The consultancy thinks that half of all businesses not already using AR and VR tech will start using it as they accept that it can enhance productivity, efficiency and safety in the workplace.

The most popular uses of AR and VR in businesses will be to offer remote real-time support to customers and to train staff.

“Immersive technology has come a long way in a short time and will continue to evolve. Faced with stiff competition from aggressive investors in the US and China, businesses need to streamline investment to seize the long-term growth potential this technology offers,” Lanny Cohen, chief innovation officer at Capgemini said.

“To drive the highest business value from AR and VR, companies need a centralized governance structure, proofs of concept that are aligned with business strategy, and to be able to drive innovation and employee change management.”

Capgemini’s report looked into the attitudes towards AR and VR too and two-thirds suggested AR is more relevant to their business compared to VR, which correlates with current usage stats – 46% of businesses have employed AR, while only 38% are using VR.

The report noted that 82% of businesses already using AR and VR tech said it’s either exceeding or meeting their expectations, but are experiencing problems when it comes to developing their existing implementations because there’s a shortage of skilled people to help them grow.

Enterprises with large mobile and deskless workforces are beginning to move away from the use of traditional devices like smartphones and tablets towards a new wave of mobility …. wearable and immersive technology, including body-worn sensors, AR glasses, VR headsets, exoskeletons, and more.

The potential is enormous: Hands-free, heads-up technology to reshape how work gets done, how decisions are made, and how you engage with coworkers, customers and partners.

Read the full press release about this important event in the calendar for all enterprises interested in how wearables can improve their business processes – and find out which businesses will be exhibiting at EWTS 2018, hosted by AREA member BrainXChange (member profile here).

Joshi writes: “The logistics industry can be considered as the lifeline of global business activities, as it is responsible for the smooth and efficient flow of goods down the supply chain, from the primary producer to the ultimate consumer.

Innovations in engineering are improving the mechanical aspects of the industry by making logistical operations faster, smarter, and more efficient. To complement this progress, the use of AR in logistics will improve the human aspect of the business to further improve the operational performance and meet the ever-evolving customer expectations.

Two sections are discussed and AR’s application and role in both: Transportation and Storage.

AR in Logistics: Transportation

The primary challenge for logistics companies, regardless of size and segment, is concerning transportation efficiency. Developments in the automobile industry are resulting in the emergence of vehicles that provide better performance and improved on-board diagnostics. Making the most of these machines can only be possible by enabling their operators, i.e., the drivers to function more efficiently.

The most obvious application in this area is the use of heads-up displays for vehicle operators, to make navigation and performance data visible on the go. By using AR-powered displays on windshields or equipping drivers with smart glasses, drivers can navigate better and monitor vehicle performance to make timely maintenance decisions.

Furthermore, AR can also help drivers to deal with unexpected breakdowns by providing virtual assistance through a smartphone camera. A recent example of such an application is the “Vehicle Lens” app by Mercedes that enables heavy vehicle owners to get an AR view of the performance and maintenance information by positioning their smartphone cameras in different angles.

AR in Logistics: Storage

The storage and sorting facilities are as important for logistics organizations as the vehicles. Warehouses give logistics providers a place to pack, sort, and temporarily store goods while waiting for transit. Warehouse employees traditionally have had to use printed or written labels, and recently RFID readers to identify and sort packages.

This process can be replaced with the use of smart glasses, which can be used to visually identify packages in a hands-free, convenient, and efficient manner. According to a recent report, projected logistics to globally account for 24% of smart glass shipments in 2017.

Global logistics leader DHL is among the first companies to test and standardize the use of smart glasses in the industry. The use of these glasses has been reported to make the process of manual sorting much easier and quicker, contributing to an increase in overall productivity.

It is evident that augmented reality will have a role to play in the future of logistics. The aforementioned applications are just a few of the numerous applications AR can have in the logistics sector.

In addition to adopting AR, logistics companies should also incorporate other technologies within it. For instance, the impact of IoT on VR can be immense and can make the processes smarter and more profitable.

Through this alliance, Fieldbit and InfinityAR will jointly develop a vertically integrated solution for field service organizations that marries InfinityAR’s SLAM and Augmented Reality software engine with Fieldbit’s award-winning enterprise platform for remote assistance, collaboration and on-job knowledge capture. In particular, the integration of InfinityAR’s software engines will enable Fieldbit to optimize the compatibility of its AR-based field services application with the next generation of optical see-through smart glasses.

Digital transformation is revolutionizing the field services industry. Large manufacturing and industrial organizations, as well as utilities and other enterprises, are in the midst of strategic digital transformation projects in order to improve the efficiency of their field personnel, retain practical knowledge from aging workforces, and connect customers to the problem resolution cycle. According to Gartner research, smart glasses and will play a key role in this digitalization process.

