Physicist and environmental expert Michio Kaku featured Augmented Reality as one of the industry’s most promising new technological innovations during the keynote address of the 2014 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference. Mr Kaku described the oil and gas sector’s future as dominated by a “seamless transfer of information,” allowing workers in the field to have immediate access to expert knowledge and real time data. More insights about how Augmented Reality will revolutionise the way hydrocarbons were extracted are found in this article on the National portal about the keynote speech.

Metaio has announced that the Audi eKurzinfo application has received a Red Dot Award – Communication Design for Apps. This is the second major award for Audi eKurzinfo in 2014. At the beginning of this year, the application was already awarded with the GRAND PRIX CREATIV’EXPERIENCE at the Festival Automobile International in Paris in the Mobile Multimedia category.

The Red Dot Award is a product design and communication award given by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen. This prestigious award has been given out for over half a century and has included many of the biggest names in product design including(but certainly not limited to) Apple Inc., Lenovo, Bang & Olufsen and Philips, and many others.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has been a strong supporter of Augmented Reality and related technologies for improvement of enterprise productivity. Beginning as early as 2001, the BMBF has funded basic and applied research on computer vision, interaction, virtual and augmented reality and 3D awareness in automotive and other industries important to the German economy. Begun in September 2013, the Arvida project is the most recent (currently running) project in the series led by Volkswagen’s Dr. Werner Schrieber.  This week the Arivda Project web site has been made public. 

Technical documentation is increasingly being prepared for viewing in context for quick reference. iQuest has developed next generation technical documentation combining AR with QR codes to recognize equipment the technician is working on and instantly display relevant schematics, procedures and live process data. iQuest’s iQAgent software client received the 2014 Tabby Award for Best iPad app for Intelligence, Information and Reference.

Continental Corporation has been hinting about its activities in Automotive Augmented Reality. This week details about the tier-one automotive supplier’s first software solution for service technicians leaked in a short automotive industry news service. Continental Commercial Vehicles & Aftermarket is developing a new service that will place all of the information needed to service, repair and maintain a vehicle in front of the technician at the moment it is needed. Called Augmented Reality Diagnostics, this service technology provides a new user experience centered on the automotive technician. Greater detail about the technology platform and Continental’s vision are available in this on-line brochure.

Kothes! has integrated Augmented Reality into its technical documentation for the Combibloc carton packaging machine. In this case study, RE’FLEKT describes the process of developing the system and the benefits for users.

Mountain View, California – Augmented interactive reality company Atheer has joined Dassault Systèmes’ Technology Partners Program.

The initiative will facilitate integration of the Atheer AiR platform with Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCES platform for the next-generation 3D design experience. Through this partnership, Dassault Systèmes customers will have the ability to view immersive 3D projects with the Atheer AiR Smart Glasses, interact with them, and collaborate with their peers in real time.

“Dassault Systèmes offers a world-class suite of 3D solutions, and Atheer is excited to amplify the experience by bringing mobile-immersive 3D viewing and natural interactivity to workers on the move,” said Ketan Joshi, vice president of marketing, Atheer. “This unique partnership delivers on our shared vision of creating innovative solutions to unlock human creativity and productivity.”

The Dassault Systèmes Technology Partners Program welcomes leading providers of interaction and perception devices to create rich solutions for ultimate user experiences. As part of this program, Atheer will participate in the upcoming 3DExperience Forum on Nov. 11-12, 2014, and will demonstrate Dassault Systèmes applications on the Atheer AiR platform.

Tom Schorr, director, strategy and market development at Dassault Systèmes, said, “Atheer is a great fit for our Technology Partners Program due to their groundbreaking technology in 3D-immersive experiences and interactive augmented reality. We are excited to partner with Atheer and leverage their technology to the benefit of our partners and customers.”

Use of robots in warehouses, factories and many other enterprise and industrial environments is increasing rapidly as their costs decline. A research project at MIT demonstrates that humans can use Augmented Reality to see the data flow from sensors and decision workflow of the robot’s programs. The vision of project led by Ali-akbar Agha-mohammadi, a postdoc in MIT’s Aerospace Controls Lab, and preliminary results are described in the MIT News article. Watch the video for more details.

Employees around the world want to use wearable devices at work, according to an October survey commissioned by a division of workforce management software company Kronos Inc., based in Chelmsford.

Nearly 75 percent of adults around the world believe that wearable technologies could benefit the workplace in at least one way, including areas such as increasing efficiency, productivity and safety, according to the survey that was commissioned by The Workforce Institute by Kronos.

The goal of The Workforce Institute at Kronos is to provide research and education on workplace issues that affect salaried and hourly workers across the world, according to the institute’s director, Joyce Maroney.

“Since the majority of today’s global workforce are not tied to a computer or a desk all day, Kronos predicts that wearable devices may be adopted more rapidly in the workplace than at home because these devices – such as smart watches, smart glasses, intelligent ID badges, and health and fitness monitors – provide uncharted data collection points that have the potential to greatly improve safety, productivity, collaboration, and overall effectiveness in the workplace,” she wrote in an email.

About 9,100 adults ages 18 and older participated in the “Wearables at Work” survey.

IEEE’s CEO J Roberto de Marca promises to expand the IEEE focus to regions such as India, China and Brazil to shape the future of technology. Augmented Reality is one of the areas in which he tells Economic Times he sees enormous potential for India to contribute to the future of Open and Interoperable Augmented Reality. Further details of the goals are found in this article.