“Augmented reality (AR) hasn’t truly permeated the mainstream consciousness yet, but the technology is swiftly being adopted by global industries. It’ll soon be unsurprising to find a pair of AR glasses strapped to a helmet sitting on the heads of service workers, and RealWear, a company at the forefront on developing these headsets, thinks it’s on the edge of something big.

RealWear has worked to ensure its headsets are both well-designed and easy to use. Think Google Glass, but bulkier and attached to a hardhat or cap. It’s immensely useful technology that can help workers access digital data without using their hands, stream video back to another team member, or receive guidance during training periods.

The latest version of its AR headset is called the RealWear HMT-1Z1, recently unveiled at Augmented World Expo (AWE) in California. It’s billed as the first “intrinsically safe” headset — which in layman’s terms means it’s explosion-proof.  The article goes on to explain how it fits in tight spaces, features voice activation and goes on to discuss the future of Augmented Reality.

The full article appears here.

The company is rolling out its Atheer-powered “Tech Live Look” to its 189 dealers in the United States. The system, which uses Atheer’s augmented reality platform and ODG (Osterhout Design Group) R-7 smartglasses, connects dealership technicians to remote experts via smartglasses for a live interaction that it says can shorten service resolution times by up to 40 percent.

In its May 29th release, the company explained that Tech Live Look combines computerized eyewear and augmented reality software to allow remote experts hundreds of miles away to see what a service technician is seeing and provide feedback while the technician works hands-free.

PCNA also points out in its May 29th announcement that the automotive industry has been experimenting with augmented reality technical support, but that analysts say Tech Live Look is the first application at scale in U.S. auto repair.

The success of Porsche Cars North America’s approach was highlighted in April, when Tech Live Look won a Best-in-Class Award Best-in-Class Award from the annual Field Service USA conference, a major conference which focuses on improving efficiency and effectiveness of field teams across many industries. The award was for “Most Effective Technology Deployment To Increase Service Levels.”

“Tech Live Look is the kind of digital innovation Porsche values because it raises the quality of the customer experience,” commented Klaus Zellmer, President and CEO of PCNA. “By solving issues faster, our dealer partners can get their customers back into cars with less disruption. And our overall service quality increases as we share expertise more efficiently between our experts and dealer technicians.”

Tech Live Look is the result of a deliberate and well-executed pilot plan by Porsche, highlighted in the initial announcement of the solution late last year. The company now says that following those successful pilots in 2017, Tech Live Look starts going live at three of 189 U.S. Porsche dealers this week (the week of May 29th, 2018), with the aim of having 75 dealers on board by the end of 2018 and most of the remainder in 2019. Dealers began signing up for Tech Live Look in April of 2018.

Representing growth of more than 100 per cent from US$4.6 billion the previous year, the upward trend bodes well for channel partners currently developed business applications within the market.

Because despite strong adoption of AR and VR technologies across consumer segments, IDC research suggests that in fact, commercial sectors or enterprise will represent more than 48 per cent of spending in 2018.

This figure is expected to overtake the consumer sector in the next five years with 58 per cent share by the end of the forecast period, according to IDC.

“The use cases for both AR and VR are proliferating in the enterprise segment as companies across sectors are developing new IT and business applications,” IDC associate research director of Asia Pacific, Avinav Trigunait, said.

“Many enterprises in the region have already developed solutions utilizing AR and VR such as for design and visualisation, corporate trainings, field maintenance and customer experience and marketing applications.”

In being the largest source of spending however, the consumer sector will continue to drive growth for AR and VR products and services, holding a 51.3 per cent share of overall spending in 2018.

Trigunait said the growth will be primarily driven by the availability of new headsets for VR which will lead to VR consumer spending.

While AR spending will be dominated by the purchase of services – the launch of Augmented Reality SDK platforms from both Google and Apple are also expected to drive spending on application development and games for mobile platforms.

