The comprehensive research study and corresponding report identifies significant financial improvements realized by industrial companies embracing augmented reality (AR), and provides best practices for unlocking the potential of the technology across various environments.

In addition to the report published, PTC announced exclusive data from Aberdeen that shows that organizations using AR have experienced significant year-over-year business growth and have improved their bottom lines dramatically.

“The rapid pace of the global market, digital transformation, and increasing shortage of highly skilled workers have produced a disruptive threat for businesses,” said Tom Paquin, research analyst, Aberdeen Group. “However, as evidenced by our latest report with PTC, companies that invest in AR, particularly manufacturing and service organizations, have the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.”

For enterprises, AR can empower workers to understand and interact with the physical and digital worlds, build new skills with reduced training time and cost, and make informed decisions faster. As a result, businesses can unlock increased productivity and improve the effectiveness of training, manufacturing, and service.

“AR is one of the fastest growing segments in the technology market and has been shown to create significant business value for organizations adopting it. Industrial enterprises are keen to improve customer experiences, open up new revenue streams, and disrupt competition by leveraging the new AR capabilities for product and service differentiation,” said Jim Heppelmann, president and CEO, PTC. “Use cases being developed for end customers have a strong focus on service or maintenance instructions, enabling them to reduce machine downtime and maximize product value.”

Also in the press release are details from AWE Europe 2018

PTC and the topic of enterprise AR took center stage today (Oct 18 2018) at AWE Europe 2018, the world’s leading AR and VR conference and expo, held October 18-19 in Munich, Germany.

This morning, Mike Campbell, EVP, Augmented Reality Products, PTC, led a keynote session titled, “PTC Vision for Augmented Reality in the Enterprise,” in which he spoke about the state of AR in the industrial enterprise, reviewed customer use cases, and illustrated the power of AR to fundamentally change the way people work and to allow organizations to re-imagine how to manufacture, sell, operate, and service industrial products.

“Augmented reality can deliver a significant advantage for industrial organizations as part of their overall digital transformation,” said Mr. Campbell. “PTC customers are better leveraging existing investments in CAD, IoT, and digitalization of content through AR experiences, enabling people to visualize and interact with the digital world in the real-time context of their daily work.”

As a Titanium Sponsor of and exhibitor at the event, PTC is showcasing its latest AR solutions – Vuforia Studio, Vuforia Engine, and Vuforia Chalk – as well as distributing copies of the Aberdeen research report at booth 118. PTC is also participating in The International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), which runs in conjunction with AWE Europe, in booth 405.

The whitepaper addresses whether AR is mature enough for widespread use and mass adoption.

This white paper was drafted by the b<>com Hypermedia team, specifically by Jérôme Royan, Hypermedia Principal Architect, Muriel Deschanel, Hypermedia Business Development Director and Nicole Le Minous, Project Manager. The three of them are experts in augmented reality technologies.

This contribution is based on skills developed at b<>com, focusing on natural interaction in immersive environments. In order to develop technologies that enhance human performance, b<>com experts study collaboration between heterogeneous immersive systems, ranging from augmented reality glasses to advanced gesture-based interfaces to industrial virtual reality equipment. The user is central to the way b<>com thinks and works, from defining usage cases to prototyping.

The whitepaper can be downloaded by visiting their website.

Depending on your level of enthusiasm, there was plenty to be either very excited or very cynical about during the opening keynote of Magic Leap’s first ever LEAP Developer Conference last week. On one hand, there was company CEO Rony Abovitz attempting to channel the spirit of Steve Jobs while portending a future for “spatial computing,” in which all mixed reality (MR) devices are connected in a vast IoT-like network called a “Verse” while developers enjoy Burning Man-like festivals geared around MR. There was also discussion of a commitment to build a diverse and inclusive developer landscape, with the company promising initiatives to attract female developers and developers of color. And if you’re into cute animals, you got to see noted science fiction author Neal Stephenson talk about virtual goats.

The article refers to a number of previous articles that have discussed Magic Leap’s journey so far.  On the application side, there hasn’t been much to get engineers or enterprise professionals excited. Most of the keynote focused on gaming, social, and entertainment applications.

However, the silver lining is that Magic Leap is beginning to finally demonstrate some potential for enterprise. While enterprise announcements made up perhaps 15 to 20 minutes of the over three-hour-long opening keynote, what was talked about points to a possible future for Magic Leap in offices and even factory floors.

