Tesla, incidentally, trialed Google Glass but has since gone on to patent its own AR headset system, a testament to the growth of AR and wearable computers even in manufacturing.

The technology is hitting at just the right time. Some 10 million manufacturing jobs will likely be needed in the coming decade, yet many of those will likely go unfilled due to a massive skills gap, according to Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute. 

Augmented reality, which is still trying to find its stride in the enterprise, help by scaling on-the-job knowledge transfer. That could come in the form of everything from schematic overlays to help workers in the field to hives of “old hand” experts in a central location who can guide workers on the job.

The race to provide the technology has been heating up, with companies like Vuforia and Google competing to provide headsets for the next industrial revolution, one aided by automation but in which humans still feature centrally. As in most technology categories, most of the players have competed to provide the most feature-rich hardware, but RealWear has taken a different tack.

“The augmented reality enterprise market has experienced a great deal of hype, but long-term, real-world solutions have been thin on the ground,” said Tom Mainelli, IDC Group VP of Devices and AR/VR. “RealWear smartly recognized the need for a no-nonsensehead-mounted display and has delivered no-frills products that help frontline workers to get their jobs done more safely and efficiently.”

So far RealWear has shipped 15,000+ units, making it a preferred technology provider in its class and attracting interest from big investors like Qualcomm Ventures.

“RealWear has experienced strong growth and is well positioned to become a leading platform for connected workers everywhere,” said Richard Tapalaga, Director, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Investment Director, Qualcomm Ventures.

In the last 18 months the company has added 1,300 enterprise customers, and its app ecosystem has more than 120 workforce software applications.

Innovation specialists will assess value-added technology and provide advanced visibility into various efforts focused on testing potential supply chain management solutions and technological advances outside of a live operation. The announcement was featured in DC Velocity magazine.

Chattanooga, Tennessee-based 3PL Kenco will be opening up a dedicated 10,000 square-foot physical warehouse space, which will serve as an expansion of its Supply Chain Innovation Lab that was introduced by the company in 2015.

LogistiVIEW’s Connected Worker Platform, built on VIEW (Visual Input Enabled Wearable) technology, combines AR, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Computer Vision on smart glasses to transform complex data for workers to make better, more informed decisions across tasks.

LogistiVIEW technology improves workforce productivity and job satisfaction by making processes hands free and eyes focused – guiding workers with simple, highly-intuitive instructions. With visual-based cues that deliver only what is critical for that task, along with simultaneous voice instructions, LogistiVIEW simplifies the worker’s decision-making process to reduce errors, increase accuracy, and enable rapid training.

DC Velocity is the market leading multi-media magazine brand serving the specific informational needs of logistics and supply chain managers and executives. DC VELOCITY offers comprehensive logistics coverage at the hub of logistics as the leader.

Read LogistiView’s AREA member profile and follow them on Twitter @logistiview

But PTC decided to leave their long-term home to enable them to attract the type of talent required to drive the company forward in this age of emerging technologies.

Since its launch just over 30 years ago, PTC has led the way in CAD and PLM but in recent years that portfolio has grown to include innovative technologies such as augmented reality. “The market now is about AI, AR, VR, 5G, cloud, edge and high-performance computing,” Jim Heppelmann, president and chief executive officer explains. “If you want to play in those areas, you need to get the top graduates. But they do not want to work in a suburban area, we can’t easily pull these people out to the suburbs.

Leading innovation from the Reality Lab

The answer was the 17-story building, 121 Seaport, that became PTC’s home when it opened earlier this year. Aside from the 1,000 PTC employees, a crucial element of the new environment is the Customer Experience Centre (CXC) that takes up the top floor of the building. Tucked in amongst the working examples of Industrial IoT is the PTC Reality Lab.

“In the factory, there are millions of sensors, motors, robots, and machines and problems with humans interacting with machines. There’s such a high density of spatial problems that this is the perfect playground to research the future of augmented reality.”

Read the full article here 

Please note The AREA is not affiliated with publishers of market reports and analysis but occasionally shares the information that may be relevant to our followers in the AR ecosystem.

Augmented reality technology brings information into the line of sight to the user. While most people will experience their first taste of augmented reality using their smartphone’s screen and camera, the real appeal for the enterprise is to bring AR into head-mounted displays to help drive new business processes, train new employees, and enable first-line workers. Companies are utilizing AR technology to streamline age-old processes to save both time and money.

AR as a training mechanism is gaining traction as a wide range of enterprise organizations wrestle with huge swaths of employees aging out of the workforce and taking the knowledge with them. Finally, there is a strong interest in outfitting first-line workers who need to work hands-free.

“As more companies explore the opportunities that augmented reality brings to the enterprise, the search for the right hardware for the job continues,” said Tom Mainelli, group vice president of Devices and Consumer Research at IDC. “Large firms such as Microsoft and Epson are often the first place IT buyers look (and for good reason). However, there are also smaller firms doing innovative work to bring products to market that fulfill the needs of IT buyers.”

