Researchers from the University of Maryland’s Augmentarium, after recently having a new lab built, have introduced their new Augmented Reality Technology.

A team of five physicians and researchers have publicly demonstrated this Augmented Reality Technology which has been design to assist in intubation. This new software, used in their demonstration, runs on Oculus and HoloLens headsets and requires a tube to be put down a patient’s airway.

Barbara Brawn-Cinani, Associate Director at the University’s Centre for Health-related Informatics and Bio imaging said “The demonstrated Augmented Reality Technology projects real-time information from the ultrasound onto the user’s field of view. This allows medical staff to see ultrasound images, for example, at the same time they’re looking at the patient, rather than having to repeatedly look away at small screen displaying the images.”

Brain Servia, President of the Augmented Reality Club on the campus, also said “In addition to helping medical personnel with tests such as ultrasounds, AR could help create three-dimensional simulated medical environments for health care providers to be trained in, according to the Augmentarium website. Non-invasive reminders that project some form of data onto the user’s field of view are another main application of Augmented Reality — in medicine and also in architecture and the military.”

The Augmentarium is working on other applications of Augmented Reality technology, from fluid dynamics to performing arts. The centre is planning on working with the sports medicine centre in Cole Field House, to better detect subtle effects of traumatic brain injuries that previously have been impossible to visualize without Augmented Reality.

ODG revealed this week their new Smart Glasses the R-7HL which have been designed for business customers who need a more advanced level of protective eyewear.

The R-7HL which stands for Hazardous Location have been created for workers whose environment are a bit more on the extreme side such as the oil exploration and production, energy, mining, utilities, chemical production and pharmaceuticals.

This new device has been based on the architecture of the current gen R-7 but has been designed to reach the level of ruggedness that ODG’s partners needed. ODG are hopefully launching the enterprise-focused product and their R-9 headsets in Q2 of this year.

Information about the IoT Solutions World Congress (Barcelona, 03 – 05 October 2017).  Calls for papers closes. on April 15 2017.  This event is the leading international event that links the Internet of Things with industry. Its congress will focus on IoT solutions for industries and use cases in six dedicated areas: Manufacturing, Energy & Utilities, Connected Transport, Healthcare, Buildings & Infrastructure, and Open Industry (Retail, Agriculture, Mining, Hospitality and other industries).

The event will also offer multiple networking opportunities and activities, such as our IoT Solutions Awards Gala, a Hackathon, side events organized by event partners, etc.

Whether you are an enterprise end user, an organization looking for sales leads, a researcher, an association member, or a developer, the IoT Solutions World Congress offers a high return on investment.

The IoTSWC is organized by Fira de Barcelona in partnership with the Industrial Internet Consortium, the Industrial IoT organization founded by AT&T, Cisco, General Electric, IBM, and Intel to bring together organizations and technology with the goal of accelerating the growth, adoption, and widespread use of industrial IoT.

More details about the event can be found at: http://www.iotsworldcongress.com/

At first glance, the two-day event promised to be a worthwhile exchange among parties with shared interests. On one side was the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII), which had invested considerable time and effort into creating a detailed set of requirements for enterprise AR with the assistance of American industry heavyweights Lockheed Martin, Procter & Gamble, and Caterpillar. On the other side was the AREA, the organization leading global efforts to drive adoption of AR in the enterprise. The AREA is to take over responsibility for the requirements document and its future.

But when the parties gathered in Chicago, the event proved to be more significant than anyone could have expected. Here’s why:

1. It demonstrated the burgeoning interest in enterprise AR throughout the developing ecosystem. The event attracted 90 attendees from 45 companies – all deeply committed to AR and eager to share their thoughts with one another.
2. It provided an unprecedented opportunity for AR hardware and software providers to engage directly with enterprise AR users. With the detailed requirements to refer to, participants were able to engage with each other substantively and specifically.
3. It signified the beginning of a global effort to make the process of implementing AR projects simpler and more orderly. With a set of requirements that will grow, become more defined and use case-specific over time under the aegis of the AREA, enterprises will have the power to define their AR solution needs clearly and confidently. Our goal at the AREA is to make the requirements accessible and usable to the wider AR ecosystem.
4. It gives AR solutions providers a vital resource for developing their product development roadmaps. The direct feedback of the user community made it clear to hardware and software providers where they need to invest their R&D budgets in the near and medium term.
5. It created the basis for a more open, vibrant, and participatory AR ecosystem. As the AREA makes the requirements a “living document” to which all organizations can contribute, they will become an increasingly useful resource to a wider range of organizations and will accelerate the adoption of successful AR projects in the enterprise.

