Smartglasses maker, Vuzix, has announced in this press release that it has entered in a partnership with Octovis, provider of the telemedicine platform called “Telle” to permit doctors to evaluate patients and procedures at a distance. Using M100 on a local caregiver and connecting it with many BlueTooth connected sensors on the patient, the platform permits a remote physician to have real time data feeds as well as a live video of the patient. In trials, Octovis was able to attribute measurable reductions in hospital readmissions for the post-acute care market to the use of the Telle platform.

A user’s context normally includes their surroundings, their activities, such as direction of travel, and the objects and people in their proximity. According to analyses of a patent recently awarded to Microsoft and published on the DailyMail web site, Microsoft seeks to include stress level detection as part of the user context as well. Although the analysis in this feature article is focusing on the stress of a person with concerns about their interior decorating skills, the detection of user stress can be very valuable in professional use cases. Presumably the user’s level of stress can be detected in many ways. One of those is using EEG technology which DAQRI, maker of the Smart Helmet, has acquired earlier this year when it purchased Melon, a company providing EEG technology in a headband.

Ecom instruments, the provider of mobile computing and communication devices for use in potentially hazardous areas, has been developing solutions for use in chemicals, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, mining, power generation, food and beverage. In this interview on MarketWatch, Sebastian Kaul, Product Manager, explains the many ways that using mobile platforms in harsh environments can improve operational efficiency. Augmented Reality is one of the ways that Ecom Instruments devices bring data into the user’s context.

The typical customer doesn’t have the opportunity to test multiple smart glasses side by side and in the same setting. This feature length article published on Tom’s Guide web site, compiles consistent information about nine smart glasses products and provides videos showing the user experience. Having all the information gathered consistently and on the same page makes it easier for customers to understand the differences and similarities of the current products as well as those promised for later in 2015.

Mediatek provides processors for smart phones and mobile platforms and competes with Qualcomm in the Chinese market. The company’s new Helio X20 chipset is setting the pace for new hardware specifically designed for Augmented Reality. It is reportedly 30% more power efficient than current chips and optimized for 3D sensing and capture using dual cameras up to 13 Megapixels or other depth sensing technology that the integrator chooses. The X20 also accelerates 3D rendering and has built in Category 6 LTE modem. Other features are described in this product announcement and review on PC Magazine web site.

In this feature article published on Float Learning, an information service for mobile learning professionals, the author describes the skills that developers will need to master when they begin to tackle experience development for use with personal hands-free and head-mounted displays. The author calls out that the developer will have to better detect the user’s focus of attention with which AR experiences will be based, to provide the user with new ways to interact (without a keyboard and mouse) and achieve their objectives, and that, unlike the displays for which people have been trained to deliver content upon, the world is inherently three dimensional, introducing new concepts such as depth sensing and occlusion.

This New York Times feature article describes the strong support that the HoloLens project has received from Microsoft’s CEO. Despite his sharp cost-cutting programs, Satya Nadella has said that creating a new product category, such as Augmented Reality-ready personal displays, is definitely where new investments belong. Nadella also wants the group working on HoloLens to be fully integrated into Microsoft which means collaborating with Microsoft engineering teams that furnish complementary systems cloud services and Skype for collaboration.

Results of a recent workplace technology survey are summarized in this article on Talk Business magazine’s web site. It’s not surprising that if the study was sponsored by Epson, the findings highlight technologies that it offers. It’s helpful to learn that over 21% of white collar workers feel that their productivity is currently hampered by poorly designed technology but it would have been valuable to know how many of the 600 surveyed feel that smart glasses are going to simplify their technology interfaces.

AREA member Atheer Labs is following up the recent announcement of new hardware and developer kit with updates to its software and the introduction of a cloud service. In this press release, the company describes the Operations and Communication Console for collaboration between the central office and mobile workers, including two-way text and video conferencing features. An integration with Unity is another upgrade for the kit’s AiR Operating System.

The lack of integration between professional software for computer-aided design with Augmented Reality viewing platforms is a substantial impediment to having 3D Augmented Reality in enterprise use cases. In this press release Strata, publisher of engineering software Strata 3D, has announced that users will be able to save models as AR experiences. The new feature is made possible through collaboration with Augment, a provider of software and cloud-hosted services for Augmented Reality experience delivery.