Read the entire press release here.

Jody Medich, Director of Design for Singularity University Ventures, is quoted to have said that devices should become ‘ready to hand’, acting seamlessly with our hand or body movements. She urges us away from the training of humans to operate devices, instead believing our minds should be free to pay attention to the task rather than the tool.

Medich has demonstrated that XR can make technology ready to hand which leads to an improved interface for a more effortless experience. An example of an application is firefighters wearing Augmented Reality helmets with thermal imaging capabilities and toxicity sensors, meaning that the helmets do not require an interface because the thermal images are as clear as the physical world.

In the medical sector, vein visualisation is an AR technique that projects near-infrared light onto a patient’s skin which allows professionals to ‘see through’ their skin and look at veins. The surface of the patient’s skin effectively becomes the interface as no screen or external device is needed. AccuVein, one of the vein visualisation tool’s manufacturers, claimed the produce increased the chance of a successful first stick by 3.5 times, leading to increased patient satisfaction and reduced costs. Medich has pointed out that a large amount of the work in Augmented and Virtual Reality is happening in the healthcare industry; a medical research team from Duke University found evidence that the level of immersion can be enhanced by VR in a distracting environment which occurs even during a patient experiencing pain.

Another aspect of human psychology significant for human-machine interface design is that we tend to learn more efficiently when we use our whole bodies, Medich mentioned. Embodied cognition is the concept of cognition not being confined to the brain, and experiences of the body affecting our mental constructs and performance on cognitive tasks. Screens do not involve the body, as they are flat, visual, and text-based. In contrast, XR provides an opportunity to take advantage of embodied cognition by offering an immersive experience and creating the perception of the body being engaged.

Briefly touched on is the lack of breakthrough for VR, which a 2016 MIT Technology Review article attributed to the high cost of devices such as the Oculus Rift.

The article concludes by likening effortlessly accessible technology to having ‘superpowers’; Clay Bavor, Vice President of Virtual and Augmented Reality at Google, is quoted to have said that VR transports you elsewhere, whereas AR leaves you in place, and despite this different, both give us superpowers.

The author makes the link between recent developments in AR, uses in the workplace and its significant role in mobile app development.

The author argues that even in cases where AR is not yet that popular, with time it will have a stronghold in business enterprises and institutes too. AR has a vital role to play in mobile applications also. Hence it is a matter of time when it will capture the app market.

See – The original article on Customer Think.

See – The AREA’s use cases for training.

AR has garnered a great deal of interest over the past few years for its clear applicability in industrial maintenance and repair applications as well as operator training. The question is, how quickly is industry adapting to and adopting this technology.

Though it does not provide a broad analysis in terms of overall industry adoption of augmented reality (AR) technologies, a mid-year update from PTC on its “State of Industrial Augmented Reality” report does provide good insights into current applications of AR among PTC’s Vuforia and Vuforia Studio customers.

According to the report, the majority of PTC customers piloting and adopting AR for internal use noted improvements in “operational efficiency” and “lower costs” as the main drivers of their interest in AR. At the same time, 50 percent of respondents noted “differentiated product or service offerings” and “improvement in sales and marketing” as key business goals they looked to address with AR initiatives.

This finding in the PTC research seems to indicate a confluence of purpose for AR in both internal and external (customer-facing) applications. As stated in the report: “Driven by the same high downtime costs forcing companies to develop AR maintenance experiences internally, customers of industrial enterprises are open to receiving value-add services that utilize AR to reduce downtime and streamline their service experience. The path to value that PTC observes is that pilots start with internal proof of concept and quickly become deployed across multiple areas, including customer-facing product and service initiatives.”

Given that a good bit of attention has already been paid to AR use for internal maintenance / operation applications, I found it interesting to learn how widely customer-facing applications of AR are already being applied.

According to the PTC report, 26 percent of respondents developing customer-facing applications said those applications are service related, i.e., providing instructions to the customer to pre-empt and reduce service calls or equipping service teams with service inspection apps to increase first-time fix rate. These respondents note that the ultimate goal of service-related AR is to “maximize the value customers receive from their products.”

Another 20 percent of respondents use customer-facing AR to “extend a customer’s ‘operator’ experience with the product via operator and assembly instructions to guide customers through product setup and operation to ensure safe and compliant product use.

Surprisingly, the PTC report notes that companies using AR for customer-facing applications report “having completed successful use case development at nearly three times the rate of those developing internal use cases (29 percent versus 11 percent).” PTC thinks a reason for this disparity could be that companies developing for internal use may be “experimenting more with AR technology to find the best fit for optimizing their internal operations. They may also be taking on more ambitious projects, such as integrating enterprise systems or building use cases that span multiple functions in the value chain.”

