News has emerged this week about Fitbit being in talks with the NHS about wearables.  Fitbit Co-founder and Chief Executive James Park, has spoken to the Sunday Times, said talks had taken place with executives in the health service but no firm plans had been agreed.

The news comes almost two years after NHS England announced moves to promote wearables to monitor patients with long-term conditions.

In June 2015, Tim Kelsey, the former NHS England national director for patients and information, said that by 2018 members of the public will be able to add data from wearable devices to their electronic patient record.  But there have been few details in the two years since the announcement.

The 2015 target came as part of a commitment to give patients real-time access to their full electronic health record by 2018.

A deal with health insurer UnitedHealthcare in the US saves users cash in terms of a cheaper premium based on how much exercise they take using data monitored from the wristband.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said the NHS would “make very big moves in the next 12 months into apps and wearables” late last year. NHS England now has an app library which recommends reputable health apps to patients.

Wearables were once seen as an up-and-coming area of technology but have gone off the boil in recent years after failing to live up to the hype as a consumer must-have device.

Fitbit has made cutbacks recently and is said to have lost more than 80 per cent of its value since its IPO in 2015. The firm is now seeking to work more with businesses wanting to provide “wellness programmes” for employees, health insurers and other parts of the healthcare system in a bid to turn the company around.

In an article this week by biz tech magazine, AR technology is increasingly being targeted at the energy and utilities market, as well as manufacturing and other industrial use cases. The article believes that new AR hardware is being introduced specifically for the industrial market.

Market research firm ABI Research said previously this year that they expect AR in enterprise applications to “hit an inflection point in 2018, with smart glass shipments growing to 28 million in 2021,” with a 227% CAGR.ABI expects total AR market revenues —across devices, platforms and licensing — to reach $96 billion in 2021.

“2016 was a year of discovery for AR, with the industry focusing on initial [return on investment] metrics,” Eric Abbruzzese, a senior analyst at ABI, said in a statement.

We (AREA) and UI Labs also announced the release of AR hardware and software functional requirements guidelines last week which will help AR technology companies develop products for industrial users.

These AR functional requirements documents will lead to technology that improves the performance and efficiency for manufacturers in a number of areas, including employee training and safety; factory floor and field services operations; machine assembly, inspection and repair; manufacturing space and product design; and much more.These guidelines address hardware features such as battery life, connectivity, field of view, onboard storage, onboard operating systems, environmental aspects, inputs/outputs and safety. They also cover software functions such as authoring, AR content, creating 3D content, deployment of AR content and Internet of Things.

Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar and Procter & Gamble initiated the guidelines development process as part of a project through the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute, a UI Labs collaboration. However, many other tech companies and AREA members contributed to the requirements at a workshop in March, including Microsoft, General Electric, Rolls-Royce, Dow Chemical, Intel, the U.S. Air Force, Stanley Black & Decker, Johnson & Johnson, Newport News Shipbuilding, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Daqri, Upskill, Optech4D, Scope AR, iQagent, Six15, RealWear and others.

“For the first time, industry — both suppliers and users in the AR space — will have access to a benchmark set of requirements that will help them develop a roadmap and source, select, evaluate and deploy augmented reality solutions,” Mark Sage, executive director of AREA, said in a statement. “These functional requirements will be used to help continue the development of the AR ecosystem, and AREA is looking forward to communicating and driving future changes.”

A recent article on BizTechMagazine.com asks whether AR for Industrial workers is about to take off. As AR technology matures, it is finding application in the energy and utilities market as well as other manufacturing and industrial use cases.

The article links The AREA and DMDII’s announcement of the first hardware and software standards for AR in industrial settings, Global AR Requirements. There are positive performance indicators across the market as early adopters of industrial AR are moving into more substantial deployments. The article mentions ODG’s announcement of new AR Smart Glasses for use in hazardous locations for example, oil exploration and production, energy, mining, utilities, chemical production and pharmaceuticals.

The AR Requirements address hardware features such as battery life, connectivity, field of view, onboard storage, onboard operating systems, environmental aspects, inputs/outputs and safety. They also cover software functions such as authoring, AR content, creating 3D content, deployment of AR content and Internet of Things.

