AREA member Scope AR, announced this week that they will be launching a version of their WorkLink Augmented Reality content authoring platform on the HoloLens. This gives the customers the ability to help remote workers learn to repair or assemble complex machinery.

Their WorkLink product can utilize the HoloLens’ outward facing depth sensors to map a rough mesh of objects and attach AR step-by-step instructions to the real-world objects with “the same ease as creating a PowerPoint presentation,” according to the company. This will allow non-technical employees a chance to easily build content and push it out to supported platforms, including iOS, Android and Windows.

Scott Montgomerie, CEO, Scope AR says, “This is going to be the easier way to get content onto the HoloLens.”

 Scope AR builds tools which allow workers to see CAD models overlaid on real world objects (while getting live support from specialists), giving them the ability to easily see when there’s an issue while also being able to deliver quick fixes. Most of this work is done on tablets using marker-based tracking, but the company is increasingly looking towards the headset-based future of AR.

Scopis has launched a new tool to give surgeons enhanced visibility when performing spinal surgery.  Scopis is a medical navigation technology company, using Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality to bring precision and speed in medical settings.

By merging the capabilities of Microsoft HoloLens with their surgical navigation platform, Berlin, Germany and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Scopis has developed the Holographic Navigation Platform.  Wearing HoloLens glasses, surgeons can see a 3D overlay of the pre-planned positioning of screws, allowing the surgeon to interactively align their instruments with the holographic visualization and find the proper location more quickly. Additionally, surgeons can keep their eye on the operative field, and they can also used gestures to place virtual monitors onto their visual field. 

“Scopis’ Holographic Navigation Platform is a universal solution that offers specific advantages for spinal surgeries and can also be applied in the many other areas where the highest levels of precision and speed are critical. In neurosurgery, for example, brain tumors could be located faster and with higher accuracy,” Scopis CEO and founder Bartosz Kosmecki, said in a statement. “The development of this holographic platform further highlights Scopis’ leading role in medical mixed and augmented reality.”

Bell Integrator, a global consulting and technology services provider, have launched the first enterprise level cloud platform which allows companies to explore and procure innovative services such as Augmented Reality, the Internet of Things, Automation, and Big Data for accelerating digital monetization, according to an article released this week by Yahoo Finance.

The Bell.One empowers enterprises to build their own Augmented Reality experience based on a set of industry specific AR solutions that have been deigned to increase customer engagements and potential drive new revenue. It also offers a number of core services, including managed security, storage and compute, cloud, and application services. From deployment tools to content delivery, over 20 services are available in just a few clicks. New services are quick to provision, without upfront fees, allowing businesses to access the building blocks they need to enable digital transformation.

Blair Newman, CTO of Bell Integrator USA has said, “We aim to accelerate monetization by bringing digital services to the forefront of our customers’ attention. Most of our digital solutions are developed to help our customers succeed and drive revenue in this new digitalized reality.”

Announced this week, The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) have formed a Special Interest Group. This group addresses standardization for the Augmented reality and Virtual Reality Markets.

The Video Electronics Standards Association AR/VR Special Interest Group, will be working on the following points:

• Establish the hierarchical structure for AR/VR services, including physical connections, data transfer protocols, software drivers and application layers
• Define the basic communication data structure and communication channel between the source and sink devices
• Study the related technologies and algorithms, and standardize them to enable economic and efficient implementation
• Suggest any changes to existing VESA standards that may be needed for better AR/VR support
• Work with other standards bodies to merge suggested changes into related standards

Bill Lempesis, VESA’s executive director, has said “It’s exciting to see the growth in the AR/VR market, evident in such venues as the Consumer Electronics Show, which this year featured more than 260 AR/VR exhibitors with more show floor space than ever before.”

The AR/VR SIG is open to both VESA members and non-members, allowing discussion to address the varied needs of all the ecosystem players, including headset makers, glass makers, and other types of providers not typically involved in VESA standards development. The SIG will work with other VESA task groups, as well as other standards organizations, to help build a robust ecosystem that offers optimal benefits for end users.

Augmented Reality is discussed on the PwC technology blog as part of their Global Digital IQ Survey. Emerging technology is discussed with AR for the Enterprise taking the spotlight.  The blog starts by indicating the types of enterprise enabled AR initiatives taking place in industry now and states that the market is growing.   The PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree™ Report, which tracks AR together with VR, recorded $1.5 billion in venture capital investment in 71 deals in 2016.

Graphs included in the blog show (1) Investment in Augmented Reality by industry and (2) “Essential Eight” technologies driving disruption including IoT, AI, Robotics, 3D printing, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Drones and Blockchain.

The following 3 questions are posed, with answers given:

Who is investing the most?

Aerospace and defense, as well as software and internet/information technology companies are early to the game; consumer banks, airlines, engineering and construction companies, retailers, and wholesale and distribution firms will be investing in AR in three years.

What are AR investors focusing on?

Digital culture development is a top initiative today; customer experience will be an additional goal for the next three years. AR will increasingly be used to put the huge volume of IoT-collected data into context.

What value do AR investors expect?

Although the number of relevant respondents is small, early returns are expected to take the form of revenue growth.

The top 3 applications for Wearable technology and Augmented Reality in the Automotive Industry are discussed, in a recent guest article by Randy Nunez of The Ford Motor Company, that appeared on a blog post from BrainXchange (AREA Member).

Nunez outlines what he believes are the top three use cases for Wearable technology and Augmented Reality in Automotive. The top three are:

• Guided Instructions – Adding digital or virtual content while in the real world to provide step-by-step instructions for procedures or workflows is a key use case
• Remote Expert – Using smart eyewear in conjunction with video/audio collaboration software can connect local users with remote experts to provide real-time guidance
• Design Visualization – Visual 3D representation of a vehicle design can include physical prototypes made of clay or wood.  This can be expensive and time-consuming to create and modify.

