The Consumer Electronics Association has announced in a press release that in January 2016, when the crowds flock to CES to get their peak at the latest technologies, it will be easier to find and visit the exhibitors that are demonstrating their Augmented Reality products and services. In contrast with prior years, the Augmented Reality vendors will have the opportunity to set up in an area on the exhibition floor dedicated to Augmented Reality.

The press releases suggests that there will be a minimum of 3,000 square feet of exhibition space in South Hall 2 of the Las Vegas Convention and World Trade Center. Exhibitors such as ASRC Federal for NASA, Marxent and Occipital have already been promised booths in what’s being called the “Augmented Reality Marketplace.”

Although it is true that consumer-facing technologies are featured, an increasing number of CES visitors and exhibitors are focusing on enterprise solutions.

Vuzix continues to forge relationships with software providers that bring value to enterprise customers. In a press release, the company announced that it has qualified the software for use on M100 and customers of SAP can immediately download the Ubimax xPick and xAssist applications from the SAP Store and the SAP HANA Apps Center.

Once a user wearing the M100 has the software running, Ubimax‘s pick-by-vision solution, xPick, accleerates and reduces errors associated with manual order picking, incoming, outgoing and sorting of goods, as well as inventory processes.

Similarly, when using the M100 with Ubimax xAssist and the SAP HANA Cloud Platform, the system can provide AR-enabled remote assistance to users. With remote assistance the expert and user can capture and document activities, chat and see mark ups in AR-view.

Between 80 and 90% of human activity takes place indoors: in warehouses, factories, office buildings, homes and commercial spaces. Some Augmented Reality experiences are going to be optimized to deliver content and support decisions based on the user’s precise indoor location. Indoor mapping is also playing an important role in personal device management (e.g., turning systems on or off depending on user location).

Google and Apple have been mapping indoor commercial spaces but it is up to enterprises to develop and maintain their indoor maps. One of the solutions for capturing 2D and 3D maps is the Trimble Indoor Mobile Mapping Solution. It’s operation is shown in the video below.

In a press release Trimble announced that it will soon release its next generation of hardware and software. The TIMM2 will be smaller, lighter and more easily maneuverable than its predecessor. In addition, it uses both both LiDAR and spherical video. The data is then processed with Applanix POSPac MMS, a suite of tools that permits visualization and integration with a variety of enterprise data management systems.

A significant proportion of what’s commonly called “Big Data” is connected to the real world by way of the technologies embodied in another popular buzzword: the Internet of Things. Some of the data-rich or relevant objects play key roles in the operation of enterprises. Increasing the value and usability of enterprise data pertaining to real world objects through Augmented Reality-assisted visualization is at the core of the AREA’s mission.

A recent review article in the Springer Journal of Big Data researched and written by a team of researchers at the Tampere University of Technology Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering focuses on the intersection of Big Data and human perception. It begins with an overview of Big Data concepts, followed by an equally well-documented review of scientific visualization trends. The authors then delve into the strengths and limits of human perception before turning to the topic of using Augmented Reality.

The article then describes seven important challenges for Big Data visualization with AR and VR and suggests a new research agenda focusing on these challenges.

It is important for enterprise AR developers and project leaders to recognize the wide variety of sources of error that contribute to failed AR experiences or adoption and to mitigate the risks they introduce. Due to variations in sensor manufacturers, some smartphones don’t behave consistently from one unit to the next. Most of the time these differences are undetectable to the user. In the case of gyroscopes and compasses, however, the differences can lead to important discrepancies in how data is presented to the user. Modern mobile operating systems and suppliers use firmware bias to detect and remove or reduce such discrepancies.

According to a post published on the Apple Insider blog, users have found that on iPhone 6s running iOS 9 the sensors produce errors that cause the geospatial Augmented Reality experiences to drift uncontrollably. When users experience such issues to view the stars, they have doubts about application developers and may choose not to explore Augmented Reality technology in the future. But their lives and the equipment with which they work is not at risk.

In the future, users of personal head-mounted displays in enterprise and industrial settings could suffer from similar issues. Choosing hardware suppliers that have developed and use the highest performance sensor reliability test suites could be an important factor to successful adoption and use of AR in enterprise

Osterhaut Design Group (ODG) has announced the establishment of its reseller and partner program, Reticle Connect. Through this new program, the smart glasses designer and manufacturer is putting in place the systems that will make its hardware available to customers through integrators with Augmented Reality expertise in 15 countries.

