The workplace influences the safety, health, and productivity of workers at multiple levels. To protect and promote total worker health, smart hardware, and software tools have emerged for the identification, elimination, substitution, and control of occupational hazards.

Wearable devices enable constant monitoring of individual workers and the environment, whereas connected worker solutions provide contextual information and decision support. Here, the recent trends in commercial workplace technologies to monitor and manage occupational risks, injuries, accidents, and diseases are reviewed.

Workplace safety wearables for safe lifting, ergonomics, hazard identification, sleep monitoring, fatigue management, and heat and cold stress are discussed. Examples of workplace productivity wearables for asset tracking, augmented reality, gesture and motion control, brain wave sensing, and work stress management are given.

Workplace health wearables designed for work-related musculoskeletal disorders, functional movement disorders, respiratory hazards, cardiovascular health, outdoor sun exposure, and continuous glucose monitoring are shown. Connected worker platforms are discussed with information about the architecture, system modules, intelligent operations, and industry applications.

Predictive analytics provide contextual information about occupational safety risks, resource allocation, equipment failure, and predictive maintenance. Altogether, these examples highlight the ground-level benefits of real-time visibility about frontline workers, work environment, distributed assets, workforce efficiency, and safety compliance.

With the advent of technological innovations across industries, the education sector turns out to be the most influenced. In-fact, technology has been playing a prominent role at the forefront of education ever since learning and development came into being, right from carving symbols and figures on walls of caves, to Gurukul education where the students were taught the use of the technology prevailing then, to using of artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR).

Modern technology has completely reshaped the entire education system. The digitally empowered classrooms over the internet have made education available to each and everyone who wants to learn across the world, anytime, any subject and anywhere. There is no limit to the strength of the classroom. Unlike physical classrooms that are limited to a maximum of sixty students, any number of students can access the virtual classrooms. When it comes to learning, there is an unlimited amount of knowledge available at no cost to an economically viable price.

Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, YouTube has more than seventy lakhs of educational videos, and besides, there are a lot of other educational websites that have various knowledge-sharing pages provided by respected subject experts in every field.

The effect of technology on the students

Not long ago, education was pertained to the reading of books and listening to teachers which were boring to many students and tiresome to teachers. Some educational institutes tried to introduce activity-based education which of course motivated the students and increased the interest level to a certain extend, but the effect was not as expected.

The education using modern technology like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence has made learning more collaborative and engaging. An article by Schindler et al., 2017  states that Technological application in education engages the student to involve in high-order thinking, develop communication and discussion, and reflect on the gist of the content. It also enhances digital competency. Another research established that the implementation of technology in the classroom has enhanced the motivation of the student to understand and accomplish the tasks (Mistler-Jackson & Songer, 2000).

Undoubtedly, technology increased the interest in learning by many folds and modern technology helped the student improve their critical thinking and analytical skills which is very much necessary to face any kind of challenge. It has not only helped the students to become successful but also to excel. This is not only for schools but also for higher and professional studies.

Traditional teaching versus Virtual teaching

Marc Prensky [Educational Author 2001] noticed that an average student spends less than five thousand hours reading in his entire life but more than ten thousand hours playing digital and online games. He also stated that the students of the present are no longer the ones our traditional education system was designed to teach.

Other researchers such as Pucel and Stertz [2005], Crowe [2004], Lu and Gordon [2009], have recognized that technological education method is needed than traditional education.  The National School Boards Association [2007] recognized technological proficiency as an essential learning tool of the twenty-first century. A remarkable statement of John Dewey “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s we rob them of tomorrow” (Agnello, White, & Fryer, 2006) sums up the importance of technology in the education system.

Challenges in implementing technology in the schools and collages

Jung pointed out the challenges, the traditional classroom teachers have to face due to rapid shift and use of technological methods in the classroom and about the expansion of the knowledge base available. Gressard and Loyd (1985) said that the attitude of teachers towards technology and technical gadgets is the main factor in implementing Information technology in the education system. They also pointed that not all teachers are keen on technological methods.

Another point is that they have to be trained to upgrade themselves to be in line with upcoming technology. Most of the teachers from GenX feel that it is hard to learn the complicated technology and blackboards are much simple. They believe classroom education involves emotional binding that helps in being good humans. The teachers of millennials though not new to technology are busy and lack time to upgrade themselves. The other barriers are lack of resources, limited or no access, low expertise, limited support and lack of time. Butler and Sellbom (2002) and Chizmar & Williams (2001) stress reliability and hardware compatibility and internet issues. Technology is growing at an exponentially faster phase which means a gadget bought today may become less useful or not at all in three months. Upgrading those needs money, time and expertise.