As PTC’s first Vuforia managed services provider and a member of PTC Vuforia’s Preferred Developer Program (PDP), ITC Infotech will drive adoption of PTC’s world-class Augmented Reality (AR) Vuforia technology platform by delivering high-fidelity Vuforia solutions to unlock value across global enterprises.

Augmented Reality is emerging as one of the most sought after technologies among enterprises today. Michael E. Porter, Harvard University, and James E. Heppelmann, PTC’s CEO envisaged the growing significance of AR in an article in The Harvard Business Review, November-December 2017 edition entitled “AR will become the new interface between humans and machines.” According to authors of the article, “Pioneering organizations are already implementing it in product development, manufacturing, logistics, marketing, service, and training—and are seeing major gains in quality and productivity”.

AR bridges the digital and physical worlds to create value across an enterprise. The value AR applications deliver rises exponentially when coupled with IoT data and analytics, rendering truly transformative experiences and driving enterprises to completely re-imagine how they design, produce, sell, operate and service their products.

Barry F. Cohen, Ph.D., Chief Strategy Officer and Executive VP, PTC, adds, “The potential for AR technology is significant across all industries, with market growth rates in high double-digits. As our trusted partner for over 17 years, we are pleased to see ITC become our first Vuforia services partner and join the Vuforia Preferred Developer Program. We are confident that ITC will deliver AR solutions that enable customers to unlock value across their businesses, leveraging their industry expertise and proficiency in the PTC product suite.”

According to International Data Corporation’ (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Augmented and Virtual Reality Spending Guide, worldwide spending on augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) is expected to reach $17.8 billion in 2018, with an estimated five year annually compounded growth rate (CAGR) of 98.8% during 2017-2021. PTC is well-positioned to lead this growth with its world-class Vuforia technology that enables enterprises to develop and adopt AR solutions to drive superior customer experiences and transform business performance.

Commenting on the collaboration, Sushma Rajagopalan, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, ITC Infotech, said, “AR will revolutionize the way we connect and interact with products and systems. We have the first mover advantage in bringing PTC’s world-class AR Vuforia technology to market. As an extension of our on-going investments in developing AR solutions, ITC Infotech is delighted to partner with PTC in leading the way for faster adoption of Augmented Reality solutions in the industry. We are accelerating AR solutions development focus to create value at scale.”

As a PTC Preferred Development Partner for Vuforia, ITC Infotech will work closely with PTC’s global developer community to create AR solutions across such industries such as manufacturing, automotive, industrial, retail, consumer goods, healthcare and hospitality. ITC Infotech and PTC plan to develop joint go-to-market strategies to accelerate enterprise adoption of AR technologies leveraging PTC’s ThingWorx Co-Innovation labs and digital solutions Innoruption Labs.

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What exactly is AR and how are companies using it? It’s essentially a mix of virtual reality and the real world: your actual location with images or information superimposed into the picture. AR can overlay maps, steps, data and more. It provides instructions, answers questions and, for example, can compare what a worker is doing to specifications for a task, offering input to perform the work correctly.

The technology is already in use at plenty of worksites. Using Google Glass AR headsets, GE Aviation connects mechanics to specifications: as they use their digital torque wrench, the system tells them immediately when they have the exact fit to seal hoses and fluid lines. In healthcare, surgeons and nurses may wear glasses that display a patient’s vital signs in real time as treatment is being administered. In construction, AR can map out plans against the workspace, allowing workers to see what they should be doing in 3D, rather than having to check against blueprints.

Honeywell says it’s using the world’s “first and only self-contained holographic computer.” A headset that uses Microsoft’s Hololens provides a mixed reality view that gives learners a chance to explore in a combination of the real world and virtual space. “These active learning methods use sight, sound and touch, codifying learning,” Vincent Higgins, director of technology and innovation, Honeywell Connected Plant, told HR Dive in an email.

“We are finding that Honeywell’s Skills Insight Immersive Competency, which uses augmented and virtual reality, really boosts retention rates,” he said. “Technical staff are better prepared to face the challenges of a constantly changing work environment.”

