2019 and forecast to 2025), by manufacturers, regions, types and applications.

Manufacturers included in this report include

Google, Microsoft, DAQRI, Psious, Mindmaze, Fristhand Technology, Medical Realities, Atheer, Augmedix, Oculus, CAE Healthcare, Philips, 3D Systems, VirtaMed, HTC< Siemens and Virtually Better.

Organisation Types

On the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), Augmented and Virtual Reality in Healthcare industry share and growth rate for each application, including:

• Hospitals
• Clinics and Surgical Centers
• Research Organizations and Pharma Companies
• Research and Diagnostics Laboratories
• Government and Defense Institutions

Magic Leap’s $2,300 spatial computing platform Magic Leap One may be too expensive for most consumers, but like other early augmented reality devices, enterprise users with bigger pocketbooks are embracing its potential as a business tool.

One particularly promising category is health care, where Magic Leap says it’s now collaborating with at least five different companies to bring its hardware into labs, clinics, and even hospital operating rooms.

On the surgical side, German medical technology company Brainlab is working with Magic Leap on a collaborative 3D spatial viewer for Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) content, enabling clinicians to work together when viewing medical images. Brainlab’s software could, for example, let a doctor and radiologist talk through multiple brain scans before a surgical procedure, or enable a surgeon to rely on a heads-up display of scanned while performing a surgical procedure.

Another brain-focused initiative involves SyncThink, a company that uses eye tracking analytics to help diagnose patients’ concussions and balance disorders. Having worked with Magic Leap One for the last year, SyncThink hopes to make it “the gold standard in brain health assessment” by letting doctors use the platform’s collection of sensors to easily determine what wearers are seeing and experiencing.

On the patient side, XRHealth (formerly VRHealth) is working to bring a therapeutic platform called ARHealth to Magic Leap, offering users rehabilitation, pain distraction, psychological assessment, and cognitive training tools. Unlike the prior solutions, which one would use at a doctor’s office, the ARHealth tools will let patients analyze and quantify their own results, then pass the information back to their doctors.

Magic Leap also says that it’s working with the Dan Marino Foundation on a tool to help young adults with autism spectrum disorder practice for in-person job interviews, and creating a virtual person-based medical training application for the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. The company expects to leverage its partnership with AT&T to incorporate 5G, AI, and edge computing into future Magic Leap-based medical solutions, enabling low-latency collaboration and co-presence, among other benefits.

The report can be requested at the following link: Military Augmented Reality Headgear Market

Time period covered

Five years from 2019 to 2024

Key players in this market

Applied Research Associates (ARA), BAE Systems, Elbit Systems, Rockwell Collins, Thales Group, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Osterhout Design Group, VUZIX

Products are split into:

• Head-Mounted Displays
• Monitor-Based
• Video See-Through HMD

By Application, the report also covers

• Military Simulation
• Trauma Treatment

The Global Military Augmented Reality (AR) Headgear statistical surveying report studies the presence of the top to bottom market segments. The market is surveyed based on revenue (USD Million) and presents the significant players and providers affecting the market.

The author argues that while AR advances are unquestionably exciting, the industry is now grappling with a whole constellation of complexities. The adoption of AR brings an expanding landscape of new cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Consumers and businesses are grappling with big data breaches, and implementing effective cybersecurity measures is an essential necessity for modern businesses.

Cybersecurity measures are one of the first things AR solutions providers consider when developing new tech. Here are some of the most urgent and relevant cybersecurity issues — and solutions — involving AR:

Innovation Outpacing Preparation

The business proposition of AR is causing it to be adopted before the risks have been vetted or having tech developed by companies without significant IT experience, leading to technologies that are actually incompatible with existing infrastructure. I strongly recommend including IT security experts in your early AR discussions, as they can help you vet security capabilities and adopt your security best practices.

Setting The Standard

Wearable and tablet-based AR almost always requires Wi-Fi, which carries significant security risks. Even the latest WPA3 encryption standard has been found to have serious vulnerabilities. Applying firmware updates to patch these vulnerabilities often has unintended side effects such as reduced bandwidth or dropped connections. There are enterprise tools available to secure your Wi-Fi, such as WPA2-Enterprise and server authentication, that often involve bringing in outside security vendors. Most wearables do not support WPA2-Enterprise, however, and we usually recommend implementing security layers on top of your normal Wi-Fi connection.