More information on how to review and participate in activities around the requirements will be announced soon at www.theAREA.org.

PTC and Flatirons Solutions to Help Drive Global Enterprise Augmented Reality Ecosystem and Best Practices

PRESS RELEASE ANNOUNCES AREA NEW MEMBERS

WAKEFIELD, Mass., USA – March 28, 2017 — The Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) announced today that two new members joined the only global membership funded alliance helping to accelerate the adoption of enterprise augmented reality (AR) by creating a comprehensive ecosystem for enterprises, providers, and non-commercial institutes.

PTC, provider of the ThingWorx^® industrial Internet of Things platform (IoT) and Vuforia^® augmented reality platform and Flatirons Solutions, a global provider of technical information management solutions for knowledge-driven industries, joined AREA at the Sponsor Level and accepted Board of Directors seats.

Augmented Reality (AR) is the integration of digital information with the user’s environment in real time. Unlike virtual reality, which creates a totally artificial environment, AR uses the existing environment and overlays new information on top of it.

“AR projects in our industry continue to expand as businesses realize the potential of this technology,” said Mike Campbell, executive vice president, ThingWorx Product Management, PTC.  “We joined AREA to help the industry define future enterprise AR best practices and to build relationships with important AR vendors, educational institutions, and other companies that are on the forefront of AR technology.”

The AREA supports innovative companies, aspiring to invest in AR who need a better understanding of the tools available, application possibilities, methods of implementation and return on investment.  It provides a free and open exchange of best practices, lessons learned, and technological insights which can help enterprises effectively implement AR technology, boost operational efficiency and create long term benefit.

“Joining AREA allows Flatirons to contribute to the development of the enterprise AR eco-system,” said JD Sillion, chief solution officer, Flatirons Solutions.  “Enterprise AR solutions are ideal platforms for making content lifecycle management even more impactful for customers. AR allows organizations to better achieve their mission by Turning Content into Knowledge® for strong productivity and asset utilization gains.”

The AREA’s membership benefits include access to high-quality, vendor-neutral content and participation in various programs, a research framework to address key challenges shared by all members, discounts for fee-based events, and more. Sponsor members have a direct role in shaping the rapidly expanding AR industry and demonstrate their companies’ leadership and commitment to improving workplace performance.

About the AREA

The Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) provides high-quality, vendor-neutral content and programs for companies like Lockheed Martin, Bosch, Boeing, Huawei, Newport News Group and many more. Discover the benefits of joining the AREA by visiting our membership information page.

More information about the AREA is available here on our AREA website or [email protected].

PTC, ThingWorx, and Vuforia are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

An article by Nicholas Rossolillo appeared on Motley Fool this week about one of the AREA’s members, DAQRI.  It starts with a quote by Brian Mullins, Founder and CEO of DAQRI, that will ring true with many readers:

We become so limited by this idea of technology replacing workers, when the better idea is to power-up their senses and extend what they’re capable of doing.

The article looks at the business viewpoint of whether investing in AR makes sense and makes a good case for enterprise solutions tethered to the Internet of Things and geared towards helping workers process data.

DAQRI’s smart helmet is featured, which was on show at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month.  The article states that Intel provides the brains with its sixth-generation Core m7 processor, as well as several sensors to help project depth perception to the wearer. The device carries several cameras, including an infrared and thermal imaging camera for relevant applications.

DAQRI also released a version of its helmet in goggle form, called Smart Glasses, which is being marketed for less-hazardous workplaces like distribution centers and for remote experts.

Evidence has been mounting that AR at work is a good idea for businesses: German logistics and shipping company DHL equipped warehouse workers with AR glasses and reported that the glasses-equipped employees worked 25% faster and error-free during the three-week pilot program.

An article this week puts Augmented Reality in the spotlight for the changes it is bringing to manufacturing in Aerospace and Automotives across the world. AR is not only increasingly being used on the factory floor but is revolutionizing it.

