Amid the whirring cacophony inside a coal-fired power plant, Eric Zakszewski peers into the side of a coal feeder to see that fuel is flowing properly on its way to a pulverizer. On this day, a flashlight isn’t his only tool. A small monocle hangs from his white hard hat in front of his right eye. On it, he can view a list of tasks and safety checks he is to perform without having to turn to a screen or clipboard.

“It’s like a powerpoint that is hovering in mid-air,” said Zakszewski, a 29-year-old power plant operator at We Energies’ Elm Road Generating Station near Milwaukee.

Zakszewski is among a group of utility workers who recently participated in an industry-backed study looking at the potential benefits and drawbacks of equipping employees with augmented reality (AR) devices, which layer virtual information into a user’s field of vision. A team from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) visited the We Energies coal plant last week to observe workers while they tried out various products.

“The potential uses of AR in the electric utility sphere are already in play,” Eric Bauman, a senior technical leader with EPRI, said. “It is being demonstrated for inspection tasks, performing work, training, and probably more. There is substantial interest amongst utilities in this technology.”

The technology is maturing and coming down in price as the utility industry faces a looming workforce challenge that will require it to hire and train thousands of workers in the coming years as aging workers retire. Still, more vetting is needed to make sure the devices actually help workers and also don’t create dangerous distractions.

AR: “It could be really useful”

Zakszewski performed a series of jobs inside and outside the We Energies plant last week while wearing two types of AR devices — RealWear, the monocle lens, and Microsoft’s HoloLens, a set of glasses.

“For the most part, my job is looking and observing,” Zakszewski said. “So, AR does obstruct it a little, but if you could have it off to the side it could be really useful.”

Besides scrolling through checklists, the devices will become more useful as more meters, poles, and other grid equipment is wired into the internet of things. With AR glasses, all that data streaming from these smart devices can be visualized, which is “absolutely part of the allure of AR,” Bauman said.

Brian Dixon, chief operating officer of Capital Innovators in St. Louis and head of the Ameren Accelerator, an energy technology startup accelerator, agreed. “Imagine somebody working for a utility in the field is able to look at the transmission wires or different types of large assets and get a perfect understanding through the data that’s being projected into their field of vision,” Dixon said.

Ameren, one of Illinois’ largest utilities, is among the companies exploring how AR gadgets can bring efficiency and safety to its operations.

“Ameren sees significant long-term potential in applying augmented reality technology to maintenance operations, as well as other aspects of our business,” said Steve Kidwell, Ameren’s vice president of corporate planning.

Over time, Kidwell predicts the devices will reduce costs and improve service while helping to train and keep workers safe in the field.

Products cost less, perform better

A 2016 EPRI report that reviewed existing research literature concluded that affordability is no longer an obstacle for utilities, as costs for the devices have come down. “More and more players are entering the marketplace. It is a vibrant area of technological development and experimentation,” Bauman said.

Vuzix, a developer based in Rochester, New York, is creator of the Blade, a $1,000 pair of AR glasses that work with Amazon’s voice-controlled Alexa platform. Designed to look like sunglasses, the Blade has received high praise from the technology press — The Verge called it the “next-gen Google Glass we’ve all been waiting for.”

But the company also produces the M-300, a sturdier device designed for industrial use that runs about $1,500. Instead of looking through glasses or a large pair of goggles, a user looks through a small monocle that mounts onto a hard hat. The company’s chief executive envisions a role for the product in the utility industry.

“You can literally just look at the meter, and have the meter reading captured on the device,” Paul Boris, Vuzix CEO, said. “You don’t get errors in transcription, you don’t have to tap the reader, you don’t even have to get close to it — you can literally be on the other side of the fence.”

Meanwhile, other utility hardware is getting smarter, expanding the potential uses of AR glasses to interact with equipment.

Ontario-based Hyperion Sensors, one of the first companies in Ameren’s startup incubator, developed fiber-optic sensors the size of human hair that can be strung into transformers and other high voltage equipment, making the “dumb” equipment smart and providing instant information about temperature and strain.