Dark Clouds

Many wearable AR companies require cloud connectivity, which exposes new threat vectors. Those vectors include:

• Data moving to and from the cloud can often be intercepted. Even TLS encryption can be breakable with common IT infrastructure stacks that do packet inspection.

• Interruptions of internet connections can disrupt production.

• Cloud servers can be breached, potentially exposing sensitive data.

Another cloud-related challenge is structural, but no less problematic, for many companies. Once pigeon-holed into a cloud service, companies become dependent on that service provider, often with no easy way to change providers. The bottom line is that IT departments need to build up the skill set to work in the cloud safely and reliably. At a minimum, IT departments must invest in access-monitoring and authentication tools.

Wearable Exposures

Many AR users may be surprised that one of the biggest security vulnerabilities for wearable AR devices isn’t virtual intrusion; it’s physical compromise. Tablet and wearable devices also have general threat vectors, even when not operating on the cloud:

• Wearable devices can host malware, enabling cameras, collecting data, corrupting work instructions or disrupting operation.

• Battery life issues can be a threat because they disrupt production when batteries need changing.

• It is relatively easy to steal network credentials off many wearable devices running Android, potentially exposing Wi-Fi networks to intruders that obtain a device. Counter it with more advanced authentication techniques.

• Wearables are prone to physical damage. Some headsets are more durable, but all devices have physical vulnerabilities. Keeping them functional and secure (not letting someone walk off with a headset that can be easily lost or stolen) is critical.

There are multiple endpoint protection options for wearable devices running Android operating systems.  If you already have tools to protect Android devices, these can be loaded on Android-based wearables. There are a variety of hardware options that let you trade off battery life, durability, comfort and other parameters for wearables.

Locally Sourced

Many companies are reluctant to house their sensitive data on someone else’s cloud. This is a challenge for responsible AR solutions providers because very few manufacturers have meaningful security measures on their internal systems. In contrast, AR providers typically have highly advanced security protocols and systems designed to address the three key principles of effective cybersecurity:

• Make sure the wrong person doesn’t get access to sensitive data.

• Make sure the right people do have access to that data.

• Ensure the data in question is not compromised or corrupted.

One way to achieve all three priorities is by localizing sensitive information to the facility. Storing sensitive information on your PC or server in your facility — and not on the wearable itself — eliminates a lot of potential vulnerabilities. But even that might not be going far enough. High-profile damage from malicious software like the Stuxnet worm has reinforced the need to keep supposedly safe equipment away from the internet. The safest cybersecurity strategy is the “air gap,” where equipment has no possible connection to outside systems.

Projector-Based Systems

One way to address cloud-based vulnerabilities is to avoid them altogether. Hardwired projection-based AR platforms are significantly less vulnerable to hacking and data theft. The best solutions provide virtually all of the benefits of cutting-edge AR applications — without the potential exposure of sensitive information or the disruption that can come with wearables and cloud-based tech solutions. Projection-based systems are well-suited for the medical and defense industries, where information is extremely sensitive.

The Arms Race

Going forward, new AR applications will need to come with increasingly effective cybersecurity technologies. If cybersecurity measures cannot ensure a secure connection, the exposure risks will exceed the return on investment potential.

Ultimately, AR innovators need to recognize that the cybersecurity “arms race” is a process — a moving target where we are defending against evolving, human threats who are constantly getting better. To appreciate how quickly new realities can replace old assumptions, consider the extraordinary speed with which quantum computing capabilities — which are already starting to make standard RSA encryption look vulnerable — are increasing. We’re not at the exponential rate described by Moore’s Law, which famously states that computing power roughly doubles every two years — but double the exponential rate.

At that pace, new threats can emerge and reliable security protocols become obsolete quite literally overnight. Implementing your cyber strategy is an ongoing process to keep up with the sophisticated threats of an increasingly connected — and increasingly augmented — world.