With buzz rising over virtual and augmented reality technologies, Van Harken said it was clear that this was a space in which his company belonged.

“It became very apparent the immediate benefits from those programs — the value was immediately realized and spoke volumes,” said Van Harken, co-founder and chief strategy officer for Th3rd Coast Digital Solutions. “It made our decision easy. We’re going to put more of our focus into the enterprise and training side of things.”

 Augmented reality is when a user utilizes a device to view real world environments overlaid with computer-generated perceptual information with which the user can interact. Virtual reality provides an immersive experience where a user operates in a simulated environment.

Both technologies, referred to as extended reality (XR), have long been evolving and now are finding a place in manufacturing.

Training game-changer

Some manufacturers are early adopters of these technologies for a variety of applications, from employee training to product development and marketing.

Forging a strategic partnership with Boston-based computer software and services company PTC — and its AR software development kit (SDK) Vuforia — Th3rd Coast is heavily involved in the XR space.

Van Harken said it’s a welcome addition to manufacturing.

“A lot of people in those spaces are really in an analog state — pen to paper, no traceability, no digital threads through anything,” he said. “So, just getting anything digitized in that realm is a huge step forward. But, if you can create more efficiencies with how to train people faster and better, then you create a more agile and nimble workforce that can adapt to various changing conditions in the factory.”

Still, barriers exist in adapting XR technology, as seen in the fact that primarily large manufacturers are the ones adopting it. Education is a key part of the challenge, according to Van Harken.

To address this need for market education, Van Harken and Th3rd Coast established a nonprofit news network on XR technologies. The network, found at th3rdeyexr.com, highlights different ways that enterprise users are applying these technologies.

Training is one primary application for XR, providing an immersive experience even when a user is not necessarily on the shop floor. Through these technologies, manufacturers are able to transcend ineffective user manuals and other analog training materials. 

Additionally, it’s difficult to pass down knowledge from employees who were trained with analog materials decades ago.

“When they retire, in the past, that knowledge has retired with them,” Van Harken said. “One thing that XR/AR solutions provide is a method for early-extracting and documenting that knowledge to be able to pass it on. That’s the best way they learn.”

By using XR technology to train workers in the moment, Van Harken said that it can lead to a well-rounded workforce that contains fewer specialists and more generalists. And, for an industry that suffers from a chronic talent gap and workforce shortage, wooing a new generation to the job is vital.

Budget buster?

Price is another barrier that can block small manufacturers from reaping the benefits of XR technology. However, as it evolves, the hardware and technology is slowly becoming more affordable.

For instance, an OculusGo — a virtual reality headset developed by Facebook Technologies — is available for around $200. Walmart Inc. purchased thousands of the devices as it dedicated a large portion of its training to virtual reality.

Hudsonville-based Immy Inc., which recently started doing business as Optique, has an optic display system in the works that is poised to become more accessible to manufacturers of all sizes.

“Our technology and our approach — it’s very different in the fact that it’s very cost effective to manufacture and produce,” said Optique CEO Sam Vilardi. “So, I think the barrier to entry for us isn’t going to be nearly what the competition is so it will allow us to work with smaller manufacturers.”

Outside of training, product design and development is another prime application for XR technology. Vilardi pointed to Steelcase Inc. as an example of a company that utilizes this form of technology to bring together design and development teams from across the country.

“You start to create this experience that allows you to design more effectively and more efficiently because there are a lot of nuances in design,” Vilardi said. “Some people struggle visualizing without being able to see it and touch and feel it. This technology brings it that much closer.”

Optique also looks to improve upon one other factor that can sour manufacturers on using the technology.

“The reason these hardwares have not gained adoption, to be blunt, is they leave a lot to be desired for,” Vilardi said. “The experience sucks. A lot of them create nausea, motion sickness and eye fatigue.”

Marketing tool

Furniture manufacturer Trendway Corp. worked in conjunction with Th3rd Coast to bring augmented reality to its company — but not for training or product design.