“Over the next 20 or 30 years, the idea is that this smart technology will be part and parcel of everything that gets connected to the grid,” Anselm Viswasam, CEO of Hyperion Sensors, said. “If you are going to use a solar panel and it’s going to supply power onto the grid. Then it will be necessary that it will have the smarts embedded into it.”

A tool for looming workforce challenge?

The utility industry faces some significant workforce challenges ahead as the baby boomers retire, which was highlighted by a 2017 Department of Energy utility workforce assessment. Few utility workers have the training or qualifications to move up the ranks as older workers retire, it concluded.

“Workforce retirements are a pressing challenge. Industry hiring managers often report that lack of candidate training, experience, or technical skills are major reasons why replacement personnel can be challenging to find—especially in electric power generation,” the Energy Department report said.

We Energies plant central scheduler Randy Sheck sees potential for using augmented reality to train and assist new workers. Utility workers routinely work 12-hour shifts, walk 5 or 6 miles and examine 300 pieces of equipment.

“You always have to be looking for new technology,” he said. “I think augmented reality may still be 5 or 10 years out, but it has a lot of potential. I see the value it can add for us in terms of daily maintenance.”

Nakazawa strives to illuminate how to drive leading experiences where the human, digital, and physical intersect, and how we can re-invent ways people come together to create, consume, and celebrate the digital experiences that constitute life as we know it, feel it, see it, and immerse in it.

In this interview Nakazawa talks about Atheer, their products, history and news, and goes on to discuss their working partnership with RealWear.

The full interview appears here.  See also the AREA profiles of Atheer and RealWear.

No. 1 – The world’s best-known brands will use enterprise AR to create and deliver their products and service their customers. Delivered via wearables like smart glasses, AR promises new levels of efficiency, service and quality that appears not only on the plant floor, but also throughout the entire supply chain. We are seeing large manufacturers moving beyond the pilot phase and adopting AR as part of a broader digital transformation strategy. In fact, PWC expects that 1 in 3 manufacturers will adopt AR/VR this year.

No. 2 – Service and logistics will driver broader AR adoption. Largely due to the intrinsic repeatability of their AR applications, field service and logistics are helping to move the market forward. This means that manufacturers should explore AR use cases involving their warehousing, material handling and equipment maintenance operations, where even a 10 percent efficiency gain can impact the bottom line or the ability to move production at a higher rate. For instance, workers can use AR on smart glasses to receive remote expert guidance during unplanned downtimes, or to attain step-by-step instructions during the picking process.

No. 3 – AR toolkits will simplify content creation. With the maturation of AR software development toolsets, there is a lower entry barrier for the knowledge required to build AR applications. Current toolkits offer drag-and-drop interfaces and templates, requiring little to no programming prowess. Between AR experiences being driven from Manufacturing Execution Systems and low/no-code authoring tools providing ways for designers and technicians to participate in the adoption and fine tuning of augmented reality, the time and complexity of adoption drops dramatically. With typically “non-technical” people creating new AR experiences, AR adoption will accelerate in the manufacturing realm and beyond.

No. 4 – Voice will be the primary AR interaction paradigm. The paradigm of Voice In, Image Out will be common in the age of AR. Gesture and touch AR interfaces aren’t exactly ideal for applications involving hands-on work, especially on the manufacturing plant floor. To keep workers free and nimble to perform their jobs, voice is emerging as the preferred method of AR interaction. We already see voice-powered smart assistants, like Amazon Alexa, gaining traction in consumer realm, so using voice in the enterprise is a natural trajectory, as many workers are already familiar with carrying out tasks using the technology.

No. 5 – Consumer AR investments will drive increased device options and experiences. There are many more exciting AR developments to come as adoption drives more investment into the tools and technology behind the AR industry. Behemoths like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Facebook are unveiling new AR toolkits and decimation tools that will lead to an explosion of AR, VR and MR content. For manufacturers, the availability and accessibility of this content will raise the bar (and expectation) for how we engage with workers through rich, real-time information that enables them to complete their tasks faster and with greater quality. The sky will be the limit.

