An article on Tech Republic shared the new tech trends to watch out for in 2018. The article, entitled “Why 2018 will see the rise of the ‘no collar’ workforce, blockchains, and enterprise VR”, takes its findings from research by Deloitte, who say that IT will continue to transition into a unit that drives business value in the new year.

IT’s role within the enterprise will continue to evolve in 2018, as core systems continue to digitally transform and new technologies build upon existing ones, according to Deloitte’s annual Tech Trends report, published Wednesday.

Bill Briggs, CTO and principal of Deloitte Consulting LLP, said in a press release. “We now see many forward-thinking organizations approach disruptive change more strategically. Instead of launching separate, domain-specific initiatives, they are thinking about exploration, use cases and deployment more holistically. Increasingly, they are focusing on how multiple disruptive technologies can work together to drive meaningful and measurable impact across the enterprise.”

The 8 tech trends to watch in 2018 are:

1. Reengineering technology
2. No-collar workforce
3. Enterprise data sovereignty
4. The new core
5. Digital reality (including AR and VR)
6. Blockchain
7. API imperative
8. Exponential technology watch list

What the tech trends report had to say about AR:

While augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) products were first aimed at consumers, their more valuable use cases may be in the enterprise, where adoption is increasing. “Driven by a historic transformation in the way we interact with technology and data, market leaders are shifting their focus from pilots and niche offerings to strategies anchored in innovative use cases and prototypes designed for industrialization,” the report stated.

Addressing issues such as integration experiences, cloud deployment, connectivity, and access will lay the groundwork for broader deployments. “These early adopters recognize a shift in the AR/VR winds: The time to embrace digital reality is now,” according to the report.

A press release dated December 6, 2017 revealed that Novarad Corporation’s OpenSight Augmented Reality system received the Business Intelligence Group’s BIG award for Business and was named 2017 New Product of the Year in the category Healthcare. The organization’s annual program was launched to reward companies, products and people that are leading their respective industries.

Novarad Coproration is a developer of medical imaging software.  They created OpenSight to render patient studies into 3D and present them in an interactive manner accurately overlaid directly onto the patient’s body. This leverages a host of advanced technologies including 3D imaging, advanced segmentation and rendering, registration, motion correction, virtual tools and 3D annotation technologies.

“The ability to used mixed reality where we can merge imaging data with the actual patient is a revolutionary concept that will have a major impact on training, preoperative analysis and intraoperative care,” said Dr. Wendell Gibby, Novarad CEO and practicing neuroradiologist. “This is a rapidly emerging technology—earlier this year, we performed the first surgery using augmented reality.

The OpenSight software has proven beneficial in overcoming certain obstacles with surgical operations, and has the potential to improve accuracy, increase operational efficiency and to decrease mistakes in surgeries.

Congratulations go to AREA member Atheer for their work with Porsche. As stated on the Atheer website:

This week’s announcement by Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (PCNA) of “Tech Live Look,” an Augmented Reality (AR) technology designed to improve technical services at Porsche dealerships in the United States, is making an impact.

“Tech Live Look” uses Atheer’s AiR Enterprise – and it has gained the attention of the business press as well as automotive and augmented reality media.

Atheer has rounded up the best of how this has been reported on the internet and by the media. See the full round up on their blog here.

Key takeaways are below:

• Instead of a dealership employee being forced to contact the team about troubleshooting issues by way of phone and email, Tech Live Look allows both parties to view the car simultaneously together in real time
• Hoping to shorten diagnostic times, Porsche has developed a system to help factory engineers see what dealer technicians are seeing even from thousands of miles away.
• Next year, the sports car importer will deploy Atheer AiR Enterprise AR software to its US dealerships under the name Tech Live Look

In a visionary piece on Forbes, Jay Samit, Independent Vice Chairman at Deloitte, discusses AR and its power to revolutionize customer experience in every industry.

Technology has changed and improved the customer experience over time, but the most recent transformation with the growth of augmented reality is sure to lead to greater change than ever before.

AR in enterprise

As more businesses become aware of AR’s potential to transform customer experience, AR becomes pushed in front of a larger audience of business decision makers who can potentially start to learn more about the ways in which AR can make business transformation internally, with cost savings and productivity efficiencies.

If you’re looking for ways in which AR can help with a variety of operations within the business, take a look at our resources section of our website, and a variety of use cases from a range of industries.