When the company’s R-7 devices begin shipping later in 2015, partners will be able to provide complete solutions.

The North American partners include:
– Houston-based Optech4D, provider of software as a service (SaaS) for day-to-day operations, maintenance, and health and safety to the Oil and Gas sector and complementary industries such as nuclear, aerospace, aviation, and construction.
– San Francisco-based Vital Enterprises, provider of enterprise Smart Glass software to complex manufacturers and field services to aerospace, automobile, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, energy and high tech.
– Austin-based Pristine, helping connect novices and experts for hands-on work in the field through telepresence in industries including heavy machinery, healthcare and manufacturing.
– San Diego and Budapest-based AeroGlass, provider of Augmented Reality solutions for general aviation pilots, selling to both North America and Europe.
-Los Angeles-based Low Vision, a leader in the distribution of technology that improves the lives of those dealing with declining vision.

The ODG press release also announces that the company has formed a strategic partnership with AREA member Augmate to help customers deploying Augmented Reality in enterprise.

Tim O’Reilly is an author, founder of O’Reilly Media and one of the great thinkers of the digital era. He popularized the terms “open source” and “Web 2.0.” In a post on the Medium.com blog, O’Reilly suggests that Augmented Reality is a “unicorn technology” and that it will have a profound effect on the way people live and work.

In the hip circles such as those in which O’Reilly lives and writes, a unicorn is a label given to a technology breakthrough, once remarkable, that becomes taken for granted. He gives Google Maps, Google Now and Siri as other examples of unicorn technologies. O’Reilly then attributes the potential impact of Augmented Reality on how powerfully it can change the way people work.

O’Reilly goes on to predict that Augmented Reality will transform the way many services are provided. The topic of Augmented Reality’s impact on society and industry is one that will be featured at the upcoming Next Economy Summit, an O’Reilly event.

ABI Research issued a press release about its new market research report focusing on head Mounted Displays (HMD) sales. According to the report, approximately 65 M units will be sold in 2020, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 88%.

ABI’s primary analyst, Eric Abbruzzese, suggests in the release that systems which leverage existing mobile devices, such as smart phones, will be more popular than the “tethered” displays which are receiving most of the attention in media and gaming market today. Revenues for the mobile-reliant form of hardware could reach $1.6 Billion but still be less than 50% of the units sold.

The ABI forecast for Augmented Reality-enabled smart glasses is bullish. Enterprises seeking productivity gains are expected to be the primary buyers for at least the next few years, and to contribute 48% of total Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality HMD hardware revenues in 2020.

Investors should become increasingly active in order to get in on the anticipated growth in demand.

OPS Solutions, Augmented Reality technology provider and integrator of Light Guide Systems, is prominently featured in a post written by Sarah Webster, the editor in chief of the Manufacturing Engineering web site, to promote the maturity of Industry 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Webster’s timely feature, which is republished by the Huffington Post, is also designed to raise awareness about October 2, 2015, designated as Manufacturing Day.

The recognition that Augmented Reality is a useful way to help humans interface with the sophisticated machines around them in an important manufacturing industry publication indicates that manufacturing leaders are no longer shy about connecting their digital content and physical world processes.

Webster goes on to point out that the American government is undertaking a major initiative to accelerate adoption of the latest information technology trends, including Augmented Reality, in its manufacturing industry.

Mark Billinghurst is a pioneer and researcher in the Augmented Reality field. He and his students have written hundreds of peer-reviewed articles. In addition, he co-founded ARToolworks which was acquired by DAQRI in February 2015.

Billinghurst recently posted a presentation on SlideShare in which he describes the major trends in Augmented Reality. Billinghurst focuses on developments we can expect over the next 20 years in three key areas: displays, interactivity and tracking.

Billinghurst describes a bright future for hands-free displays. He also predicts that there will be contact lenses adapted for AR experience delivery. In the domain of interaction, the future will not be dominated by one mode. Rather, systems will be increasingly “multimodal” involving speech, gesture and even adapt or evolve based on the user and their situation.

Finally, Billinghurst predicts rapid improvements in tracking. Tracking technology will be increasingly capable of performing well on deformable objects and in a wide variety of environmental conditions which are unsuitable using today’s technologies. Finally, he predicts that tracking in the future will be better while also requiring fewer computational resources than it does today.