Many believe that technology in the education sector would make students more attached to machines and less socially able. We can see that the children of iGen spend more time with cell phones and other gadgets. Even a baby less than a year becomes calm and is more attracted to the cell phone display. Studies are going on as to how it would affect the brain but for now, artificially intelligent machines are in a major role.

The good part is kids get easily adapted to technology. Software programming is becoming the favorite subject for kids these days. They could learn, analyze and create a software program even before they turn into teens. This proves that the brain is slowly evolving from its present state to a higher state of understanding machine language. There are also a lot of social groups online related to every field where the students interact with others with the same mindset. Group discussions and knowledge-sharing blogs are increasing so it is not fully right to say that society is becoming less socially able. It is only that the medium of communication has taken a different platform.

A good learning technological media can be something that is easily accessible in any place. It should be easy to use by an average person with limited knowledge of computers. It should be highly interactive, fun and work on low bandwidth and should not take lots of time to load, and should be able to upgrade itself from time to time.

The race continues between the world’s largest tech leaders and companies to see which one will prevail and power the next generation of tools, technologies and resources for manufacturing, healthcare, construction and other vertical-market applications. Central to this race are the technological advances that have been made in recent years with artificial intelligence (AI), and immersive mixed-reality technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

Each of these virtualized technologies show great promise, but enterprises and manufacturers must be made aware of critical points of differentiation in the design, development and hosting strategies to maximize proper usage and deployment.

Topics covered in the piece include:

• Where immersive mixed reality falls short for enterprises
• The need for 3D & AI in immersive mixed reality
• Working in cloud environments is critical

Read the whole article here.

The emergence of the Learning Analytics (LA) field contextualised the connections in various disciplines and the educational sector, acted as a steppingstone toward the reformation of the educational scenery, thus promoting the importance of providing users with adaptive and personalised learning experiences. At the same time, the use of Augmented Reality (AR) applications in education have been gaining a growing interest across all the educational levels and contexts. However, the efforts to integrate LA techniques in immersive technologies, such as AR, are limited and scarce.

This inadequacy is mainly attributed to the difficulties that govern the collection and interpretation of the primary data. To deal with this shortcoming, we present the “Augmented Reality Learning Analytics” (ARLEAN) ethical framework, tailored to the specific characteristics that AR applications have, and focused on various learning subjects.

The core of this framework blends the technological, pedagogical, and psychological elements that influence the outcome of educational interventions, with the most widely adopted LA techniques. It provides concrete guidelines to educational technologists and instructional designers on how to integrate LA into their practices to inform their future decisions and thus, support their learners to achieve better results.

Further the document contains granular analysis of the important aspects that face the industry expansion such as growth drivers, key opportunities and major restraining factors faced by the industry and companies operating in this business space.

Moreover, it contains analysis of the key trends in the market and their sub-markets. The document contains thorough evaluation of various industry segments. The market contains contribution of each region that operates the industry growth. The document contains listings of the leading companies along with their product profiles, prices, production patterns and their position in the entire industry.

The report contains an evaluation of the leading industry players, some of which are AREA members:

Google
PTC – AREA member
Microsoft – AREA member
Wikitude
DAQRI
Zugara
Blippar
Magic Leap – AREA member
Osterhout

You can read the report here.

People have adapted to the recent work-from-home paradigm shift. We’re not far from the next iteration, which I believe to be immersive augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). It’s the natural evolution of video abilities.

Augmented reality technology provides an interactive and immersive experience that enhances real-world objects in your environment with added visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory or even olfactory components. On the other hand, virtual reality technology can simulate a completely different world or mimic real-world experiences.

What makes AR and VR valuable for the events and meetings industry is their hands-on nature and ability to simulate live experiences. With AR/VR, audiences can learn about, explore and see things up close that they would otherwise have to travel far and wide for. After being cooped up inside due to the pandemic, people want nothing more than to actually experience instead of watch.

We passively watch our TV, computer and phone screens all day long, but we crave something newer, more exciting and more interactive than that. Most keynotes, whether in-person or virtual, aren’t interactive. People watch and listen but don’t do anything. AR and VR could take a simple online webinar or regular event and transform it into an immersive and more memorable experience.

