Mind Commerce Report Forecasts Growth of Enterprise Wearable Augmented Reality Market

| 26th May 2015

Analysts continue to slice and dice the wearable technology market in new and interesting ways. This new report on wearable technology published by Mind Commerce predicts that the early adopters are emerging in the garment, healthcare, sports and fitness industries. Mind Commerce estimates that global spending on wearable devices will grow from $9 B in 2014 to $218 B in 2019. Presumably hardware for enterprise Augmented Reality is a subset of this spending. What makes this report potentially interesting for readers of the AREA news is the study of the impact of Body Area Network standards on wearable technology, the barriers that network coverage present and the number of vendors that the researchers studied in preparation of the report.

Microsoft Continues to Unveil Features of HoloLens

| 26th May 2015

What does the minimum viable smart glasses product provide? It needs to detect context and provide useful information without the user needing to divert attention from the object or point of interest. It seems that Microsoft is eager to define the features of a product far in advance of what is possible today. This week the demonstrations of 3D holographic figures visualized using HoloLens were unveiled during the LDV Vision Summit, an event about image-processing technology, in New York. A feature article on the MIT Technology Review web site reports that subjects are filmed using a 3D holographic studio Microsoft has designed for the purpose and can be projected performing activities in users field of view. The article describes how it could be valuable for sports and entertainment but there are also many potential uses in enterprise and industrial settings.

Bosch Announces Expanded Support for Augmented Reality in Automotive Service, Repair and Training

| 26th May 2015

AREA member Robert Bosch has been investing resources and significant effort in its Augmented Reality solutions for several years. The key to making it widespread and easy to deploy by its automotive industry customers and internally in Bosch business units is integration with existing information and technical documentation systems. The company has announced in this press release that it has released a new version of its Common Augmented Reality Platform (CAP), introduced in 2014.

Out of the box, the Bosch Common Augmented Reality Platform CAP can be configured with a comprehensive database from which it extracts content for visualization in Augmented Reality view. In addition to written information and explanations in text format, the updated platform supports video clips, photos, safety instructions with audio clips, 3D models, circuit diagrams, technical drawings and markers for configuration of tracking. Also noteworthy that the cross-platform system is modular and independent of specific tracking or rendering techniques.

Connected Garment and Glasses can Improve Shop Floor Safety

| 26th May 2015

This article on the CIO magazine web site describes how a “smart vest” communicating with smart glasses can help keep employees safer in a dangerous environment. The proposed technology, involving sensors embedded in a garment worn on the job, would alert people about moving machines, detection of toxic chemicals and other changing conditions that could be harmful. The use cases suggest that people would also be able to learn of the danger and how to avoid it using smart glasses communicating with the cloud and IoT-assisted systems.

Vuzix Enters Partnership with Octovis for Telle Platform

| 26th May 2015

Smartglasses maker, Vuzix, has announced in this press release that it has entered in a partnership with Octovis, provider of the telemedicine platform called “Telle” to permit doctors to evaluate patients and procedures at a distance. Using M100 on a local caregiver and connecting it with many BlueTooth connected sensors on the patient, the platform permits a remote physician to have real time data feeds as well as a live video of the patient. In trials, Octovis was able to attribute measurable reductions in hospital readmissions for the post-acute care market to the use of the Telle platform.

Atheer Labs Joins the AREA

| 26th May 2015

In this press release issued by Atheer Labs, CEO Alberto Torres explains why the industry association is vital to the future of enterprise Augmented Reality. Atheer is one of the sixteen Founding Sponsor Members of the AREA which launched today.

NGRAIN Joins the AREA

| 26th May 2015

In this press release, NGRAIN announces it’s role as a Founding Sponsor member of the AREA, launched today. NGRAIN is one of the sixteen Founding Sponsor Members of the AREA, formed to accelerate enterprise Augmented Reality adoption.

The AREA Launches with Goal to Accelerate Adoption of AR Technology

| 26th May 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) Launches with Goal to Accelerate Adoption of AR Technology

Leading companies collaborate to expand and mature Augmented Reality ecosystem

WAKEFIELD, Mass. USA – May 19, 2015 – Leaders in enterprise and industrial Augmented Reality (AR) today launched the non-profit Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA), the only global member-based organization focusing on accelerating AR adoption through development and expansion of a vibrant technology ecosystem. Though AR for the enterprise offers great promise, published pioneer experiences are scarce, and few programs exist to help organizations seeking to deploy AR to navigate the many uncharted integration challenges. The AREA is the first group to address these needs.

When integrated with enterprise systems, Augmented Reality technology can improve workplace performance by increasing access to information in the context of the physical world. According to Juniper Research, mobile AR use in the enterprise will drive annual revenues for software licenses to $2.4 billion in 2019, up from $247 million in 2014.

The AREA’s mission is to help organizations achieve greater operational efficiencies through smooth introduction and widespread adoption of interoperable AR-enabled enterprise systems. The group will work toward this goal by advocating best practices based on shared knowledge, experience in live deployments, common business values, and addressing known and emerging challenges. The AREA will also promote learning, communication and collaboration among technology provider segments so that they can offer greater value to their customers. The collaborative relationship between users and providers of AR technologies is a core component of the AREA’s approach to its mission.

