By Technology
Beyond AR/VR: A Fully Connected Workforce and Workplace
Discussing the impact or potential of immersive technologies in the workplace is all well and fine, but it’s impossible to talk about the future of augmented and virtual reality in business without considering complimentary emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), wearables and advanced sensors, and even Blockchain. In this panel from EWTS 2020, innovators from PwC, BP, Holiday Inn, Lenovo and Boeing share how they are strategically combining emerging technologies to unlock even more value for their people, customers and partners. Even more valuable, they discuss how they’re able to cut through red tape in the name of innovation by creating incubation bubbles and experimental groups within the business to push through brand new tech.
1 min read
Heads-up and Hands-free: Why Enterprise Augmented Reality Doesn’t Have to be Complicated
Augmented Reality doesn’t have to be complicated. There’s a ‘subset’ of AR called Assisted Reality and ways to augment workers’ capabilities in a heads-up, hands-free form factor without overlays requiring specialized development skills. AR can be as simple as a scanner built into a pair of glasses and voice commands and still be utterly transformational, improving the employee experience and increasing organizational efficiency. Case in point: This unique case study presented by Bayer’s Carrie Roy and Michael Calvillo at EWTS 2020. Watch the video to hear how Carrie and Michael internally pitched, conducted a zero-budget POC, and found a vendor for their speech-to-text (STT) smart glasses data collection use case. For more, read our interview with Carrie and Michael here.
1 min read
What makes an AR/VR device or app enterprise-grade?
We’ve said it before, but the question is no longer ‘Should you invest in XR and/or wearables for your business?’ Even before the pandemic, the answer to that was ‘yes,’ though the need may not have been as immediate as post-Covid-19. So, what is the question? It’s ‘Which solution?,’ and a good place to start is by listening to the experts. In this panel discussion from EWTS 2020, innovators from GE, CBRE, Abbvie, Qualcomm and Immy share key considerations for choosing the right hardware and software for your use case, workforce and infrastructure. What is required of enterprise- / industrial-grade devices and platforms, especially from an ergonomic and UX point-of-view? Play the video to find out. Image source: VentureBeat / Vuzix
1 min read
Augmented Reality & Artificial Intelligence: Next-gen Workforce’s Best Friends
On June 23, industry experts Anand Rao, Global Artificial Intelligence Lead at PwC, and Jereme Pitts, COO of Librestream, were joined by end users Erik Schmidtberg and John Cogliandro from Raytheon in a webinar about the powerful combination of Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in enterprise. Jereme set the scene by describing the modern workforce, which is overwhelmingly deskless, and issues like the skills gap driving adoption of emerging technologies like AR in industry. He was followed by Anand, who managed to explain AI in layman’s terms, its relationship to AR, and impact on the human worker now and in the future. In the second half of the webinar, Jereme and Anand moderated a panel with real enterprise end users – Raytheon’s Erik and John – to ground everything discussed up to that point in reality. Here are my 3 takeaways from the session: 1. AR+AI: Why now? A number of live polls throughout the webinar drove home the relevance of the day’s topic, including “Are you satisfied with the method you’re using to capture knowledge.” Just 15% of respondents said they were satisfied with how they currently capture knowledge. Another poll revealed that 61% of attendees still […]
4 min read
The Underdog of Wearables: Below the Neck Devices
Augmented and virtual reality get a lot of headlines. This is understandable: After all, where would many companies be if not for AR-enabled remote support and VR training to ‘carry’ them through the pandemic? But not every use case in which an employee would benefit from receiving/accessing task-based information hands-free calls for a pair of expensive smart glasses and AR/VR devices can only do so much to protect workers from physical harm. That’s where body- and wrist-worn wearables come in and, while not as glamorous as a mixed reality headset, discreet body-worn sensors have a big role to play in reducing the 340 million work-related accidents that occur annually around the globe. From tracking workers’ movements around hazardous job sites to secure authentication via biometric wearables, what are the most valuable opportunities for wearables worn below the neck? Watch this video from EWTS 2020 featuring innovators from Con Edison, Spirit AeroSystems, CVG Airport and Triax Technologies to find out:
1 min read
When AR and AI Come Together for Your Business
70% of companies identify knowledge loss as a critical issue. 80% of the global workforce doesn’t sit behind a desk. 85.2 million worldwide worker shortage by 2030. These might seem like disparate facts but they are, in fact, all related and, together, contributing to a kind of global reckoning in the industrial world. The harsh reality is that organizations are losing people and, in turn, losing years of wisdom, expertise, talent, skills, workflows and systems. They’re losing knowledge as experienced workers retire and struggling to upskill the next generation of workers fast enough. Now, add to this the fact that a significant majority of the workforce is mobile and increasingly reliant on technology for the content, guidance, people and smart data they need to work efficiently and safely in industries impacted by factors like the growing skills gab and, most recently, a global pandemic. These workers need easy access to knowledge on the go. But what if there were a comprehensive tech stack that could help companies capture, preserve, organize and transfer knowledge across global, multilingual workforces while also improving collaboration, increasing efficiency, boosting safety, and reducing costs? Enter: Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). You may think you know the benefits […]
2 min read
Accelerating XR at Apple & Facebook: What it Means for Enterprise
We don’t make it a habit of closely following consumer XR news, but it’s undeniable that the pandemic has accelerated AR/VR awareness among consumers, in particular the use of Oculus VR headsets and (mobile) AR shopping apps. So, what does growing consumer comfort with extended realities mean for enterprise? In 2019, I wrote a blog post titled “When is the Time to Talk About Consumer-facing AR Apps in Enterprise?” Now is the time to revisit this topic: Not only has Covid-19 forever reshaped how we work but competition has been heating up among the big tech players to develop the first pair of successful consumer-grade smart glasses. Apple leaks and news out of Facebook Reality Labs are a daily occurrence, and Microsoft recently confirmed it’s developing a consumer version of the HoloLens. So, let’s explore what the arrival of mainstream AR glasses and increasing commercial use of VR will mean for enterprise, from heavy industry to office work and everything in between. FIRST, THE RUMORS While it’s impossible to know exactly what’s going on inside Apple, there are strong indicators that augmented reality is important to the company, including CEO Tim Cook’s own words to the effect, recent acquisitions, and […]
6 min read
The most successful exoskeleton case study yet?
