Augumenta, a company supplying Augmented Reality applications and development tools to organizations that use Smartglasses, are developing AR applications with the introduction of Augumenta Studio.

This is a cloud-based tool which allows developers to quickly design AR applications for smartglass-equipped workers using pre-built templates, libraries of control elements such as meters and gauges, and Augumenta’s virtual surface tools and gesture-control software.

Augumenta Studio supports the application design for the Augumenta SmartPanel application template. It allows workers with Smartglasses can see and operate virtual control panels for machines that appear as a blank surface to others. It’s used to set-up the virtual control panel, providing highly configurable and flexible human-machine interaction for industrial, commercial and IoT applications.

Tero Aaltonen, Co-Founder and CEO of Augumenta says, “Augmented Reality provides manufacturing organizations with real-time access to critical factory data and the ability to control machines and production lines without accessing a physical control station, resulting in shorter problem-solving times and greater shop floor efficiency.”

The Augumenta SmartPanel and SmartAlert application templates give enterprise customers and developers an unprecedented level of flexibility paired with privacy and security. Displays are completely configurable and only an authorized smartglass user is able to view data and controls. Displays also can contain different information and controls based on the user’s role. This is useful not just in industrial applications but also in operating medical monitoring and diagnostic systems.

An article released this week by VR Room discusses the companies with heavy investment in Augmented and Virtual Reality. Facebook gets a mention, as does Venture capital firm Rothenberg Ventures who it is claimed has made 32 investments in the industry.

Worldwide revenues for the Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality market are projected to approach $14 billion in 2017, according to research by the IDC. But that’s forecast to explode to $143 billion by 2020.  Increased investment is leading to hiring sprees for AR/VR jobs.

The article provides graphs to show which companies have invested the most in AR/VR investments and acquisitions.  Additionally, there is a graph showing the most AR/VR job listings on LinkedIn such as Microsoft and INTEL.

This article with the graphs can be seen and read in full here.

An article on Enterprise Innovation Net speaks of 5 technologies that are transforming and disrupting the future of production. Included in the report are Wearables and Augmented Reality, the Internet of Things, Advanced Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and 3D Printing. The full report can be read here, however, the wearables and Augmented Reality section connected with future production will be of most interest to our readers and is reproduced below:

Wearables and Augmented Reality (AR)

Technology for Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) is disrupting the market and the article says it could become the next computing platform, following personal computers and smartphones. These technologies fundamentally shift the way that information is relayed to the user, offering immediate access to critical data.

Wearables, AR and VR present valuable use cases for quality inspection, work instructions, training, workflow management, operations and safety, logistics and maintenance.

Wearables can offer value across multiple dimensions in production:

• Productivity improvements through communication, data digitalization and IoT integration
• Health and fitness wearables will lead to improved health, fewer safety incidents and reduced insurance premiums.
• AR and wearables will lead to improved quality through remote verification, automatic mistake proofing and live, step-by-step instruction/documentation
• VR and wearables will lead to significant reduction in workforce training costs and increased training effectiveness.
• VR will be an integral part of design methodology and design for manufacturability, reducing time to market for new products.

Industries with a high labour cost or high cost of mistakes have the greatest potential to achieve a significant return on investment with these technologies disrupting industry.

In a recent report released this week, QY Research released a market report on the Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality App Market.  Major players included in the report are Aurasma, Blippar, Catchoom, DAQRI and Wikitude. Catchoom and DAQRI are members of The AREA.

This report has been segmented based upon applications, end-users, technology and geography.

The Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Apps research report also offer comprehensive assessment of the AR and VR Apps Market and consists of historical data, scope, significant approaches and statistical data of the global market.

Some highlights from this report include:

• A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent market.
• Important changes in market dynamics
• Market segmentation up to the second or third level
• Historical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volume
• Reporting and evaluation of recent industry developments
• Market shares and strategies of key players
• Emerging niche segments and regional markets

This report also contains and evaluates the range of factors of the Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Apps industry, such as definition, demands, share, analysis, supply, sales, size, specification, forecast trends, production, classification, industry policy, news and application. This report will also provide significant and reliable information on the market clearly in structed format and offers a key manufacturer of the products, applications, DROS and others.

AREA Member BrainXChange has summarised for their readers information from a webinar “What’s Next: Preparing Your Organization for Enterprise Wearables.”  Speakers on the webinar were:

Chris Croteau, General Manager of Head-worn Devices at Intel

Jay Kim, Chief Strategy Officer of Upskill (formerly APX Labs)

BrainXChange have prepared 3 takeaways from the webinar:

1. Know where you’re coming from to get to where you’re going

2. Start with structured information within your current systems of record

3. Take a layered approach to security

The full summary by BrainXChange can be read in full here.

One of the world’s oldest technology companies is investing in the Virtual Reality market by becoming an investor in The Venture Reality Fund.