The Holland-based company developed an application in 2018 called the Trendway AR Office Builder.

Through a smartphone camera, the app allows the user to digitally place Trendway’s furniture throughout a real world space, giving customers  an idea of how it would look.

The app also links the user to product information on Trendway’s website while housing videos where product experts walk through pertinent information associated with the product.

“In our case, we put together idea starters — it could be packages or full office setups,” said Nancy Stryker, Trendway’s director of marketing.

While the app wasn’t borne out of COVID, the pandemic has forced Trendway to start forging ahead with technology it had already been considering, as is the case with many other manufacturers.

“COVID really accelerated that need and desire for these technologies,” Stryker said. “We’re finding that it’s something that will only continue to grow.”

For further information on Barriers to AR adoption in manufacturing watch The AREA Research Committee webinar.

In the years since Vuzix Chief Executive Paul Travers studied computer and electrical engineering in the 1980s, there have been many paradigm shifts in technology. He believes that AR and smart glasses will create a profound shift, even “completely change the paradigm of the phone”.

Vuzix began with a focus on military use cases for AR, working with Six15 Technologies in 2014 to integrate AR technology with goggles for the Navy. Innovations for military clients are still being developed now, but the Vuzix NGSG is focused on enterprise and consumer markets.

The hardware involved in the Vuzix NGSG includes binocular micro-LED projectors, with one of the highest density pixel arrays. This provides extremely bright images with low power demands and excellent contrast. Other features include:

• Noise-cancelling microphones
• Speakers integrated into the glasses’ temples
• Wireless communication with mobile devices
• Built-in LTE cellular option
• Potential future “advanced gesture control” (not yet confirmed by Travers)

Potential use cases for the Vuzix NGSG mentioned in the article include:

• Mapping: AR can give on-screen directions and other useful tags overlaid onto streets and buildings nearby
• Medical: During unfamiliar operations, doctors can get remote guidance from experts to support them
• Shared experiences: Family members can share a view of an event and watch it together

Despite limitless possible applications, AR, like every technology, requires early adopters to popularise it. In response to this, Vuzix is creating developer tools to make app development (or porting across existing apps) easier for users. Matt Margolis, Vuzix’s Director of Business Development and Strategic Relationships, states that porting a mobile app over to a smart glasses app doesn’t require much extra work, and maintains accessibility.

Travers believes that making smart glasses easy to wear in public will ultimately make the technology widely successful. The Vuzix NGSG are closer to this, and pricing is expected to be similar to current smartphones and smartwatches.

To conclude, Travers states that he is anticipating that smart glasses will really come to fruition in the next three years.

Read the full article here, and see Vuzix’s AREA member profile here.

According to RealWear, Fugro were seeking a wearable solution for maintaining collaboration while reducing on-site visits. They soon chose RealWear’s technology after consulting partner VR Expert to support requirements for connectivity, safety, and ruggedness.

Since 2019, Fugro have adopted the HMT-1, gradually increasing the number following potential scale, user feedback, and connectivity and durability tests. VR Expert adapted their software to optimise settings based on current bandwidth and latency due to low connectivity in extreme weather conditions. After validation of the use case, VR Expert provided kits for Fugro with the RealWear headset in them, now to be found on almost every vessel.

Hannes Swiegers, Global Director Remote Operations and Support Services at Fugro, has said that they are “proud” of their teamwork with VR Expert and RealWear. Since the deployment, the following benefits have occurred:

• Reduced on-site visits; increased safety
• Optimised resources due to removal of travel
• Instant access to expertise via Remote Expert functionality; quicker operation

Sanjay Jhawar, President and Co-Founder of RealWear, has said that they appreciate the opportunity to work with Fugro, allowing for empowerment and elevation.

CEO of VR Expert, Tim Nijland, has also added that RealWear’s reliable HMT-1s enhanced the “vision to validation” with Fugro. The wearable solution is being used to “great effect” internationally.

Read the full article here, and see RealWear’s AREA member profile here.

