The largest category of respondents in the survey group came from the technology (30 percent) and manufacturing (20 percent) industries.

A couple of highlights they shared with us include:

* Enterprises were asked “when do you believe AR will reach widespread adoption in your organization” – and 70 percent said that they expect it will happen in their organization within the next three years.

* When asked which devices their organization would use to deliver AR solutions – more than half of those surveyed did not just pick a single platform.In fact, 57.69 percent of all respondents said they expect to deliver enterprise AR solutions on mobile devices (ie. tablets and smartphones) first and then offer them on smartglasses.

Read the full details on the research results here.

The technology projects 2D, 3D and 4D images of patients interactively by overlaying them onto the patient’s body, according to a Novarad press release published Oct. 24.

OpenSight specifically utilizes the Microsoft HoloLens headset that allows simultaneous visualization of the 3D patient images in AR and the actual patient and their real-world surroundings. The technique may decrease operative times and improve surgical planning and the understanding of anatomic relationships.

“This is transformative technology that will unite preoperative imaging with augmented reality to improve the precision, speed and safety of medical procedures,” Wendell Gibby, MD, Novarad CEO and co-creator of OpenSight, said in the release. “This internal visualization can now be achieved without the surgeon ever making an incision, improving outcomes in a world of more precise medicine.”

The technology also allows for a multi-user experience, as multiple HoloLens headsets can be worn among users for training or clinical purposes. A teaching version of the software is also available for medical students to perform virtual dissections on cadavers, according to the press release.

AIRe Lens has been developed specifically for industrial applications. The smart glasses deliver technical information and step-by-step guidance to wearers while maintaining mobility and hands-free production. The technology is designed to guide industry operators step-by-step through work processes, such as assembly, maintenance or quality assurance tasks. It is an optical, head-mounted AR device with a transparent display that can be controlled via simple gestures or the push of a button. Powered by a hot swappable seven-hour battery, AIRe Lens supports a full working shift. The technology is claimed to offer the durability, comfort and high optical quality required for all day use in manufacturing contexts, where precision and safety are paramount.

AIRe Lens is a unique Konica Minolta development. It is a collaborative creation of the company’s own Industrial Optical System Business Headquarters (IOH) in Japan and Konica Minolta’s European Business Innovation Centre (BIC). AIRe Lens has been initially introduced in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.

Zdeněk Vrbka, smart glasses program manager within the Konica Minolta BIC, explained: ‘While digitalization is shaping and improving many processes in the industry, it often still stops with the workers at the assembly line. Their work processes are frequently paper-based and therefore inefficient. This has had practical reasons in the past: Workers need their hands free, particularly when assembling complex and bulky machinery.’

Augmented reality (AR) is quickly becoming mainstream as enterprises including Boeing, Caterpillar and others are seeing the benefits of using AR to transform their field operations.

The maturing and integration of smart glasses, wireless communication, mobile devices and augmented reality software is opening up new solutions to age-old problems that utility operations managers and their field crews encounter every day, such as:

–          An expansive set of field assets that make it difficult for field technicians to be experts with all equipment, increasing maintenance time and exposing potential safety challenges

–          Lack of time and qualified inspectors to complete the number of required inspections

–          Safety risks due to lack of experience with the broad array of tools and assets

–          Pressure to reduce costs while improving restoration times

–          Inability to easily record field work for further evaluation, inspection, and training

–          Loss of institutional knowledge due to retirements or attrition.

Other discussion topics within the article:

• How does the integration of emerging technologies, centred around AR, solve these issues?
• What an ideal solution should offer
• Integration
• Supportability
• Security
• How to successfully implement the solution

The worker pictured wears the HMT-1 helmet by RealWear, one of our alliance members at The AREA.

Key points of the article:

• Previous suggestions for schools: modernize training technology; reinforce partnerships with industry; propose new alternative curricula; and ensure recurrent training for instructors
• Advice is given for in-person training conferences for maintenance training personnel and the types of content covered on these courses
• VR has been spoken about for over a decade in terms of training but now it’s live and real I selected maintenance training applications – case studies are given from various aviation training organizations
• Exmaples of how Augmented Reality is used in aviation training are given including widnshielfs with heads up digital messages, smart glasses for maintenance training, and simple handheld devices to obtain maintenance instructions as well as telephone based AR.
• The author discusses the influencing factors on training technology and its impact

The author concludes by stating:

“As I participated in the Asia Pacific Aviation Training Symposium, it dawned on me that the justifications for advanced technology training have been consistent and true for decades. Training technology evolves as an enhanced substitute for the real equipment and the real world. Compared to live equipment simulation and computer-based training, including VR and AR, VR is the better alternative. It wins on comparisons of cost, speed, effectiveness, availability, reliability, learner safety, and more. I feel confident in that positive trend.”

This year, the event challenges its guests to take a step back from the hype around XR and get to the core of what’s really happening in the industry; where the biggest opportunities lie and what’s really holding immersive tech back from greater adoption.