Looking back at these five trends, it is important to note the underlying theme: AR in manufacturing is all about the future of work. Despite today’s emphasis on automation and robotics, people will continue to play a pivotal role in hands-on work. AR will bridge the gap between man and machine, equipping workforces with right information, at the right time, and in an actionable manner. Trends such as new toolkits, new use cases, new interaction paradigms and new content will continue to accelerate AR adoption – empowering workers and laying the foundation for digital transformation across entire organizations.

That was a key theme at the Spring 2018 Index AR Retreat for Utilities, an intimate gathering of industry executives and thought leaders who shared success stories about the important role AR is currently playing in their organizations and discussed ways to promote even broader industry adoption.

Featuring hands-on product demonstrations and forums for in-depth dialog, the event was the first of two such retreats now hosted annually by Index AR Solutions, a leading provider of AR applications for enterprise.

Several discussions explored how electrical utilities are facing strong downward pressure on revenues from non-traditional energy generators like solar and wind, along with rising demand for energy efficiency and conservation. Utilities are keen on finding innovative ways to boost operational efficiency to offset any decreases in revenue.

In addition, utilities – like many other industries – are faced with shifting demographics and a large percentage of their workforce approaching retirement. Recruiting, hiring, training, employee retention and knowledge transfer are more important than ever to establishing a quality workforce.

Index AR apps are delivered from a mobile tablet – enabling tribal knowledge and best practices to be shared with younger generations of workers through the modern learning tools they are accustomed to using.

Kevin DeGraw, Vice President of Corporate Operations Oversight at Ameren Corporation (NYSE: AEE), a large U.S. electric and natural gas utility, participated in a discussion during the Index AR retreat about solutions that can help address the pressing human resource challenges utilities face today.

“Index AR, and technologies such as AR/VR, give utilities the opportunity to engage the workforce in a way that they are not otherwise prepared to do, and can help utilities maintain or improve our costs so that we can keep rates affordable for our customers,” said DeGraw.

Together with teaming partner Newport News Shipbuilding (an AREA member), Index AR has developed and deployed more than 90 AR applications to solve enterprise challenges. A number of Index AR applications were demonstrated at the event, including the recently launched LineAssist SuperApp™, which uses AR to improve the safety, capability and productivity of electrical utility linemen in the field.

Index AR Retreats are specifically designed to promote dialog with client and partner attendees – enabling them to share implementation experiences and best practices in a spirit of collaboration. The Index AR Spring Retreat places special focus on utilities, while the Fall Retreat showcases multiple industries.

“Utilities are facing unprecedented top line and bottom line pressure in their core business,” said Scott Sommers, a former energy banker with more than 20 years working with large utilities, now serving as Vice President of Client and Corporate Development at Index AR Solutions. “Our Spring retreat really underscored how Index AR apps are a tangible investment that utilities can make to counter these significant challenges.”

Newport News Shipbuilding’s member profile can be viewed here.

“Augmented reality (AR) hasn’t truly permeated the mainstream consciousness yet, but the technology is swiftly being adopted by global industries. It’ll soon be unsurprising to find a pair of AR glasses strapped to a helmet sitting on the heads of service workers, and RealWear, a company at the forefront on developing these headsets, thinks it’s on the edge of something big.

RealWear has worked to ensure its headsets are both well-designed and easy to use. Think Google Glass, but bulkier and attached to a hardhat or cap. It’s immensely useful technology that can help workers access digital data without using their hands, stream video back to another team member, or receive guidance during training periods.

The latest version of its AR headset is called the RealWear HMT-1Z1, recently unveiled at Augmented World Expo (AWE) in California. It’s billed as the first “intrinsically safe” headset — which in layman’s terms means it’s explosion-proof.  The article goes on to explain how it fits in tight spaces, features voice activation and goes on to discuss the future of Augmented Reality.

The full article appears here.