Tapping into the ‘wow’ factor

The tech has certainly caught users’ attention. “AR has started out primarily in new customer-facing applications to bring a ‘wow’ factor to websites or mobile apps,” said Christa Manning, vice president of solution provider research for Bersin, Deloitte Consulting LLP, in an email. It’s been used to help shoppers imagine how furniture might look in a home or to show airline frequent travelers how to navigate airport terminals, she told HR Dive. But the tech has moved to address the needs of business.

Early adopters telecom, for example, are using AR to support workers in the field who are servicing remote equipment. “With lots of data being generated by the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) and devices everywhere throwing off information,” Manning said. “AR can be critical to help human beings process all of this information in real time and in context.”

The report evaluates and assesses the strong momentum building across these three use-cases as advertisers, brands and publishers experiment with AR to deliver improved user-experience, drive engagement among consumers, and improve monetization prospects.

As a new form of media AR remains a nascent and untapped opportunity. With Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore SDKs only recently opening up access to AR development for developers on the two major global smartphone platforms, Strategy Analytics expects significant AR experimentation to occur primarily on smartphones over the next three to five years.

Brice Longnos, Industry Analyst, Strategy Analytics, states that “with AR now accessible to virtually all developers, the focus will be on creativity to identify key use-cases for success. AR is a powerful enabler for engagement and immersion making it ideal for advertising, convenient to search and visualization key in retail for certain products.”

Read more in the press release.

The solution utilizes the Microsoft HoloLens, a mixed-reality, holographic headset that incorporates both virtual reality and augmented reality by seamlessly blending high-definition holograms with the real world.

The Augmented Reality solution developed by Viscira allows the user to view and physically interact with a 3D image of a healthy, functioning heart. Viewers can then see the impact of certain diseases on the appearance and performance of the organ. Additionally, the training instructor can review the same imagery simultaneously with the participants, allowing him or her to provide additional real-time, voice-over commentary and education.

By using this type of interactive solution, learners enter an immersive environment where they are able to view and interact with dynamic, functioning organs, as opposed to reviewing and memorizing how the organs look in static, textbook form. This Augmented Reality training solution was first used by the company during a live training program in March 2018. The solution was very positively received by the client, senior management, and the field sales force, and was instrumental in driving mastery of the relevant biology, cardiology disease state, and existing treatment approaches.

Retail

Augmented reality is set to transform retail. In particular, the world of fashion retail will see new opportunities for trying on

• clothing
• personal styling like haircuts
• makeup
• jewelry
• men’s suits

MAC cosmetics has already begun testing in-store virtual mirrors allowing customers to test makeup effortlessly, and for free. The mirror, created by cosmetics augmented reality specialists ModiFace, overlays styles of eye makeup on a live video of the subject.

Overcoming the inability to see and feel fabrics and colors before purchase has been a major stumbling block for the retail sector, and customers are reluctant to experiment with new makeup products if they don’t know how they will look against their skin.

Meanwhile retailers are working with augmented reality to achieve similar results, like IKEA’s augmented reality catalogs that allow users to ‘see’ furniture they’re considering buying as it would look in their homes. Amazon recently introduced a similar feature that will soon be available to all its customers.

Social Media

Whatever Facebook offers for free to its users, it’s very clear about what it offers its advertisers—attention and engagement. And as engagement with traditional movie ads falls, Facebook has found a use for Oculus, the VR company it purchased in 2014.

It ran advertisements for the new Jumanji movie as a 360 AR game that rewards players with clips and previews for the film. It’s an innovative marketing technique that shows the way forward for Facebook and other social channels in a world where AR is already becoming more commonplace.

Automotive

The first use of AR in cars is the transition from a dashboard to a heads-up display that shows drivers vital information on the windshield, where they can view it without looking away from the road. It’s a safety feature, but the fact that it’s commonly used in the cockpits of fighter jets will also help it to sell.

