A press release dated July 4, 2016, by Zawya reveals that AR and VR will radically change private and public processes in the GCC, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan. GITEX Technology Week experts will highlight ground-breaking use cases at the GITEX Technology Week 2016, which will be held October 16-20 at the Dubai World Trade Center.

Notable information from the article based on the Frost & Sullivan research is:

• The next ten years of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technology development are set to redefine the future of both business and consumer processes within the GCC region
• Experts from across industries will present at GITEX Technology Week in October 2016 to share their innovative use cases of AR/VR technologies
• AR and VR hardware revenue will reach $2 billion in 2016
• Device shipments to grow to 110 million by 2020
• The report includes quotes from Dr. Grossmann, the first person who streamed a live surgical procedure via Google Glass with an audience of 54,000 virtual viewers
• Programs across industries in the GCC are eager to adopt AR technologies to streamline processes and support employees
• Frost & Sullivan highlights specific initiatives and projects in industries like healthcare and education

The event aims to develop stronger business ties with the immersive technology ecosystem to drive AR, VR and AI innovation. To register for GITEX Technology Week 2016 visit http://www.gitex.com.

An opinion piece on IPWatchdog.com summarizes the key developments that have been taking place over the past three years in both the Virtual and Augmented Reality industries with a useful timeline graphic, integrating information about developments and investments from some of the key players.

The article gives useful information about investments, acquisitions, developments and patents in both Virtual and Augmented Reality, using research from Goldman Sachs published in January 2016, and reminding readers that the combined estimated market size of VR and AR could reach anywhere from $80B to $182B by 2025. The author notes that “it has become important to disambiguate VR from AR in order to clearly understand their individual pathways, future and inclination of the markets.” Not only is clear information presented on the key differences between VR and AR, but he goes on to describe the competitive landscape from the viewpoint of major players, startups and smaller players.

The author expressly mentions enterprises in which applications for Augmented Reality is expanding, noting how the developing technologies of 5G wireless broadband and IoT is going to support development and expansion of Augmented Reality into more applications in future.

Companies are measured as to their relative number of patent applications filed. Figure 6, as presented in the article, shows the Top 5 small players / startups in AR with respect to patent publications, of which AREA member DAQRI is included. Figure 7 shows the Top 5 AR startups with respect to market and acquisition potential: Atheer, another AREA member, is featured in this list.

This news item is taken from a press release by Business Wire dated June 7 2016. Research and Markets announced a new report “Wearable Devices for Enterprise and Industrial Markets.” Worldwide shipments for enterprise and industrial wearables will increase from 2.3 million in 2015 to 66.4 million units by 2021. A cumulative total of 171.9 million wearables is expected to be shipped for use specifically in enterprise and industrial environments. These figures present a significant boost when compared with previous forecasts from 2015.

A summary of the research report is available here.

• Wearables are now being rolled out commercially on a significant commercial scale, which has bolstered the figures as predicted above.
• A direct quote from the report states “More than 66 Million Wearable Devices Will Be Shipped Annually for Use in Enterprise and Industrial Environments by 2021.”
• Key questions addressed that will be relevant for members and enterprise users include how the value chain is evolving around enterprise and industrial wearables, and which regions will see the biggest growth and the key challenges that could impact wearables growth.

Markets mentioned in the report for which there are applications include corporate wellness, manufacturing, warehouses, field maintenance, mobile workforce management, holographic modelling, first person communications and workplace authentication.

The report will be suitable for a variety of groups such as manufacturers of wearables and smart glasses, enterprise IT systems integrators, Augmented Reality software companies, developers, mobile network operators and the investor community.

Topics included in the report cover market and technology issues, key industry players and market forecasts.

Of the companies mentioned in the research report, three are AREA Members: APX Labs, Augmate and DAQRI. Other companies that are mentioned in the report include: Apple, Epson, Fitbit, Google, Jiff, Microsoft, Nymi, SAP, Salesforce.com, SmartCap, Thalmic Labs and Vuzix.

An article on Engineering.com reveals that Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) has issued $12 million across seven contracts for investigation and research into digital manufacturing including Augment Reality applications for use on manufacturing shop floors, wearables and mobile devices.

The projects include real time data driven visual decision support systems for the plant floor, and tend to be focused on streamlining manufacturing processes.

The Rochester Institute of Technology and Expert Demonstration (led by Iowa State University) are hoping to explore and exploit the potentials of Augmented Reality in the manufacturing industry.

The Executive Director of DMDII, Dean Bartles, commented that with each new project, further researchers, industry leaders and providers come into the consortium to help with research and development for the age of smart manufacturing.

One of our AREA members, iQagent, has developed an Augmented Reality app. iQagent’s manufacturing clients have been using Augmented reality on the shop floor since 2013, introducing efficiency savings for large manufacturers.

A press release by Augumenta Ltd about a new gesture-based machine control smart panel, was released June 1 2016, to coincide with the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, CA, where the company is demonstrating with other Augmented Reality providers.

Augumenta has introduced a new Augmented Reality interface combining hand-gesture control with virtual display panels, which provides human-machine interaction for industrial applications. The SmartPanel allows users with smartglasses to see information and use hand gestures to operate machine controls on a panel that appears as a blank surface to other people.

The Augumenta SmartPanel provides enterprise customers a high level of customization that is completely configurable in software. Privacy and security are key: only an authorized smartglass user can view panel data and controls. Access to data is dependent on the user’s role. There are potentially wide and diverse industrial applications of the software.