The full line-up has been announced, with a who’s-who of VR and AR innovators from across both consumer and enterprise, taking their place throughout the programme.

Just some of the 90+ speakers include:

Pearly Chen, Chief of Staff to CEO & Director of Vive X, HTC

Tim Bates, IT Fellow, Immersive Technologies Strategy, General Motors

Steven Kan, Head of Global AR/VR Strategy, Google

Curtis Hickman, CCO & Founder, The VOID

Timoni West, Director of XR Research, Unity

Lee Burrell, Director of BD – Automotive, Engineering & Manufacturing, DHL

Ted Schilowitz, Futurist in Residence, Paramount Pictures

John Canning, Executive Producer, Digital Domain

Connor McCollough, Product Architect, Innovation & Business Transformation, GE Power

Denny Unger, CEO, Cloudhead Games

Jennifer Magee-Cooke, Head of Production, Dreamscape Immersive

Andy Mathis, Head of Partnerships, Oculus

Christine Koppinger, Global AR/VR Innovation Lead, Nestlé

In addition, the expo alongside will feature 40 of the latest technological innovations and business solutions from across the industry, including sponsors and exhibitors as HP, Siemens, ZeroLight, Varjo, Bose, Happy Finish, Qualcomm and many more.

As event partners, AREA has been given a 15% discount on all ticket types, including full 2-day passes and 1-day start-up passes. To claim your discount, enter the code AREA15 when you register

AREA event page for VRX.

CCS Insight noted that the increasing market size would be propelled by the solid demand for smartwatches, stating that growth would be driven by the popularity of new ranges of Apple Watches in particular.

One of the most significant factors driving purchases of the Apple Watch and the wearables market overall is that wearables can be used to easily and conveniently track health.

Apple’s Series 4 watches have several health-tracking features such as an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor which can measure heartrate and rhythm.

“For millions of people around the world, Apple Watch has helped them to stay connected, be more active and live a healthier day,” stated Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Wearables are being used to track a range of health concerns, from Fitbits counting the number of steps taken that day to individuals with diabetes using them to measure their glucose levels, a new feature of the recent Apple Watch Series.

According to Research and Markets, the medical wearable devices market is expected to reach more than $14.4bn by 2022, a huge portion of the $27bn market value CCS Insight has predicted overall.

But if the jobs in your company require employees to work truly hands-free – yet have access to vital collaboration tools, digital assets and work instructions within their field of vision – then you need to seriously consider using smart glasses.

This advice based guide by Atheer gives 5 questions enterprise users need to ask on how to select the best smart glasses for your needs.

1. Do you need a monocular or binocular design
2. How important is the weight of the glasses
3. How do the smart glasses fit?
4. What kind of battery life do you need?
5. What’s the optimal display size and quality for your use case?

For the full article and explanation see Atheer’s blog.

“Now is a great time to find out what our world-class network of Catapult centres can do for your business. In August, the Chancellor announced an additional £780m funding for the Catapults, to help innovative businesses create future technologies.

This built on the £180m announced for the North East by the Prime Minister for the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and the Centre for Process Innovation, part of the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult.

This significant announcement means the Catapults can build on their success and continue helping thousands of businesses across the UK to undertake innovative R&D. This long-term investment will mean the Catapults can help deliver the Grand Challenges of the Industrial Strategy in their sectors and help the UK achieve its ambition to raise investment in R&D to 2.4% of GDP by 2027.

In their first five years the Catapults have supported around 3,000 small businesses to develop and exploit new technologies. They operate more than £850m-worth of world-class facilities and are also training hundreds of apprentices and doctoral students. A shining example is the HVM Catapult, where in the last year 900 apprentices have gained invaluable practical experience with cutting-edge technologies used in modern manufacturing.

The Chancellor made the announcement during a visit to the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry, which is part of the HVM Catapult. He met with apprentices and workers who specialise in automation and machining.”

Photo MTC: Gurpreet Ghataore, research engineer at the Manufacturing Technology Centre, demonstrates a mobile platform with an integrated 6-axis robot arm capable of autonomously navigating through an active workshop environment to Philip Hammond MP and Neil Rawlinson & Alex Stephenson (both MTC).

Read the full article here.

Topics covered in the summary:

• Ori Inbar’s traditional State of XR keynote
• Mike Campbell of PTC priorities for achieving AR at scale in the enterprise (especially manufacturing and service where AR has the greatest value)
• Juergan Lumera of Bosch and Wolfgang Stelzle of RE’FEKT on their joint journey to take a platform for delivering information to service techs from prototype to global roll-out.
• XR-enabled training seemed to be a key area for large-scale industrial XR deployments
• Tim Merel, Digi-Capital research with AWE – keytakeaways
• Dr. Fadi Chehimi of IBM
• Object Theory’s Michael Hoffman
• M. Pell and Charlie Fink
• Kornelius Brunner and Andreas Haizmann of TeamViewer

Finally the panel conversations from the day were covered.

The full roundup article is well worth a read for quick takeaways from this hugely inspiring and successful event.