Toshiba, which just launched its DynaEdge AR smart glasses in March, approached Atheer about making AiR Enterprise available on the new product. “We believe that this relationship will provide a huge boost for enterprise customers who have been waiting for exactly this kind of Windows 10-based enterprise AR solution from a world-class hardware manufacturer,” says Soulaiman Itani, co-founder and CEO of Atheer.

Meanwhile, Flex has licensed Atheer’s technology for its new Flex AR platform, which was shown at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show. The platform is set to launch this summer and will ship with a 30-day trial of AiR Enterprise.

According to Amar Dhaliwal, Atheer’s senior vice president for sales and marketing, all of this collaborative activity is to ensure that the company’s AR software is largely supported on all devices on the market.

“What we have found is that there is no one piece of AR hardware that is going to be ideal for every use case, even in a moderately complex enterprise organization,” says Dhaliwal. “If there are going to be lots of glasses out there and companies are using more than one type of smart glasses in their business, it’s important for us to be able to have the same single piece of software running across all of these different platforms.”

He adds that there are many options available now because the market is young, but Atheer expects that in a couple years’ time it will be able to zero in on the companies that will become dominant providers.

Dhaliwal says the focus on AR platform ubiquity is part of what sets Atheer apart from competitors and, in an increasingly crowded market, a focus on the interaction approach is also important. “We don’t believe there is one interaction model that is perfect,” says Dhaliwal, pointing to examples such as shop-floor noise interfering with voice commands or tools in hand interfering with gesture suggestion and device touchpads.

These real-world concerns are something that is not always easily tested in a Silicon Valley tech environment, but Atheer recently had the chance to put AiR Enterprise through the paces at this year’s Aerospace Maintenance Competition (AMC) at MRO Americas. American Airlines, which co-sponsored an AR event at the competition with Atheer, approached the AR provider about putting together an event at the competition. Dhaliwal says Atheer jumped at the chance to get its software in front of end users—especially workers with a very low tolerance for any technology that gets in the way of their job.

Read the full article here and see Atheer’s member profile page from the AREA here.

A key point from the start of the article is that companies should consider where we currently are in the AR adoption curve to ensure they are adopting the right solution at the right time. It’s also important to look at the interaction model, since the underlying technology for an AR solution requires the correct interaction model to make it useful.

The four common ways to interact with AR tech are listed as follows:

• Gestures = front-facing cameras on AR smart glasses allow for interpretation of a hand motion in front of them. Gestures are most useful for use in a loud or dirty environment. For optimal effectiveness, a precise and efficient hand-tracking algorithm is needed, providing a hands-free experience.
• Voice = voice commands provide a safe alternative for interacting with smart glasses when a user’s hands may be occupied with tools. Therefore, voice commands should be added to the smart glass system actions and developers should define voice commands.
• Head motion = in noisy situations, voice commands and / or gestures may be unsuitable, which is where head motion comes in handy. Workers will be able to switch between content with a simple head motion if the AR solution provides sphere view and multi-display technologies.
• Touch = support for industry-standard touchscreen devices should be provided by the AR solution to enable workers to access some AR features when they don’t have to wear gloves or carry tools.

The article emphasises the importance of the insight derived from work completed by employees using the AR solution. Taskflows are trackable AR instructions delivered to smart glasses which Atheer’s AiR Enterprise solution enables. A list of ways in which real business insight can be gained is given:

• Get real time info about which taskflows each worker has undertaken. Seeing demographics on usage of each taskflow can highlight problems in the workflow and avoid wasting time and energy in taskflows that aren’t being adopted.
• See how far each user gets in executing taskflows. This gives understanding of how the taskflows are being adopted and whether they need to be refined, increasing effectiveness.
• Identify how long it takes each user to execute a given task. Taskflow reporting reveals exactly when each step was started and any times the user had to pause the taskflow, which allows employers to see whether the taskflow is increasing efficiency of work or not.
• Ensure that all users are working with the latest version of taskflows. The solution must offer taskflow synchronisation, therefore all updates must be immediately made available to users. Having updated taskflow guidance means the jobs can be performed in the safest, quickest, and most effective way possible.
• Collect and store taskflow data locally. The solution should be designed to keep tracking the use and effectiveness of a given taskflow even when the smart glasses are offline.

