Augmented Reality (AR) is set to be the next step in the evolution of computing, and will arguably be the most intuitive and collaborative computing experience, changing the way we work. Countless hours of screen time have been dedicated to imagining how AR can better our lives. Even among our customers, we’ve noticed that both application developers and business decision-makers see AR as a tool for enhancing productivity.

However, there’s no need to continue imagining AR’s potential for improving the way we work – AR is already enhancing productivity at the workplace. Here are some of the ways AR is being used today:

The article walks through a few examples, including maintenance and assembly, with examples from Boeing and General Electric; 3D design for architecture; and data visulatization. In conclusion, as the 4th industrial revolution is under way, now is the time for businesses to futureproof their workforce and plan out how they can leverage AR to enhance worker productivity and optimize existing workflows and processes. 

Much has recently appeared in online articles about the widespread use of Augmented Reality in the Healthcare industry. More examples yet are on offer in an article by BizTimes.com Milwaukee edition.

Whilst in some of the article VR and AR are occasionally lumped together, there are specific examples of how AR is being used distinctly and sometimes in support of VR technology uses. Peter Smith, senior vice president of digital solutions at GMR Marketing LLC, walks the reader through a variety of examples of some of the ways in which the technology is being used in the healthcare industry:

• Immersive, interactive and educational experiences are possible via augmented reality. GMR has produced a “heart experience” that transports the user to a museum-like space with an anatomically accurate, beating heart on display in the center of the room.
• Thanks to VR imaging and haptic feedback, surgeons can try their hand at a procedure in the virtual world before performing an operation in the real world, where the stakes are much higher.
• Virtual robotic surgery, meanwhile, will allow surgeons to operate on a patient in a different location.
• Other uses for VR and AR include enabling doctors to experience their patients’ symptoms more viscerally—glasses simulating the condition of visual field loss, for example
• Augmented Reality glasses, paired with a wearable glove, that simulate the inflammation—and frustration—that comes with carpal tunnel syndrome.

In terms of deployment, Smith predicts it will be commonplace in health care within two to three years. In the meantime, VR and AR continue to evolve at a rapid pace.

AREA member PTC’s Kerry Grimes has been interviewed by Lynn Haber on Channel Partners Online.  PTC, host of the recent LiveWorx Technology Conference, held last month in Boston, is all about investing in a channel-led strategy as the company transitions from its CAD, PLM (project life-cycle management) and SLM (service life-cycle management) roots to Internet of Things (IoT) and Augmented Reality (AR).

Kerry Grimes is Senior Vice President, worldwide channel sales at PTC. In the interview he reveals insight on PTC’s channel strategy. PTC has about 400 partners. Grimes is a channel veteran who, prior to his current four-year stint at PTC, worked in channel sales at Siemens UGS PLM Software for eight years and also, among some other career moves, cut his teeth in the channel as director, channel operations, at IBM Software Group for 13 years.

Grimes states: “The company now has the vision and forethought in two key markets, two key technology waves that are coming at us: IoT and VR/AR – both pieces. We play in both those [VR/AR] markets. We see the AR market first, and that’s where we’re using things like digital twin to tie the physical world with the digital world together. We’re working on VR technologies, which now actually allow you to overlay CAD data while you’re looking at the physical world.”

The full interview can be read here.

An opinion piece written by Steve Jones on the Smart Industry website offers a view in how Augmented Reality promises to increase productivity in manufacturing and service sectors by delivering timely, useful information, enabling people to work without consulting technical manuals.

The article talks about improvements being made by augmenting human workers by 25-50% with AR also closing skill gaps as it allows less skilled workers to match the productivity of experienced workers. This type of AR technology is being tested in a range of manufacturing industries, warehousing and field-service environments.

Steve Jones, the author of the article believes we will see an increasing interplay between augmented reality for management and decision-support simulations. This will start from current metrics overlaid on a real business, moving on to proposed investments and reorganization, with future simulated realities. This will enable deeper understanding, rooted in the real-world, with evidenced-based proof to back up what can often be seen as ivory-tower process-improvement or investment decisions.

To read this opinion piece in full, click here.

An Augmented Reality System that could help clinicians manipulate and interact with patient imaging scans, related anatomical models and data from electronic medical records is being developed at Birmingham City University by researchers.

Many practical use cases for this technology are envisioned, including helping to relay to patients the effect of their lifestyle choices, how their anatomies are impacted by various diseases and what to expect from interventional procedures. The article by medgadget.com also states that this could be a practical hands-free way of navigating through tomography scans during surgeries without having to worry about maintaining sterility.

To track a person controlling the system cameras are used. Different gestures with your arms and hands can trigger certain actions like moving or rotating the virtual anatomy and sifting through different image sources. The article states that this is being designed to be open to integration with a wide variety of data sources and applicable to different diseases and conditions.

Dr. Ian Williams of Birmingham City University said: “The real advantages this brings are being able to visually demonstrate parts of the anatomy, using virtual models which can be customised for each patient and show how they have been impacted by lifestyle choices or how they may be changed following treatments or surgery.”

Varjo, a company based in Helsinki, Finland, is working on prototypes for Virtual and Augmented Reality with plans to make an early version of a headset. Varjo are hoping to sell headsets to professional users next year. This has been reported by technologyreview.com.

Varjo’s VR prototype builds on an Oculus Rift with a high-resolution micro OLED display and an angled glass plate in front of the headset’s regular display. The plate they use lets Varjo merge the two different displays into one image that you see when you put on the headset.

