In this eBook you’ll learn how to:

Re-imagine the way that you perform Maintenance and Repair Operations (MRO),

Mitigate the risks of an aging workforce,

Ensure expertise is easily delivered to the point of need,

Improve productivity, accuracy, quality, and safety.

“68% of Aviation industry survey respondents will be making investments into wearable or handheld devices over the next three years – suggesting that the industry is already aware of the value that these technologies can provide.”

The ebook can be downloaded here.

It’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to figure out what’s just a flash in the pan and what’s worth investing your money in. In this blog, Advantage AHCI aims to help you do exactly that – as they tell you about the five technologies which will change the construction sector forever.

Drones

When a camera is attached to one of these aerial vehicles, it allows for site managers and teams to not only receive real-time progress updates but also to check for and monitor health and safety hazards they may not have otherwise been able to spot. So significant is their anticipated impact that US start-up company, Skycatch, have made supplying drones to construction projects their primary focus. Furthermore, from a marketing perspective, being able to use drones to capture time-lapse footage of schemes being constructed is a brilliant calling card for surveyors and agents.

3D printing

3D printing has already made a big splash, but many people believe that we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of its capabilities. One Chinese construction company has started building houses using a giant version of the technology, spraying layers of cement and construction waste to create them. Many in the industry are convinced that this could, eventually, help to solve the global housing crisis – reducing the time and costs involved with building new homes.

AR & VR (incl. BIM)

Augmented and virtual reality are already revolutionising many sectors, but their effect on the world of construction is set to be huge. Thanks to this advanced technology, construction managers will be able to oversee every element of a project on as granular a level as necessary – aiding with health & safety, co-design, digital job guidance, progress monitoring and more.

Additionally, BIM (building information modelling) is already making waves in the construction industry, providing contractors, developers and professional teams with the ability to conduct virtual walk-throughs of projects. It’s started to replace traditional blueprints and is slated to transition from 3D to 5D in the very near future.

Carbon nanotubes

Engineers have created this incredibly thin, lightweight material which – contrary to what you might think – can be used to add greater strength and density to metal, wood and glass. Despite being only a nanometre (one-billionth of a metre!) in thickness, the carbon walls which the tubes create have the highest strength to weight ratio of any material on earth. This could streamline the construction process at breakneck speed, making buildings faster and easier to erect.

Smart H&S gear

From responsive clothing to “smart” hard hats, PPE has had a 21st-century makeover and is now poised to keep on-the-ground teams even safer. The “Smart Helmet” is a piece of wearable tech from Uvex which is equipped with special lenses, 4D augmented reality and more – meaning that its wearers can be warned of potential hazards, and be given detailed information about their surroundings.

The Upskill team sat down with Eric Mizufuka, Product Manager for the Moverio business and Jay Kim, Upskill’s Chief Strategy Officer to talk about the history of Upskill’s partnership with Epson, and what the launch of these new smart glasses means for enterprises looking to adopt AR.

The interview covers:

1. How did it all start?
2. What went into getting the second generation Moverio, the BT-200 to market?
3. In what ways does this new Moverio BT-350 ANSI Edition really amp things up for enterprises?

You can read all the answers in their Q&A Session here.

These disruptive technologies from enhanced artificial intelligence accessibility, to the rise of augmented and virtual reality, contribute massively to game-changing ideas that are ready to bring a ground-breaking change in the way business enterprises function. This year, we will see these trendy technologies dictate how business function and what new products and services will be offered to the customers in the near future.

On the list are:

1. Citizen AI: Artificial Intelligence to Welfare Business & society
2. Augmented Reality
3. The Internet of Things
4. Cloud Technology
5. Cyber security
6. Machine learning
7. Voice-controlled chatbots
8. Blockchain

While VR never panned out as the major marketing boon that it was touted to be two years ago, AR is trending strong in nearly all industries.

Much of its AR’s marketing prominence was derived from the Pokemon Go craze that swept the world in 2016, amassing more than 650 million downloads in its first week.

Since then, AR has continued bolstering innovative marketing efforts across a myriad of niches. One of the more successful examples came from Ikea; the brand developed an AR app that enabled shoppers to place furniture in their home before committing to a purchase. Additionally, makeup brand L’Oréal also launched an augmented reality appfor its product lines.

Both examples mark an important trend in innovative marketing as this type of “phy-gital” merger provides a deeply engaging experience for consumers. The personal intimacy in which people use such applications naturally helps to create brand advocates and strong word-of-mouth marketing.