One of AREA’s members, Lockheed Martin has been used as an example of streamlining the manufacturing design phase and making operational efficiencies

At Lockheed Martin technicians can wear AR glasses that use cameras, depth and motion sensors to overlay images. This new method means vastly improved accuracy and speed. At their Collaborative Human Immersive Lab in Colorado, this technology is being used on a variety of spacecraft, including detailed virtual reality examination of the next Mars lander.

Augmented Reality technology is being used at many other manufacturing facilities around the world, as manufacturers begin to realise its potential for saving time and costs as well as accuracy and improved safety.

The manager of Lockheed Martin’s Collaborative Human Immersive Lab (CHIL) Darin Bolthouse says:

“I think virtual and Augmented Reality ply into this idea of industry 4.0 and automating and digitising how we do our work. So it’s the ability to more easily present complex sets of information to people. These technologies are tremendous.”

The following is a summary from a press release by RealWear, recent winners for the best enterprise solution at the Wearable Technology Show this year.

RealWear announced they have shipped their first Pioneer units of the HMT-1.  This is the first voice driven, hands-free, head-mounted tablet for connected industrial workers.

Andy Lowery, CEO of RealWear stated “It’s time to free your hands and put the HMT_1 to work. We’re proud to show what the real in RealWear means by delivering the HMT_1 beta units to our Pioneer Program members, just as we promised.”

The press release states that this new technology transcends both enterprise tablets and smart glasses, allowing worker the connectivity and hands-free flexibility they require for safer, faster and smarter productivity. The HMT-1 operates solely through noise robust voice control and head gestures and provides an enterprise-grade, fully rugged and wearable device platform for workers to significantly improve productivity and enhance the safety.

RealWear have a Pioneer Program and these members will now test the applications and use cases that they previously evaluated on a developer kit device. As part of this program customers get early access to the HMT-1 hardware to validate that their applications will run hands-free and to commence user pilots. The feedback from these members influence RealWear’s software and solution roadmap and will enhance the performance of commercial units.

We wish them every success in their ventures and welcome them onboard.

Smart connected objects allow extensive optimizations and accurate predictions in the production line. However, this is not the only benefit that IoT can generate in industrial settings.

The purpose of this post is to explain how Augmented Reality (AR) can provide additional value to IoT data serving as a visualization tool on the shop floor. Operators can achieve better results in less time in a number of use cases by using AR devices to consume up-to-date contextually relevant information about IoT-enabled machines.

Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things

The extensive use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in industry is gradually leading the sector to what is called the “fourth industrial revolution,” also known as Industry 4.0. In the Industry 4.0 production line, sensors, machines, workers and IT systems will be more deeply integrated than ever before in the enterprise and in the value chain. The complete integration will ultimately optimize the industrial process, fostering its growth and driving greater competition within markets. A report from the Boston Consulting Group, summarizes the nine technology advancements that are driving this revolution and will eventually define its success:

• Big Data and Analytics
• Autonomous Robots
• Simulation
• Horizontal and Vertical Integration
• The Internet of Things
• Cybersecurity
• Cloud Computing
• Additive Manufacturing
• Augmented Reality

The Internet of Things (IoT) leads the advancements in the field as an enabling technology. The IoT concept is based on building intelligence into objects, equipment and machinery and enabling data about their status to be transmitted over the Internet for human or software use. Through connectivity and unique addressing schemes things are able to cooperate in order to reach a common goal. Research has identified the three basic characteristics of smart objects:

• to be identifiable through unique addresses or naming systems,
• to be able to connect to a network,
• to be able to interact with each other, end users or other automatic components.

Industrial settings are paving the way for the introduction of IoT into modern society. In the Industrial IoT (IIoT) vision, any single segment of the production line can be constantly monitored through the introduction of sensors, and intelligent machine and pervasive networking capabilities. Central data gathering systems can collect and analyze data about the status of the entire supply chain and dynamically react in case of failures, resource shortages and demand variations. The value brought to industry by IoT is cumulative, as more devices are brought online and their interactions captured and analyzed. In fact, data gathering and aggregation of supply chain variables can help to optimize production in terms of reduced waste of resources, reduced downtime, improved safety, sustainability and greater throughput.

Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning are the core technologies through which the enterprise can make sense of this enormous flow of data coming from industrial facilities. These enable the creation of mathematical models that constantly improve the precision with which they represent the real-world settings as more data feeds into them. Called “digital twins”, these models are then used not only to analyze and optimize the behavior of the equipment and the production line, but also to forecast potential failures (preventive maintenance is a byproduct of Big Data analysis).

