In its 15th year, the Hermes Award is one of the world’s most prestigious industrial technology prizes, recognizing solutions that are showcased at Hannover Messe (Deutsche Messe) for the first time. Finalists were selected from a pool of nominations by an independent jury under the chairmanship of Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster, who heads the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).

Released in the fall of 2017, Upskill’s newest version of Skylight is designed to enable faster and broader adoption of AR in the enterprise. It offers more out-of-the-box features that lower the complexity of building, supporting and scaling AR at the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) in the market.

Brian Ballard, Upskill’s CEO and co-founder, said, “It is a true honor to be a finalist among other innovative, global technology companies at Hannover Messe. This recognition is a testament to Upskill’s commitment to accelerate wider enterprise AR adoption – by putting the power into the hands of our customers to create, test and deploy new AR solutions, our next-gen Skylight is proving to be a critical factor in enabling a more connected, productive industrial workforce.”

The next-gen Skylight’s most notable enhancements include Skylight Application Builder, Skylight Connect, Skylight Software Development Kit (SDK) and Skylight Live, which provides best-in-class “see what I see” remote, HD video collaboration capabilities. Together, these enhancements allow customers to build new AR use cases on a common platform, and quickly deliver real value while keeping deployment and maintenance cost to a minimum. Today, Skylight users report an average performance improvement of 32 percent, with efficiency and quality as the two key metrics.

Dr. Jochen Köckler, chairman of Deutsche Messe’s Managing Board and head of the award’s independent jury, commented, “The nominated entries reflect the trend towards self-learning and autonomous systems that leverage the full power of artificial intelligence and smart sensor technology. It’s solutions like that that are driving the second wave of digitization. At the same time, all five entries have remained faithful to a human-centric approach to development by employing cognitive or physical support systems, such as AR glasses and exoskeletons.”

Upskill’s recognition as a Hermes Award finalist builds on last month’s momentum – the company closed its latest funding round, raising $17.2M from return investors Boeing HorizonX, GE Ventures and New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and new investors Accenture and Cisco Investments, among others. Accenture, with whom Upskill formed a strategic partner alliance, is also a key Hannover Messe exhibitor. As a preferred systems integrator in Upskill’s partner program, Accenture will be one of several Upskill partners that will showcase Skylight in their Hannover Messe booth.

To see the new Skylight in action for the first time at Hannover Messe, visit Upskill in Hall 6, Stand F46/4 in the USA Digital Factory Joint Pavilion. As a Hermes Award finalist, Upskill and Skylight will also be exclusively showcased at the TechTransfer Gateway2Innovation display in Hall 2, Stand C02 on April 23.

In this one, entitled: “Smart Glasses For Augmented Reality Market Emerging Trends and Technology 2018” some of the key players in terms of enterprise AR smartglasses providers are included, such as DAQRI, Epson Corp., Alphabet Inc., Atheer Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Sony Corp. The report can be accessed here.

Global Smart Glasses For Augmented Reality Market Research Report 2018” tracks the major market events including product launches, technological developments, mergers & acquisitions, and the innovative business strategies opted by key market players. Along with strategically analyzing the key micro markets, the report also focuses on industry-specific drivers, restraints, opportunities and challenges in the Smart Glasses For Augmented Reality Market.

The second one, Global Smartglasses Market Size 2018-2023, includes information about Osterhout Design Group, Microsoft, TESO, Samsung and Baidu glasses.  This  report is said to be a comprehensive study that provides an elite mixture of professional experts related to market scenario.

The report can be accessed here 

The research team has followed global Smartglasses market for a 10 years period beginning in 2013 and ending in 2023. The Smartglasses report considers 2017 is a base year to collect data information by region, company, Smartglasses product type and application. Furthermore, Smartglasses report sheds light on the dominant market players in Europe, North America, Central & South America, Middle East & Africa, China, Japan, India and others.

Augmented Reality is propelling the ecommerce industry to widen its horizons and enhance customer experience. Ecommerce has rapidly taken over as customers’ preferred way to shop by rising above all the challenges and limitations of the online space.

The last decade witnessed a considerable rise in consumer’s interest and overall participation level. As per Statista, ecommerce sales in the year of 2017 amounted to 2.3 trillion US dollars. This number is projected to grow up to 4.88 trillion US dollars till the year 2021. In a matter of time, ecommerce has transformed into the pinnacle of modern-day retailing and is continuously expanding in new directions under the light of Augmented Reality technology.

The article explains how ecommerce shopping experiences are being enhanced with the use of augmented reality. Ecommerce has experienced a massive tide of good fortunes by leveraging the potential of Augmented Reality (AR) technology. This move has succeeded to overcome the shortcomings of online shopping by bridging the gap between offline and online shopping experiences.