With 500 shoulder exoskeletons across 6 North American vehicle assembly plants, Toyota is perhaps the most successful use case of industrial exoskeletons to date. How has Toyota succeeded where others have yet to do so? In this video from EWTS 2020, Toyota’s Marisol Barrero describes how she and her team were able to implement exoskeletons as PPE. The cherry on top? Toyota is also using wearable sensors and virtual reality (VR) to enhance safety. Image source: Levitate
1 min read
U Can’t Touch This: VR Haptics
Immersive technologies are proving great at reducing the amount of hands-on training required to operate lift equipment or fly a plane, but can someone become certified in a trade by training in VR alone? JLG has a very realistic VR simulation that even incorporates real controls, but the industry standard requires hands-on training. If VR were to supplant traditional training, it would have to be as close to the real thing as possible. There aren’t any standards, however, for high-fidelity VR or a grading system for VR training sims. How do we get to that point? No Hard Feelings Currently in VR, you can tour a building before it’s built, test drive a car, and practice assembling a jet engine from scratch. You can’t, however, run your hand along a velvet sofa, judge the comfort of a vehicle’s interior, or feel the parts of a machine correctly locking into place. Touch is incredibly important to how we interact with and understand the world. Of all our senses, it’s probably the most overlooked and least understood. How does touch work? Specialized receptors all over our skin (there are 3,000 just in each fingertip) sense things like temperature, pain, pressure, texture, and vibration. That information is […]
7 min read
Exoskeletons Get Real: The Ultimate Wearable Technology?
Exoskeletons are nothing new and far from science fiction; in fact, researchers began developing exoskeletons for military use as early as the 1960s. For the last decade, engineers have been working on exoskeletons designed to support and even augment physical activity for military, medical and industrial purposes. Over time, these devices have become less bulky and expensive (from over $100k to under $10k in many cases) as well as more specialized and powerful. Today, real companies are transforming workplace productivity and safety by introducing even just a few exoskeletons on the warehouse or factory floor. According to ABI Research, more than 7,000 exoskeletons were sold in 2018, the same year that Ford made headlines for the largest order of exoskeleton units to date. Last year, Toyota became the first company to make exoskeletons mandatory PPE for certain tasks. (Watch this video of Toyota’s Marisol Barrero from EWTS 2019.) While it may seem the most successful rollouts are in automotive manufacturing; aviation, aerospace and other manufacturers as well as construction and engineering firms, warehouses and more are actively testing the technology, as well. Exoskeletons find their sweet spot Combining the power of robots with the intelligence and adaptability of humans sounds great, but […]
9 min read
Accessing XR in the Workplace of the Future
If you’re unfamiliar with Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in the enterprise, here’s a crash course: Companies such as Boeing, Ford and Walmart are adopting immersive technologies like AR glasses and VR headsets to improve efficiency, productivity, and safety via a number of applications like training and remote support. Immersive technologies (AR/VR) could improve lives and contribute to the GDP by enabling people with disabilities to take on careers that have so far been closed off to them. Unfortunately, enterprise AR and VR tech isn’t currently designed with disabled users in mind. This is an untapped opportunity for XR companies and employers alike. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is significantly higher than for able-bodied people. Employers are required to provide reasonable modifications to the work environment to enable disabled persons to do their jobs. That might mean a wheelchair ramp or adaptive hardware for computer use. But, so far, it hasn’t included immersive devices. While the hype around AR and VR focuses on democratizing knowledge and access to new worlds, the technology hasn’t extended to the disabled community. Let’s look at VR in particular: It often takes coordinated body movements to navigate and interact in the virtual environment. User interfaces that […]
4 min read
Bayer Accelerates Crop Science Data Collection with Smart Glasses and Voice
Interview with Michael Calvillo and Carrie Roy I recently had the privilege of interviewing Michael Calvillo and Carrie Roy, who are spearheading the use of voice and smart glasses to collect data at Bayer. Check out their answers below: To begin, could you provide a little background on yourselves and what you do at Bayer? Carrie: I’ve been consulting at Bayer for two years. My background is a bit odd. I was planning on going into Academia, so I have a PhD in Ethnography and ended up doing a two-year postdoc in Digital Humanities, like computational approaches to analyzing screenplays, literature, poetry, images, music and that type of stuff. Following that, I ended up working with data-inspired art – I’m really interested in how we engage with data and information – and then started working for a large consulting firm doing some work on large, high-profile AI projects. After moving to St. Louis with my family, I was interested in getting back into agriculture – I actually grew up on a cattle ranch in North Dakota and a lot of my extended family farms – and I’d heard good things about Bayer. During my post-doc I partnered with a lab working […]
12 min read
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