In this press release Frost and Sullivan recognizes Infinity Augmented Reality, Inc. (InfinityAR) with the 2015 European Frost & Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation Leadership. The release explains that InfinityAR’s developer system offers exceptional value as a result of using low-cost and simple hardware for depth detection. As a result of using stereoscopic vision and efficient computer vision algorithms that do not require an entire CPU to process data, InfinityAR’s technology requires only one-tenth the power needed by conventional technologies. Lower power consumption is critical to the success of solutions designed for the workplace to be able to last a full shift on one battery.

According to an announcement published on Engadget, Virgin Atlantic will equip its flight maintenance engineers at Heathrow Airport with the Sony SmartWatch 3 and the Smart EyeEyeglass Developer Edition SED-E1 for field trials over the next few months. The smart watch will remove paper from engineering processes and the smart glasses will connect personnel for collaboration scenarios, among other uses. Other airports and airlines companies are probably not far behind.

Those attending the DAQRI 4D Expo were treated to a hands-on experience with the Smart Helmet. The author of this feature length article on the Road-to-VR portal describes impressions of the product as well as demonstrations of the thermal imaging, head tracking, motion sensing and pattern recognition technology in this pre-commercial model. The author was surprised by the low weight of the complete system and the specialized designs planned for different industries.

Despite Google withdrawing its Glass product, assembly and field service use cases continue to drive sales of, and interest in Augmented Reality technologies and hands-free displays. In this feature published in IEEE Spectrum, several trends point to the adoption of enterprise Augmented Reality and the benefits that manufacturers of devices anticipate will be possible when their systems are in use on enterprise customer premises.

According to this press release, Vuzix is teaming up with software publisher, Pristine, for enterprise Augmented Reality applications. Pristine’s EyeSight platform offers a video communication software for collaboration use cases, and the M100 smart glasses provide a hands-free display with powerful, Android-based processing.

CEVA is one of the leading licensors of DSP IP platforms for multimedia and mobile systems. The company’s portfolio includes comprehensive platforms for multimode 2G/3G/LTE/LTE-A baseband processing in terminals and infrastructure, computer vision and computational photography for any camera-enabled device, audio/voice/speech and ultra-low power always-on/sensing applications. In this press release issued by CEVA in advance of the Mobile World Congress, the company introduces the CEVA-XM4. The design is optimized for vision processing in low-power embedded applications such as Augmented Reality hands-free displays.

Atheer Labs has raised $8.8 million from angel investors to continue to develop the company’s gesture-controlled AiR platform, which includes a head-mounted display and software known as Air OS. The company is focusing on medical use cases for clinicians and other staff, among other potential scenarios. The company has also continued to attract seasonsed professionals to its management team led by HP veteran, Alberto Torres.

In conjunction with its 4D Expo event, AREA member DAQRI has announced it acquired Melon, a maker of lightweight headbands that monitor brain activity to measure cognitive performance. Inclusion of the technology into DAQRI’s smart helmet could help companies monitor their workers’ health and improve safety.

Mobile Health News reports that Stanford spinoff VitalMedicals has recently closed an investment round to develop an Augmented Reality medical display tool for Google Glass. Patients’ vital signs will be streamed to medical professionals wearing Glass and allow them to keep better track of patients’ conditions in hospitals. More information is available on VitalMedical’s web site.

Sony continues to add new features to its SmartEyeglass SDK for Augmented Reality authoring, permitting developers to create more immersive and compelling experiences. According to an AppDeveloper Magazine feature story, the AR engine uses a system of three different coordinate systems for determining and describing positions. The engine renders application text and graphics on the real-world view seen through the SmartEyeglass.