Augmented reality refers to an enhanced version of reality where live images of real-world environments overlap with superimposed computer-generated images. This offers an enhanced view of the real-world to the user having a direct effect on the person’s perception of reality in real-time.

As per a recent study by AR Insider, the number of AR-compatible smartphones is set to be 1.5 billion by the end of 2020 and shoot up to 3.4 billion by 2023. This should come as no surprise that the adoption of AR in educational apps is increasing year by year. In fact, teachers are of the opinion that EdTech solutions will ingrain augmented reality seamlessly within the confines of a classroom leading to a more holistic, multidisciplinary approach.

Augmented reality is set to a safe bet for the future with tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft heavily investing in the development of this technology. What does this mean for those belonging to the education industry?

• More help with grading thereby increased time for other activities
• Immediate feedback for students
• Better research tools

Further Reading on AR in the education industry:

Entrepreneur – full source article

How new technologies like AR are impacting the online learning industry 

Augmented reality in education, learning and training 

Augmented and virtual reality in the education industry

Writing a Request for Proposal (RFP) can be tough – especially when you are seeking proposals on a new technology that you haven’t worked with before.

Recognizing this challenge, Atheer has designed – and made publicly available – a new RFP template designed specifically to help enterprises that have identified a need for an Augmented Reality platform to improve the productivity, effectiveness, accuracy and safety of their work forces, customers, and supply chains.

The template is designed to ask many of the key questions your organization is likely to need answers for when developing a plan to procure and implement an AR solution. It is made available in Microsoft Word format so that it can be easily customized for your enterprise.

Please see the Atheer Blog to download your copy.

Today’s most prominent tech giants are leaping onto the VR/AR scene, each driving forward new and upcoming product lines. Think: Microsoft’s HoloLens, Facebook’s Oculus, Amazon’s Sumerian, and Google’s Cardboard (Apple plans to release a headset by 2021).

The author consults his friend Philip Rosedale, VR AR expert, on five emerging trend predictions that will take hold, together disrupting major players and birthing new ones.  These are:

1. Transition from PC-based to standalone mobile VR devices
2. Wide field-of-view AR displays
3. Mapping of real world to enable persistent AR ‘mirror worlds’
4. 5G mobile devices reduce latency to imperceptible levels
5. Eye-tracking and facial expressions built in for full natural communication

Read the full article on here.

Companies mentioned in the article include RealWear Inc (AREA member), Tacit, Chevron, Microsoft, Honeywell and Trimble.

The equipment attaches to a hard hat or directly to the wearer’s head, allowing navigation of critical repair data by voice, even when the wind sounds like a jet engine. Unlike wearable devices that might be used in gaming applications, these wearables are hardened to meet the rigors of industrial environments.

They are still generally affordable—typically ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 per device before discounts—especially when you consider the potential ROI they can bring to industry.

“When the machine is down, the company is losing money,” says Andy Lowery, CEO of RealWear, which makes ruggedized wearables. Being able to make quicker repairs is a huge benefit, he adds, and so is increased worker safety.

Key points mentioned in the article:

• Return on investment
• Knowledge transfer from retiring workers to younger generation
• Remote assistance
• Training
• Ruggedized wearables that work in the most punishing of environments
• On call experts
• Remote assistance saves time and money

Read the full article here.

Augmentir’s flagship offering, the Augmented Operations™ platform, is the first of its kind to combine enterprise augmented reality (AR) with artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), empowering frontline workers to perform their jobs with higher quality and increased productivity while driving continuous improvement across the organization.

Available as a core feature of Augmentir’s Augmented Operations™ platform, the True Opportunity Index™ is generated from continuous analysis of frontline worker data by Augmentir’s patent-pending artificial intelligence algorithms.

These algorithms take in streaming worker data and combine it with other Augmentir and enterprise data to uncover and rank order the largest capturable opportunities and then predicts the effort required to capture them.

This helps manufacturers and other industrial companies focus on key areas of opportunity for time savings, performance, and quality improvements across their workforce.

With these newly available prescriptive insights and recommendations, manufacturers and service companies can now continually improve their operations, enhance their work instructions, provide tailored remote assistance, improve training techniques, and supply their frontline workers with better tools to perform their jobs at peak efficiency.

“For many organizations, their largest opportunity for improvement is in their frontline workforce. This group of workers has been historically underserved with little change to the tools they use to perform their job, while their jobs are becoming increasingly more complex,” said Russ Fadel, CEO and Co-Founder of Augmentir.

“By combining our legendary ease of use with our embedded AI engine, we are giving companies of every size the ability to maximize these valuable workers. We are proud to release our True Opportunity Index™ at this pivotal moment and are committed to using AI to innovate for the benefit of the frontline workforce.”

