Cortona3D is a software publisher widely recognized for automatic production of 3D maintenance procedures. Its software generates 3D animations based on CAD data but until this announcement it has not been ready for Augmented Reality experiences. By partnering with DigiNext, a French technology provider and Metaio developer that publishes Inscape, the two companies have released Inscape3D with support for AR: Inscape AR. Professionals using Cortona 3D are able to view their models and projects in AR view.

Pristine, a developer and provider of video conferencing tools for use with wearable displays, is collaborating with Epson America to offer its EyeSight platform on Epson Moverio smart glasses for field service use cases. Given the engineering know-how of the partners, and the deep customer base of Epson, this partnership has terrific potential to bring value to companies with large workforces in need of Augmented Reality as well as “over the shoulder” experts to address undocumented and rare incidents in the field.

New developments in the field of Augmented Reality are set in perspective with research activities over the past 20 years in this feature article on Ars Technica. The author interviews AREA Sponsor member iQagent as well as Arnie Lund, Connected Experience Labs (CEL) research organization at GE Software, and offers readers a down-to-earth view on what’s currently available as well as what customers can expect in the near future.

In this press release issued today by Index AR Solutions the company announced that it has hired executives that will focus on introduction of enterprise Augmented Reality in marine and naval engineering industries. Based on the company’s close relationships with the AREA member Newport News Shipbuilding Augmented Reality group, the company will be able to leverage its experience and know how in large scale manufacturing and operations.

The excitement about Microsoft’s new Augmented Reality hardware increased the attention this category of product has been receiving in the press over the past few months. In this article on PC Pro, the authors speculate about HoloLens specifications, price point and availability date in the UK. It is hard to say how close they are but very valuable for early customers to gain insights on future product strengths and shortcomings.

In this article on the FRAMOS site, the company explains the factors that Laster, the French provider of smart glasses for enterprise Augmented Reality, used when evaluating their image capture partner for the latest generation of optical see-through AR technology. The companies collaborated to develop components that have high resolution in a variety of lighting conditions, avoid impacts of rolling shutter and smallest size package.

Fujitsu has been developing hardware and software for enterprise Augmented Reality for several years. They provide hardware as well as a cloud based content management system, the Software Interstage Processing Server. In this blog post on A New Domain, Ant Pruitt offers his impressions of the Fujitsu automotive repair use case shown to thousands of visitors each day at Mobile World Congress 2015. The demonstration is convincing and the technology promising.

ABB has been innovating with new technology for the plant floor for decades. In a showcase of future technologies, described in this article in Robotics Tomorrow, the company is showing how Augmented Reality can assist shop floor commissioning people to perform their tasks more efficiently. Virtual reality and remote service are also part of the company’s big box of tricks being introduced to customers at the company’s ABB Automate 2015 event to improve factory performance.

Inglobe Technologies is a mature technology provider with experience providing AR for retail, industrial, education, architecture and cultural heritage use cases. It is launching a new platform: Hyperspaces. Hyperspace is a web interface and cloud infrastructure designed for AR authoring, publishing and delivery platform. For more information about the company and its offerings, visit Inglobe’s web site.

According to a press release released by Vidyo, a provider of video compression and conferencing software and technologies to many vendors, the company is introducing VidyoWorks, new mobile client APIs designed to deliver video collaboration features to smart glasses. Smart glasses maker Vuzix will be the first company to license the VidyoWorks scalable video coding (SVC) technology on its M100 smart glasses, which enable developers to incorporate video communication and collaboration. Video interactions using VidyoWorks can also be recorded and stored as evidence that a job was performed correctly using VidyoReplay.