The full article can be read at http://www.biztechmagazine.com/article/2017/04/augmented-reality-industrial-workers-about-take

A London-based surgeon Nadine Haram and founder of Proximie, a developer of Augmented Reality tools for surgery has started to apply Augmented Reality in the workplace.

Proximie allows a sensor to overlay images on consultations from surgeons’ hand onto a video of a patient which guides doctors though surgery in real time. They can see where to make an incision and this application is also being used at the University College London for teaching medical students. It allows students to watch surgeries on the app without actually being in an operating theatre.

Nadine Haram of Proximie says, “We needed to find a way for technology to democratize access to surgery and really crowdsource all that knowledge into one place where we can all benefit from it.”

A company based in the U.S. Medsights Tech, have also been developing AR software for oncologists and January this year Philips also announced a similar tool for spinal and cranial surgery

A global initiative to democratize Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) hardware and software for academic institutions, VR First, are planning to open 50 VR/AR labs at colleges and universities by the end of this year, in an effort to meet future workforce demands.

They believe immersive technologies can drive the future job market and therefore students should be trained using such technologies and tools. There are 26 VR First Labs operating around the United States, Europe, Asia and Oceania, with 14 more opening soon according to a news release.

Applications for content created in the labs range from gaming, education and architecture to cinematics, psychology and other sectors according to the news release.

In addition to providing workforce training, the initiative will establish new standards for creation and consumption environments in VR, AR and mixed reality.

Augmented Reality has received some attention on a Virgin Entrepreneur blog “How Augmented Reality is disrupting Industries”.  The article mentions a variety of common industries that AR is impacting, such as architecture and property, retail and finance.

AR is helping architects bring their plans to life through a 3D environment before any foundations have even been laid. AR allows them to see what the interior of the building could also look like before it has been completed. This can be extended through the property industry to estate agents, who are able to take potential buyers to properties before they’re complete and allow them to picture their car on the driveway or what walls would like painted a certain colour, allowing more effective buying choices.

AR can help overcome the challenges that showcasing property through VR can bring and it can bridge the gap between seeing an unfinished project on a screen and in its physical space.

In retail AR can help reduce stress as shoppers can find the information they need about the product before they purchase it. The article also nods to the potential to point, click and pay with a smartphone camera which could transform business too, especially for those operating in the hardware and logistics sector. A lot of time can be wasted on inventory and mundane but necessary admin and paperwork. Anything that speeds it up and allows business owners and staff to focus on more important tasks could be hugely profitable in the long-run.

Barrett J. Brunsman, Staff reporter for the Cincinnati Business Courier, highlights how Procter & Gamble Co. “played a lead role in the development of the world’s first guidelines on functional requirements for augmented reality hardware and software” when working with 64 other organizations to develop functional guidelines for augmented reality in the manufacturing sector.

Read the full article…

IndustryWeek highlights the efforts of 65 organizations to help shape the future of augmented reality in the manufacturing sector. The functional guidelines released Tuesday will help companies within the AR ecosystem to develop products and solutions for industrial enterprise users.  

Read the full article…

Matt Hamblen, Senior Editor for Computerworld, writes about the hardware and software guidelines for using augmented reality (AR) on the manufacturing floor. These guidelines were published Tuesday in a joint effort between UI Labs and the Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA).  

Read the full article…

 ^{[Photo credit: Turkletom / Flickr]}

AREA Member Boeing recently announced their plans to launch a new venture capital arm called the HorizonX. This new project will invest in two start-ups;

1. AREA member, Upskill a Washington DC based start-up that builds enterprise software for industrial augmented reality (AR) devices (see their member profile here) 
2. Zunum Aero, a Seattle-area company that builds electric hybrid aircrafts

Upskill’s Skylight Platform uses Augmented Reality Glasses to help assembly workers with complex tasks. This technology provides specific information to workers on their AR glasses which removes the need of using paper. Upskill has also received additional funding from GE Ventures in a Series B Round.  Upskill’s Skylight platform can be used across manufacturing plants, maintenance and repair facilities and in distribution.