IoT as a tool for human effectiveness

The abovementioned benefits that come from the integration of IoT into advanced process automatization (using technology to allow processes to take place without human input) are not the only advantages. The introduction of smart objects into industrial contexts provides the possibility of greater effectiveness among the people working on the shop floor.

Data gathered from sensors is essential for on-site decision-making and correct completion of tasks as workers operate with smart equipment. Smart objects, also called cyber-physical systems, can support workers, improving proficiency and safety, on different levels.

Design, maintenance, repair and fault diagnosis are complex tasks that require a human operator to interact with sophisticated machinery in the new industrial paradigm. The information needed to successfully carry out these tasks is proportional to the complexity of the tasks and the equipment involved. Real-time and historical data about the functional activities of the equipment are therefore critical for the decision-making process as the complexity of the systems increases. Access to this information on the site where the operator is performing these tasks becomes essential to correctly and efficiently perform them.

To give an example, the recovery procedure of a complex machine experiencing a failure needs to be informed by the current status of the components of the machine itself. Similarly, the proper configuration of complex mechanical systems is conditional on the values of certain internal variables measured by equipped sensors. The operator in charge of these procedures needs to be able to diagnose the problem and pinpoint the exact location of the failure when in front of the equipment in order to immediately revert it to an optimal state. Generally this is done by analyzing real-time sensor data, computer-generated analyses or historically aggregated data.

Current issues with human consumption of IIoT data

In the current state of integration, in cases where IoT technologies are deployed, the data is sent to central repositories where operators in control rooms are in charge of monitoring and analyzing it. However, in most situations, these central control rooms are distant from the location where the data is actually needed. The engineer in front of the machine in need of assistance is required to cooperate remotely with the central control room in order to diagnose a fault. The interaction in this scenario can be very slow as the on-site engineer needs to verbally interpret the information provided by the remote operator, while the operators in the control room do not have the on-site engineer’s spatial reference information to guide them, thereby slowing down the cooperation and increasing the time required to solve the problem.

Some organizations have attempted to address this problem by deploying laptops on the shop floor that can access remote data. Despite being somewhat effective, laptops are only a partial solution to the problem, as the devices are usually not aware of the physical surroundings and the intention of the operator, thus dividing his attention between the object of interest and the interaction with the mobile device. In general, mobile devices currently used to interact with IoT data on the shop floor lack the ability to interpret what the operator is looking at and the intent of the operation unless the operator manually interacts with the software interface, filtering out the unneeded data.

Other companies are deploying advanced touch interfaces directly on the smart equipment. While this partially solves the issue, it also multiplies the number of screens on the shop floor and does not provide a solution for equipment that cannot be fitted with a screen (e.g., outdoor heavy machinery, oil and gas pipes, etc.).

Another crucial piece of information missing from current Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) is the spatial reference of the data stream. In certain situations, it is very important to visualize how the data sources are physically located in the three-dimensional space in order to diagnose a fault. This information gets lost if the data streams are visualized exclusively using 2D interfaces or schemes that do not take into account the physical structure of the equipment. For example, the figure below references two different visualizations of an oil pipeline with IoT-connected valves that stream data about their functional status. The representation on the left is not aware of the spatial disposition of the valves, while the visualization on the right makes it much easier to diagnose that the problems with the valves are caused by an external interference around the southern portion of the pipeline.

AR and IoT: a match made in heaven

Augmented Reality provides an effective answer to all the aforementioned issues with IoT data consumption on the shop floor. Modern AR-enabled devices (both handheld and head-worn) provide a media-rich ubiquitous interface to any type of network data via wireless connection. Using sensing technologies, these devices are capable of understanding what the operator is looking at and therefore only display the data that is actually needed for the operation at hand. Using AR devices, the operator is empowered with the ability to visualize processed or unprocessed IoT data in an incredibly intuitive way.

The worker starts the interaction by pointing the AR-enabled device towards the piece of equipment in need of assistance. The device scans the equipment using cameras, identifies the object and reconstructs a spatial model of it. The application automatically gathers the list of available sensors connected to the machine interrogating the central repository and displays the gathered information on the equipment itself, in the exact location where the sensors are currently measuring the data. Interacting via the interface, the operator can also search for historical data needed to diagnose the fault. The data thus visualized not only contains the same informative power as it does on other mobile devices, but also provides the operator with the spatial relationship of the data with the machine itself.