From Forbes – AR transformation for customers

Our modern world has connected us with devices like smartphones, which puts a world of possibility right in our pockets. But even with smartphones we still have to search for answers. Instead of customers having to seek out information, that knowledge can now be embedded in the environment in a way that anticipate customers’ needs and helps them find solutions where they already are.

The author invites us to imagine a world where you can wear glasses that look just like normal glasses but that have AR technology that can be customized to match your lifestyle and provide the most applicable information.

According to Jay, these glasses are right around the corner and will make it much easier to incorporate AR. Instead of getting lost in a store, AR could light up a path on the ground to get you to the item you need.  Other credible examples are given of AR’s potential to revolutionize the way they bring products and services to market.

Augmented reality is immersive learning that hits customers at a different level. It is the extra things that anticipate needs, improve problems, and make interactions with customers just a little bit better. AR is being able to get what you need when you need it and creating seamless experiences that make life easier, more efficient, or more enjoyable.

AREA member Contextere announced it will collaborate with Samsung Electronics America Inc. to bring contextere’s intelligent personal agent for industrial workers to Samsung Gear S3 wearables.

The contextere software, which provides industrial workers with the right information, at the right time, on the right device, will also leverage the Samsung GearUP Wearable API Marketplace on the company’s wearable devices to deliver AI-powered capabilities such as real-time health intelligence, geo-location for improved safety, and notification task alerts and hands-free calling.

The partnership between contextere and Samsung combines each company’s strengths — Samsung’s GearUP platform, which collects biometrics, geo-location, and other contextual information, coupled with contextere’s machine learning algorithms. This results in unparalleled actionable intelligence for industrial companies, including the ability to provide workers with critical procedural guidance and notifications related to their job. For example, a manufacturing worker can be alerted to breakdowns in hydraulic systems, while an aviation worker can receive pre-defined geo-location alerts informing them of their next work site location. This occurs via a wearable, while monitoring real-time stress, making for a safer, more productive work environment.

“contextere is focused on human-centric innovation, and our collaboration with Samsung exemplifies this,” explains Gabe Batstone, contextere CEO. “We are excited to bring our transformational industrial software to Samsung users, as well as our customers in Aerospace, Energy and Smart City markets. This includes Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, as part of their C-130J Super Hercules program, who earlier this year invested in the development of an intelligent personal agent for aircraft technicians.”

Lockheed Martin and Samsung Electronics America are quoted in the press release which can be read in full here.

Availability of the contextere application on the Samsung Gear S3 is expected in Q1 2018.

BrainXChange is an AREA member who you may know as the organisers of the EWTS events (see here for the next one). They also have a great Enterprise Wear blog which is worth keeping an eye on if you’re interested in new technology wearables for the enterprise.

In one of their November blogs the following topics are discussed:

• See the video, where Picavi’s Johanna Bellenberg talks about head-worn devices with the very people implementing the technology at Walmart, GE Transportation, Gensler, USPS, and FM Global
• AR/VR is helping the Postal Service meet the demands of a changing digital world
• Postal Service also using AR/VR for vehicle maintenance and to eliminate 50% of training time for new employees.
• Walmart is using VR at its training academies to simulate exceptional customer experience problems
• FM Global, a commercial property risk insurer that counts one out of every three Fortune 1000 companies as a customer, is using AR for remote engineering surveys of client facilities and VR as a selling tool.
• GE Transportation is using AR/VR to design and build kits of locomotive parts for operators, thinking through the presentation of these kits and how they align to manufacturing or service processes.
• From a plant layout perspective, VR is also incredibly useful for designing and planning operations.
• At Gensler, visualization technologies are impacting how architects design and develop structures of every kind. The architecture and design firm is also considering how these tools will impact the places it designs as those buildings and environments mature.

You can read BrainXChange’s member profile here.

The Government’s Industrial Strategy White Paper, published today, has confirmed £33m* immersive technology focusing on a challenge on Audience of the Future, focusing on virtual, augmented and mixed reality and how it is changing the way in which we experience the world around us – from entertainment and art to shops and classrooms.

The challenge is set to bring creative businesses, researchers and technologists together through a combination of complimentary R&D activities which will explore the future of creative content across the UK Creative Industries, including TV and film, games, music, sports entertainment, arts & culture and fashion.

This investment is designed to capture new global audiences and grow our leading market position in creative content, products and services by adopting, exploiting and developing immersive technologies.

Immerse UK will be supporting the development of a final business case through continued industry consultations and more information on the programme structure will be announced within the next few weeks.

For more information please visit Immerse.org.uk.

