While much is being promised for those in the workforce that will do hands-free personal displays for Augmented Reality, some workers may begin wearing an entire exoskeleton to improve on-the-job performance. Depicted in movies such as Ironman, the concept of augmenting human powers with steel and motors could be available as soon as 2016, provided the many components come together. Research on what has since become the Ekso Works suit began in Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.

As it approaches its launch, the company commercializing the system, Ekso Bionics, invited Cyrus Farivar to give the system a try. Farivar’s post on the Ars Technica blog offers valuable insights into the technology and the companies for whom such suits could be important enablers.

A post on DroidLife, a blog that follows and publishes about the Android developer community, noted that Google has received FCC permission for a device that many observers believe is the next generation of Google Glass. Codenamed GG1, the device supports 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi in 2.4GHz and 5GHz. It also has Bluetooth LE and rechargeable, non-removable batteries but the filing does not specify if the device will provide hands-free personal display support.

The mysterious FCC Filing drove speculation and media attention from the likes of PC Magazine, Mashable, the Verge and others. In an article on Forbes Magazine web site, contributor Theo Priestley speculates that the device could be a model of Google Glass designed for use in enterprise. He explains possible implications for workflow scenarios and businesses in customer service industries, including a remote expert function with Augmented Reality support. He points out that there will be much competition in this segment.

The beta release of Meta Preview, the improved version of Meta’s first Augmented Reality 3D model viewer called “HoloForm,” was announced in a post on the Meta blog.

Used with Meta 1 Dev Kit, a hands-free personal display released in 2014, and in combination with the Meta SDK, Meta Preview provides more than a dozen objects preloaded as soon as the user run the app. It also offers more intuitive interaction with 3D models and support for voice commands. The code for Meta Preview is open source in order to encourage developers to reuse the code in their own applications for the Meta 1 Dev Kit.

Providers of hands-free personal displays are constrained by the fact that there are relatively few developers that have the skills to develop new Augmented Reality-assisted services and software. Building a new ecosystem of developers is costly and can be slow when the number of users is small. One of the strategies to remove barriers for developers is to supply a run-time app delivery environment that will be easy for users of either Android or iOS to use the M100. In the press release issued by Vuzix, the company announces that Smart Glass Manager for M100 now runs on both Android and iOS mobile devices.

The SGM application runs on the smartphone and helps the user access M100 features, enabling a seamless connection to other local applications and services. With M100 and the SGM manager application on the smartphone, users can launch and control any M100 application, permitting access to the M100 camera for applications such as sharing pictures. The user can also view M100 settings and configure wireless network connections.

Most people have admired the work of John Underkoffler in movies. He developed the user interface for Minority Report. In an interview posted on the Re/code blog, Underkoffler suggests that before people will be successful with AR, there needs to be a new unified grammar and vocabulary for describing how users navigate these experiences that are being created at the intersection of virtual and physical worlds.

This, he suggests, will also help employees to feel comfortable using AR on the job without revealing private details to their employers.

For years most people have described Augmented Reality through its visual manifestation: visually perceived augmentations on the physical world objects about which they relate. While other forms of augmentation such as auditory AR for the sight impaired user are possible and offered in unusual cases, tactile or haptic AR has been described rarely and demonstrated even less frequently. Even Metaio’s “Touch AR” technology introduced in 2014 is not haptic AR (it uses IR sensors to detect the heat left on a surface following the touch of a finger).

In this article on Popular Science web site, the revolutionary work of the Digital Nature Group in University of Tsukuba led by Assistant Prof. Yoichi Ochiai describes the use of “lasers, mirrors and cameras to create three-dimensional, interactive holograms comprised of tiny points of light called voxels.”

This technology could be highly valuable in scenarios where users are required to interact with touch but cannot “really” touch the target of interest due to protective clothing or other requirements for safety reasons.

The more sources of information about Augmented Reality that are balanced and clearly written with less hype the better.

In his digital analyst post on the Euromonitor International blog, Pavel Marceux, shows that he’s done his research as he answers four simple questions in a short an succinct manner:

1. What are the differences between virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR)?
2. In what industries does augmented reality offer practical applications?
3. Is augmented reality a natural fit for wearable tech?
4. What are the primary challenges to its success?

In what was nothing short of a “news coup” to equal those which Apple and Microsoft are capable of, DAQRI CEO Brian Mullins spoke about the Smart Helmet and the future of work with Bloomberg’s Cory Johnson in this segment on Bloomberg News.

In the four minute interview Mullins spoke about the business uses for Augmented Reality, the benefits and the technologies that make this useful. Safety for users, one of the key topics of the AREA Display Safety Committee, is one of the features that Mullins highlighted as a benefit for users. Cox points out that the use of Augmented Reality is very relevant for people working with physical world objects more than those who are information workers in the strictest sense of those jobs.

The United States government invested early in the use of Augmented Reality for its soldiers and other military personnel for competitive advantage in the armed conflicts around the world. It’s difficult to quantify the impacts or return on investment from these projects, however, the upcoming introduction of AR into NASA programs may be one of the indirect outcomes of the high level awareness of AR produced in government agencies by these early investments.

Described in this post on the Trove blog, the NASA pilot project code named “Sidekick” aims to test the effectiveness of remote expert assistance for astronauts working on scientific research projects on the International Space Station using Microsoft HoloLens. Scientists on earth will be able to see what they see and guide astronauts through steps in a procedure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S1IS8Kbzxos

NASA says Project Sidekick “will be used and evaluated during the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 20 expedition set to begin July 21 when a group of astronauts and engineers live in the world’s only undersea research station, Aquarius, for two weeks.”

The expression “an embarrassment of riches” means that there is an overabundance of something, or too much of a good thing. There are so many use cases for Augmented Reality that it is too much of a good thing. Many people find themselves describing either very general use cases or very precise use cases, sometimes clearly and other times very vaguely.

In this post by Dace Campbell on the Autodesk blog for Construction industry professionals he proposes an excellent way to find the “sweet spot” for AR use cases in AEC.

The entire post is valuable but the proposal for identifying and making the business case for AR quickly and clearly is sound and could be applied to other industries as well.