Regardless of whether the company is pursuing internal or external use of AR, PTC says its research shows that the majority of enterprises pursuing “any flavor of augmented reality are standing up projects and experiencing ROI within 12 months.”

With such a high-focus on customer-facing AR applications among its AR users, PTC spotlighted a few case study examples of companies deploying the technology for this purpose in its report. In one example highlighting the internal use of AR to help customers address product problems, Trox do Brasil, a manufacturer of central air conditioning components, is enabling augmented service manuals and instructions, service inspection, and remote expertise to ensure they can instruct and guide customers through repairs and maintenance hurdles. “These new service capabilities will reduce the need for on-site service trips in addition to reducing the customers’ downtime and improving their overall experience and value from Trox do Brasil’s products,” states the PTC report.

A more direct customer-facing example of AR application is being used by Cannondale, a global supplier of cycling equipment. The company offers a bike called Lefty Ocho, which ships with AR companion experiences that include operator and assembly instructions. In its report, PTC says this functionality helps customers learn about “the features of their new bike, mechanics, and proper use to ensure the safest and best product experience possible. It also provides a key voice-of-the product feedback loop for Cannondale to incorporate into product development in addition to reducing basic customer service calls and questions.”

The scenarios explained in the article include:

1. Pilot in emergency based on FedEx Express cargo airline – Smoke Assured Vision Enhanced Display (SAVED) which delivers vision and oxygen to a pilot in an emergency.
2. AR helping humans to interface with IoT data collected from devices more quickly e.g. Amazon and Vuzix collaboration
3. Engineering walking through complex designs
4. Navigating factory floors e.g. at Volkswagen for maintenance, inventory, inspections, etc.
5. Porch home improvement startup’s collaboration with AR provider Streem can provide quotes and fixes even before a contractor has turned up, using machine learning and computer vision.
6. Boeing has reduced wire repair time by 25% in the belly of their planes by using handsfree AR solution powered by Skylight software by Upskill, one of the members of The AREA.
7. Mixed reality hard hat – French company GA Smart Buildings are achieving more precise quality control over the assembly of mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems as well as cast concrete.
8. Paccar used AR in the design phase of their huge semis and built a hologram that’s the full size of an 18-wheeler, replacing this part of the design phase that once was done with clay models.
9. AcuVein has developed a mix of laser scanning and AR to reduce the number of failed attempts at sticking a needle in a patient’s vein with impressive success rates.

The full article can be read on CIO.com.

The research company uses insights from more than 2,000 technologies and condenses them into a succinct set of 35 emerging technology trends on a “hype cycle”.

Gartner Hype Cycle 2018 predicts rise of mixed reality

One of the key findings is that mixed reality (MR) is forecast to overtake virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) as the preferred technology.

Also known as hybrid reality, MR is the blending of AR and VR, providing users with the ability to switch between fully immersive virtual content and augmented digital content overlaid on the real world.

According to the Gartner Hype Cycle, standalone AR will reach the trough of disillusionment, which means that interest in the technology will decrease, in five to ten years. However, MR will remain popular for longer because it better integrates real-world objects and their virtual counterparts.

The hype cycle therefore reveals that MR will become a widely used human-machine interface technology in the coming years.

Head of VR/AR at PwC Jeremy Dalton believes that the spread of devices that incorporate AR is partly responsible for this:

“Augmented Reality is fast becoming a default part of the devices in our pockets. Google and Apple own the majority of the smartphone market and are both investing heavily in AR, helping this technology reach the mainstream more quickly and explaining its more advanced position on the latest Hype Cycle.

“The business case for developing further AR applications continues to grow as the technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous. It’s a virtuous circle – launching more AR apps means people become more comfortable using this kind of technology, and in turn this continues to drive up adoption.”

More can be read in the full article online here.

The article covers how AR is being used in the following industries:

• Training
• Planning, architecture and design
• Maintenance
• Information, data and number crunching

Enterprises must think deeply about the scale of this. Lumus Vision estimates AR will be delivering these kinds of numbers by 2025:

• AR video games: $1.16 billion
• Healthcare: $5.1 billion
• Engineering: $4.7 billion
• Entertainment: $4.1 billion
• Home and real estate: $2.6 billion

It makes sense for enterprises to begin to set aside R&D spend for small-scale development of AR experiences that may support their existing business.

It also makes sense to consider how AR in conjunction with data analytics, machine intelligence and predictive intelligence may introduce new business opportunities, particularly given Apple’s long-proven capacity to take complex technologies and make them mainstream.

Businesses can get clued up by accessing the information from dedicated organisations such as the AREA.  We have use cases in a wide variety of industries that help you understand how you can see real business benefits with AR.

Start with our use cases

And see our videos, webinars and podcasts