The most promising announcement was a deal with Onshape—the creators of a cloud-based, multiplatform CAD system—that will bring Onshape’s CAD platform to Magic Leap. Speaking during the keynote, Jon Hirschtick, CEO and co-founder of Onshape, offered a brief glimpse of the technology. It was not made clear, however, if what was shown was an actual product demo or a proof of concept, as was the case with many Magic Leap demos, given how new the product is. “We’re ready to take a huge leap in the CAD era,” Hirschtick told the audience, later adding, “ …I truly believe mixed reality and CAD can improve the way every product on Earth is designed.”

Image information: Engineers from Onshape examine a 3D CAD model through the Magic Leap One. (Image source: Onshape)

Finnish RealMax Oy is part of the RealMax Group, which is one of the leading companies within Augmented Reality. The company offers a complete AR ecosystem consisting of both hardware and software. RealMax primarily addresses AR in industrial, medical and education sectors where their AR smart glasses, RealWear HMT-1, meets the most challenging requirements.

Different use cases require different interaction methods, in addition to HMT-1’s revolutionary voice control and by enabling multimodal interaction, combining Crunchfish’s gesture control software a new level of user experience can be enabled.

The cooperation with RealMax strengthens Crunchfish’s position further as one of the leading suppliers of gesture control for AR smart glasses for industry use. Over the last year, Crunchfish has entered into several strategic partnerships with major global players, which has resulted in an extensive global network of partners, which is a key factor for success in a growing market.

“We are the leading suppliers of AR smart glasses and solutions for tough environments, including IP66 and even ATEX, where the demands are high on hardware, software and interaction efficiency. We see Crunchfish as one of the leading providers on the market and their gesture control software combined with RealWear HMT-1 voice control solution can enable the market’s most effective user experience in AR smart glasses,” says Matti Vappula, Director, Business Development at RealMax.

“A cooperation with RealMax targeting their AR smart glasses opens up for many new joint projects that can benefit from our gesture technology. We are very happy to get the opportunity to work with RealMax and provide a solution to interaction issues that many times appear in demanding industrial environments,” says Joakim Nydemark, CEO of Crunchfish.

82% of companies currently implementing augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) say the benefits are either meeting or exceeding their expectations.

However, a shortage of in-house expertise and insufficient backend infrastructures are significant barriers to growth.

Drawing on responses from more than 700 executives in the automotive, manufacturing and utilities sectors found that 50% of enterprises currently not implementing AR and VR will start exploring immersive technologies for their business operations within the next three years.

These include using AR to remotely access real-time help from experts on a wearable or handheld device, and VR to train employees. Some 46% of companies believe the technology will become mainstream in their organisations within the next three years, while a further 38% think it will in the next three to five years.

The report found that companies in the US and China are currently leading the implementation race, with more than 50% of companies surveyed already implementing immersive technology for business operations.

Conversely, over 50% of companies in the UK, France, Germany, and the Nordics are still only experimenting with AR/VR initiatives.

As well as a number of short infograhpics, the articlecontains information about:

• The benefits of immersive technologies
• Most common use cases

The report identified a group of “early achievers” who are driving the most benefits from their immersive technology initiatives.

Image source: The Manufacturer, Smart Factory Expo

The article concludes with an invitation to Europe’s largest digital manufacturing event – Smart Factory Expo to be held on 14 – 15 November at the Exhibition Centre Liverpool, UK

The article then runs through the process a business would need to take in making decisions about where to start with the technology and how to progress through the journey.

To start with, it’s all about defining the most appropriate use cases around your existing business processes- and not trying to create problems to solve. It’s also about not fully buying in to the media hype that surrounds the technology, you need to make sure that your use cases are appropriate for today’s technologies. This will help align your business with the correct device and the correct ‘reality’.

Even if a suitable use case has been identified, you still need to get support from across your organisation. People need to be open to trying and using the different devices and types of reality, and thinking about how they could be used within various departments. It’s essential to get people on board in terms of buy-in. In engineering and manufacturing, many existing processes are so well established that even the slightest change to the status quo could cause resistance.

In the early stages it is best to be open minded and realistic as to what you want to achieve, and from a technology standpoint, be device agnostic. Today, nobody really knows which devices are best, or which will win out over time. New devices are appearing all the time and in 12 months’ time the next generation of devices will have hit the market.

So ultimately, the things you need to think about are:

• Don’t fully buy in to the media hype
• Be realistic as to what’s possible today-it will be different in 12 months’ time
• Define your use cases
• Don’t create problems to solve
• Get internal support
• Make sure you have infrastructure to support the devices
• Experiment with all devices – see which would suit your needs best. The type of device you choose will dictate the type of ‘reality’.
• Think short-term ROI as this market is new and evolving rapidly.

Although investing in new technologies like this can seem like a risk to begin with-especially if you’re not sure how they will fit in to your workplace-using AR, MR and VR in engineering and manufacturing workflows is gradually becoming more mainstream, and is changing the way people are working for the future- will you get left behind?