Augumenta have been demonstrating the software at AWE 2016 with ODG, with whom they have collaborated to accelerate AR deployments. The applications will be ideal for field workers due to being head mounted, tether free and lightweight.

Augumenta are working with in-house and external developers to design and integrate custom panel interfaces for varied use cases in enterprise and industrial applications, which they hope will eventually lead to consumer adoption.

Other demonstrations by Augumenta include demos of their field service knowledge-sharing solution developed with the Augumenta SDK, with AREA member 3D Studio Blomberg.

Augumenta Interaction Platform SDK is also being demonstrated with Epson on Moverio BT-300 smartglasses. The Software Development Kit (SDK) is the only developer toolkit to allow integration of both gesture control and smart surfaces that appear on the palm of the user’s hands.

A recent article by Healthcare Informatics discusses a PwC report (May 12), which presented implications for wearables providers in the healthcare industry following an explosion of consumer adoption of such devices. The article’s author, Mark Hagland, speaks with Vaugh Kaufmann of PwC to discuss the implications for the healthcare industry and for providers of wearables.
The PwC study drew conclusions from the findings of an online survey in March 2016, with a sample size of 1000 respondents. Gartner estimates that “by 2018, 2 million US employees will be required to wear health and fitness tracking devices as a condition of employment”.
The PwC report contains a large amount of statistics, including the percentage of wearable devices consumers are planning to buy in the next 12 months, with the distribution as follows:

• 57% fitness bands
• 53% smart watches
• 50% smart video or other photo device
• 41% smart glasses
• 38% smart clothing

The rate of adoption has increased in the past two years, which Kauffman attributes to an increase in the number of companies offering devices and better integration with smart phones and other devices. Wearables may provide patient engagement in tracking and monitoring their own healthcare. The report touches on risk management around tracking data from patients and how that data will be used. One compelling advantage for healthcare providers is the reduced cost of patient-doctor interaction.
The article touches upon implications for physicians working in the healthcare industry, including the process of incorporating the data. The implications for IT leaders in terms of producing ecosystems of data are explored. One of the conclusions is that the consumer continues to outpace the industry in terms of willingness to adopt and the burden is on the healthcare industry to figure out how to leverage this.

“Could Boston Be The Augmented Reality Capital of the World?” This interesting news item caught the eye of the AREA this week. As a global organization with members worldwide, the title provides an interesting hook.

An article on BostInno by Galen Moore cites his conversation with John Werner, new VP Strategic Partnerships at Meta, developers of Augmented Reality glasses, whose dream it is to have Boston as the AR capital of the world.

Meta is raising $50 million in a Series B funding round on top of the $23m from Series A. Internally, Meta’s investment vision is that Meta will be the platform that industries will want to develop software on top of. Enterprise applications are seen as being huge, with health and education being cited.

Virtual Reality is having its media moment right now, but Werner argues for Augmented Reality being the potentially more disruptive technology, and he is quoted as saying that he wants to make Boston the Augmented Reality capital of the world.

His dream is to create a Boston-based hub, drawing from the best talent from schools, fortune 1000s and best start-ups. His second aim is to make the Augmented Reality device (Metaglasses) so necessary to businesses that they cannot imagine living without it and thirdly, to put on an annual Boston-based global Augmented Reality event to showcase the technology and vision.

A recent research report by Sammobile and Galaxy Club states that mobile giant Samsung has filed a patent in South Korea for a smart contact lens fitted with a camera and image display. The patent was first filed in September 2014 but has only been publicly available recently. This version of Augmented Reality wearable tech could potentially overcome obstacles presented by smart glasses.

The application blue print contact lens designs contain sensors controlled by the blink of an eye in conjunction with processing completed by the wearer’s smartphone via wireless connection to the contact lens. The contact lens would be fitted with a tiny display, a camera, an antenna, and several sensors to detect movement controlled by blinking. Images would be directly projected into the wearer’s eye. The user would be able to complete functions such as taking photographs by blinking.

The patent contains early blueprint designs of the lens, however, there is no evidence that the application has been granted. Google has previously applied for similar patents for ophthalmic lenses that featured flexible electronics including sensors and an antenna, which makes this an unobtrusive wearable to watch for the future.

Florida-based Magic Leap has acquired Israel-based cybersecurity software solutions provider North-Bit, according to a Geektime report.

North-Bit, founded in 2012, was in the news in March 2016 when it claimed it had exploited the Android Stagefright bug. Security researchers successfully demonstrated how exploitation of the bug would allow remote hacking of older versions of Android smartphonse. North-Bit specializes in computer forensics, reverse engineering and CPU optimizations.

Since Magic Leap has recently raised a large amount of capital (Series C in February 2016 raised $793m) bringing their market valuation to $4.5 billion. Investors in Magic Leap’s latest round include Alibaba Group, Warner Brothers, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Andreessen Horowitz.

The fact that Augmented Reality has multiple uses for enterprise suggests that it makes sense for Magic Leap to improve cyber security aspects of their software. The report suggests that future collaborations and acquisitions may be in the cards owing to the large amount of investment capital having been raised.

There are many new devices for those who want to deliver Augmented Reality experiences to the workplace. The landscape of offerings is getting ever more segmented and vendors are making many new claims. The options can be confusing making it difficult for enterprise customers to choose.

This post on the Examiner blog gives a concise look at eight head-worn, hands-free displays that enterprise managers may want to consider.

The roundup of devices is helpful because it includes a photo of the device, a short summary of the company’s offerings and links to more information. In the future, it will be valuable for such posts to include hands-on reviews by professionals with clear criteria and performance benchmarks.