By Technology
Higher Education VR Leaders: Interviewing SDSU’s Sean Hauze and James Frazee
Today’s higher education students are the workforce of tomorrow. Thanks to the efforts of James Frazee and Sean Hauze, many SDSU graduates will enter the professional world with experience using AR and VR technologies, becoming the first generation to use XR both at school and work. Enterprises should take note. One Emily, BrainXchange: To begin, could you provide us with a little background on yourselves and your career? How did you end up at SDSU? Dr. James P. Frazee: I am the Deputy CIO and Senior Associate VP for Learning Environments, Technologies, and User Services or LETUS at San Diego State University (SDSU). LETUS is a unit within IT that aims to support teaching and learning through active learning environments, pedagogical research, learner-centered technologies, and user support. We partner with faculty and other campus stakeholders as well as regional, national, and international higher education and industry partners to improve student success. Sean Hauze, Ph.D.: I serve as Director of Instructional Technology Services at San Diego State University, providing leadership and direction for applications, initiatives infrastructure, training, and support services across the broad spectrum of instructional technology functions. I also teach doctoral-level research methods and evaluation for the Department of Educational Leadership. […]
6 min read
Top Challenges of the Enterprise Metaverse
If you believe Mark Zuckerberg, we are no more than five years away from commuting to work via virtual reality headset, meeting colleagues as avatars, and spending much of our working lives (providing tons of data to Facebook) in VR. Five years is unrealistic considering the metaverse is still largely unformed. We’re at least a decade away from a persistent, interactive, and shared virtual world parallel to our own and accessed (ideally) through a single gateway. Nevertheless, millions of dollars are flowing into enabling and precursor technologies, and companies like Mercedes, Walmart, and HSBC are experimenting and filing trademarks to carve out a place in today’s most popular virtual worlds. Whether the next evolution of the internet, a dystopian Meta-controlled future, or a new way of labeling XR, the metaverse needs a lot of work before it can become real. Here are some of the biggest challenges to realizing the Metaverse. Privacy Privacy concerns top the list: In a December 2021 survey, 87% of U.S. adults reported feeling concerned about their privacy if Meta were to succeed in creating the metaverse (Statista). Other concerns include hacking, impersonation, and, of course, data use. The information that can be collected in VR […]
4 min read
6 Real Companies Closing the Skills Gap with Mobile & Wearable AR
Imagine: It’s your first day as a service technician. You’re standing in front of a broken machine in urgent need of repair. Your only tool is a cumbersome, outdated paper manual that’s clearly passed through the hands of dozens of employees before you. You thumb through the pages only to find the instructions you need are missing, evidently torn out. What do you do? It’s an all too familiar scenario for organizations dealing with the growing industrial skills gap. The problem is especially acute in Manufacturing due to an aging expert workforce, rising complexity, outdated training methods, and continued reliance on decades-old machines in many of today’s factories. As competition and globalization intensify, the million-dollar question is: How do manufacturers recruit, train, and empower the next generation of skilled workers when the skills they need are rapidly changing? Best-in-class manufacturers have turned to Augmented Reality (AR) to develop and future-proof the skilled workforce. In the following use cases, real companies use AR to facilitate skills development while alleviating the impact of the industrial skills gap on their operations today. BAE SYSTEMS Sector: Aerospace and Defense Application: WORK INSTRUCTIONS + ONBOARDING British multinational defense, aerospace, and security company BAE Systems produces […]
7 min read
XR Content Creation: Enterprises Weigh in on the Challenges
The first step to using AR/VR/MR (XR) in your business is 3D content creation. It’s also one of the biggest pain points, particularly the time and cost of capturing real-world environments and objects for immersive experiences. This was the subject of a recent webinar featuring Doug Stephen of TeamworkAR, Kevin Jordan of Matterport, and Eric Abbruzzese of ABI Research. Here are three takeaways from their discussion: ONE There is a clear need to simplify 3D content creation for enterprise XR applications. As viewers were joining the webinar and settling in, a poll was launched to determine the biggest barrier to scaling extended reality (XR) in enterprise. Above is a live screenshot as the results were still coming in, with “Content Design/Expertise” emerging as the clear leader followed by “Time to Value.” The responses paint a picture: Organizations in every vertical have a need for fast and affordable 3D content creation, in particular the development of high-quality digital twins and other interactive 3D models to populate XR applications. Driving this need are increasing digitization efforts in response to remote/hybrid work, highly sophisticated machines, and a tight labor market. 3D content development is becoming a key business capability, an essential skill set […]
