Leading the AR revolution, industrial enterprises are experiencing improved ROI through AR-optimized supply chain. Enterprise sector is using AR across other functions such as product design and marketing.
In fact, industrial enterprises are some of the early adopters of this immersive technology.
It has grown leaps and bounds in the last decade. Questions such as “Why AR in my business?” have now changed to “How to capitalize on AR innovations?”
Enterprises are always looking to optimize. AR related devices and solutions are making its way in. Since they ask for no middleman, integrator or consultant. Enterprises are now anticipating a hands-free workflow guidance and remote assistance in the future. More likely, a utilitarian future.
Consequently, AR technologies like Microsoft’s Hololens 2, Google’s Glass Enterprise Edition 2, PTC’s ThingWorx, etc. are supporting a number of breakthrough use cases today. Such AR experiences are redefining remote collaboration as we know it.
We believe, no challenge can outweigh the growth potential that AR offers in the long run. However, we have addressed some real-time challenges that are slowing down current operations in an enterprise. If we overcome them, it provides a huge opportunity for remote collaboration.
Efficient Data Transmission Need for AR Devices:
AR is a difficult tech due to its inability to accommodate multiple users and its latency issues. To participate remotely, video streaming require 33 times more data than a standard video. Here 5G becomes a necessity!
The first wave of 5G revolution is here as Verizon expands it’s 5G footprint in the US this month. It is set to remove many inherent limitations in current AR devices like manufacturing costs, bulky size, and low traffic capacity.
Popular SOC manufacturer Qualcomm is also getting itself a slice of the AR pie by announcing the arrival of 5G-powered AR headsets with eye-tracking tech by 2020.
But, how does 5G help AR?
5G would help AR devices with offloading the complex graphical computations on the cloud, improving real-time responsiveness. This offloading in turn will eliminate the need of heavy hardware that makes the AR gear a nightmare for usability.
Thus, bringing a future of much cheaper and lighter AR headsets and devices.
Use case: ThirdEye Gen, a smart glasses and AR/MR software development company, recently partnered with Verizon to develop 5G smart glasses and deliver low latency apps (enterprise AR software, remote AR assistance and live 3D scanning).
Lack of Higher Level of Automation:
Manual work often relies on information from connected assets to perform their own functions. But to interact with such information, people are required to move back and forth between physical and digital experiences separately through an HMI. Here IoT comes in picture!
It facilitates AR with required real-time insights and data which are relevant to the user’s immediate physical surroundings to enhance their experience.
‘Imagine a worker wearing an ‘AR integrated helmet’ that spots hazards and provides live assistance when repairing equipment.’
As remote users don’t interact directly with the physical objects or sensors and can’t tell if a piece of equipment is under high temperature or high voltage.
In an interview at CXOTalk, Mr.Heppelmann , CEO PTC Inc. commented that IoT and AR can facilitate information to move back and forth in a lubricated way while crossing the physical/digital boundary and connecting digital things to physical spaces.
Companies like DAQRI are leveling up the use of AR and IoT together.
Whereas, an end-to-end IoT solutions provider, DXC has decided to deliver its remote expert solutions on a wide range of AR devices of RealWear, DAQRI, and Microsoft.
Use case: Bell and Howell, a next-gen service organization, used ThinkWorx IIoT platform to transform its remote service and solve its supply chain optimization issues.
Need of Creating Scalable AR Content
Making enterprise specific technical data available for AR systems and replicating workers’ tribal knowledge into a database is a daunting task.
AR work instruction authoring solutions like WorkLink, Vuforia Studio, and Reflekt One are great for enterprise maintenance, operations, and training. These solutions include features like:
- Authoring clear and easy-to-follow AR instructions
- Reusing existing 3D and handbook content
- Accessing real-time IoT and business systems data and more
Use case: Unilever uses Remote AR (a remote assistance support by Scope AR) that allows technicians to collaborate with experts remotely, looking for ways to reduce equipment downtime.
Conclusion
Early adopters are either investing heavily in in-house teams or are outsourcing to subject matter experts to improve their remote capabilities, and experiment with new technology. Some examples include business-focused augmented reality glasses by Google, Mojo’s possible future state of invisible computing and AR contact lenses. That leaves industrial enterprises with a vast scope for multiple micro-improvements and major researches that are yet to happen.
The question still remains, how long will it be feasible to changing approaches when the technology keeps evolving at this rate?
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