Instructions for achieving the best success in the testing of your business’s AR system are as follows:

• Make sure that AR devices are deployed to a small group of users in a pilot test first.
• Be proactive about offering feedback to the AR hardware / software provider.
• Pay close attention to reliability during trial period, and have high standards about this.
• Don’t neglect the below process for deploying an AR solution to employees in a way that will deliver the maximum ROI.

The process for deploying an AR solution is listed as follows:

1. Define the business problem you want to tackle using AR.
2. Define your use case without limits.
3. Identify the right problem – this is important.
4. Detail your current state.
5. Obtain data about how well things work (or don’t work).
6. Recognise that one size does not fit all.
7. Make your assessment of your current state as broad as possible.
8. Try it and measure the results in the lab or the field.
9. Learn and refine from your trials.
10. Plan for success by involving users early.

The article states that while 3D printing is becoming more entrenched in the aerospace industry, some aircraft manufacturers and airliners have embraced the technology more enthusiastically and for a longer time than others.

Boeing has been on board with 3D printing for years, and since 2015 has been relying on a company called Morf3D to produce 3D printed aluminum and titanium components for its satellites and helicopters.

Morf3D was formed in 2015 and has been working for Boeing since its beginning, and now Boeing has responded by investing in the startup.

The investment will allow Morf3D to collaborate with Boeing to further develop manufacturing processes and engineering capabilities. Morf3D’s technology involves the creation of lighter, stronger 3D printed aerospace components.

“Developing standard additive manufacturing processes for aerospace components benefits both companies and empowers us to fully unleash the value of this transformative technology,” said Kim Smith, Vice President and General Manager of Fabrication for Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Boeing Additive Manufacturing leader.

Morf3D is full of metallurgy experts who use a new set of additive manufacturing design rules to advance 3D printing and accelerate its commercialization. The company’s software, combined with engineering expertise, significantly reduces mass and increases the performance and functionality of manufactured parts.

“We are excited to be a distinguished and trusted partner of Boeing’s additive manufacturing supplier base, as we continue to industrialize our processes for the high-rate production of flight-worthy additively manufactured components,” said Ivan Madera, CEO of Morf3D. “This investment will enable us to increase our engineering staff and expand our technology footprint of EOS M400-4 DMLS systems to better serve the growing demands of our aerospace customers.”

The Series A funding round was co-led by Boeing HorizonX Ventures, the company’s venture capital arm. The HorizonX Ventures investment portfolio consists of companies specializing in technologies for aerospace and manufacturing innovations, including autonomous systems, energy storage, advanced materials, augmented reality systems and software, machine learning, hybrid-electric and hypersonic propulsion, and Internet of Things connectivity.

“As innovative companies continue to revolutionize technologies and methods, we are proud to invest in the rapidly growing and competitive additive manufacturing landscape,” said Steve Nordlund, vice president of Boeing HorizonX.

Find out more about Boeing on their AREA member profile page – Boeing member profile

Early adoption in the enterprise

Samsung NEXT Ventures director Ajay Singh believes there’s “good energy” in the AR ecosystem, with lots of traction among developers — many of whom are playing around with the latest dev kits and are excited by the potential of the technology. But he notes that energy and early developer traction has yet to translate into much of a market for AR applications, particularly in the consumer market.

Where early adoption is taking hold is in the enterprise, as large businesses are testing out ways they can drive efficiencies by providing workers with real-time information. The return of Google Glass in a special Enterprise Edition, along with the rise of smart glasses and wearable AR more generally, has been a boon for AR adoption as a business tool.

For applications such as manufacturing, warehousing, and field service in particular, wearable-based AR solutions can translate into double digit percentage productivity gains, according to Upskill chief strategy officer Jay Kim.