The major concern of online shoppers is ‘uncertainty’. They are usually unsure of whether a particular product is right for them or perfectly meets their specifications. Not all customers have the imagination power to correlate the products available online with the real world space.

With AR-based ecommerce apps, customers are more confident in their purchases and feel that they are making the right choice. Customers like the idea of being able to virtually try different options before making the purchase decision. AR-based ecommerce app makes this possible by transforming user’s smartphone into a useful and ubiquitous AR platform.

The article goes on to say how AR is being integrated into ecommerce websites, with technology giants Apple and Google developing their own AR platforms to make it simpler for developers to build ecommerce apps with AR features.

Practical examples are given of how AR is working in ecommerce including how AR based apps are helping to boost sales.  Businesses are seeing benefits such as a significant decrease in the number of returns and goes on to explore how emerging technology will be used in the future of ecommerce.

Immersive technology and Mixed, Virtual and Augmented Reality are all terms that have analysts and industry visionaries excited, predicting that billions will be spent in the coming years. Virtual and Augmented Reality alone are forecast by IDC to grow to $162 billion in revenue by 2020.

One sector where actual performance, efficiency and bottom line improvements are already being made is Enterprise Augmented Reality (AR).

Mark Sage, the Executive Director of the Augmented Reality Enterprise Alliance (AREA) explains, “Enterprise AR solutions are providing real benefit to organisations right now.” Sage notes that there are many different business problems that can be solved or improved, including:

• Relevant data – presenting only the latest, contextual and useful information to workers, when they need it
• Better resource management – making experts available to the entire workforce
• Real-time compliance – capturing, recording and certifying processes for policy compliance
• Reduced time – improving the efficiency of infrequent and complex tasks
• Minimised errors – preventing human error and miscalculation
• Lower costs – lowering the impact of task interruption and errors

Any new technology requires the ecosystem players to come together. This includes Enterprises (benefiting from AR technology), Providers (developing service, software and hardware AR solutions) and Non-commercial supporting organisations (universities, public research institutes and agencies that deliver research and push the boundaries of AR technology).

Many organisations want and need a better understanding of the AR tools available, use cases, methods of implementation and return on investment (ROI) for Enterprise AR.

This is the goal of the AREA, according to Mark Sage.  The AREA is very grateful to Insight Success for featuring The AREA in their “10 Most Innovative AR/VR Solution Providers 2018” and for all the information on The AREA.

With In:Range, ScanReach has solved a problem nobody else has. The firm has created a system and technology capable of sending and receiving data signals wirelessly through any structure, including steel. Utilising a combination of advanced radio technology and intelligent software algorithms and protocols, signals sent from bracelets worn by crewmembers are picked up by sensors that simply plug into standard power points. This data is then transmitted to screens on the bridge or, during incidents, to emergency services, land-based facilities or nearby ships.

The result is a real-time overview of the exact location of all personnel, negating the need for lengthy (and often dangerous) searches and ensuring that those that need assistance receive it as quickly as possible.

“InReach is Superman,” states Arild Sæle, CCO, ScanReach. “Plug it in and suddenly you can see through walls to know exactly where your crew are located and how to get to them quickly if they need help. From saving individuals to conducting entire vessel evacuations in a fraction of the usual time, this technology can fundamentally transform safety standards at sea. What’s more its applications are almost limitless.”

Jon Roger Nesje, CEO, says that he expects the offshore, energy and merchant shipping sectors to be the first to seize on the potential of In:Range, but that other sector markets and uses will develop rapidly.

“Cruise for example,” he states. “If passengers were issued with In:Range technology upon boarding then the crew would always be able to find and assist them when required. The system can also be used as a simple, reliable and incredibly powerful platform for wireless data exchange. Equipment that gathers data, such as smart ropes or condition monitoring systems, can use In:Range to transmit data straight to the bridge, giving officers real-time insights and leading to safer, more effective and efficient operations. This can be used as the cornerstone of smart ships – it can empower the shipping industry of tomorrow.”

In:Range has undergone extensive testing and will have completed rigorous pilot tests on a number of vessels, including North Sea Shipping’s North Sea Giant, before its official launch at the end of 2018.

To ensure privacy for those wearing the transmitters, the system’s default setting is ‘sleep’, springing to life in a range of situations, such as when alarms are sounded, the wearer presses a button, or movements are made that show distress. The system is robust, reliable and, despite its advanced nature and artificially intelligent data transmission and capturing capabilities, simple to operate and maintenance free.

One of northern California’s largest health systems is seeing strong success with the enterprise version of the mHealth smartglasses. And officials are crediting that success to what they’re calling “the human ROI.”

“This is not a machine,” Albert Chan, MD, chief of digital patient experience at Sutter Health, says of the high-tech wearable. “It’s a solution to workflow problems.”

And it’s making a world of difference, Chan says, to physicians who generally spend half their time with patients and the other half doing administrative tasks.