In case you’re not convinced of this trend, consider the fact that Apple has doubled-down on augmented reality with its AR-capable iPhone X and its yet-to-be-released AR headset.

As this type of tech continues to leak into the mainstream, enterprises should be gearing up to create branded content for the medium.

The term AR has several definition gradations, but it essentially combines data from the physical world to the one that was created with digital tools. The user, therefore, sees reality being supplanted with computer-generated information. This new technology, called augmented reality, blurs the line between what’s real and what’s computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel, and smell.

Augmented Reality often gets confused with Virtual Reality (VR). However, while VR involves the user wearing a helmet or goggles to immerse themselves within an entire virtual world, AR incorporates elements of the real world along with the virtual world. One major problem with VR is that it takes the user to a desolate space. This is where AR works its magic by showcasing a composite view. AR can be achieved merely with the use of a smartphone which displays elements of the virtual world, making the technology accessible to a broader range of people.

AR will merely revolutionize the structure of commerce. Furthermore, AR will take over the lion’s share of the market totalling over $120 billion by the year 2020.

Augmented Reality enables consumers to experience what they would in a brick-and-mortar store, all from the comfort of their home. While consumers have perused and purchased goods from their smartphones, the process of having to enter credit card information before purchase often led them to abandon their shopping. With the integration of Augmented Reality in the shopping process, consumers can try the product at home via their mobile devices and in the process spend a more significant amount of time interacting with the product.

The higher level of engagement that Augmented Reality endears results in consumers being more invested in the product, with a sunk cost fallacy concerning time coming into play. Augmented Reality can eliminate guesswork or uncertainty that often comes into play when one purchases products online.

AR still being a relatively new technology, provides customers with a feeling of being on the cutting edge with experiences giving products and services in retail a sizeable advantage over their competitors. The buzz and word of mouth virality that is generated by experiences using AR help acquire more customers.

The use of geo-technology can be integrated with AR to incentivize people for coming to specific locations and availing rewards. AR helps provide retailers with the ability to add a layer of gamification and social engineering atop the shopping experience, making it more immersive and interactive. A significant drawback of this in AR is that refining this technology requires a developer team pushing out constant updates which can tentatively lead to consumers ditching the app if it doesn’t fulfil their needs at the moment.

As opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach, AR provides endless customization for mobile commerce. From choosing the right size of clothing to running promotional campaigns via Android or iOS applications, AR does it all. The role of Augmented Reality, however, is not limited to any one industry. The use of this technology also applies to industries such as manufacturing, education & training, travel & tourism.

As we see today, customers are becoming more demanding and sophisticated with the growth of the production market. Fortunately, AR can assist retailers and businesses with a compelling solution to this demand. Coupling AR with marketing strategies could help early adopters of the technology provide an unparalleled immersive experience for customers and help give retailers an edge over their competitors. This seems to be an excellent time for businesses to have a full AR strategy to make sure they don’t fail to keep up with the commerce revolution

“Our first AR/VR standard represents an important step in addressing key emerging technology areas,” said Brian Markwalter, senior vice president of research and standards, CTA talking about the inclusion of the AR/VR standards: “The industry created this standard to build upon definitions created by CTA’s AR/VR Working Group that provide consumers insight on the broad range of technologies and experiences available. With this standard, the industry has created a blueprint to more effectively support AR/VR technologies and bring them to a broader market.”

Scope AR, known for their work on an industry AR platform for real-time remote assistance and AR guided smart instructions, have been actively involved in pushing the limitations of the technology further. Montgomerie, commented on the CTA standards saying: “While the enterprise is currently where the use cases and initial revenue are coming from, it will be advances in consumer hardware that have the economies of scale to pay for the innovation.

“However, there is still a lot of confusion among everyday consumers when it comes to understanding the differences between ‘mixed reality’ vs. ‘merged reality’ vs. ‘augmented reality’ vs. ‘virtual reality,’ not to mention the various capabilities of different HMDs.” Montgomerie explains: “This is why we 100% applaud the CTA for taking a stance and offering to standardize such terms, since eliminating this confusion in the industry can only help drive adoption from consumers and enterprises alike. It’s a big step forward for the industry overall and a sign of its growth and maturity.”

Back in June of this year Montgomerie talked about Apple’s ARKit 2.0 commenting on how the advancements in the platform and technology were steps in the right direction helping to move the industry towards the dream of delivering the full potential that AR has to offer.

The CTA free standard library is available online for free and will continue to grow to provide further support and transparency for users on the rapidly growing technologies that it covers. This year’s CTA Sales and Forecasts reported that VR has become a $1 billion (USD) sector within the U.S alone with a projected 4.9 million units to be sold within 2018.