Like laptops, PCs and smartphones, I predict VR headsets will be the next addition to the modern workplace. For example, Oculus Rift by Facebook (now discontinued) is around $300. That’s the same price as an iPad, but it delivers a fully immersive experience. Think about that: a one-time investment of $300, unlike the average airfare ticket to an event for $400 plus the cost of ground transportation, meals and a hotel.

What’s so great about AR/VR tech for events and meetings is that anyone can use it from anywhere in the world, including the comfort of their home, eliminating expensive travel and venue costs. For Fortune 500 companies, it’s a no-brainer. VR meetings will be more cost-effective, good for education and massively accessible.

For example, you could have your entire 50,000 person workforce attend, as opposed to just your top 500 leaders who then typically go back to the workforce and share what they learned. Instead, everyone in the company attends the immersive experience and hears the messages and interacts in real time, the day of. Plus, the company doesn’t have to incur the cost of travel both in dollars and time. That’s remarkably powerful — that’s game-changing!

As a speakers bureau, my company knows keynote speakers will utilize AR/VR in their presentations to adapt to the marketplace. It’s more dynamic than a standard Zoom call or in-person presentation. Think storytelling through scent, visual and auditory channels; we envision something like Disneyland’s “Soarin’ Around the World” or “It’s Tough to Be a Bug” rides. AR and VR tools could also be used to teach hands-on lessons or simply for entertainment during meetings. There is so much room for creativity and interaction.

When exploring the potential of having our staff implement AR/VR in our meetings, we imagine we’ll play some games, and we’ll all do it from the comfort of our home, not having to travel in the middle of winter, or from the East Coast or wherever.

In some instances, AR/VR may replace in-person events; in other events, it may be supplemental. In-person events will always have relevance and will continue to be more experiential, yet VR meetings will rise and eventually may be the vast majority of gatherings.

Now is the time for companies, event planners and speakers to start thinking ahead about the potential of augmenting their audience’s experience with virtual reality — and for businesses to take advantage of this cost-effective, highly engaging, entertaining and futuristic solution to meetings, trainings and events.

To read the full article please see original on Forbes.

Stay tuned for more information on the specific technologies for this project that will benefit our first responders when they use XR.

This project is financed with a grant from NIST’s PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH DIVISION and is awarded to CyberBytes Foundation (CBF) and XRSI jointly.

The Cyber Bytes Foundation (CBF), located at the Quantico Cyber Hub (QCH), was recently awarded a $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Science and Technology (NIST) to help create natural authentication methods for first responders using Augmented Reality (AR) systems.

Extended Reality (XR) technologies (virtual reality, mixed reality, and augmented reality) can be valuable tools to Public Safety Organizations (PSOs) in doing their jobs and accomplishing their missions. AR in particular has the potential to relieve first responders of having to remove their focus from the situation at hand to access information vital to doing their jobs. Given the sensitive data accessed and uniquely challenging environments that first responders operate in, these systems need to be secured.

“Augmented Reality is a technology that will fundamentally change the way we interact with data and First Responders, in particular, can really benefit from this new interaction,” says Joel Scharlat, Director of Operations for Cyber Bytes Foundation and Principle Investigator on this grant. “Law enforcement can view criminal history, EMS technicians can view a patient’s health information at a scene, and firefighters can consult real-time maps of building occupancy when responding to a building fire – all hands-free. We’re excited to be working with NIST on this grant and start driving the conversation on the security of immersive technologies.”

CBF has partnered with XR Safety Initiative (XRSI), a global non-profit organization focused on promoting privacy, security, and ethics in the XR domain. XRSI is at the forefront of this effort and is uniquely positioned to provide impartial, practical information about XR-related risks to individuals, corporations, universities, government agencies, and other organizations.

Read the press release on Cyber Bytes Foundation’s website.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today outlined its overarching vision of the wearables space while highlighting several significant Snapdragon Wear™ Platform milestones. In a press event, Qualcomm Technologies discussed its growing platform investments and announced the new Qualcomm® Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Program. The company also announced that more than 60 wearable industry leaders such as Arm, BBK, Fossil, Oppo, Verizon, Vodafone, and Zebra will participate in the program.

Rapid Wearables Growth as Industry Segments

The Wearables segment has been growing and segmenting at a rapid pace with products targeted for kids, teens, adults, and seniors across consumer and enterprise use cases.

“The wearables market grew 21% year-over-year and shows no signs of slowing down,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Research Manager, WW Mobile Device Trackers, IDC. “Innovative form factors continue to emerge as consumers demand new use cases in wearable devices. The smartwatch segment is going well beyond health and fitness tracking, expanding across consumer and enterprise segments, and further fueling growth of the category.”

