It will demonstrate enhanced airspace situational awareness by visualizing EchoGuard sensor data through augmented reality.

During the conference, Echodyne will display how its EchoGuard radar offers superior performance for both primary UAS use cases: commercial mission safety, and counter-UAS.

The demonstration will feature an AR interactive experience using Microsoft’s Hololens and allows participants to experience unprecedented airspace situational awareness.

Echodyne has quickly emerged as the preferred airspace situational awareness provider with its small, commercially-priced ESA radar– the first of its kind in the industry.

“Having the ability to demonstrate how our EchoGuard radar contributes to airspace safety at the premier conference for the unmanned systems industry is just another exciting step for Echodyne,” said Eben Frankenberg, CEO of Echodyne. “This is another example of Echodyne delivering innovation that enhances both mission and public safety.”

The visualisation team at the Coventry-based MTC has been made a partner of Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Programme – one of a select group of organisations in Europe to gain the sought-after recognition.

The accolade recognises the MTC’s advanced work in the fields of augmented, mixed and virtual reality, in particular its ability to deliver high-value generating applications in an enterprise environment. It will mean that the MTC will be able to help companies remotely using Microsoft visualisation programmes.

The accolade came after a stringent examination by Microsoft of the MTC’s capabilities and breadth of mixed reality applications, concentrating on client and end-user experiences. The recognition means the MTC will have the opportunity to work with Microsoft on joint projects with companies who can benefit from the technology. They will also work with Microsoft to develop apps for advanced manufacturing and teach other companies how to use Microsoft’s mixed reality programmes.

MTC technology manager David Varela said the partnership was already opening doors.

Read MTC AREA member profile page.

Mixed/Augmented Reality glasses require a high bandwidth to effortlessly transfer the large amount of data that AR/MR requires.  With Verizon’s 5G network, this is finally achievable.

With a 5G network, ThirdEye glasses are able to offload the majority of their workload to the edge of the network due to the increase of bandwidth and reduction of latency. Since a large part of the workload is being handled on the edge, it allows for ThirdEye to decrease the weight and price of their glasses.

With ThirdEye’s Mixed Reality glasses, first responders can view a live drone feed or view other important AR information right in their field of view, all while remaining hands-free.  The glasses also have object recognition capabilities that makes working with unfamiliar objects easier and more engaging.

Read the full article featured on Verizon.

It’s the latest agreement between the two tech giants since Lenovo acquired IBM’s personal computing business in 2005. Lenovo’s server business includes IBM’s x86 server group that Lenovo bought in 2014.

The Lenovo-IBM server agreement covers more than 200 countries.

Here’s how IBM says the service will work:

“When a customer connects with an agent for Lenovo’s server, storage, or networking services, IBM’s Virtual Assistant for Technical Support uses its natural language capabilities and contextual recognition to personalize the conversation. It is designed to ask targeted questions about service issues and obtain solution advice. It will also access key customer information, aligning to Lenovo’s focus on driving a fast, effortless, and proactive customer support experience.”

Augmented Reality is set to enable more than 19,000 field agents to help deliver a consistent client experience around the globe by allowing customers and technicians to share real-time video of machines requiring repair with fellow IBM professionals to help diagnose problems and illustrate the best practices to solve them.

Read the full article here.

By leveraging their propriety global cloud communication platform, SightCall brings a robust, enterprise grade video solution to their customers.

SightCall allows field forces to leverage augmented remote guidance from offsite experts. By doing this, SightCall reverses the traditional field service model where expertise was in the field, by making expertise available to the field remotely.

When a tech cannot finalize a repair, by simply clicking the Video Expertise button in their FS App they will connect to a central or field expert. When a customer is having an issue, a field tech can use remote guidance to implement a quick fix or identify missing parts or complications to ensure the onsite visit will be effective.

By avoiding several tens of thousands of truck rolls per month, SightCall’s customers save millions and provide a better service to their customers.

“SightCall currently has over 200 enterprise customers and their field service solution is a natural fit with our M300XL Smart Glasses, so we are very excited to partner with them offer a see-what-I-see solution,” said Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix.

Read in full Vuzix press release dated April 25 2019

The article features many quotes and figures from thought leaders who are members of The AREA, Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance and is based on discussions across the industry extracted from Digi-Capital’s Augmented/Virtual Reality Report Q2 2019.

“While consumer AR/VR is proving itself, enterprise AR/VR is already delivering strong return on investment for major corporations like Walmart, Lockheed Martin, and Verizon.

But the market remains a series of connected point solutions, not a fully functioning ecosystem (yet).”

That YET is very important.

If you’ve not already been following the AREA for a while and fully understand our mission, this would be a good time to tell you that the entire existence of The AREA Alliance is devoted to developing a cohesive AR enterprise ecosystem and accelerating adoption of enterprise AR.