But AR could form part of the transition to driverless vehicles. There’s likely to be a transition period in which an increasing number of decisions are made by onboard AI but human drivers still control the car. In that case, AR could help by showing drivers what decisions their robot copilots are making.

“With fully driverless cars expected to be available to regular consumers by 2025,” said Vitaly Ponomarev, Founder of vehicular AR startup WayRay, “AR will be playing an important social role by helping users to adjust to the new reality.”

Education

Google sees a place for AR in education via its Expeditions tool that works by mapping the physical classroom and 3D objects and allowing intuitive interactions with them. Students can use mobile devices to view a miniature Category 5 hurricane or a strand of DNA.

There are even more uses for AR outside of the school classroom—especially in training doctors and medical personnel. Google has competition from its traditional nemesis, Apple, which has made its iOS 11 AR-enabled. Now medical students, and the merely curious, can see inside their own bodies with apps from the App Store.

Entertainment

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve heard of Pokemon Go. The game that swept the world before it was even officially released isn’t the only entertainment application for AR, though. Games played against others using smartphones as handsets, like Father.io, are in beta: your smartphone functions as the handset for a real-life first-person shooter.

Even traditional card-collecting games aren’t immune to AR’s allure. Yu-gi-Oh, the popular card trading and combat game, now has multiple smartphone apps, including one, YGO mini, specifically aimed at bringing real-life Yu-Gi-Oh cards to life. When the HoloLens app becomes available, it will reputedly offer this functionality for all Yu-Gi-Oh cards and deliver an AR Yu-Gi-Oh experience across the whole game.

The future of gaming might be changed in this direction and video games are among the most commercially successful forms of entertainment as well as the one with greatest and most various market penetration.

Fintech

Consumer-facing fintech improvements include apps for helping users find the nearest ATM, or immediately getting information on any house they pass that’s for sale.

But industry fintech changes are set to be the most transformative.

One crucial function of the fintech industry is to analyze financial information and obtain insights from it.

The sheer quantity of information is now beyond the ability of traditional methods. Insights need to be acquired promptly or they’re of reduced value, and while AI has some applications in the field, many of the insights derived from financial data are judgment calls.

That means there’s a need for a human-applicable way of understanding huge volumes of data intuitively and quickly.

CitiBank traders have been testing Microsoft’s HoloLens as an immersive trading environment, hoping to improve traders’ ability to spot trends in a gestalt way.

And CRM leader Salesforce is already using Oculus Rift technology to provide sales and financial data in visible AR form to its users.

“You cannot wait until a house burns down to buy fire insurance on it. We cannot wait until there are massive dislocations in our society to prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” These are the words of Robert J. Shiller, 2013 Nobel laureate in economics and Professor of Economics at Yale University.

Enterprises and their competition are being radically reshaped because of intelligent and connected products and people, embedded as a part of broader systems. The Fourth Industrial Revolution characterized by a combination of physical and advanced digital technologies such as internet of things, Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Robots, ubiquitous, mobile supercomputing, Information Management and Analytics, has a huge impact across industries. Coming on the footsteps of internet and computers (Industry 3.0), electricity and mass production (Industry 2.0) and the steam engine (Industry 1.0), the opportunities that this presents is significant, still evolving and perhaps not fully envisioned. To be successful, enterprises need to shift from just selling products to creating a relationship model built around creating deeper connections with their ecosystem of suppliers, customers, machines and employees.

Several industries are at the forefront of the innovations that these technologies bring. In this edition, we examine four industries who are driving these innovations from the front, resulting in causing significant change in terms of the way they work.