Kopin is an established display maker whose HMDs feature a voice interface for hands-free interaction. The devices support a wide range of industry use cases and applications, making it easier to integrate into organizations.

North offers a product that looks like regular glasses while offering a holographic display to bring information into view for the wearer and a finger-worn controller that lets the user interact with the information that appears in the see-through lens.

RealWear offers ruggedized HMDs that leverage noise cancellation and voice recognition to drive 100% hands-free interaction for any environment. A suite of services offers help with deployment options, access to partner-created applications, and security.

The report, IDC Innovators: Augmented Reality Head-Mounted Displays for Commercial Use, 2019 (IDC #US45155419), profiles three companies that have developed augmented reality (AR) head-mounted displays (HMDs) for commercial use. IDC currently tracks three types of AR HMDs: tethered, standalone, and screenless viewers. A tethered HMD connects, via cable or wireless connection, to a computing device such as PC or smartphone. Standalone HMDs have all the necessary processing, storage, and networking required (either in the headset, or connected via a purpose-built compute device). Screenless viewers utilize a smartphone for both computing and the display.

More information relating to the report can be found on the Business Wire release.

About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC’s analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives.

Andy Lowery, Cofounder and CEO of RealWear, said the following:

“RealWear’s investors in this round are impressive. RealWear teamed with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to architect an investment syndicate led by Teradyne, Inc. (TER), a global leader in industrial automation, and includes Bose Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures LLC (QCOM), Kopin Corporation (KOPN), and investors from JPMorgan’s (JPM) Private Bank.

Each of us is eager to lead industrial digital transformation globally. Every RealWear investor, from seed to series B, have recognized the significance of RealWear and the HMT product line. Our rugged hands-free wearable computer has been the fundamental nucleus triggering an acceleration of this digital renaissance.

RealWear has already achieved what no other company in our space has done before us.  Now, the new private funding will enable RealWear to grow our focus on industrial safety and security, in preparation to manage an exploding number of large-scale deployments.

Since the beginning, our legendary “RealWear serendipity” struck like a bolt of lightning on February 28, 2016, when Dr. Chris Parkinson knocked on my door in Los Angeles, wearing a yellow hardhat and clutching a bag (looking like something out of a Harry Potter film). That bag contained over ten years of research in wearable computer prototype development. It was the implementation of voice recognition technology, safety-first industrial design and hands-free user experience that amazed me.

The results speak for themselves. Today, RealWear boasts 1300 customers who are saving millions while simultaneously improving safety. Over 15,000 RealWear systems are fielded today that are leveraging a software ecosystem of over 120 applications that increase the bottom line.

We spend the majority of our time today building the enablement partnerships and support tools to enable our customers with ongoing deployments, like Colgate-Palmolive, Shell, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, The State Grid of China, Honeywell, BMW, and many more.

Thank you. RealWear is here to stay.”

We are delighted at their news.

Read RealWear’s AREA member profile here. https://thearea.org/area-members/realwear/

If you are interested in joining The AREA, please get in touch or find out more on our membership page. https://thearea.org/membership/

Friedman writes: “My main point then was that wearable technologies – the body-worn sensors being integrated into organizations’ EHS efforts, exoskeletons taking a load off workers’ backs, and VR headsets being hailed as the future of job training – exhibit coded patriarchy and risk further alienating the female workforce. Wearables that are replacing or supplementing traditional PPE(personal protective equipment) cannot succumb to the same biased or negligent design as have automobiles, office buildings, etc., for the future economy and growth of the workforce depend upon improving job prospects and working environments for women.”

The author takes us through the history of man, why this is more than product ergonomics, the data gap at the heart of the workplace, PPE in the workplace, how designing needs to change in future, and how uncomfortable lead to unproductive which ultimately impacts everyone in the enterprise.

The 6th annual EWTS will be held September 17-19 2019 in Dallas, Texas.  Events page here.

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has deployed Microsoft’s mixed reality (MR) Hololens devices in a bid to speed production and improve training for new staff. Airbus is also teaming up with Microsoft to sell MR apps to other businesses in the airline industry.

The Netherlands-based company, which competes with the likes of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, aims to build 20,000 aircraft over the next two decades.

The full article can be read here.

In an emergency, response times and accurate information are key. The typical time available for individuals to escape a growing fire following detection is three minutes. In these three minutes, crews need to determine changing temperatures in flashover conditions, fire behavior, victim location, and assist their crew with virtually zero visibility. While the conditions are different, the importance of time and precision is the same when dispatching first responders for school shootings, car accidents, massive forest fires, and infrastructure collapse from earthquakes, tornadoes, and flash floods.

