AREA member APX Labs has been announced by the World Economic Forum as one of its Technology Pioneers at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China on June 27, 2016. The company was one of 30 selected for their potential to significantly impact business and society via new technologies and their ability to advance the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

The APX Labs Skylight product was selected for its ability to modernize and upskill the global industrial workforce. Companies such as General Electric, Boeing, Tesla and Shell are already making use of APX Labs’ enterprise wearable technology. Their solutions train and modernize global field service, maintenance and manufacturing personnel via their smart glasses, which deliver line-of-sight information to workers on demand.

Brian Ballard, CEO, will attend the Annual Meeting of the New Champions and will participate in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Switzerland in 2017. The company has also announced the appointments of a new executive chairman and vice chairman, Magid Abraham and Linda Abraham, who bring expertise in global technology growth. The AREA would like to extend our congratulations to the APX Labs team on being named Technology Pioneer and we wish them every success for the future of the company.

The company’s full statement can be read here and their member profile here.

A press release dated June 23, 2016, reveals that Siemens are expanding their Frontier Partner Program to include startups in Augmented and Virtual Reality.

This comes as a result of increased interest from Siemen’s industrial customers for AR and VR across the whole product life-cycle. Additionally, more than one third of US manufacturers expect to adopt AR/VR technologies by 2018, according to a recent Pricewaterhouse Coopers report.

Startups will be able to gain access to Siemens software and technology to accelerate innovations in product development to market.

The Frontier program, in which Siemens is currently working with 20 startups in 3D printing and advanced robotics, will now be extended to startups in industrial Augmented and Virtual Reality. Siemens are able to offer the same tools to startups as Siemens themselves use to create digital enterprises for their industrial customers. Startups receive a year-long development license to Siemens’ PLM software suite that enables product development and access to mentors.

Your company may be just what Siemens are looking for, if you are a startup in Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality, with solutions related to a product and process design, simulation, maintenance and repair, remote collaboration, training, and supporting the sales process. For more information see Siemens webpage.

A recent article by Daniel Newman for Forbes, is aimed at companies considering their options over the potential workplace adoption of Augmented Reality; the article stresses how the blend between AR and the Internet of Things is set to alter workplace environments of the future.

The author takes a realistic and logical standpoint by inviting readers to consider life before mobile phones and smartphones not so long ago. Augmented Reality’s ability to enable access to real time data and to streamline processes will not only positively impact internal business processes, but will likely impact external competition. Enterprises are invited to consider how they will be able to secure competitive advantage in their industry by leveraging AR technology.

The author talks through a number of factors for consideration in any company’s assessment of whether they ought to be the first-mover in terms of enterprise AR adoption in their industry: existing resources, speed of technology and barriers to entry. The final advice for companies is to survey their stakeholders as a means of assessing where technology will have the most impact—and to make realistic assessments of current hardware and infrastructure in supporting the new technology.

The AREA is committed to helping accelerate the global adoption of Augmented Reality in the enterprise: if your company is considering introducing Augmented Reality, the AREA provides a range of use cases and a wide range of information and resources to help get you started and make the right decisions.

A press release dated July 4, 2016, by Zawya reveals that AR and VR will radically change private and public processes in the GCC, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan. GITEX Technology Week experts will highlight ground-breaking use cases at the GITEX Technology Week 2016, which will be held October 16-20 at the Dubai World Trade Center.

Notable information from the article based on the Frost & Sullivan research is:

• The next ten years of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technology development are set to redefine the future of both business and consumer processes within the GCC region
• Experts from across industries will present at GITEX Technology Week in October 2016 to share their innovative use cases of AR/VR technologies
• AR and VR hardware revenue will reach $2 billion in 2016
• Device shipments to grow to 110 million by 2020
• The report includes quotes from Dr. Grossmann, the first person who streamed a live surgical procedure via Google Glass with an audience of 54,000 virtual viewers
• Programs across industries in the GCC are eager to adopt AR technologies to streamline processes and support employees
• Frost & Sullivan highlights specific initiatives and projects in industries like healthcare and education

The event aims to develop stronger business ties with the immersive technology ecosystem to drive AR, VR and AI innovation. To register for GITEX Technology Week 2016 visit http://www.gitex.com.

A recent blog article by One Fire explores some examples of how Augmented Reality is changing the construction industry.

The blog asserts that innovation, training and marketing can all be revolutionized by Augmented Reality:

1. Marketing: With construction products being so large, marketing departments can now create 3D digital models of products to project, saving money on shipping costs.
2. Project innovation: By superimposing exact measurements and location specifications onto the user’s field of view, this creates a smart field of view, showing the area the work needs to be done. This can greatly improve accuracy in construction.
3. Improved training: Traditionally, training new employees would have involved instruction manuals which are not always appropriate in field roles. Whereas, with Augmented Reality, real time instructions can be superimposed onto the machine or site on which the employee needs to learn and perform so that requisite information appears in your field of vision. Steps of instructions can also be accessed and pointed out as the employee learns a new task.

A new report was recently published: “The Global Automotive Augmented Reality Industry 2016 Market Research Report.” This is a detailed study of 155 pages about the current state of Augmented Reality in the automotive industry.

This lengthy market report covers a summary of the supply chain including definitions and classifications. The report includes development history, competitive landscape analysis and current development status in the major regions.

