Read the original article by Jennifer Langston here.
When workers for Lockheed Martin began assembling the crew seats for a spacecraft designed to return astronauts to the moon and pave the way for human exploration to Mars, they had no need for paper instructions or tablet screens to work from.
Everything they needed to see — from animations of how pieces fit together to engineering drawings to torque values for tightening bolts — was visible in HoloLens 2 devices that they wore.
The mixed reality headsets left their hands free to manipulate hardware. Voice commands guided them through every step, with holographic instructions overlaid on the relevant parts of the four seats that will be installed inside the crew module of the Orion spacecraft, which Lockheed Martin is building to support NASA’s Artemis program to carry humans to the moon and beyond.
“They didn’t have to refer back to a computer screen or paper drawings during that entire activity,” said Shelley Peterson, Lockheed Martin principal investigator for augmented and mixed reality. “Out on the shop floor they can put on the HoloLens 2 device, power it up, and it has all the content that they need to figure out how to do that task overlaid right there on the structure.”
Building a spacecraft requires millions of tasks, each with zero room for error, from attaching electrical cables in the correct pathways to lubricating joints and precisely locating thousands of tiny devices that measure how the craft performs under stress.
Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor building Orion, has employed HoloLens 2 on a variety of assembly tasks for the spacecraft that will be used in NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first to carry a crew of astronauts aboard Orion.
For some jobs that require lots of precise measuring by hand — such as marking locations for hundreds of fasteners on Orion’s spacecraft adapter jettison fairings — technicians using holographic instructions have finished those repetitive tasks 90 percent faster. The mixed reality headsets have also all but eliminated assembly mistakes, Peterson said. Lockheed Martin has experienced zero errors or rework requests on tasks in which workers were assisted by HoloLens headsets, which the company first deployed at the end of 2017, she said.
“The fact that we haven’t had any errors across all of these activities is phenomenal,” said Peterson, who oversees the company’s mixed reality initiatives.
“Usually when we’re considering new technologies we’re asking if there’s improved quality, if it’s faster or if it’s less expensive, and most people say you can only get two out of the three because there are always tradeoffs. What we’re finding with the HoloLens 2 is that we can hit all three, which is pretty unique,” Peterson said.
Shelley Peterson
At its Ignite conference on Sept. 22, Microsoft announced it is expanding the global availability of HoloLens 2, which is now available for purchase in Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Poland, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
“We are super inspired to see what people are doing in the wild with HoloLens, and we are very excited that we have enough supply worldwide to bring it to this next set of regions,” said Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman.
The company also announced the private preview of a new mixed reality service called Azure Object Anchors. It allows HoloLens devices to recognize an object in the real world and map relevant instructions or visuals onto it without requiring any expert knowledge or barcodes to line those things up.
If an automaker wants to help a car owner do a simple repair job at their house using mixed reality, for instance, it’s more helpful for the owner to put on a headset and see an arrow pointing right to the oil pan gasket that needs to be removed, rather than asking a novice car mechanic to locate the gasket among all the other engine parts and then start following instructions, Kipman said.
“It’s a very hard computer vision problem, but the ability to recognize an object in the real world and then graft and map holograms onto it adds a tremendous amount of value,” he said.
Since HoloLens 2 began shipping to customers last November, Microsoft has continued to see demand for the device and Azure mixed reality services, Kipman said, especially in a time when remote collaboration is essential to help limit the spread of COVID-19.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, for instance, allows people in two different physical locations to collaborate and solve problems in a shared mixed reality environment. If a firstline worker assembling a spacecraft, airplane or truck finds an obstruction where the next piece of hardware needs be installed, an engineer in another room or city can see through the worker’s HoloLens 2 exactly what the problem is and offer advice on how to adjust.
Health care providers treating COVID-19 patients at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in England are using HoloLens 2, Remote Assist and Microsoft Teams to minimize potential exposure to the virus. One doctor wearing a mixed reality headset can treat the patient in person, while the device sends a secure live video feed to a computer screen in a neighboring room. That allows other members of the healthcare team to see everything that doctor sees while remaining at a safe distance.