Augmentir software platform includes complete functionality that makes it easy for industrial companies to improve their operations across a range of manufacturing and service use cases. The platform provides software that helps guide frontline workers with augmented, step-by-step-instructions, assist workers with live remove expert collaboration, and utilizes its artificial intelligence engine to deliver organization-wide insights and recommendations that focus on improving the quality and productivity of frontline workers.

Augmentir is scheduled to present on May 15 in the Smart Manufacturing Hub at the EASTEC 2019 manufacturing conference and trade show in Boston to discuss the benefits of its platform and how industrial companies are utilizing its True Opportunity Index™ to gain insight into their frontline workforce to improve productivity.

Source: Original full press release by Augmentir.

According to a report from the Capgemini Research Institute, 82 percent of companies currently implementing XR say the benefits are either meeting or exceeding their expectations. This is laying a positive foundation for the widespread business adoption of XR.

The topics of training, return on investment and operations are covered in the article.

These use cases are compelling and show that XR can positively impact businesses, improve operations and ultimately cut costs. Some 46 percent of companies believe the technology will become mainstream in their organization within the next three years, while a further 38 percent think it will become mainstream in their organization in the next three to five years.

The author argues that the major barriers to this adoption will be a shortage of in-house expertise and insufficient back-end infrastructures.

In terms of expertise, the AREA’s mission is to gather thought leaders in this space to help advance the adoption of enterprise AR specifically, including providing expertise across a range of services, consultancy, software and hardware via our dedicated alliance members.

The eight technologies are explored with one of those being immersive technologies:

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies have long been touted as the next big thing.  The author claims that mass adoption has always seemed to be on the horizon but that this may be about the change, according to Gartner, due to the emerging possibilities these technologies could have in supply chain operations.

“In supply chain, organisations might use AR along with quick response (QR) codes and mobile technology to speed up equipment changeovers in factories,” said Titze. “Immersive user experiences will enable digital business opportunities that have not yet been fully realised within global supply chains.”

Read the full article on Gartner’s supply chain technology trends here.

Augmented Reality can change brain surgery thanks to powerful diagnostic platforms, revolutionize radiology, and open new doors to reconstructive surgery.

The article starts by talking over the history of AR and VR before noting specific areas in medicine and healthcare where the technology is being used:

Providing augmented information for the physician and the surgeon during interventional procedures such as Computerized Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) visualization paths.

AR is used in education for students and teachers. The main applications in medical education include representation of mechanisms in space and time dimensions in physiology, or 4D; and 3D visualizations of difficult structures in anatomy.

The article goes on to discuss augmentation of surgeon’s skills.  Magic Leap and Brainlab’s partnership are working on surgical procedures.  Another application is project DR, the capacity to present segmented images to see through tissues and connect blood vessels.

The article includes links to a number of videos where AR in healthcare is explored.

Read the original article in full here.

The article talks through a case study at company TradePMR, where advisors download an app and their phone projects a video of CEO Robb Baldwin onto the physical postcard, inviting them to his firm’s annual conference.  This is done through the use of augmented reality.

TradePMR also intends to use augmented reality technology to take its advisors on virtual tours of its headquarters.

This modest first step into the world of augmented reality is TradePMR’s first investment in such technology for RIA recruiting. Such technology is already being used in other industries, including medicine and entertainment. After the conference, TradePMR intends the app to be used with brochures to take advisors on virtual tours of its headquarters and to perform simulations of the custodian’s technology.

This first step and trial is intended to gather feedback as to

“The functionalities that advisors want to have to run their business on a daily basis need to be given to them in a way where they learn how to use them and start to adopt the technology that is out there,” he says.

The article looks at likely factors that will inhibit the uptake of Augmented Reality use.

The firm spent about $500 this year on its efforts, using Unity and Vuforia for a development platform, and built the rest in-house, according to Baldwin.

He hopes advisors will see an opportunity to utilize this new kind of tech in their own practices. “We think this could probably permeate down to where advisors can use this with clients,” he says, noting it could be a way to initiate conversations and demonstrate a technology release. “It gives you a separate method that is unique to get your message out.”

Baldwin wanted TradePMR to start using the technology as an introduction for advisors.

The original article can be read here.

It begins: “A whirlwind of forces has created a chasm between the needs of industrial businesses undergoing digital transformation and the skillsets of available workers.

While companies have been attempting to address the lack of properly trained workers for years, the lingering effects of the 2007-09 recession, increasing impact of an ageing workforce and widerning skill requirements have only heightened the need for a way to transfer knowledge effectively.

The full whitepaper by RealWear Inc can be downloaded from the following link:

RealWear Whitepaper: The Power & Value of Training And Knowledge Transfer Using Wearable Computers