Manufacturing: With the wealth of ‘as a service’ buzzwords, perhaps what manufacturing segment could look forward to as a part of Industry 4.0 is ‘machine as a service’. Every dollar of capital investment and maintenance in a machine must drive business revenue. The investment in the machine is directly dependent on its ability to deliver its KPI’s (being the output). Industry 4.0 technologies enables real time condition monitoring from machine and sensor data. The data is evaluated using highly customized rules and analysis and enables triggering of notice of upcoming maintenance or alerts in case the data falls outside the standard range of tolerance. Likewise, unscheduled maintenance stoppages are also immediately displayed, and notifications are sent. The software then passes on the maintenance ticket to the most appropriate technician with all the relevant information related to the issue. Parts are ordered and data from nearby machines is reviewed to allow production re-routing to other machines during the downtime. Once the issue is resolved, event notification informs the customer and the billing takes place.

Other key manufacturing use cases include enterprise wearables during the manufacturing process including training, additive manufacturing (to build three dimensional objects from a digital blueprint or model), robotics for better floor space utilization and higher productivity as well automated purchasing, digitalization of product design, personalization of products, collaboration of multiple partners in the value chain, advanced sourcing, transportation and inventory modelling.

Distributed manufacturing is becoming possible with the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies. The idea driving this is to locate production facilities that are closest to the customer and to integrate the customer more effectively into the manufacturing process to reduce lead time and cost.

Retail and Consumer Goods (R&C): R&C companies are being driven by changes in consumer preferences, barriers to entry, supply chain and logistics strategies and marketing strategies. Retail organizations are focusing to digitize their value chains right from planning and allocation to last mile delivery. Advanced real time in-store inventory management, real time information and predictive analytics for planning and allocation, end to end transparency on product availability, seamless channel integration and transparency on quality and origin will help enterprises differentiate in the market.

Logistics and Transportation: This industry is perhaps seeing some of the biggest innovations in several decades. In the Hannover Messe 2018 (one of the world’s largest trade fairs), cobot (collaborative robot), AI and Logistics were the key technological highlights.  While cobot itself is not a new concept and perhaps existing since 1995, it is now finding its place in terms of wide applications in multiple industries. While a classic robot is expected to function autonomously, the cobot is expected to work together with people and assist them with complex tasks that cannot be fully automated.  The cobot has seen several applications in the warehousing, transportation and fulfillment industry. IDC stated that by 2018, “30% of all new robotic deployments will concern smart cobots that operate three times faster than current robots (with ‘current’ being end 2016) and are safe for work around humans”. IDC also stated that “By 2018, 45% of the 200 leading global ecommerce and omni-channel commerce companies will deploy robotics systems in their order fulfilment warehousing and delivery operations”.

Industry 4.0 solutions in this industry will drive significant improvements in supply chain visibility, integrity control of the supply chain (rights products at the right place and right costs), dynamic reconfigurability of the supply chain by using the most optimal combination of supply chain network providers and achieving lean and green supply chain outcomes.

Automotive: The automotive industry is making a dynamic shift with Industry 4.-0 technologies by leveraging the connectedness of machines and people. This has allowed them to build agile supply chains to quickly adapt manufacturing specifications to changing standards (such as say fuel regulations), smart connected assembly solutions to increase uptime, reduction in defects and improved productivity, equipment reliability for 24-hour production, contractor integration and ability to deliver personalization of vehicles based on customer demand.

With solutions like Blockchain, several automakers have created a distinctive ID for every part, together with immutable timestamps from when the part is created. This is expected to significantly bring down the phony auto parts which are inferior causing damage to the automaker’s brand. Again, blockchain is being put to use to ensure that there is transparency to banks when there is sale of vehicles by automotive dealers. This is intended to bring down frauds because of not reporting this sale by the dealer, to benefit from additional working capital.

The possibilities with machine to machine (M2M) is huge. With M2M, several stakeholders including energy providers, automakers, parts suppliers and car owners have full visibility to the vehicle data and even use this to create / launch new products and services.

Alvin Toffler in his book Future Shock (1970) posited that “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn”.  The future of work is continuous learning. No company, no industry and no job is immune from it. Massive value awaits those companies who adopt the right strategy roadmap in their Industry 4.0 initiatives.  To be successful enterprises must ensure to invest in continuous change management and learning initiatives for their teams, to accelerate the adoption and pace of change.

Original article source.