“In some industries, we’ve seen companies become willing to take the leap much faster,” Kipman said. “In a socially distanced time where travel can be risky, it’s much easier to just teleport there and see things through the eyes of the operators. Before that sounded kind of cool, like something out of a science fiction novel, but now it’s really a necessity.”1 of 5Lockheed Martin technicians at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility use HoloLens 2 to assemble Orion’s crew seats for the Artemis II mission. This image, captured with a HoloLens 2 headset, shows the holographic instructions overlaid on the crew seats. Image courtesy of Lockheed Martin.2 of 5Shelley Peterson, Lockheed Martin principal investigator for augmented and mixed reality. Photo by Rachel Woolf Photography.3 of 5HoloLens 2 devices assisted technicians during the manufacturing process for the Artemis II heat shield. One of the most critical elements of Orion, it protects the capsule and crew during reentry through Earth’s atmosphere. Image courtesy of NASA.4 of 5Eric Nolan, a technician working at the Kennedy Space Center, wears a HoloLens 2 as he works on the heat shield for the crew module for NASA’s Artemis II mission. Image courtesy of NASA.5 of 5The Orion spacecraft is being designed to take the first woman and the next man to the moon by 2023, and to prepare the way for human missions to Mars. Image courtesy of NASA.
Lockheed Martin officials said the ability to collaborate remotely using HoloLens 2 has helped employees maintain social distance during the pandemic. It helps workers avoid passing paper or tablets back and forth, and it also allows people to problem solve without having to get on a plane or look over someone’s shoulder.
“Travel is really difficult right now, and if we can avoid just one troubleshooting trip, that HoloLens is worth it,” said Colin Sipe, an Orion and Human Landing Systems senior manager for Lockheed Martin.
The company also began seeing significant time and cost savings when technicians no longer had to break from their tasks to look at manuals or type on a computer screen, which may require crawling through tight spaces or taking off clean room gear. For a critical job like assembling the heat shield that keeps astronauts safe as they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, written instructions are so complex that they can add up to 30 pounds’ worth of paperwork, Sipe said.
“Typically, it turns out that about half of their time is spent reviewing drawings, reviewing steps and entering data into the computer, and only about half of their time is spent turning wrenches and putting parts together,” he said. “With HoloLens, we’ve been able to reduce the amount of time that they spend dealing with or processing that data overhead by about 90 percent.”
For instance, as part of critical verification processes, technicians often have to put down their tools and walk back to a computer workstation and type in information about the step they’ve just completed. With the HoloLens 2, they can use a simple voice command to have the headset take a picture or record a video — which can be used for validation, quality assurance or training purposes — without having to break their flow.
The people who build the spacecraft also enjoy using the HoloLens 2, which allows them to focus on the work they really like to do, Sipe said. Some have even delayed retirements to spend more time working on Orion.
“They don’t particularly like digging through technical documents to find out what kind of primer to put on this particular part. They like to build stuff and work with their hands, and with the HoloLens 2 they’re able to spend almost all day doing just that,” he said. “They really feel like they’re working on a spacecraft of the future.”
Top image: Technicians used HoloLens 2 devices to assemble the crew module seats, similar to these seats in a mockup of the Orion spacecraft, for the first Orion mission to carry astronauts into space. Image courtesy of NASA.
If you’re an adult with disabilities, what do you get when you combine a Cuban-American bakery chain known for its pastelitos and café Cubano, the latest augmented reality (AR) technology and a color-coded baking system?
A recipe for success — and a potential career.
That’s the formula Pinecrest Bakery (Pinecrestbakery.com), Florida’s largest 24-hour bakery chain — with 20 locations in the Florida Keys and South Florida — is counting on as it continues its expansion with a new, 2,500-square-foot training center geared to turning adults with disabilities into bakers.
“We’re in the midst of converting one of our bakeries into a training facility and school to assist adults with autism and others with disabilities begin a meaningful career as bakers,” said Gladys Valdes, who, along with husband Efrain, founded Pinecrest Bakery in 2012.
“One of the keys to success in the bakery business — or any business for that matter — is product consistency. By using technology such as augmented reality, we’ll be able to train all of our bakers to make certain our recipes are followed on a consistent basis.”
The training facility, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2021, could encompass up to 12 bakery “students” per class.
One of the key ingredients in the Pinecrest success recipe is San Francisco-based Scope AR (Scopear.com), a global leader in augmented reality solutions and a recognized pioneer in utilizing AR for industry support and training. Utilizing Scope AR’s WorkLink Platform, Pinecrest bakers will wear Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 (Microsoft.com) mixed reality device preloaded with all of Pinecrest’s mouth-watering recipes.