HP Tech Ventures which is a new corporate venture arm of HP have recently joined the VR Fund as an investor. HP Tech Ventures have become one of the most active investors in Augmented Reality, VR and Mixed Reality start-ups.

According to the article released this week the VR Fund will be providing HP with early access to leading AR, VR and MR technologies with commercial applications in HP’s target markets which include office, retail, health care, manufacturing and education. This investment means that the VR Fund in turn will benefit from HP’s product portfolio and reach.

In a statement from Marco DeMiroz, Cofounder and General Partner of The VR Fund said “HP has a rich history of delivering innovative technology and was an early believer in the vast potential for mix reality to transform consumer and commercial markets. We are excited to have HP Tech Ventures as a key investor in our fund and look forward to working closely with their team to introduce new applications for corporate innovation and productivity, while enhancing the customer experience and product development.”

In 2016 Venture capital investments in AR and VR reached £1.8 billion and according to the article Goldman Sachs estimates this market to reach $80 billion by 2025. VR Fund is part of HP’s growing network of partners developing next generation Mixed Reality applications, head-mounted displays and mobile solutions and services.

This two-day Emerging Technologies event was organized by Chariot Solutions, an IT consulting company located in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. It included a keynote by Augmented Reality Pioneer Blair MacIntyre.  Other speakers were:

Monica Beckwith (JVM performance consultant at Oracle)

Andrea Goulet (CEO at Corgibytes)

Yehuda Katz (Co-Creator of Ember.js)

Jessica Kerr (lead Engineer at Atomist)

Jake Wharton (Android Engineer at Square)

Augmented Reality Pioneer, Blair MacIntyre, kicked off the day one activities with a keynote address entitled The Web as Platform for Augmented Reality Experiences. MacIntyre defined Augmented Reality as “mixing media with a person’s perception of the world registered in 3D, in real time.”  MacIntyre explored the past, present, and possible future of augmented reality from Ivan Sutherland’s The Ultimate Display in 1968 to head mounted displays that could one day look like regular glasses.

For a full recap of Day 1, the article by InfoQ can be read here 

In a recent article by Vrfocus.com Vuzix, supplier of Mixed and Augmented Reality Smart Glasses have announced their new business partners. These 3 new partners will be added to the list of European Vuzix Industrial Partners.

One of Vuzix new partnerships is with Augumenta, a Finnish firm which develops applications for operations such as production line control. Tero Aaltonen, CEO of Augumenta has said “We started our smart glass journey by introducing an interaction SDK that brought gesture controls and virtual keypads to the hands of enterprise developers. We are now expanding our offering by introducing a suite of ready-made applications and a configuration tool that allows our customers to quickly adopt and integrate Augumenta software with their existing IT systems. Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses play an important role in this game with their rugged design and impressive battery life, and we’re proud to promote them as the primary device for our SmartAlert product.”

The second firm that has been announced to join Vuzix are a company based in Germany which provide systems with remote technical support and systems for technical domination, DOSCO. Managing Director of DOSCO, Robert Erfle has spoken about this partnership and has said “Being part of the VIP program gives us direct access to the resources of Vuzix and will significantly support the development and distribution of our solutions for smart glasses, in particular for the new M300.”

The last company announced our Brochesia, which provide wearable devises for heavy industries which are headquartered in Rome. Chief Technology Officer Christian Salvatori commented “Being a Vuzix VIP Partner grants Brochesia early access to the latest Vuzix smart glasses and SDK packages enabling us to upgrade and test our solutions to support.”

Readers may be interested in an event taking place to discuss VR, AR and the Law. An event is scheduled to take place 6:00pm – 7:30pm on May 4^th 2017 with speaker Professor Mark Lemley.

Professor Mark Lemley is Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, the Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology and the Director of Stanford’s LLM Program.  The talk addresses ways in which Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality will affect our work, social and leisure experiences as well as our society and related issues of the law.

If you are interested in attending this event then you can register by clicking on the link https://www.mofo.com/resources/events/170504-law-virtual-reality.html

An increasing number of articles are starting to give Augmented Reality more popularity around the internet recently, which in part is down to the buzz surrounding the AR Global requirements workshop held in Chicago in March this year.

Though it’s been around for years in various forms, Augmented Reality is starting to draw heightened interest from the tech industry.  Nods to Facebook, Apple, Asus and Magic Leap are mentioned in notable examples to watch out for in a recent article. It is good to see industry AR attracting positive mention in the news:

Many companies and industry experts are starting to see augmented reality as the next evolution of computing. In the future, you may read your email, watch videos or play games not on your smartphone, television or laptop, but via special kinds of glasses that have built-in, transparent displays.

Industry experts also think AR will play a big role in communication and in education. AR could offer a new form of telepresence; wearing an AR headset, a person could potentially see an image of a friend or co-worker that appeared to be sitting in the chair next to them as they carried on a conversation. And instead of having to go to Wikipedia to find out about a piece of art or a sculpture, an AR app or headset might simply provide you with that information when you just looked at it.