One of the AREA’s objectives is making sure the augmented reality ecosystem has enough skilled workers.  Readers can keep an eye out for professional roles in AR at our member organisations.

In the meantime, please do take a look at the MTC in the UK.  Their careers page can be found here. Since its launch in 2011, the MTC has grown rapidly: we now employ over 500 people at our Ansty Park campus just outside Coventry. To support this continued growth, we are represented by Consilium Recruit, our dedicated recruitment partner.

An exciting, vibrant place to work, the MTC and its subsidiary businesses offer unlimited opportunities to Research Engineers, Project Managers, IT Specialists, Apprentices, Graduates and many more. Our campus, facilities and research capabilities are unrivalled and we offer a competitive salary and benefits package.

Positions that may be of particular interest to readers of the AREA news site would be the following:

• AR/MR front-end/solutions developer with expertise using Unity 3D and SDKs related to the platform

• AR/MR back-end developer. Preferably with strong IT skills including networking, cloud, and C# is a must

• UX/UI/Artist covering the persona definition, user experience and interface design, Maya, 3Ds Max

Please follow the instructions on the MTC careers page for further information on how to apply. You can find out more about the MTC on their member page here.

Global MRO ST Aerospace is looking at Augmented Reality technology to aid its maintenance activities, says an article on MRO Network.  Augmented, or mixed reality technologies let users see the objects actually before them, along with virtual images, instructions, notes and other data that may help them. The tools are being developed rapidly and are seen a possibly of great use in aircraft maintenance in two basic ways.

First, augmented reality could be used to train mechanics as they work on real components with instructors showing virtual images that aid in training.

Second, mechanics working on repair challenges in locations remote from the engineers who are experts on the challenge could benefit from visual help provided by these experts. At the same time, expert engineers can see what the on-site mechanics are seeing.

Jeffrey Lam, Chief Operating Officer of global MRO ST Aerospace, says his firm, with operations far-flung over the globe, is looking at augmented reality to help with maintenance. And Lam says ST Aerospace is considering the technology, “both for training and supporting mechanics in remote locations.”

Several vendors are offering the computerized goggles necessary to implement augmented reality, and of course software must be purpose-built to support aircraft maintenance applications. Lam says ST Aerospace is currently looking for a suitable hardware. However, he adds that it is “also developing the software at the same time.”

Lam estimates it “will take at least another two to three years before more providers start taking up augmented reality as part of their operational tools.” He predicts it will be, “at least five years or more before augmented reality becomes common in the aircraft maintenance industry.”

To read more about our use cases in industry please see our resources page.

An article on Marine Link by Alexander Buchmann tells of how Augmented Reality (AR) is the technology game-changer set to improve the shipping industry.

According to PwC’s 2017 Global Digital IQ survey 24 percent of executives will make a significant investment in AR in the next three years.  Those benefits tend to appear in the real-time delivery of relevant information to employees regardless of location, the fact it will enable greater flexibility, increased operational mobility and improved efficiencies. IDC research is drawn upon – their estimation that augmented and virtual reality headset device shipments will reach almost 100 million units in 2021, up nearly 10-fold from the 10.1 million units shipped in 2016.

• While shipping companies have traditionally been slow adopters of technology many are now embracing technology to optimize fleet management, automate their processes and improve communication between staff on ships and on shore.
• Augmented reality, like any other cutting-edge technology, can help shipping companies to accelerate and simplify their processes.
• It will also improve the performance of workers. For example, in the aviation industry it was reported that the use of an AR headset to help a technician wire a wind turbine’s control box improved a worker’s performance by 34 percent on first use.
• There are nearly unlimited possibilities, especially as the technology progresses. For example, instead of looking at a GA plan on a screen, workers could look at the entire ship in 3D on a table in front of them. They could look at it from all angles, virtually highlight certain areas or display the main engine making the interaction feel more natural instead of looking at a screen.
• Using AR-devices means screens and monitors could also become obsolete, with employees able to access cloud-based data wherever they are working. Additionally, it will render a lot of hardware redundant. Just as the smart phone included the functionality of a lot of gadgets such as camera, telephone, calendar or calculator, AR devices are one more step forward.
• For ship inspections for example, inspectors will no longer need to take additional equipment with them because the questionnaire could be displayed directly in the room and pictures could be taken with the camera within the device.
• There are also communication benefits e.g. virtual meetings.

The article goes to on explore who is likely to benefit most in the shipping industry and when that is likely to be.