Upskill’s Skylight AR technology offers tools for providing contextually relevant real-time data and supplemental information in the wearer’s field of view, while users continue their work in a factory, warehouse, out in the field, or wherever they might be.

Kim, who sits on the board for the Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA), adds that companies like Boeing and General Electric — both clients of Upskill — pour enormous resources into chasing operational efficiency improvements of just a few percentage points, but at scale those improvements can result in game-changing numbers for them.

Talespin CEO Kyle Jackson says his immersive technology company has also been getting AR development work related to efficiency improvements. For example, one telecom company contracted with them to build an AR tool to support and reinforce technical knowledge in field workers.

The case against consumer AR

While some businesses are finding interesting use cases for the technology, the consumer side of the equation is a different story.

Singh, for instance, thinks too many developers are conducting their experiments in the entertainment space. He argues this is ill-advised because there’s not yet a way to effectively monetize consumer AR apps that haven’t reached massive popularity.

“There is no monetization unless there is an advertising model that comes in, because no consumer at the end of the day wants to pay for anything,” he said. But for advertising to work, you need millions or tens of millions of users, which is a tall order for AR developers in these early stages.

That said, some use cases are finding a bit of traction outside of the enterprise. Pokémon Go is the most obvious example, although it’s essentially a location-based game with some light AR elements.

Exercise game Zombies, Run! offers a more concrete use of AR, albeit solely in audio form, to motivate its many users to keep running. Meanwhile, Ikea has found success with an AR app that helps users visualize how furniture will look in their homes. And Google Translate has a real-time visual translation tool that can be a great help in translating between languages with different character sets — like Chinese to English, for instance.

Samsung NEXT business development and product strategy manager Jacob Loewenstein thinks the first big emerging success in consumer AR is personal cosmetic augmentation, such as Instagram or Snapchat filters. Users are adopting these filters to make themselves look different, share a laugh with friends, or visualize how new makeup and hair stylings affect their appearance.

Still, there are some barriers to consumer adoption. Unlike VR, mobile AR requires no additional hardware for use, but there’s an inherent friction keeping some from trying the latest mobile AR applications — namely, that they must open an app in AR mode, raise their hand, and keep holding the phone in front of them while using the software.

“It looks a little goofy,” says Singh, and it takes extra effort to do, “so unless there’s real usability it won’t really stick.”

And if the end-user doesn’t feel that they’re getting a worthwhile return on investment — whether that’s effort, time, or money — then the developer won’t get a return on their investment either.

Design limitations in AR

Everyone consulted for this article agreed that the bulk of AR software development is still in the experimental stage. Most developers are exploring the possibilities of this new medium rather than making polished products.

“There are no guidelines out there,” says John Buzzell, president of immersive experience lab You Are Here. “There are no accepted practices yet.”

All these bespoke, experimental designs add yet another hurdle for AR users to overcome. And they also make it harder for both developers and the businesses that hire them to scope out projects.

To date, most AR applications have required the use of markers to act as reference points and hooks for virtual objects and visualizations, although that’s beginning to change. Now multiple AR platforms have built-in capabilities to display virtual objects on horizontal, vertical, and sometimes uneven planes without meeting any markers.

Loewenstein believes that change could be huge for the AR ecosystem, because it opens new doors for developers to try new things. It also reduces friction for users who might otherwise get frustrated by the limitations of static marker-based AR.

AR today is largely used for visualization in various forms, including data and analytics, furniture placement, cosmetics, toys, building models, training materials, and so on. These use cases are valuable, especially in the enterprise, but they barely scratch the surface of the technology’s potential. Currently there’s no support for persistence or shared experiences, as objects are stored locally on the user’s device.

Loewenstein sees persistence as a challenge many in the industry are working on. “The core AR SDKs don’t necessarily enable people to experience the same thing,” he explains. “They both produce these point clouds and the devices don’t know because they’re looking from different angles — the point clouds have produced actually the same thing from different angles.”