3 min read
50+ Enterprise Metaverse Statistics You Need to Know for 2022/2023
Employees 52% of employees are open to meetings in the metaverse, while 47% are “okay” with representing themselves as avatars in these virtual meetings. (Microsoft Work Trend Index) One quarter of employees have already experimented with extended reality. A further 44% are interested in trying it. (CCS Insight) Lenovo found that 44% of employees are prepared to work in the metaverse, compared to 20% unwilling to work with the technology. Only 42% of employees are “very familiar” with the metaverse. 57% are interested in experimenting with immersive work. (ExpressVPN) Some of employees’ biggest fears when it comes to the metaverse are real-time location surveillance (51%), biometrics or facial recognition (40%), and time tracking (47%). (ExpressVPN) Generational Differences 51% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennial workers are interested in using the metaverse for work, compared to 37% of Gen Xers and just 27% of Boomers. (Microsoft Work Trend Index) 92% of Gen Z want to use AR for shopping. 60% said that AR experiences feel more personal and over half would be more likely to pay attention to an ad that uses AR. (Snap) 27% of Gen Zers say they would be “very comfortable” using digital avatars for virtual meetings […]
6 min read
Top Enterprise XR News Out of AWE 2022
The Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2022 took place last week. As always, we’re recapping all the major enterprise-related news to come out of the event: Campfire The holographic collaboration company announced the Campfire Studio Console, “a device that delivers large-scale shared holograms in design studios and open workspaces.” Campfire’s holographic tech (unveiled last year) is designed to accelerate the virtual collaborative development of physical products and infrastructure. The Studio Console will allow globally distributed teams to “interact naturally and safely” around and within holograms of vehicles, structures, and environments. Qualcomm The top enabler of the metaverse announced the global availability of its Snapdragon Spaces XR Developer Platform, which “offers proven technology and an open, cross-device horizontal platform and ecosystem” for developers to create new head-worn AR experiences from the ground-up and add head-worn AR features to existing 2D Android mobile apps and more. Magic Leap AWE attendees got to try the upcoming Magic Leap 2. In addition, the company’s Head of Product Management James Meskill gave an overview of the enterprise-focused device and showed off the “WildFire Demo.” “We’re focused on businesses who need to solve real problems and who have essential work to get done…We’re in the early access […]
3 min read
Solving the Skills Crisis with Augmented Reality
The skills gap has become a skills crisis. Augmented Reality is helping industrial organizations enable on-the-job training, capture and scale expertise, recruit younger workers, and close the skills gap.
5 min read
Beyond the Tape: How One Manufacturer is Creating a Skilled Workforce with Augmented Reality
You’ve probably never heard of Intertape Polymer Group (IPG) and yet – if you’re a frequent online shopper – you most likely interact with their products regularly whenever you receive a package from Amazon or Walmart. IPG is a leading, global packaging and protective solutions company that manufactures and supplies everything from industrial tapes to bubble wrap. Recognizing that many of the company’s pain points like safety, the exit of its senior workforce, and a shortage of skilled labor were related to training and recruitment, IPG’s Ronn Englehart turned to Augmented Reality (AR). As Ronn explains in a recent webinar, AR is doing a lot for IPG’s workforce challenges, including: Helping to standardize, document, and validate work procedures Capturing and scaling expert knowledge for work instructions and training material Upskilling internal resources (operators on the plant floor) to join the skilled workforce Attracting and onboarding new talent, and Closing the skills gap Watch the webinar now to hear about IPG’s AR implementation plan, from aligning stakeholders and securing devices to measuring both quantitative and qualitative ROI; and the impact of augmented reality on safety, compliance, maintenance, recruitment, and more.