Chevron is betting these augmented reality devices will save the company millions of dollars in the coming years as it ramps up its use of Microsoft’s HoloLens technology, which was recently developed to support the sort of remote assistance functions now in use in El Segundo. The company this year nearly doubled its inventory to include more than 110 sets, which it’s now rolling out across its many business units to reduce operational downtime and improve productivity.

Ultimately, the company expects the technology to cut down on miles traveled among its specialists around the world. The company operates in more than 100 countries, and some of its facilities are especially remote.

“We have some experts that travel a half-million miles a year,” said Ed Moore, Chevron’s enterprise architecture and strategy manager. “There’s a lot of opportunity to make savings.”

Chevron’s rollout comes as oil and gas companies across the board look to adopt Silicon Valley technologies to improve efficiency as they heed the lessons of frugality taught by a two-year oil bust and face increasing competition from electric vehicles and renewable power sources.

Tech giants including Google, Microsoft and Amazon are marketing their cloud services to the oil and gas sector, and a host of startups are courting energy companies with applications using artificial intelligence and data science.

For the wearer, the HoloLens goggles project an interactive screen showing not only the video call, but also documents and mark-ups from the expert dialed in from afar. With thumbs and forefingers clicking in the air — sort of like air guitar for computers — users can pull up files and scroll through them while working on a project or repair.

By the end of the year, Moore expects more than half of the company’s facilities will have some form of the technology. He sees particular potential in deploying them on offshore rigs, which require helicopter charters and days of travel for engineers.

Right now, the technology doesn’t come cheap: Each set costs about $5,000. But the company estimates that international travel to its facilities costs between $5,000 and $12,000 a trip, and perhaps thousands of dollars more if the destination is particularly difficult to reach.

Read the full feature article from the Houston Chronicle.

The flexibility of both XpertEye and Proceedix facilitates a seamless integration of the solutions, maximizing usage and benefit for the end user. This combination empowers technicians and operators with state-of-the-art technology for remote assistance and digital work flow execution.

Headquartered in Rennes/France, AMA develops and commercializes XpertEye, an advanced remote solution. XpertEye is an intuitive, hands-free as well as secure audio-visual communication solution based on smart glasses and other cameras that brings knowledge, expertise and know-how quickly and digitally to any location around the world. AMA runs subsidiaries in Boston/USA, Bucharest/Romania, Cologne/Germany and London/United-Kingdom.

The integration of Proceedix on XpertEye allows the users to display work instructions and procedures on smart glasses, resulting in a significant efficiency improvement, increased responsiveness and reduced time spent on administrative processes. The alliance of these two solutions disrupts the traditional way of operating. This solution is part of the Industry 4.0 evolution, changing the way people do their job.

“We experience a growing interest of companies in the usage of smart glasses for work execution. At every industrial site, there are a number of use cases for smart glasses. There is always a critical procedure that needs to be performed hands-free. By adding XpertEye’s real-time support or remote assistance to the operator, we truly have a winning combination,” Peter Verstraeten, CEO Proceedix stated.

“Proceedix Service-based central platform to manage enterprise procedures is a perfect match with AMA XpertEye advanced remote assistance solutions. The teaming up of these two advanced technology companies now enables both teams to provide a comprehensive service for the greater success of our customers,” Christian Guillemot, CEO AMA XpertEye mentioned.

Proceedix is a Software as a Service-based central platform to manage enterprise procedures, work instructions and inspections in an easy way, while making the remote execution paperless and mobile.

XpertEye, by AMA, is an advanced remote solution using a variety of smart glasses and similar equipped devices to bridge the distances between people in need of immediate assistance and those able to help, whether it be either for industrial, energy or healthcare purposes.

SATS, the chief ground-handling and in-flight catering service provider at Singapore Changi Airport, started piloting the Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses to digitize its ramp handling operations in mid-2017 and is now completing phase 2 by introducing and deploying the technology to more than 500 staff at Changi Airport. Using Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses, SATS ramp handling staff will now be able to scan barcodes on baggage and cargo containers to improve the baggage handling process.

Ramp handling staff will also receive real-time loading instructions, which provides the ramp control center with a real-time view of on-ground processes. SATS expects to increase accuracy and improve efficiency of baggage and cargo handling processes for larger wide-body aircraft, by reducing loading times by up to 15 minutes per flight on average.

SGX-listed SATS provides services in 60 airports and 62 cities across Asia and the Middle East.  You may like to watch the two related videos:

What are AR smart glasses doing on Changi airport tarmac? Video link

SATS ramp handling with Augmented Reality. Video link