The author speaks of his experience using a Varjo headset and says that what Varjo is doing with this hack is similar to a technique known as foveated rendering, which shows you the highest-resolution images just at the spot where your eye is focused, and lower-resolution images in the periphery of your field of view (in much the same way the fovea, which is a point on the retina of the eye, does).

According to the article, Varjo plans to add the ability to track your gaze. Research Assistant Professor, Emily Cooper, notes that eye tracking can be hard to calibrate and isn’t always consistent.  One reason is that while we might look at the same object in the same spot over and over, we don’t always do it with the exact same part of our retina—which could throw off an eye tracker.

“It’s always important to keep in mind that people’s vision isn’t perfect,” Cooper says. “That can be a benefit—foveated rendering kind of exploits that in a way. But it can kind of get in the way sometimes.”

The Motley Fool recently offered their views and thoughts on the best dividend stocks in Augmented Reality. AR and VR are seen as being sound investments according to the article. According to research, the AR market will reach an estimated $80 billion market size by 2025, compared to $34 billion for VR by 2022.

The 5 companies that the article discusses are the following:

• NVIDIA (AREA Member) – Augmented Reality devices and software need lots of graphics processing capabilities, and NVDIA chips are easily at the top of their class.
• Qualcomm – Qualcomm is best known for its mobile processors right now, but the company is betting that at least part of its future lies in using its chip prowess for AR gains.
• Apple – Apple finally showed its AR hand a bit at its WWDC 2017 event earlier this month when it announced a new augmented reality developer kit, called ARKit.
• Intel – Created a headset called Project Alloy, which combines both AR and VR capabilities.
• Microsoft – Investors will already be aware of Microsoft’s HoloLens headset, which projects holographic images on top of the real world.

The AREA is in no way promoting investment in these companies but we did want to share with our readers that AR is seen as being a key area of investment globally and to share information on dividend stocks to those interested. To read the full article by The Motley Fool click here.

A 2017 market research report gives insights on the Global Augmented Reality and Digital Exhibitions Market. This report is an in-depth study and analysis that has been put together by a group known as the Key Market Insights.

The report, according to WhatTech, covers a vast expanse of information including an overview, comprehensive analysis, definitions and classifications, applications and expert opinions.

Major players mentioned in the market report include:

• Microsoft
• Google
• Facebook
• Carl Zeiss
• Baofeng Sony
• Razer
• HTC
• DAQRI
• Atheer
• Mata
• CastAR and many more

This report studies the Augmented Reality and Digital Exhibitions market status and outlook of global and major regions, from angles of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top manufacturers in global and major regions, and splits the Augmented Reality and Digital Exhibitions market by product type and applications/end industries.

Please note that the AREA is not affiliated with the producers of the report. To download sample pages click here.

AREA members Lockheed Martin and Boeing have been mentioned in an article on Business Insider. At the recent VR & AR World event in London, the companies revealed details of how their implementation of AR and VR technologies is helping reduce error rates and reducing engineer training time.

Two main points from the article:

• Lockheed Martin is using VR and AR to significantly decrease the error rate of integrating radar systems for navy ships, a process that’s complex and requires precision; if the integration is off by one-hundredth of an inch, the system won’t work, and correcting these errors is expensive. AR and VR help Lockheed Martin to identify errors early on.

• Boeing plans to cut engineer training time by 75% by using the Microsoft HoloLens to train engineers in recognizing and combining different pieces of equipment, aided by digital text pop-ups and a voiceover providing guidance. Boeing is also using AR and VR for other purposes, including development of space transportation and to speed up maintenance processes.

Both VR and AR engineering markets are worth around $4.7 billion in 2025 and have 3.2 million users, heavily disrupting the CAD software market according to Goldman Sachs. To read the full article on Business Insider click here.

Michael Thompson’s article for UploadVR this week provides a “cautionary tale of early innovation that failed to keep up with industry momentum.” Thompson reviews the current state of the AR smartglasses market, thriving in industry, and suggests that early innovators may not make it in the long haul. Are they dinosaurs and will they go the same way as other early innovators?

At AR in Action in New York City last week, it was observed that today’s AR is already very good. When discussing AR, most commentators opt to lower expectations by emphasizing the “early” nature of this technology. However, Thompson points out that there are a wide variety of compelling AR applications available today, and this “early” tech is already in school, hospitals, factory floors, real estate agencies, marketing campaigns and many other industries across the world.

The author asks, “Why is AR still a mere footnote to industry, an unknown concept in the collective minds of American businesses and consumers?”

ODG markets the devices for light enterprise use cases. They’ve announced a series of partnerships addressing logistics, maintenance, and health and safety functions for numerous industries including energy, heavy machinery, complex manufacturing, and medical devices.  Thompson draws parallels between the current AR smartglasses market, noting: “all this early success is commendable and would be cause for unbridled optimism, except that Palm and RIM were in the same position for many years until the introduction of the iPhone.”

He goes on to describe how he believes the enterprise-focused hardware strategy may be wrong for AR glasses because this industry will not be segmented by user types. The vast majority of use cases do not require specialized hardware. One form factor and one set of standards can serve the needs of professionals and casual users alike.

Following Apple’s ARKit announced last week, “speculation is rife that AR will be a core feature of the tenth anniversary iPhone coming this fall. Some observers maintain that a snazzy pair of glasses will debut simultaneously.”

From holograms to positional tracking to environment mapping and computer vision, so many of the right factors are in place for a tipping point. “A tremendous prize is ripe for the picking, but no one has maneuvered aggressively to claim it.”