One of their open architecture, cloud-based XR platforms leverages the following advantageous technologies: low-latency remote rendering, 3D Artificial Intelligence-based Spatial Mapping, and distributed computing. These features allow for high precision, high quality, and high performance in scalable immersive experiences. Seamless integration with any device or application makes it a cross-platform solution that reduces costs, increases revenue, and improves productivity.

During a combined 60 years of experience, co-founders Rishi Ranjan, Dijam Panigrahi and Venkat R. Dass have worked in building, deploying, and marketing leading technologies, including ones at AREA member Qualcomm. As a result of this work in supporting AR/VR applications, they were aware of how to enable high quality AR/VR experiences on any device. Their platforms have been supporting companies in construction, automotive, and aerospace since 2018.

What Can AR and MR Do?

• Assist computer-aided design capabilities
• Help engineers to compare correctness of a design faster
• Power real-time remote augmentation, allowing complex models to run on mobile devices
• Enable realistic product visualisation and remote collaboration
• Create a virtual environment for remote training, repair, and maintenance
• Assist product design by providing data on how, where, and when customers use the product

Panigrahi has said that AR/VR has become even more vital for business continuity, productivity, and efficiency due to the pandemic. The technology allows for remote collaboration, remote training, visualisation of construction vehicles, remote maintenance and repair, and remote customer support.

Benefits of Grid Raster’s Platform in Construction:

• High performance: supports large, high-fidelity AR/VR/MR environments without 3D asset optimisation, which saves money and time.
• Highly scalable: scales seamlessly based on usage, location, and asset.
• Highly secure: provides multi-level security involving access, authorisation, and encryption.
• Device agnostic: provides support across devices and offers multi/cross-platform support.
• API-based integration: easily integrates with CAD/CAM and 3D assets, allowing reuse of the latter.

Further benefits mentioned in the article include:

• Increased productivity
• Saving time and money
• Better sharing and collaboration
• Almost one-third of companies reported a 25% increase in productivity, with 61% seeing 20% cost savings (according to Grid Raster)
• 40% increase in productivity in manufacturing process, repair and maintenance
• Increased safety
• Increased accuracy, effectiveness, and efficiency

Many entry-level technicians can perform at expert level with AR-assisted instructions, which would usually take years to achieve. Despite initial reluctance to use the technology from more experienced engineers, once they begin, the value of AR/VR encourages them to continue using it.

Current challenges to overcome with integrating the technology include:

• Device display (e.g. resolution)
• Network bandwidth
• Connection quality

Panigrahi further states that cloud-based immersive experiences will be key for widespread AR/VR adoption in not only construction, but across most industries. Grid Raster will continue to push the boundaries of innovation.

The packaging company, which plays a prominent role in the pharma supply chain for COVID-19-related drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines, has deployed both the pre-packaged solution Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and other HoloLens 2-based applications alongside data management, CRM, AI, and other Microsoft cloud services.

Stevanato Group have instituted two key mixed reality use cases, both aimed at accelerating remote acceptance of their equipment.

They have introduced a Virtual Audit plan that relies on Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, Microsoft’s pre-built application that works with HoloLens 2 to allow a remote worker to communicate and collaborate with another person doing work on-site with equipment or goods. For Stevanato, Remote Assist serves to allow customers working remotely to observe and verify production processes for quality purposes.

Microsoft is an AREA member. Read the Microsoft AREA member profile about their work in enterprise Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality.

Attendees were often drawn to events that invited networking and imparted memorable experiences. But as Covid-19 guidelines began to impact work and personal engagements, the appetite for virtual, immersive and interactive events became increasingly important. As more businesses now turn to virtual events to drive engagement with their communities, the role of communication needs to also transform to bring value to each attendee.

Competing for attendee attention at conferences has never been easy, and in virtual settings, it is even more of a challenge. Added to that are the multiple platforms and channels used by the event organizers and the attendee. So how can communication professionals tailor attendee experiences? Here are a few ways that can help spark the creative communication required for successful experiences.