The Sacramento-based, 24-hospital, not-for-profit health system is one of the largest networks using Google Glass, with more than 100 physicians sporting the smartglasses in a wide variety of locations. Those devices are embedded with mHealth technology developed by Augmedix, one of a handful of companies designing software for smartglasses.

Among the most popular uses for the smartglasses is in translating patient encounters into the medical record. This is typically done either by the doctors themselves or by scribes, who copy clinician directives – written or taped – into the patient’s record. Chan says Sutter Health now employs about five scribes for every four doctors.

With Google Glass and Augmedix technology, Chan says that process is streamlined – for both the doctor and the scribe – and made more meaningful. The patient visit is entered into the record immediately, with more accuracy, absent the vagaries of a doctor’s handwriting, an imperfect recording or time spent between the visit and data entry.

Recently, Sutter Health and Augmedix announced a collaboration with Google to add artificial intelligence tools, by connecting the smartglasses to the Google Cloud Platform.

“Our work on GCP has been accelerating as we continue to advance our capabilities using Google Cloud machine learning APIs and core HIPAA-secure cloud infrastructure services,” Ian Shakil, co-founder and CEO of Augmedix, said in an announcement released at this year’s HIMSS18 conference in Las Vegas. “As our largest deployment, Sutter represents an at-scale example of what’s possible when you bring together a technology-enabled documentation service for health systems and the power of the cloud.”

Chan, who uses Google Glass in his own family medicine practice, says the wearables aren’t meant to improve clinical outcomes – at least not directly. They’re designed to reduce the stress on clinicians by giving them an intuitive, hands-free means of completing administrative tasks, such as entering data into the patient record, collaborating with the care team and messaging.

“As AI matures, we can layer that into our (administrative) processes to make things more efficient,” he says. “We can understand patterns and anticipate needs.”

Read the full article here.

Use Cases For the Enterprise Are Becoming Reality 

It’s not just The AREA who are providing use cases for enterprise AR although if you’re interested in our offerings see here. https://thearea.org/area-resources/use-cases/

Enterprise uses cases are definitely out there, from things like designing machinery in a collaborative VR space to avoid collision issues on the manufacturing floor, according to a report released in March by Kaleido Insights. The report uncovered some use cases exploring mixed reality’s effects within enterprises, such as, engineering and design modeling, training and employee education, real-time information overlay, theft protection, b2b sales, and marketing and entertainment.

Enterprises are now starting to realize “where efficiencies can be reached that can save money.” And the use cases are not isolated into one particular industry, Szymanski found. “What we found in talking with a lot of leaders and innovators and practitioners in XR spaces is that these use cases span multiple industries,” she said. “So something that might work for automotive could also work for healthcare and education.”

Let’s examine some of the ways VR and AR are creeping into the enterprise.

Engineering and Design Modeling 

Manufacturing firms are using computer-aided design and computer-aided modeling software to mock up products for manufacturing environments or automotive environments before tech hits the shop floor, according to Szymanski. It can help detect collision and safety issues and increase collaboration within organizations. “We see that as the case study that is really taking off the most for the past few years,” Szymanski added.

Training and Education

Case studies in training and education include more of the VR variety than AR. “People can be really immersed in these new training environments for situations that either are very unique or are very dangerous,” Szymanski said. Oil companies, for instance can train employees and contractors on dangerous situations in the field. These situations “require a lot of people to collaborate,” Szymanski said. “With a VR environment, they’re able to scale training efforts.” Szymanski also cited retail trainers who can show employees what a retail sales floor should look like. “Retail employees are usually seasonal, and there’s high turnover, so you don’t really want to pull away a veteran employee to train someone that might be gone in two months after the holiday season.”

Real-Time Information Overlay

AR headsets can provide real-time data delivery to service technicians. They in turn can make repairs to products/homes/cable systems more effectively and efficiently, allowing for quality control on the spot. Typically, you’d find these use cases, Szymanski said, in an industrial capacity but there are some interesting case studies emerging in healthcare, she said; i.e. surgeons who need some on-the-spot information.

Check out this AR example of a water pump fix.

Onboarding Employees

Beam, a design and digital marketing agency, has built an AR-based onboarding program. New employees can use AR headsets during their onboarding with new organizations in order to gain knowledge about the business, the office and to connect with employees. Of course, you wouldn’t want to make the already-awkward-enough first day on the job more uncomfortable, so Beam suggests organizations encourage their new employees to use the AR headsets during off-hours. The headsets bring information such as who sits where, what they do, which clients they have and how you can connect with them. Clicking on a person will unlock a quick video where an employee says what she or she does, and how he or she can help the newbie.  “Ask me about joining the new Fantasy Football League. I’m the commissioner,” “Andy” says in a video Beam produced to demonstrate its AR onboarding program.

