Contrary to what some may expect, utilities are rapidly embracing new technologies. In this feature on mobile Augmented Reality in the November/December 2014 issue of Electricity Today, electricity transmission and distribution managers are introduced to the concepts of enterprise AR on mobile platforms and the use cases for it in their industry.
IEEE Spectrum reporter, Stephen Cass, visited the Epson booth at CES 2015 and released a synopsis of the enterprise AR solutions being demonstrated to corporate buyers.
When the terms in common use are insufficient to express the capabilities of a new product, some invent their own. “Spatial Reality” is what Sulon Technologies has coined the experiences its platform will provide users. At CES Sulon demonstrated the capabilities of its first hardware device for both Augmented and Virtual Reality, the Cortex. This review published by tech portal Gizmag provides details and an account of the experience as well as the company’s future plans.
IBM has had its finger on the pulse of mobile Augmented Reality since 2008 so it isn’t surprising that the company’s engineers are applying it to the company’s core business: business machines. This IP Watchdog post describes a patent entitled “Systems and Methods for Managing Computing Systems Utilizing Augmented Reality” which was recently awarded.
When Werner Struth, the CEO of Robert Bosch, took the stage at CES 2015 he was full of predictions. In his keynote, covered by the Wall Street Journal, Struth shared that the electronics giant is working with companies like Mishor3D on bringing information out of the dashboards and into view as Augmented Reality projected on the windshields of automobiles.
Of course, the manufacturer isn’t alone to be working on the projection of navigation and assistance where drivers can see it. General Motors, Daimler and Continental Corporation are also working on the heads-up display technology. It will still be several years before AR support in mass market cars is commonplace, but it’s getting closer.
Although not a household name, Luxoft is well known in large enterprise as a premium software development and IT service provider. The company which serves Boeing, IBM, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Harman, Avaya, Alstom, Sabre and Ford among others, announced its software framework for developing Augmented Reality experiences to be delivered in embedded Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). The solution encompasses road recognition, vehicle detection and tracking, and a single camera-based egomotion engine. More information is available on the company’s portal.
Providers of component technologies for enterprise Augmented Reality need to partner with others to demonstrate compelling solutions. This is particularly important for providers of hardware that are not also publishing a robust AR experience authoring tool chain or publishing environment. At CES, Lumus and InfinityAR announced their collaboration and demonstrated the use of hands-free AR displays by Lumus for providing assistance to physicians in a medical procedure. To learn more about the uses of AR watch the IEEE webinar on the topic of AR in Medical, Healthcare and Wellness.
There will soon be a plethora of new tools from which enterprise AR developers will need to choose. WakingApp, an Israeli start up developing an authoring environment for Augmented Reality experiences with multiuser interaction and live data feeds, announced that it has won the IBM European SmartCamp award.
Separately, the company closed it’s B Round of funding and Samsung Israel chose WakingApp’s platform for its official launch of the Note4 in Israel.
Some enterprise AR use cases can leverage a thermal imaging sensor in combination with visible light imaging cameras and depth sensors. At CES 2015 Round Concept, a start up backed by night vision expert, Ivan Arbouzov, introduced Third Eye, a product concept for use with any hands-free display such as Google Glass. The Third Eye adds thermal imaging as a trigger for safety or other purposes.
The self-driving car was one of the stars at CES 2015 but prior to being fully autonomous most vehicles will have AR-enabled systems for driver assistance. Integrating live data into the automobile and putting it in the driver’s view is one of the intermediate steps. Projecting real time traffic information for drivers has been the focus of a collaboration between HERE and BMW and announced by the two partners at CES. This post on the 360Here blog describes the vision and status of the project.