Perception Of Attendees’ Place At Events

While in-person events allow event organizers the flexibility and space to design an atmosphere that can enhance what attendees experience, virtual experiences are often limited to the event application platform. But whether an event is in person or virtual, how attendees perceive their place there can influence where and how they spend their time.

To help close the perception gap for attendees, communication professionals have the opportunity to target their communication by specific groups, interests and activities. For example, apart from the promotion of the general conference, tailoring your communication plans to specific smaller audience segments, such as invite-only virtual group gatherings with CEOs, can be a high-touch experience. Tailoring the discussion around CEO topics and coupling them with fun, interactive experiences like wine tasting can help draw other like-minded attendees who also see the value of their time at the event.

In-The-Moment Communication

The unexpected is sure to happen at events. By including in-the-moment communication as part of the event strategy, the community of attendees has a greater chance to engage by staying in the know. Communication professionals can further curate in-the-moment event experiences by hosting pop-up interview segments with attendees and speakers across social channels.

Bringing this idea to life may start with selecting an important topic that attendees may be interested in. For example, last year, 65% of North American event creators said they believed that diversity was an important focus. Communication professionals can tap into the diversity trend by hosting pop-up interviews around this topic with a “behind-the-scenes” look with speakers before their presentation. This offers the community of attendees an opportunity to engage on the social channels and draw attention to the presentation with a common theme they can relate to and find value in. Leveraging social platforms like Twitter to host these interviews can further encourage in-the-moment communication with the community. 

Thought Leaders As Conference Curators

Historically, the communication program at events has primarily been about general promotion and logistics, helping attendees get to the next activity or presentation. The larger the event size, the more logistical communication is required. But with virtual events, communication professionals have an opportunity to be more impactful by scoping their role beyond tried-and-true strategies.

One way to encourage attendees to experience the conference beyond the traditional emails and Slack channels is by identifying the micro-community segments within your attendees, then partnering with thought leaders who share common interests with those communities to serve as conference experience curators. Having industry thought leaders help guide a micro-community of attendees can create a more intimate and valued virtual experience — one that aligns interest and may even prompt more engagement.

When done well, virtual events that are immersive experiences are unique and imaginative. Communication professionals have had to deliver on traditional plans, which include press releases and blogs to promote the event. But, as virtual or hybrid events become more mainstream, communication professionals have the opportunity to redesign their role and program to become a closer collaborator to event organizers and marketing overall.

“As increasingly distributed workforces and hybrid work models become the reality of a new normal, small and large businesses around the world are looking to adopt new technologies for smart collaboration, increased efficiency, and lower downtimes,” Lenovo wrote in its announcement.

The company will also provide a PC edition for virtual monitors. The ThinkReality A3 PC Edition enables users to see large monitors in their field of view and to use Windows software tools apps. The glasses tether can tether to a PC or certain Motorola smartphones via a USB-C cable, the company explained.

The glasses can also be used in more complex environments such as factory floors, labs, retail, and hospitality spaces with an industrial edition. Because the Industrial Edition is supported by the ThinkReality software platform, customers can build, deploy, and manage mixed reality applications on a global scale, according to Lenovo in a post.

“The A3 is a next generation augmented reality solution – light, powerful and versatile. The smart glasses are part of a comprehensive integrated digital solution from Lenovo that includes the advanced AR device, ThinkReality software, and Motorola mobile phones. Whether working in virtual spaces or supporting remote assistance, the ThinkReality A3 enhances workers’ abilities to do more wherever they are,” said Jon Pershke, Lenovo’s vice president of strategy and emerging business at Intelligent Device Group.

The new solution is also part of Lenovo’s efforts to “accelerate adoption of the next generation of wearable computing” within the enterprise.

In addition to the A3 smart glasses, Lenovo also produces the A6 headset as well as the mirage VR S3 for enterprises that want to take it a step further into total VR immersion for use cases such as soft-skill training.