Never has there been a more important use case for low latency compute and high bandwidth to support our first responders in an emergency.

With real-time location data, AI-driven predictive analytics, heat-mapped augmented reality overlays, drone data, sensor technologies and video analytics, we are now enabling our first responders to act faster and with greater accuracy to save lives.

Sign up here

What is one piece of advice you’d give to businesses looking to invest in Augmented Reality (AR) technology?

It’s the simple and classic advice, really. If you are an enterprise looking to bring AR into your organization, be very clear on what business problem you are trying to solve. Companies often want to “try out” new technology, to play with the latest gadgets and see what they do rather than focusing on solving a real business problem.

There are many AR use cases that provide real benefit by improving the performance and efficiency of the company operations. It is important to understand your business problem, then pilot a suitable AR solution and measure the outcome. This may include reducing time to complete a task, minimizing errors, and/or lowering costs of interruptions. These are all benefits that improve the bottom line.

The AREA portal offers more information on how to get started.

Can you discuss a few use cases of augmented reality for industrial professionals? Are there any barriers to adoption businesses should be aware of?

Based on my experience of speaking to the many enterprises and providers in the AR ecosystem, the use cases that are currently getting most traction include:

• Remote assistance — being able to discuss with an expert (anywhere in the world) and use AR technology to show how to fix the problem.
• Step-by-step guidance — using an AR-enabled mobile, tablet, or wearable device to show how and what to do when completing a task. This use case works particularly well for infrequent and complicated tasks.

In terms of barriers, the technology is still being developed and will continue to improve.

AR for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) has also identified business problems that it is working to overcome. These include issues when moving from pilot to full deployment. The members are working to understand and overcome safety, security, and human issues (e.g., convincing stakeholders and ensuring the workers are involved), as well as providing useful tools like an ROI calculator and Safety/Human framework.

What is one myth surrounding this technology, or Industry 4.0 in general, you’d like to debunk for our readers?

That it is complicated and difficult to deploy! This is simply not the case, and the most successful implementers of AR solutions and Industry 4.0 have started with solutions using IoT data, with simple analysis, and using tablets, phones, or assisted-reality devices to display actionable information that brings quick and substantial benefit to the company and worker.

Where do you see Industry 4.0 heading?

For Industry 4.0 to continue to provide benefit to manufacturing, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and AR technologies need to interact and work together better to help deliver more actionable outcomes. Benefit will also increase as the concept of the digital twin becomes commonplace, enabling designers to plan, develop, and test more efficient processes and products. These can be tested in the augmented world before being implemented in the physical.

This has been demonstrated by the next AREA research project (voted for by the members), where best practices and the merging of IoT, AI, and AR technologies will be researched.

In the future, you can envisage a self-supporting manufacturing process able to solve its own simple problems allowing staff to see (via AR) issues that need timely intervention.

Link to article

AWE started early on May 29th – with a breakfast and panel of experts exploring how Augmented Reality is changing the way companies in the automotive and manufacturing worlds tackle the challenges of skills shortages, competitive pressures and a desire to reduce resolution times and better meet customer needs.

The panel was moderated by Mark Sage, the executive director of the Augmented Reality Enterprise Alliance (AREA), who kicked the discussion off by asking the panelists how they are seeing AR being used in their different industries.

Automotive industry veteran (and new Atheer advisor) Salim Murr offered his perspective on how he sees the AR use case for automotive dealers. He said while many industries are facing shortages of experienced, skilled technicians, that shortage is particularly acute in the automotive industry.

He said the shortage is compounded by the massive sea change facing the sector as it moves to meet the growing demand for electric and hybrid vehicles, which require not only retraining existing staff (and providing them with fast, efficient and accurate, on-the-ground support), but also ensuring that they are deeply familiar with the safety issues that come with working on high voltage electric vehicles. “You do not want touch 400 volts!,” he warned.

Meanwhile, Dirk Frese, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at JULABO USA, pointed out for companies like Julabo (which produces highly dynamic and precise temperature control solutions), the focus is on using augmented reality to help diagnose, repair and review products to ensure they are optimized for both customers and their applications.

Moderator Mark Sage also suggested that AR is an interesting technology in that its enterprise customers almost segment themselves more by their use cases (such as field service, training or warehouse management) than they do by industry. And he pointed out that for any enterprise wanting to adopt AR, they really need to have strong baseline data to capture their existing costs and processes and then be crystal clear about the problems they are trying to solve.

Atheer CEO Amar Dhaliwal, who was both a member of the panel and also the host for the event (held at Atheer’s Santa Clara offices less than 2 miles from AWE) reported that several strong use cases are emerging for enterprise AR – including field service, dealer service, on-the-job training, maintenance, repair and overhaul, inspection and surveying (notably for insurance companies) as well as cargo handling and warehouse operations (such as the work Atheer is doing with the International Air Transport Association).