Global major industry players are covered along with company profiles. The profiles give details of their product picture, specification, capacity, production, price, costs, revenues and contact information. Companies profiled in the report include Hyundai, BMW, Continental, Garmin, Pioneer Electronics, Audi, Honda and others. Analysis of industry development trends and marketing channels is included. The report offers feasibility analysis of new investment projects with conclusions.

An opinion piece on IPWatchdog.com summarizes the key developments that have been taking place over the past three years in both the Virtual and Augmented Reality industries with a useful timeline graphic, integrating information about developments and investments from some of the key players.

The article gives useful information about investments, acquisitions, developments and patents in both Virtual and Augmented Reality, using research from Goldman Sachs published in January 2016, and reminding readers that the combined estimated market size of VR and AR could reach anywhere from $80B to $182B by 2025. The author notes that “it has become important to disambiguate VR from AR in order to clearly understand their individual pathways, future and inclination of the markets.” Not only is clear information presented on the key differences between VR and AR, but he goes on to describe the competitive landscape from the viewpoint of major players, startups and smaller players.

The author expressly mentions enterprises in which applications for Augmented Reality is expanding, noting how the developing technologies of 5G wireless broadband and IoT is going to support development and expansion of Augmented Reality into more applications in future.

Companies are measured as to their relative number of patent applications filed. Figure 6, as presented in the article, shows the Top 5 small players / startups in AR with respect to patent publications, of which AREA member DAQRI is included. Figure 7 shows the Top 5 AR startups with respect to market and acquisition potential: Atheer, another AREA member, is featured in this list.

This news item is taken from a press release by Business Wire dated June 7 2016. Research and Markets announced a new report “Wearable Devices for Enterprise and Industrial Markets.” Worldwide shipments for enterprise and industrial wearables will increase from 2.3 million in 2015 to 66.4 million units by 2021. A cumulative total of 171.9 million wearables is expected to be shipped for use specifically in enterprise and industrial environments. These figures present a significant boost when compared with previous forecasts from 2015.

A summary of the research report is available here.

• Wearables are now being rolled out commercially on a significant commercial scale, which has bolstered the figures as predicted above.
• A direct quote from the report states “More than 66 Million Wearable Devices Will Be Shipped Annually for Use in Enterprise and Industrial Environments by 2021.”
• Key questions addressed that will be relevant for members and enterprise users include how the value chain is evolving around enterprise and industrial wearables, and which regions will see the biggest growth and the key challenges that could impact wearables growth.

Markets mentioned in the report for which there are applications include corporate wellness, manufacturing, warehouses, field maintenance, mobile workforce management, holographic modelling, first person communications and workplace authentication.

The report will be suitable for a variety of groups such as manufacturers of wearables and smart glasses, enterprise IT systems integrators, Augmented Reality software companies, developers, mobile network operators and the investor community.

Topics included in the report cover market and technology issues, key industry players and market forecasts.

Of the companies mentioned in the research report, three are AREA Members: APX Labs, Augmate and DAQRI. Other companies that are mentioned in the report include: Apple, Epson, Fitbit, Google, Jiff, Microsoft, Nymi, SAP, Salesforce.com, SmartCap, Thalmic Labs and Vuzix.

An article on Engineering.com reveals that Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) has issued $12 million across seven contracts for investigation and research into digital manufacturing including Augment Reality applications for use on manufacturing shop floors, wearables and mobile devices.

The projects include real time data driven visual decision support systems for the plant floor, and tend to be focused on streamlining manufacturing processes.

The Rochester Institute of Technology and Expert Demonstration (led by Iowa State University) are hoping to explore and exploit the potentials of Augmented Reality in the manufacturing industry.

The Executive Director of DMDII, Dean Bartles, commented that with each new project, further researchers, industry leaders and providers come into the consortium to help with research and development for the age of smart manufacturing.

One of our AREA members, iQagent, has developed an Augmented Reality app. iQagent’s manufacturing clients have been using Augmented reality on the shop floor since 2013, introducing efficiency savings for large manufacturers.

A press release by Augumenta Ltd about a new gesture-based machine control smart panel, was released June 1 2016, to coincide with the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, CA, where the company is demonstrating with other Augmented Reality providers.

Augumenta has introduced a new Augmented Reality interface combining hand-gesture control with virtual display panels, which provides human-machine interaction for industrial applications. The SmartPanel allows users with smartglasses to see information and use hand gestures to operate machine controls on a panel that appears as a blank surface to other people.

The Augumenta SmartPanel provides enterprise customers a high level of customization that is completely configurable in software. Privacy and security are key: only an authorized smartglass user can view panel data and controls. Access to data is dependent on the user’s role. There are potentially wide and diverse industrial applications of the software.

Augumenta have been demonstrating the software at AWE 2016 with ODG, with whom they have collaborated to accelerate AR deployments. The applications will be ideal for field workers due to being head mounted, tether free and lightweight.

Augumenta are working with in-house and external developers to design and integrate custom panel interfaces for varied use cases in enterprise and industrial applications, which they hope will eventually lead to consumer adoption.

Other demonstrations by Augumenta include demos of their field service knowledge-sharing solution developed with the Augumenta SDK, with AREA member 3D Studio Blomberg.

Augumenta Interaction Platform SDK is also being demonstrated with Epson on Moverio BT-300 smartglasses. The Software Development Kit (SDK) is the only developer toolkit to allow integration of both gesture control and smart surfaces that appear on the palm of the user’s hands.