With AR spending expected to hit an estimated $60 billion in 2020, organizations across industries are seeing the value in implementing more interactive technology. Showpad is the first and only sales enablement provider to offer AR functionality, enabling salespeople to deliver more immersive buyer experiences. Using Augmented Reality, sellers can transform how buyers learn about their product portfolio by projecting virtual products within the context of their actual environment.

Our Augmented Reality functionality delivers the buyer experience of the future – it’s visual, interactive and immersive,” says Pieterjan Bouten, CEO and co-founder of Showpad. “We’re empowering salespeople to not only tell buyers about their products, but also to virtually engage with them for a deeper level of understanding. We’re excited to be the first to deliver this functionality to the sales enablement industry and support our customers as they compete in the digital world.”

Showpad will use Apple’s ARKit in the Showpad iOS app, allowing users to project 3D models in a real, physical environment. The Showpad iOS app enables sales teams to demonstrate the actual dimensions and features of products within the context of their environment, anywhere and anytime. Marketers reduce cost and time managing content by centralizing and managing models all within the app.

“We wanted to help our customers with large complex physical products not only tell prospects about their solutions through great digital content, but be able to show them through a truly immersive buying experience,” adds Louis Jonckheere, CPO and co-founder of Showpad. “Buyers want greater context and more information in their purchase experience, and AR enables them to see exactly what they’re getting. Now, they can have deeper, more interesting conversations about even the most complex products by seeing them in the context of their own environment.”

Onkos Surgical is a surgical oncology company that is incorporating various cutting-edge technologies into comprehensive solutions that enable oncologists to improve performance in the surgical suite.

Insight Medical seeks to apply its Augmented Reality Visualization and Information System (ARVIS) technology to the initiative. Currently under development, ARVIS has tracking and visualization capabilities that would enable surgeons to make precise and efficient execution of surgical plans. It uses a headset with the ability to project virtual models of the patient’s anatomy into the surgeon’s field of view during the procedure, thus showing anatomical structures that otherwise are obstructed.

In addition, ARVIS would enable virtual models of the implants or instruments to be projected so that the surgeon can see their relationship to the hidden anatomical structures.

With the advancements in augmented reality and low-cost computing, healthcare providers (HCPs) and pharma companies alike can leverage interactive marketing methods to virtually reach the patient in their time of need with treatment and prevention information. Here are three ways in which AR marketing will enhance the patient experience in the future:

Dynamic Interactive Learning

Patients often struggle to grasp the complex concepts of their conditions in a 2D learning format. Printed materials and even video can lack the immersive engagement needed for a patient to truly understand the depths of their diseases and how best to treat them. By immersing the patient in AR content – such as looking at a skin condition overlaid on their actual arm through a pair of smart glasses – knowledge becomes ingrained because the patient is involved in the learning. In addition to learning about the condition, the patient can practice treatment options with augmented reality. For instance, the patient can walk through the application of a topical ointment overlaid on their arm in real time. This reduces errors in treatment and improves patient confidence.

Prosthetics And Implant Virtual Experiences

It can be unnerving for a patient to deal with a major catastrophe such as the loss of a limb. In these times, empathy and guidance are critical to the patient’s mental and physical well-being. One example of empathizing with patients and immersing them in the experience is to allow them to use AR to overlay prosthetics and other medical implants (facial or other) to understand the impact and outcome of such a life-changing event. This provides comfort by giving the patient a sense of control and choice over the outcome in an otherwise uncontrollable situation.

Product Visualization And Advertising

Patients can be overwhelmed when trying to understand and select the correct over-the-counter medication in a supermarket or pharmacy. Without knowing dietary restrictions, drug interaction information and side effects at a glance, they can make incorrect selections, leading to further medical issues. Soon, consumers will be able to interact with products in the store simply by looking at them through smart glasses or their phone. By providing consumers with an engaging and immersive experience, pharma companies are able to distinguish their brands and create stronger bonds and loyalty going forward.

In summary, the need for more immersive and self-sustaining patient engagement is top of mind for patients and HCPs. Rising healthcare and pharmaceutical costs coupled with the increase in chronic illnesses creates an opportunity for the emergence of a new model. As marketing professionals, we have a unique opportunity to leverage AR in our marketing and content strategies to drive deeper patient engagement while showing empathy, driving brand awareness and improving lives. With the improvement in smart glasses and immersive AR applications, the market is primed to evolve into this new mode of health care.