AR provides a display for anything. As all the objects/screens AR devices can render are completely digital, there are no restrictions as to how and where IoT data can be visualized. Even the dirtiest and most remote oil pipe, the hottest jet engine or the loudest metal printing machine can be overlaid with a number of virtual data visualizations for the operator to analyze during the process. All in all, if an object generates IoT data, AR can visualize it.

In addition, AR allows the same information to be displayed in different, more intuitive ways. Traditionally, sensor data is visualized using a mix of numbers, graphs and gauges. However, using AR, new forms of visualization, customized for the purpose, can be designed. These visualizations can speed up the interpretation of data and better highlight faults. For example, the pressure and temperature measurements along a pump output pipe can be displayed using a color mapped three-dimensional flow visualization overlaid directly on the pipe itself, allowing the operator to virtually “visualize” the behavior of fluids inside the pipe, speeding up parameters for tuning or fault detection processes.

Use cases

AR and IoT can be combined to address a number of use cases that benefit both private and public sectors. There are some common factors shared by most of these use cases, such as mobile access to data in remote locations, the inaccessibility to certain parts of the equipment, the difficulty to fit a screen on the object of interest or the need for extreme operative precision.

1. Complex machinery service efficiency:  for organizations that operate and maintain large fleets of complex machinery, from aircraft to locomotives, service and repairs can be slow and costly. Without specific data on particular components in need of repair or the ability to predict when service is needed, assets may be taken out of service unexpectedly and service technicians may need to spend valuable time testing and isolating issues. Organizations can accelerate the process and improve efficiency by combining IoT and AR technologies. Arming assets with sensors enables them to stream data directly from the assets. Using this data to create digital twins of the assets, organizations can self-analyze and self-predict when and how components need to be maintained. Using AR, that data can be translated into visual information — for example, highlighting which fuel injectors in an engine are causing oil pressure problems and need to be replaced. By guiding the repair technician immediately to the source of the issue, the AR/IoT combination limits the scope of the work to only what is needed. Step-by-step instructions delivered via AR ensure that the repair work is performed correctly and efficiently. GE Transportation is applying PTC’s ThingWorx and Predix software to realize efficiency gains in the 1,300 locomotive engines it repairs every year.

2. Mechanical equipment monitoring and diagnosis:  many mechanical parts, such as engines, pumps, pipelines and industrial machines, are fitted with a large number of sensors to control physical variables, such as temperature, pressure, speed, torque or humidity. These measurements are used not only to control the machine itself, but also to monitor and verify its correct functioning. During configuration and fault diagnosis, it is essential for the operator to visualize these values in real time in order to properly set up the machine in one case, and correctly identify the root of the fault in the other. Using an AR device, the operator can visualize patterns directly from these real-time measurements on the components while the machine is operating, allowing for instantaneous functional diagnosis. DAQRI implemented a similar solution to help engineers at KSP Steel to visualize data from heavy machinery directly on the shop floor.
3. Data-driven job documentation and quality assurance:  Job documentation as well as product certification and testing usually involve long procedures during which operators test structural and functional variables of the equipment. These tests are then documented in lengthy manually written reports that are sent to a central database to serve as the basis for certification and quality assessment. The whole process can be made faster and more accurate using AR devices; the operator goes through the procedure in a step-by-step fashion, approving or rejecting the measurements taken using IoT-enabled equipment. Using AR interfaces, measurements can be visualized on the component being tested and any anomaly can be reported using automatically generated non-conformance reports sent directly to the central database alongside the related IoT data coming from the machine itself or the measurement equipment.

4. Product design visualization:  during the process of designing electro-mechanical objects, testing prototypes is very important to identifying design flaws as early as possible. However, many of the objects of analysis during this process are variables not visible to the human eye that, after being measured through embedded sensors, are analyzed to provide feedback for the following design iterations. In some cases, AR can provide instantaneous visual feedback on these variables so that design teams can discuss the issues during the test phase and simultaneously tune the object settings at run-time, accelerating the decision-making process. This video presentation by PTC president Jim Heppelmann includes an example of how CAD tools and IoT can be combined with AR to provide real-time feedback on design choices for physical objects.