Founding Sponsor members of the AREA are thought leaders 1066 Labs, APX Labs, Atheer Labs, Augmate, The Boeing Company, Bosch, CN2 Technology, DAQRI, Design Mill, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), IEEE Standards Association, NGRAIN, iQagent, Newport News Shipbuilding, Perey Research & Consulting and Talent Swarm.

“We forecast rapid enterprise AR revenue growth but feel that the ecosystem faces significant obstacles,” said Steffen Sorrell, Juniper Research analyst and author of Augmented Reality: Consumer, Enterprise & Vehicles 2015-2019. “There are challenges with, for example, integrating AR in legacy enterprise systems. Content and programs such as those the AR for Enterprise Alliance is beginning to provide will increase awareness, reduce barriers and drive adoption in more use cases and at larger scale. It’s exciting to see early enterprise AR adopters and providers of AR technologies pooling their resources and sharing their valuable knowledge to mature the market.”

“Through our members’ collaborative efforts, the AREA will address challenges and lower barriers to AR adoption within the enterprise, at technical, business and societal levels,” said Christine Perey, AREA Executive Director. “A highly functional ecosystem of AR customers, non-commercial entities and providers of core enabling technologies, solutions and services is quickly going to emerge.”

The AREA’s membership benefits include access to high-quality, vendor-neutral content and participation in programs, early access to beta software and hardware, a research framework to address key challenges shared by all members, discounts for fee-based activities, and more. Sponsor members have a direct role in shaping the rapidly expanding AR industry, and demonstrate their companies’ leadership and commitment to improving workplace performance.

“As a founding member of the AREA, Boeing can help lead our industry to new and greater levels of knowledge,” said Paul Davies, Boeing Associate Technical Fellow. “Our business goals are in alignment with the AREA’s mission, and being a member delivers other specific benefits, such as leveraging our research budget through collaboration with other members and hearing the insights of the brightest minds in the field.”

“Bosch joined the AREA to drive the development of Augmented Reality-enabled solutions and customers,” said Juergen Lumera, Director, Global TIS Product Management and AREA Vice President, Customer Segment. “The organization is a win-win for us because we both use the AR-enabled systems for our products and provide Augmented Reality, such as our CAP Automotive platform, to our customers.”

“As an organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity through open innovation and collaboration, we fully support and align with AREA’s focus on engaging corporations to advance augmented reality for the social and economic benefits of industry and consumers,” said Konstantinos Karachilios, Managing Director, IEEE Standards Association.

The AREA will produce significant and measurable impacts for both AR ecosystem customers and providers. Customers will be able to rapidly choose from a large, diverse ecosystem of products and services, and build or purchase complete solutions based both on best practices and on modular architectures using ratified standards, where available. Providers of enabling technologies, products and services will have more opportunities to provide value to a greater number of customers, and will be able to integrate AR-enabling solutions more fully into existing and future enterprise workflows.

About the AREA

The Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) is a global member-based organization focusing on accelerating AR adoption through creating and expanding a vibrant technology ecosystem. The AREA’s mission is to help organizations achieve greater operational efficiencies through smooth introduction and widespread adoption of interoperable AR-enabled enterprise systems, and its members collaborate to deliver content and programs that further these goals.

Founding Sponsor members of the AREA are thought leaders 1066 Labs Inc., APX Labs, Atheer Labs, Augmate, The Boeing Company, Bosch, CN2 Technology, DAQRI, Design Mill, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), IEEE Standards Association, NGRAIN, iQagent, Newport News Shipbuilding, Perey Research & Consulting, and Talent Swarm. More information about the AREA is available at https://thearea.org or by writing to info@thearea.org.

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Direct media inquiries:
Judith Vanderkay
+1 781-876-6208

press@thearea.org

Editor’s Note: Additional supporting comments from Founding Sponsor members are available upon request to press@thearea.org or at https://thearea.org.

Augmented Reality Has Come a Long Way

| 26th May 2015

This full length feature article on Computer Weekly web site based on an interview with Kudan’s James Hogan, helps to connect the expensive solutions developed as research and development projects for the government and military in the past to the numerous and more common use cases for Augmented Reality in enterprises today and in the future. This article does an excellent job of reviewing the trends that have led to the current interest in enterprise Augmented Reality, the relatively immature but highly promising status of current technology and the impacts it can have on key industries.

HoloLens Helps Architects Visualize Plans

| 26th May 2015

Visualizing designs and drawings in 3D is a skill that is difficult to learn but necessary for architects and others with whom they work on a daily basis when in construction and building projects and trades. Microsoft partnered with Trimble, provider of the popular Sketchup tool, to develop a conceptual video about the use of Hololens by architects and others. In this post on the Architecture Linked blog, the author explains how the Hololens with Sketchup can fit into the workflow of architects and the benefits of various use cases.