“Onboarding is still kind of a weak link in the chain,” said James A. Gardner, who worked as a consultant with Beam on its AR onboarding program. “I don’t think it’s as bad as it used to be, but I can remember starting a job where you show up and don’t have a spot to work and a computer for the first week. It’s really unwelcoming.”

AR for onboarding can help new employees understand how the company works, what different departments do and encourage the newbie to “really get productive and acclimated quickly,” Gardner said. It goes beyond, Gardner added, just shaking hands and getting the standard, “Welcome to the team, Bill.” Ultimately, it can help collapse the time of a new employee getting comfortable and productive.

Customer Experiences

Of course, it’s always nice to walk the reality of the customer’s shoes. Rori DuBoff, managing director of content innovation and extended reality for Accenture Interactive, said her company has worked to implement VR simulations that help better understand customers and their experiences. She cited the example of creating user personas with financial institutions to help train employees on what a customer journey looks like. “When a customer is trying to go through a new mortgage application what is the actual experience like for them?” DuBoff asked. “What are the questions? How can we be more empathetic and understanding to what that experience was like for the consumer?”

“This is an exciting step forward in maximising uptime for our customers through the use of augmented reality and remote diagnostic tools,” said Paul Anderson, Service Operations Manager at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. “Our ultimate aim is to ensure we can keep the customers’ vehicles on the road for longer and that means reducing the time it takes to repair a vehicle when it’s in one of our centres.”

Using the state-of-the-art wearable device, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles service technicians will be able to simply clip the head-mounted device onto a safety helmet or bump cap and connect directly with the Technical Support Centre at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ Technical Support Centre at the head office in Milton Keynes. Anderson explained that the device was well designed for loud workshop environments, dark and tight areas which require light and hands-free use in rugged environments.

This virtual assistance could significantly reduce service time, as technicians will be supported throughout the diagnosis and repair of the vehicle.

“The RealWear HMT-1^® device is solving one of industry’s major dilemmas by bringing the right information to every frontline worker in real time, reducing downtime and improving productivity,” said Andy Lowery, RealWear’s Co-founder and CEO in a statement. “We will work closely with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles to ensure a successful pilot and rollout to allow them to give the best support to their customers.”

Anderson continued, “The new devices allow our team of Technical Support Agents to support our network with a virtual visit which is as close as possible to the agent being in the centre. Factors such as time out of the office, speed to booking and travel time are stripped out leaving only the value of having our technical support agents virtually in the Van Centre to support the diagnostic process. There’s clearly an environmental benefit in this approach, too.”

RealWear’s^® purpose-built platform enables experts to send precise visual instructions remotely to Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Van Centres and field technicians.

The HMT-1 device serves as a virtual technical support agent, guiding technicians through complex repairs by augmenting images, wiring diagrams and adding repair suggestions into their view while walking them through the necessary diagnostic steps.

The full press release can be read here.

RealWear’s member profile can be read here.

The software already enables IT managers to monitor and control their network infrastructure. Located in a data centre or IT closet, imVision can remotely show where ports are located and how they are connected back to the main location. However, users can still struggle to physically see the port information or actual connection behind ceiling tiles or walls.  The new AR capabilities in imVision are designed to combat this, speeding up troubleshooting and provisioning.

The infrastructure provider believes that there are many advantages associated with bringing AR to imVision. As part of a recent technology assessment, it collaborated with Joinpad to develop several functional AR prototypes based on use cases that are typically performed during cabling administration tasks. These covered implementation of moves/adds/changes, troubleshooting cabling connectivity, and maintenance work on cabling infrastructure in the ceiling. The prototype applications, which work on mobile devices and smart glasses, enable users to experience the benefits of AR technology first-hand.

Ernie Pickens, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Solutions, CommScope commented on the development:

‘What started as an application for gamers and entertainment has now entered the business world and organisations are beginning to see the value that AR can bring to various industries. Coupling AR with intelligent infrastructure to ‘see’ cables and connections behind walls and in ceilings is just the first of many uses where we believe customers will find value.’

AR and VR will very soon become important tools of a number of different industry types that want to find new and innovative ways to make their products more desirable and build more future-oriented enterprises. An area where AR and VR will have the most impact will be healthcare. A higher success rate of surgeries and improvements in quality of care are just some of the advantages of using AR and VR in this industry. As precision is the most important thing when performing surgery, surgeons can be more precise with the help of 3D visualizations of the area of surgery in real-time, bolstering the rate of success. Construction is another area where AR is expected to have a big role to play in enhancing the workflows of businesses. Imagine construction companies that provide floor-by-floor 3D plans of buildings before construction is even started. This would give customers a sense of what the buildings will look like upon completion.

The inevitable linking of AI and AR/VR will open new doors for further innovation. This will help enterprises take advantage of new applications and enriched experiences to enhance their business processes beyond what was thought impossible only a few years prior.