Qualcomm Technologies’ Increasing Snapdragon Wear Investments

“Our Snapdragon Wear platforms are driving the industry, powering smartwatches for kids, seniors, and adults and smart trackers for pets and accessories,” said Pankaj Kedia, senior director & global head, smart wearables, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “We are significantly growing our investments in leading edge ground-up silicon, platforms, and technologies and plan to roll out new Snapdragon Wear platforms across segments over the next year to meet our long-term vision.”

Qualcomm Technologies is continuing to invest in new Snapdragon Wear platforms to meet the diverse needs of customers across a multitude of OSs with its unique hybrid architectural approach, range of software releases, and reference designs. “We envision a hyper segmented world of wearables,” Kedia continued, “we believe Qualcomm Technologies has an important role to play to accelerate this reality by bringing together our platforms and investments to the ecosystem.”

Over the last five years, the company has shipped 40+ million units across 100+ countries, collaborated with 75+ device manufacturers and 25+ service providers while shipping 250+ wearables products – that is one new product, on average, per week.

Announcing the Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Program

The wearables segment holds considerable promise but also presents daunting challenges to be addressed in the industry. To facilitate collaboration amongst companies and accelerate solutions to these challenges, Qualcomm Technologies launched the Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Program which is comprised of device manufacturers (ODMs), service providers, platform players, independent hardware and software vendors (IHVs and ISVs), and system integrators and will work together with OEMs to more easily develop and commercialize products and solutions.

The program brings together industry leaders to discuss industry trends, share new technology and product direction, hold training sessions, demonstrate concepts, launch products, and facilitate matchmaking sessions amongst the ecosystem players. The collective goal of the members is to accelerate the wearables segment by delivering differentiated experiences at lower development cost and faster production time.

“Qualcomm Technologies is actively collaborating with its customers and partners with the aim of meeting the ever-changing needs of the consumers,” added Kedia. “We are delighted to announce the Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Program today and have an ambitious set of activities planned. Our goal is to provide a vehicle in the industry where ecosystem members collaborate to deliver differentiated wearable experiences and inject new energy and innovation in this exciting space.”

“The wearables market continues to evolve across a range of form factors and use cases which require efficient performance for complex and immersive experiences,” said Ketan Shah, senior director of XR and wearables, Client Line of Business, Arm. “Arm is focused on providing the compute performance and security needed to enable next-generation wearable devices, and through the Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Program, we will work closely with the wider ecosystem to drive collaboration and change across the industry.”

“At Fossil Group, we are always striving for new innovation and increased performance in our products. Thanks to our continued partnership with Qualcomm and the launch of our upcoming smartwatches later this year, Fossil believes it’s bringing the best possible Wear OS smartwatch to the market this year,” said Chris Hartley, Director of Category Strategy – Wearables, Fossil Group, Inc.

“Verizon has been committed to growing the wearables industry, introduced various wearable products to help customers stay connected” said Farhana Chaudhry, Director of Product Management and Development at Verizon. “We are excited to see the launch of the Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Program, opportunity to collaborate with the broad ecosystem partners to continue to innovate and launch the diverse and innovative wearables products.”

“Vodafone is proud to participate in Qualcomm’s Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator programme, and its initiative to drive greater use and functionality of wearable consumer devices. Wearables are a part of the fabric of the next generation of telecommunications and will only be successful by combining the efforts of industry innovators in connectivity, semiconductors, hardware and user experience design. This combined effort will lead to innovations for consumers, such as Vodafone OneNumber, which enables wearable devices to connect without even needing a mobile phone,” said Phil Patel, Global Products & Services Director, Vodafone Group Services GmbH.

“Zebra Technologies has a long history of delivering innovative wearable solutions to meet the evolving needs of our Enterprise customers,” said Julie Johnson, vice president of product management, Zebra Technologies. “As we continue to work with our customers in established and emerging use cases, we look forward to working with Qualcomm Technologies.”

The Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Program is part of the Qualcomm® Advantage Network and is open to companies developing solutions based on the Snapdragon Wear platforms. The inaugural Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Summit will be held in Fall 2021.

The Executive Summary reads:

The time has come for a change of pace. The global face of XR in healthcare is evolving. The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in the use of XR in healthcare as providers are forced to accelerate their digital transformation journeys and adopt novel and innovative solutions to navigate the impact of the pandemic. A unique opportunity presents itself for the UK to lead this expanding market.