1 min read
10 More Enterprise Metaverse Statistics
When it comes to the enterprise AR/VR/MR (XR) space, the immersive devices used to enter digital worlds are nothing new. What is new is rising consumer awareness of and interest in XR. Along with the metaverse hype comes new opportunities to actually launch consumer-facing XR applications in business and industry beyond flashy experiments and mobile AR. In addition, XR’s role in enterprise is expanding beyond the factory or the field, into remote and hybrid offices. Here are 10 statistics impacting the enterprise metaverse: 1. 52% of internet users say they would join the metaverse for work reasons such as virtual workspaces and networking. (Statista) 2. 33% of developers believe that data privacy and security are the biggest hurdles that the metaverse has to overcome. ( Agora ) 3. According to a recent Microsoft report, 57% of people prefer telecommuting and 51% said they would consider switching to mixed or hybrid offices next year ( Great Expectations: Making Hybrid Work Work released by Microsoft ) 4. 2019 was the first year that enterprise spending on XR eclipsed consumer spending. ( Harbor Research ) 5. 40% of consumers said they would pay more for a product they could customize in Augmented Reality. ( […]
2 min read
12 Intriguing Metaverse-related Statistics
The future of the Internet? Just a fancier name for XR? All hype? Whatever the metaverse turns out to be, there’s been a ton of activity in the space in just the first three months of 2022 alone. Here are some interesting (occasionally contradictory) Metaverse-related statistics with undeniable implications for the future of work: According to PwC, 23 million jobs will be impacted by augmented and virtual reality by 2030, boosting the global economy by a potential $1.92 trillion. Gartner believes that 25% of individuals will spend at least one hour per day in the Metaverse by 2026. 52% of employees are open to meetings in the metaverse, while 47% are “okay” with representing themselves as avatars in these virtual meetings. (Microsoft Work Trend Index) (Lenovo found that 44% of employees are prepared to work in the metaverse, compared to 20% unwilling to work with the technology.) 51% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennial workers are interested in using the metaverse for work, compared to 37% of Gen Xers and just 27% of Boomers. (Microsoft Work Trend Index) A Lenovo survey found that 44% of employees think the metaverse will improve their work productivity. Accenture found that 71% of […]
2 min read
Immersion Beyond Sight: The XR Accessories of Today and Tomorrow
Is complete immersion possible? In theory, yes, if scientists and technologists figure out how to accurately simulate all the human senses in virtual reality. This would undoubtedly increase the realism of virtual experiences and while I’m sure multisensory VR games would be AWESOME, I’m more interested in job training, professional design, marketing (brand experiences), and other enterprise applications. Ericsson believes there will be widespread use of virtual environments engaging all five senses by 2030. Others are less optimistic: The problem, as Louis Rosenberg writes for Business Today, is your body. Rosenberg explains that without elaborate hardware like external cameras, your brain maintains two versions of reality, one of you in virtual reality and one of you sitting or standing where you are (in physical space). This creates the “feeling of being cut off from the world.” It’s not that today’s VR games and apps aren’t fun or useful, or capable of changing behavior. Virtual reality doesn’t need to stimulate all the senses to be effective, but the technology to do so would make it possible to spend longer stretches of time in the virtual world. Why so difficult? Rosenberg remarks that high-fidelity visuals are much easier to create than a […]
6 min read
Year in Review: Enterprise XR Solutions
Over the course of 2021, Big Tech went all in on immersive collaboration and anticipation certainly grew for a game changing XR device (or two) from Apple. 2021 was also the year of the word ‘Metaverse,’ which we see as any immersive world where you might have your next team meeting or interact with brands. Let’s see what the major players in enterprise XR unveiled and acquired this year: AUGMENTED/MIXED REALITY MICROSOFT Microsoft’s activities this year made it clear the company is focusing on collaborative XR and, more generally, the future of work. In March, Microsoft announced Mesh, a new platform for building multi-user XR apps or shared virtual experiences connecting people in different locations. Mesh will be brought into Microsoft Teams in 2022, allowing colleagues to meet as avatars in mixed reality. META (FORMERLY FACEBOOK) Facebook rebranded as Meta in 2021 in a PR move to distance the company from controversy, or as leadership claims, to convey the company’s new aim of building the metaverse. Meta also made its AR entrance with a pair of glasses developed in collaboration with Ray-Ban. The company’s 10-year plan for AR, however, is much more ambitious, as revealed in a blog post from […]
5 min read
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