In this paper published in the International Journal of Geospatial Information special issue on “Efficient Capturing of 3D Objects at a National Level: With a Focus on Buildings and Infrastructure,” the authors present a taxonomy for 3D city model use cases based on their review of over 400 published works on the topic of using 3D city models.

The taxonomy distinguishes between use cases that visualize information and those that lead to other results (non-visualization). Of the 24 use cases involving visualization of 3D city data, the authors note that many could be adapted to involve one or more real world places using Augmented Reality-assisted visualization. But an even greater number of the use cases describe how having a 3D city model can be the basis for enhanced Augmented Reality experiences in urban environments. For example, use cases that involve visualizing human activity, wind fields, and air quality data may be the basis for suggested routes to take in a navigation use case.

This in-depth catalog could be inspiration for others to document use cases for Augmented Reality-assisted visualization.

AREA Founding Sponsor Member Atheer announced that it has raised $14 million in Series B financing. In the title post on the Wall Street Journal Daily Startup blog, the announcement that Signatures Capital and Streamlined Ventures led the round caught the eye of investors. The round also included Fang Group, FundersClub, RONA Holdings and Shanda Group. The new funding brings Atheer’s total raised to $25 million, including $2 million raised by gesture recognition software provider ONtheGO Platforms, which it acquired earlier this month.

This is on the heels of another announcement on November 18, 2015 that AREA Founding Sponsor Member APX Labs similarly closed a round of $13M financing for its smart glasses software platform.

At the conclusion of each year many groups attempt to predict the most important developments of the next year. Forbes has published on its blog a post contributed by Sarwant Singh predicting that Augmented Reality will go mainstream in 2016. Unfortunately, the brief analysis provided in the third of sixteen bullets on the topic of Augmented Reality focuses on Virtual Reality, demonstrating that the Forbes futurists themselves, assisted by the Visionary Innovation Group at Frost & Sullivan, need to spend a little more time studying the definitions of the terms they are using.

On the other hand, perhaps this is not a situation of incorrect terminology but the futurists are predicting Oculus (Facebook) will release a new Augmented Reality product in its Rift line in 2016, making the prediction correct, or less incorrect.

Unfortunately, the team developing these predictions also neglected to mention that enterprises will be actively adopting the technology and could be responsible, far more than consumers, for the growth of Augmented Reality in 2016.

Despite these weaknesses in the bullet about Augmented Reality, other predictions are also of interest to the readers of the AREA.

Over 20 years ago research projects demonstrated projection Augmented Reality to assist a desk worker but very few commercial or residential implementations were built and the technology seemingly lost in favor by comparison with mobile and wearable systems. Perhaps the tides are changing.

According to short analyses published on Wired UK website and on CBRonline news site, the US patent office has published patents granted to Amazon and Apple that build upon those early demonstrations. Amazon’s patent describes “a room equipped with computerized projection and imaging systems that enable presentation of images on various objects within the room to facilitate user interaction with the images and/or objects” while Apple’s uses two cameras to scan a room and then projects images onto objects detected.

The Apple patent also describes an “improved content projection device, which is aware of objects in its field of view, recognizes such objects as suitable for projection of content thereon.” Other research projects similar in design and purpose have been described in the published literature but remain uncommercialized.

It remains to be seen if the systems described in these patents are approaching the level of maturity that would be useful in enterprise environments, but others, such as OPS Solutions that provides Light Guide Systems, are proving that spaces in which objects are already well mapped are very suitable with current camera and projection technologies.

In a recent webinar produced by Harvard Business Review (HBR), co-authors Michael Porter and Jim Hepplemann, CEO of PTC, summarized concepts presented in their article entitled “How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Companies” and discussed the implications of these new technologies. The primary emphasis is on the use of sensors and other embedded technologies into products, and how by using the data generated by the connected products, companies can be more informed about how their customers are using the products.

The co-authors stress how important it will be for companies to embrace not only technologies but also organizational changes. Without both, the benefits of either are far less significant.