AR and VR have been revolutionising the global healthcare market and demonstrating impact, value and efficiencies for some time before the pandemic struck. The predicted growth of the AR healthcare market is expected to generate US$10 billion in revenues, with the VR Healthcare market reaching US$1.2 billion in 2024 (ABI Research Oct 7th, 2020). In the UK use-at-home market, The Times reported in January 2021 that the sales of VR headsets had risen by 350% as those trapped at home seek a safe way to escape the lockdown. At the start of last year, one in 17 UK households had a VR headset at home, according to Ofcom, up from one in 20 in 2018.

There is a nascent but world-class XR innovation emerging in the UK’s healthcare market, as cutting-edge research is undertaken in UK universities and ground-breaking innovation is happening in start-ups and SMEs. In addition, novel collaborations and trials are demonstrating the potential value and cost savings to be gained from the application of XR in healthcare and the impact on and improvement to people’s lives. Despite the market potential for the UK, the evidence generated is not being measured efficiently and the benefits, although becoming clearer, are not being valued to the extent needed to trigger the funding, investment and strategic interventions needed to grow a sustainable and thriving UK XR healthcare sector.

One of the biggest drivers within the NHS is to provide value for money. The health economics in this report emphasises the potential that XR offers in supporting healthcare services to deliver highly effective outcomes in a more cost-effective way. XR can be used to help patients face operations and treatments that they would otherwise avoid, this could lead to £2 million of possible savings per year. Delivering therapies remotely via VR can be 2-3 times cheaper than traditional rehabilitation, cut wait times, improve engagement and reduce the likelihood of symptoms exacerbating. Finally, XR can reduce costs to training, and improve overall surgical performance by as much as 230% versus traditional training methods. This evidence is a fundamental requirement for the health system and it is unlikely any XR solution can be adopted into clinical practice or attract the investment needed to scale without the data to support its effectiveness.

Research and development of XR is hampered by a fragmented ecosystem and the lack of opportunities for cross-sector collaboration. Pockets of innovation sit in industry, isolated from the clinicians or researchers needed to turn ideas into reality. There is, as yet, no marketplace for efficiently distributing XR in healthcare solutions. It is extremely difficult for products or experiences to convert into clinical trials to substantiate the value and impact. It is even harder to get in front of commissioners, procurers or purchasers.  Funded and market-ready solutions struggle to find a route to market, as, in order to get onto a procurement platform, XR solutions have to meet standards and assurances which currently are not fit for purpose for the unique applications of XR.

The aim of this report is to outline what we mean by XR in healthcare and how it is being implemented in the UK. It identifies the potential value of XR, explores the evidence that demonstrates its impact on human health and estimates the potential cost savings to the UK healthcare system. The report delves into use cases of XR in healthcare across a number of key application areas, including mental health and wellbeing, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, pain management, healthcare professional clinical skills training and patient education. Our goal is to showcase the people and projects innovating in this space and to demonstrate the potential value XR could bring to clinical and non-clinical settings. The report also highlights the unique collaborations emerging on the clinical front line, bringing clinicians, academics, gaming and XR companies and others together to address real needs within the health system.

More importantly, this report brings together for the first time a snapshot of XR in healthcare in the UK today, outlines the barriers to its growth and makes recommendations that will help government and public health services make informed decisions on future strategies. This will ensure the UK is in the best position to unlock the potential of XR in healthcare and ultimately improve patient outcomes and quality of life.

You can read all the sections online here. 

This technology makes it possible to superimpose a computer-generated image, graphic or 3D model on the surface of the real product, providing customers with assistance that allows them to better understand the received instructions.

What you can hear when AR technology is mentioned is the improvement of remote assistance or even the training of the workforce. Now another use of this technology comes in the form of AR manuals. Manuals of different products have always been of special importance especially because they are delivered immediately to customers, avoiding the various questions and problems that may be encountered for a particular product or service.

In fact, in the time we live in, where technology prevails in every aspect of life, we can freely say that these traditional manuals are going out of trends also because of the difficulty in understanding them. Ultimately, this technology is bringing a powerful wave of change in conveying the information we need in real time and in a more simplified way. All this is already achieved thanks to these AR based manuals which provide information in detail about the operation and maintenance of a specific product.

The article goes on to detail how technology is enabling this effective way of delivering manuals to customers by replacing traditional printed manuals with multiple texts and in most cases incomprehensible.