Congratulations to Lenovo on this announcmenet. You can read more about Lenovo’s work in Enterprise AR in their AREA member profile.

educating me on all the stuff that goes on from an enterprise standpoint. It’s a show focused on innovation, and as I say in my opening keynote, people are doing deals at CES across categories, across verticals. That’s why, when we tried to create the digital venues, we talked about how to get those lines out real quickly from one industry and one company to another. That’s what CES is so valuable for. I’ve talked to representatives from many different companies in many different industries, and that’s what they stress.”

Whilst it may be more difficult for customers to find what they are looking for this year, we will bring back to you a round up of all the enterprise AR at #CES2021

Vuzix Chief Executive Officer and President Paul Travers is scheduled to present on Friday, January 15, 2021 at 12:30 PM EST.  The presentation will be webcast live and available for replay and can be accessed in the Investors section of the Company’s website

The company will also be available for one-on-one meetings at the conference and qualified institutional investors are welcome to schedule a meeting with management by contacting their Needham Sales Representative or conferences@needhamco.com.

Read Vuzix AREA member profile.

A press release on Jan 7 2021 reveals that AREA member Iristick, a provider of augmented reality (AR) smart glasses developed for industry, and Harvest Technology Group Limited, a provider of remote communication technologies, have announced that they have entered into an agreement to commence proof of concept trials for integration of Harvest’s Infinity Nodestream and Wearwolf technology into Iristick’s industrial smart glasses.

Harvest Technology Group Limited is an Australian operated group of companies whose portfolio includes Harvest Technology Pty Ltd and Harvest Infinity Pty Ltd. Harvest Technology is a bespoke subsea technology solutions provider for the energy, resources, and renewables sectors. Harvest Infinity is an innovation company developing remote control, communication, automation and monitoring solutions.

The initial agreement will continue development of the integration of the Company’s Infinity Wearwolf application into Iristick smart glasses, embedding them with the Infinity Nodestream video encryption and streaming protocols.

Wearwolf is a software application version of the Infinity Nodestream encoding platform designed to run on wearable and smartphone mobile devices. According to Harvest, Wearwolf enables live secure point-to-point video and communications at ultra-low bandwidths and over poor quality or congested networks. Video and audio can be transferred as low as 32 kbps, allowing users to communicate directly to a Nodestream decoding device.

Prototype testing was completed during December 2020 where the Wearwolf application was successfully combined with the Iristick software development kit (SDK) on a smartphone and proved to work with the cameras, microphone and screen on the Iristick smart glasses. The companies stated that trial communications were successfully made and maintained between Perth, Australia and Brussels, Belgium at 128kbps.

Iristick’s Z1 Premium AR smart glasses

Harvest states that a final commercial product is planned for launch during the first quarter of 2021 and will communicate point-to-point with Nodestream mini decoding devices and the soon-to-be released Nodestream downloadable decoder software application, which will run on laptops and desktop computers.

“We are very excited to be involved in a relationship with Iristick and look forward to our joint opportunities in the future. The synergies between our two companies are synonymous with a motivation to deliver high-quality remote communications and assistance from anywhere in the world”, said Paul Guilfoyle, Company Group Managing Director at Harvest Technology Group. “We have successfully proven our Wearwolf application on multiple wearable platforms and we are confident it can be quickly adapted for use across other wearable devices. Given the expected growth in the wearables market, we are forecasting more than 1,000 new Wearwolf licenses in 2021.”

Johan De Geyter, Iristick CEO, commented: “The global pandemic kickstarted the use of remote assistance via smart glasses as a solution to keep enterprise operations running under strict travel bans and contact restrictions. As field workers are sometimes confronted with low or no Wi-Fi connection, this collaboration can overcome that issue and make remote assistance available over low bandwidth, at any possible location, ensuring workers stay connected at any time.”

Visit Iristick website

Visit Iristick’s AREA member profile to read more about their work in Augmented Reality.

Interested in becoming a member? See AREA membership information.