The article addresses how is enterprise AR/VR driving ROI today, and looks are what else it needs to scale across platforms.

The focus of the article is defining by number of users how many users are needed to qualify the term active users.

AREA members quoted in the article include PTC Vuforia, Upskill, Lockheed Martin.

Further related reading:

Read the full article on Venture Beat

AREA Enterprise AR ROI Best Practice (May 2018)

AREA Enterprise AR ROI Case Study

The latest article includes a roundup that mentions some of the AREA’s members and the great work they are doing to accelerate adoption of enterprise Augmented Reality.

10,000 RealWear HMDs heading to front line industrial workers in Kazakhstan. The Qualcomm Snapdragon powered headsets will be provided by UROS as part of a digitization project aiming to accelerate XR global adoption. The partnership between the three companies marks the largest order of industrial HMDs RealWear has had to date. The RealWear HMT-1 and HMT-1Z1 provide a heads up display and voice-powered controls.

ThirdEye Gen lands 5G partnership with Verizon and patents for improving its mixed reality glasses. The makers of the “smallest mixed reality glasses” will be Verizon’s first 5G smart glasses partner. ThirdEye Gen recently won two patents: AR Assisted Large Data Streaming for streaming AR content wirelessly, and an OLED Driver for improved display quality.

The article also takes a look at:

• Khronos Group aims to establish 3D assets standard for cross-vendor ecommerce
• Labster raises $21 Million series B for expanding virtual lab catalog
• HTC Vive conducts survey of over 1800 VR developers

Links:

Read the full article on Forbes

AREA Member profile RealWear Inc

AREA Member profile ThirdEye Gen

Vuzix is partnering with Eaton for this joint product development because of Eaton’s innovation and expertise in intrinsically safe certifications and solutions for harsh and hazardous areas through its Crouse-Hinds series solutions.

The new ATEX smart glasses will be on display in Eaton’s booth #4838 at the 2019 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) from May 6 to 9 at NRG Park in Houston. Utilizing an interactive experience, visitors will learn about this unique, hands-free solution for efficient and accurate access to information, data collection, and communication.

Vuzix today is currently a leader in enterprise smart glasses and this expansion into a new market segment will further the Company’s position as a leader in wearable enterprise solutions.  The ATEX intrinsically safe smart glasses market represents a significant new addressable market for Vuzix that is ripe for innovation and disruption.

Eaton is a leading provider of electrical and instrumentation products for harsh and hazardous environments. Eaton’s Crouse-Hinds series solutions are designed to perform to the highest standard of safety and reliability, keep people safe and keep plants running.

Hazardous atmospheres in the workplace can be caused by flammable gases, mists or vapors or by combustible dusts. These new ATEX certified smart glasses are being designed to work in these challenging environments.  At the same time, they will be fully software and accessory compatible with all existing M-series products, which will make for easy deployment of standard M-Series products right alongside their ATEX certified versions within the corporate infrastructure from IT to HR to the worksite.

“Eaton’s expertise in intrinsically safe certifications and solutions for harsh and hazardous locations bring immediate value to the table towards the creation and rapid development of a Vuzix ATEX certified smart glasses platform,” said Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix.   “The joint development between Vuzix and Eaton will leverage the expertise of both organizations to manufacture, market and sell industry leading ATEX certified smart glasses.”

Further details on the M-Series ATEX model should be available by mid-summer with shipments expected to commence in fall 2019.

For more information on Eaton, visit www.Eaton.com

Key points from the article include:

• AR may benefit investor-owned, municipal and cooperative utilities in improving business processes, speed power restoration and help address the challenge of an aging, retiring utility workforce facilitating the preservation of institutional knowledge.
• According to industry experts, the energy and the utility sector are expected to spend more than $15bn annually by 2020 on AR technology.
• In the long run, these emerging technologies – like AR, VR, AI, robotics and digital transformation – will bring an acceleration in revenue growth, increase organisations’ agility and improve risk management.
• The utility industry faces some significant workforce challenges ahead as the baby boomers retire, which was highlighted by a 2017 Department of Energy utility workforce assessment.

To read the article in full see Power-Technology.com

The latest organisations to call Sensor City home are Visual5d (V5D), Render Nation, Nova, Pulse Systems, Sensicon and Aerodrums.

Having worked with construction giants Kier, Balfour Beattie, Morgan Sindall and Laing O’Rourke, V5D is widely recognised as a trailblazer in 4D structural sequencing.

“With an established presence across North America, UK and Ireland, we are now keen to evolve our services further,” said Johanna Mylius, MD at V5D.

Further cementing its global influence, Sensor City has also welcomed Render Nation (below), an international production support and 3D rendering expert.

The company hopes to capitalise on the connection and collaboration opportunities at Sensor City to develop its computer-generated images, animations and augmented reality apps for its clients.

Read full article on Business Cloud UK.