Nor do they have a common point of reference, he continues. “It’s not like when I see the room and I put the ball on the chair, that’s basically largely being stored locally. So it’s my room in my chair, not our room.”

Limited budgets limit possibilities

There are certain limitations inherent in the platforms currently in use by AR developers, but they are also being stymied by early adopters not thinking big enough or being afraid of investing too much in this developing sector.

Buzzell says some of the complexities and uncertainties around AR have led to cautious, unimaginative project briefs from many of his enterprise clients.

“I think a lot of people are making these investments based on curiosity or kind of fear of being left behind,” he suggests. “We’re starting to see signs of improvement, but for businesses I think they have trouble figuring out how much it costs, how much to pay, whose budget does it come out of?”

Usually the answer comes from marketing departments, as they have the money and the pressure to try new things that could attract and engage customers. But the budgets themselves tend to only be five or six figures, according to Buzzell.

That puts pressure on AR developers to work magic with small teams and short development cycles, which limiting their possibilities. Projects are further held back by a lack of imagination or knowledge from enterprise clients regarding what AR can do or what it might be useful for.

Everyone we spoke with stressed that the pace of AR’s growth will be dictated not just by the level of investment from big tech companies driving new hardware and dev toolkits, but from businesses hiring AR developers to build actual, real-world applications based on the technology.

A market in transition

The AR sector today is seen by insiders as being in transition, both due to the myriad problems still yet to be solved and new technologies on the horizon.

In that way, the market is similar to what mainframes, mini-computers, and DIY kit computers were in the 1960s and 70s: a revolution in the making that could change how we interact with the world.

Jackson thinks we’re a year or two from having headsets on the market that offer the fidelity necessary to begin transforming how people work, think, and entertain, while others put large-scale transformation further out.

Developers are excited about mixed-reality headsets like the Microsoft HoloLens, which can offer immersion and shared experiences without making people feel isolated or inhibited in crowded public spaces like trade shows and retail centers.

Meanwhile, new use cases continue to emerge. Kim gives the example of a stripped-back form of smart glasses that conform to the style and profile of regular corrective lenses and frames, at the expense of things like display acuity.

He believes these could find adoption in services and retail industries, as well as other public-facing jobs where representatives might benefit from the extra information they could have available while talking to customers.

Whatever comes next, much of the attention of insiders and outsiders alike will be on advancing the technology and searching for a killer app that makes AR take off in a big way. For Buzzell, that killer app might not be just one thing.

“When the smartphone came out Steve Jobs famously said it’s an internet communications device, it’s a personal messaging device, it’s a phone, it’s a camera,” he explains. By the same token, perhaps, AR’s killer app could ultimately be its versatility and utility as a veritable Swiss army knife of productivity, learning, and entertainment.

The original article from Samsung NEXT can be seen here.

Read the member profile of our member Upskill quoted in the article.

PTC today announced its collaboration with Boston Children’s Hospital, the number one pediatric hospital in the United States, to explore the use of augmented reality (AR) to help children with autism and related disorders communicate and learn more effectively.

The intersection of healthcare and technology is only beginning, and we are excited that PTC, a global leader in IoT and AR technology, is working with us to explore different use cases. Augmented reality addresses two of the biggest challenges facing a child with autism: communication and attention,” said Dr. Howard Shane. “With AR, a child with autism could ‘see’ a cup become a spaceship and engage in pretend play, or ‘see’ the steps to brush their teeth right in the context of their own physical environment. Simple tasks that are challenging for those with ASD can be shown and communicated with AR in a way that is more meaningful to them.”

A team of PTC employees volunteered countless hours to research and understand autism and the requirements for an effective AR solution. Once the team understood how to best develop applications for an autistic child, they quickly reached a project milestone by completing a prototype solution. In the next phase, an app, created for children with autism and a developmental age of three to five years old, will be clinically tested and evaluated for continued improvement. Dr. Shane will discuss the project in more detail for media and analysts in a session at the upcoming LiveWorx conference held in Boston on June 17-20^th.

The full press release can be read here.

PTC’s AREA member profile can be read here.