5. Smart urban infrastructure maintenance:  similar reasoning can be applied to the public sector. Most urban infrastructure is located outdoors and in hard-to-access areas, making embedded screens very difficult to use. Operators can use AR to scan large objects and detect the point of failure from real-time data visualizations. In addition, they can easily document the status of infrastructure in a digital, data-rich manner, just by pointing the device at the system.

6. Enhanced operator safety:  AR can also be used to provide safety information to operators interacting with machines that can cause physical harm if improperly handled. DAQRI shows how a thermal camera can be used not only to visualize a thermal map, but also to indicate to the operator where it is safe to touch the object. Although the technology used by DAQRI involves the use of a thermal camera mounted on a hard hat, the same result can be easily obtained using thermal (and other types of) sensors installed directly on the machine to inform the operator of potential hazards.

The challenges

Despite being a suitable solution for the unsolved problems of IoT data consumption on the shop floor, AR still provides challenges that AR providers are currently working on in to make it more practical and useful in real life scenarios.

The first challenge is related to the way IoT data is displayed using AR devices. As mentioned earlier, sensor data can be displayed in new, intuitive modalities using bespoke 3D visualizations, facilitating the decision-making process on-site. However, it is difficult to automatically create and scale up this type of visualization. Providers are working on systems that integrate 3D CAD models with IoT real-time data to automatically generate “datafied” 3D models that can overlay on top of physical objects to display extra layers of information.

In addition to this, the problem of visualizing multiple data points in one single visual entity is still an open issue. While there are consolidated methods that work for traditional displays (like sub-menus or scrollable areas), UI/UX designers are currently working on techniques to condense large amount of data and make it interactive using AR displays.

Another important challenge has to do with data security and integration. As operators are performing their jobs with mobile-connected AR devices that access sensitive data, providers must be sure that these devices are not vulnerable to threats using both software and hardware security protocols. The AREA has recently issued a Request for Research Proposals to members in order to foster an investigation into the issue and propose some solutions.

The future

IoT data is currently used mostly for offline processing. Many techniques allow the creation of very accurate mathematical models of the production line that enable not only cost reduction and production optimization, but also predictions of equipment performances. However, the value of this data resides also in its real-time consumption. The valuable insights generated from the real-time information produced by machines and equipment can greatly accelerate many procedures and integrate human labor even further into industrial information systems. Not taking advantage of this side of IoT means a partial waste of the deployment investment.

AR is considered one of the best tools for workers and engineers to access real-time IoT data on the shop floor, directly where it is needed. AR devices are aware of the spatial configuration of the environment around the worker and can intuitively visualize real-time data, filtering out unnecessary information. As these devices get smaller and lighter, the number of use cases to which this combination of technologies can be applied is growing rapidly, covering scenarios that could not be addressed before.

Eventually, the convergence of AR and IIoT will empower human operators with greater efficacy and will add to their skills in a knowledge-intensive working environment. With the advent of fully integrated automatization and robotics, AR provides a great opportunity for workers to retain the indisputable value of human labor and decision-making.

What the AREA is doing

The AREA is a great supporter of the integration of AR with the rest of the Industry 4.0 technologies. For this reason the AREA recently partnered with the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) for a two-day workshop on AR requirement for Digital Manufacturing. The result of this workshop – a list of hardware and software requirements for the introduction of AR technology in the factory of the future – will guide both providers and users towards efficient AR adoption.

Research gathered from the International Data Corporation (IDC) reveals that the Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality hardware, software and services in Western Europe is said to reach $2.5 billion in 2017, a 131% increase over the $1.1 billion spent in 2016. Manufacturing and Retail will have the biggest market share.

When looking at the total market share of AR VR spend, Consumers represent 56% of the market share with Manufacturing representing the next largest portion of revenue at 19%.

Some of the main points covered in the market report are:

• Manufacturing and retail being the biggest contributors.
• Industrial maintenance, logistics and package delivery will lead the spending in Western Europe.
• Retail showcasing and anatomy diagnostics will be fastest growing industrial use cases over the next couple of years.
• The article also talks about how consumers will help increase this market.

Overall according the IDC the AR and VR spending is forecast to increase by 210% CAGR between 2015 and 2020 making a grand total of $25.7 billion in 2020.