Randy will be speaking on a panel about applications for Smart Glasses and other head work devices on Thursday 11 May at the Spring Enterprise Wearable Technology Summit 2017 in San Diego, CA.

If you are interested in reading the full article click here.

Press release dated May 9 2017: ABI Research ranks AREA Member PTC’s Vuforia platform as the leader among 19 Augmented Reality platform competitors, with Re’Flekt and Ubimax securing first and second runners-up positions. The initial sections of the press release are published below:

Recently acquired by PTC, Vuforia’s expansive platform offering and demanding market share now combines augmented reality (AR), IoT, and enterprise expertise. This positions Vuforia as the leader in AR platforms, especially when considering the dominant enterprise focus in the market.

“Vuforia’s story has several facets that are responsible for its favorable position: ample market experience, a complete portfolio, and a competitive enterprise supplement through PTC,” says Eric Abbruzzese, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. “The importance of a strong enterprise play cannot be understated. While the consumer market may be the key to eventual AR ubiquity, the enterprise market is this industry’s foundation.”

ABI Research’s competitive assessment broke competitors into three groups to better reflect the nature of the platforms: software development kit (SDK)-focused, application-focused, and usage-focused. While Vuforia, Re’Flekt, and Ubimax take the top three spots among all companies, each group has its own, distinct winners.

Vuforia, Wikitude, and ARToolKit are top suppliers in the SDK-focused group mainly due to strong machine vision and cloud device support. Aurasma (by HP), Augment, and Blippar score highest in the application-focused group thanks to strong customer footprint, fair pricing, and good developer accessibility. Re’Flekt, Ubimax, and Upskill Skylight are the main three in the usage-focused group due to their strong device support, IoT synergy, and smart glasses support.

A press release from Upskill dated May 9, 2017 reveals that AREA Member, Upskill (formerly APX Labs), a leader in enterprise software for Augmented Reality (AR) devices, announced the acquisition of Austin, TX-based Pristine, the leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of AR collaboration and video streaming software. The press release can be read here

And is summarised below:
Pristine’s remote assistance and knowledge capture solutions will complement Upskill’s existing Skylight industrial AR platform to offer the most comprehensive product offering in the industry, making it easier for customers to meet their operational needs and IT requirements.

“Augmented reality is driving incredible productivity results across functional areas in industrial enterprises. Our customers are seeing an average of 32 percent performance improvement from their very first use of Skylight,” said Brian Ballard, co-founder and CEO, Upskill. “There aren’t very many new technologies that can deliver this kind of ‘out of the box’ value creation, which is why adoption of AR technology is accelerating at an incredible pace. This underscores the importance for Upskill to leverage new opportunities that will help us scale and innovate faster than anyone else in the space. The acquisition of Pristine will allow us to do just that.”

Pristine is best known for its flagship product, EyeSight, which provides best-in-class “see what I see” video streaming capabilities for remote experts. Customer deployments have proven EyeSight to help workers complete inspection, compliance and repair processes at a fraction of the cost and time normally required. Through the acquisition, Upskill will now offer Pristine’s portfolio of field-worker collaboration solutions including EyeSight. These applications are typically deployed on smart glasses, but are also available across Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad and Android devices. With Pristine solutions in its repertoire, Upskill will be able to add breadth and domain expertise to its product offering and more choices for customers seeking to implement AR across manufacturing, logistics and field service applications.

Along with the added technology capabilities and product solutions, Pristine also brings to Upskill a talented engineering and product team with deep industry experience in scaling deployment of enterprise wearables across an impressive client base,

Look out for our upcoming blog where The AREA speaks to Jay Kim of Upskill.

Vuzix Corporations will work with Accenture and Airbus on a new initiative to reduce time taken to assemble aircraft cabin seats. The glasses have contextual marking instructions which they use to display all the information needed by an operator to quickly and accurately mark the floor.

The collaboration between Airbus, Accenture and Vuzix smart glasses is part of a larger initiative towards industrialized wearable technology in major aircraft manufacturing companies.

The eye technology which is implemented by Accenture increases the level of interaction by offering access to important features like data retrieval from the cloud, barcode scanning, Augmented Reality and voice commands. By using this technology, Airbus is able to mark seat locations to the last millimeter with a lot of accuracy and high quality.

According to Airbus, the technology produced impressive results.  The process of making cabin seats improved by 500%. The company also says the technology reduced the rate of error to zero and generally accelerated the level of operations.

In addition, the technology reduced the requirements for training as the smart glasses relay the required data hence wiping out the need for use of manual methods.

Announced this week, AREA member RealWear, makers of the HMT-1 which is the first voice-driven, hands free, head-mounted tablet, will moderate the Wearables, Big Data and the Internet of Things panel this year at the Spring 2017 EWTS event.

The Enterprise Wearable Technology Summit is the leading event, focused on the use of Wearable technology for industrial enterprise applications. The panel will include companies such as CDM Smith, Boeing, GE and many more with the event taking place in San Diego, CA, May 10-12.

Andy Lowery, CEO of RealWear who will be the moderator has said “Innovations in wearable technology are currently transforming how work gets done across all industries. I look forward to leading the discussion on the emergence of wearable technology for the enterprise, the benefits it is delivering and the challenges that remain as wearables continue to become valuable assets for the 21^st-century workforce.”

Panellists will include Scott Aldridge from CDM, Peter Chai from Brigham and Women’s hospital, Thomas Dawidczyk from Lux Research, Brain Laughlin from Boeing and Sam Murley from GE.