During the webinar (play the archive below), both Porter and Hepplemann repeatedly described how, using Augmented Reality as a UI, the assembly and use of smart connected products will become commonplace, reducing the need for training in complex procedures. The power of Augmented Reality can also be applied to increase end user customers’ ability to leverage new features in more complex and intelligent products as a result of the dynamic interfaces that AR-assisted systems can offer.

HBR provides a link to download the webinar slides.

Personality types are known to impact many aspects of our daily life, including user acceptance of having to wear unusual hardware for the purpose of having Augmented Reality experiences. A scientific publication on ResearchGate.com describes several studies conducted by Philipp Rauschnabel, Alexander Brem and Bjoern Ivens on the direct and moderating effects of human personality on the awareness and innovation adoption of smart glasses.

The study suggests that those with personalities that are open and extroverted are more likely to already be aware of smart glasses such as Google Glass. It follows naturally that those who perceive the potential for benefits and social conformity of smart glasses are more likely to adopt such wearables. According to the authors, the strength of these effects is moderated by an individual’s level of openness to new experiences.

Findings like these could help the development and validation of new processes that help AR project managers select the best users with which to work on enterprise Augmented Reality pilots, proofs of concept and introduction projects.

AREA member APX Labs recently announced the closing of an investment round with partners led by New Enterprise Associates. Other parties to the investment include GE Ventures, CNF Investments, Salesforce Ventures and SineWave Ventures.

According to a post on TechCrunch on the topic of the investment, GE is planning a large-scale deployment of the Skylight platform within a year. Skylight, APX Labs’ flagship product, runs on smart glasses such as Google Glass and Vuzix to control the display, camera, sensors and user inputs. Use cases include service and repairs to remote collaboration with experts.

The post also mentions that Salesforce, another APX Labs partner, sees smart glasses as a user interface for the Internet of Things, enabling visualization of key data and information in work environments.

Brian Ballard, CEO of APX Labs, expects the company to help enterprises improve workplace efficiencies across an expanding number of use cases.

In the 16th Century, Nicolaus Copernicus published works that began a revolution to which Lewis Richards, a researcher at the Leading Edge Forum, an independent research arm of CSC, compares the current changes underway in enterprise IT. In his post on the Leading Edge Forum blog, Richards explains how wearables, sensors and Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies are following the first wave of change (the “consumerization” in enterprise) caused by Bring Your Own Device policies.

Richards goes on to suggest that the second wave of consumerization of the enterprise IT (the introduction of consumer-grade wearables, sensors and the suite of experiences they enable) will accelerate “co-creation opportunities and empowerment options” in the workplace.

Furthermore, the technologies and the new powers they offer will have disruptive effect on traditional service integrator relationships as employees become more adept at creating higher-order systems. The challenge, Richards says, is that those in enterprise IT will need to educate and shape how these new capabilities are best used in businesses. 

The AREA seeks to participate in that change underway and to support the development of new opportunities at the lowest risk levels.

If you want to read more about the Copernican change, visit this page on Wikipedia.

Morpace, a market research company, and the University of Michigan-Dearborn conducted an online survey to identify how consumers think and feel about smart glasses technology. One thousand U.S.-based consumers responded to the survey conducted in October 2015. Morpace shared preliminary findings in a press release.

While only 8% of those surveyed are currently aware of this technology, respondents generally agreed with a statement that smart glasses could be of benefit in their daily lives.

Privacy concerns were the chief obstacle the respondents identified as a barrier to use of the technology in public. Although 11% said that they would use the technology in public places, over 35% felt that current models make wearers look strange.

In the workplace, perception about the use of technology for productivity is likely to result in different perceptions. However, privacy and embarrassment about looking awkward are issues to be addressed.

As smart glasses continue to rise in importance, so does the number of market research reports on the topic. According to a press release issued by RnRMarketResearch.com, it has released the “Global Smart Glasses Industry 2015 Market Research Report.”

The report provides an overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The report also covers development trends, competitive landscape analysis and reviews how smart glasses will evolve in different geographic regions.

Google, Apple, Samsung, Sony, Lenovo, Newmine, Baidu , Recon, ITheater, Vuzix, Gonbes, USAMS, TESO, Shenzhen Good Technology, Osterhout Design Group and AOS Shanghai Electronics are among the companies profiled.