Then, with a color-coded baking system that Miami-based non-profit Piece of Cake Bakers (Pieceofcakebakers.com) — another part of the success recipe — has used to train people with disabilities, Pinecrest’s bakers will be able to visualize each step in creating the wide range of pastries and other foods for which the family-owned bakery is famous.
“Our platform, while not built for this purpose, is able to serve a revolutionary solution for what Pinecrest Bakery is trying to accomplish,” said Scott Montgomerie, Scope AR co-founder and CEO. “We’re delighted that AR can help bakers, including those with disabilities, to easily follow the step-by-step recipes and achieve outstanding quality throughout the entire process.”
According to Edwin Rivera, president of CG1(Cg1solutions.com), a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and a Scope AR Systems Integration Partner heading up the project, the Pinecrest application has far-reaching implications.
“This proof of concept will go a long way to showing the many benefits of AR in training across a variety of industries, not just food prep,” said Rivera, a recognized AR expert whose more than a decade in Augmented Reality includes projects for Walmart, Marvel and Disney. “Using Scope AR’s platform and Microsoft’s HoloLens is ideal because it provides employers with a training tool that allows their people to learn and operate in a hands-free environment. No manuals to print, update and so forth. You simply put the HoloLens on and everything you need is right there in front of you.”
Originally published by Tyler Gallagher on Thrive Globalhere.
There is power in diversity. In the space industry, we are often faced with unique challenges to solve. Having diverse approaches and diverse skills and abilities continually proves to enable more rapid solutions for these challenges. Diversity enables a broader range of creative solutions… just what we need when trying to solve new challenges.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Shelley Peterson, Lockheed Martin.
Shelley Peterson has supported Lockheed Martin pursuits, diving into the rapidly evolving augmented reality and wearables market to integrate emerging technologies into solutions for Lockheed Martin Space applications.
Early in her professional career, Shelley founded a business focused on emerging technology solutions, including military aircraft distributed mission training and multi-spectral imaging monoculars.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
Sure! I grew up in a small town of about 800 people in west Texas. At that time, our judge was also the barber. It was a great experience… like one big family. My mother was an English teacher and librarian, and my father was the county commissioner. They both encouraged me to pursue my interests, which included math, music, and sports. I had a love for aircraft, and anything related to airplanes. My older brother loved to assemble models, so of course, I had to do that too. The first model I built was an SR-71 Blackbird, and the more I learned about it, the more curious I became in aerospace.
Is there a particular life lesson that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
One of the lessons I have used throughout my career is one that a mentor in college passed along. If we think of a “bullseye” target with rings, and we place “Self” in the center circle, and then “Team”, in next circle out, and fill each expanding circle with “Project”, “Program”, “Company”, “Customer”, etc., it provides a map for decisions and strategic discussions. Quite often if we disagree with colleagues on a topic, it is highly likely that we are both “right”. We are just focused on a different level within this decision map.
For example, a colleague might be focused on a solution that is best for the “Team”, while we are focused on what works best for the “Program”. If we can view through this lens and understand what’s driving the interests, we can often get on the same page with a solution that fits well and accomplishes the objectives. I have used this lesson on almost a weekly basis throughout my 23-year professional career and have been able to navigate challenging situations much more effectively with positive outcomes. I love passing it along to others who may find it useful.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the space industry? We’d love to hear it.
My Uncle Cecil was an Air Force Pilot. He and three of his brothers served during WWII and would tell stories of piloting bomber and tanker aircraft. I was amazed by his stories and studied the history of flight. Of course, studying the timeline for flight led to spacecraft, and by high school I dreamed of being involved in space pursuits.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
In 2018, my team traveled to Kennedy Space Center to support with augmented reality shop aids for a manufacturing activity. We crawled inside the Orion spacecraft to assist with the effort, which took about six hours to complete. It was just an absolutely amazing feeling to have the opportunity to be inside a spacecraft design that astronauts will soon be in, but from space. That was a career highlight!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Oh my. It was a busy day for my leadership team on my first day of work at my first job out of college. They handed me a printed list of Unix commands and asked me to experiment with them and figure out what they do. I was making my way through the list of commands, successfully figuring out the result of the commands. Halfway down the list was a variation of an “rm *” command. I typed it. Then some interesting things started scrolling by… I had deleted the entire library of data! It took about a day for the experts to recover the library and the team’s work for that day had been lost. It was quite embarrassing… (and led to nicknames).
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There are SO many who have helped to shape my career along the way, it is difficult to triangulate on just one. Early in my career I had the opportunity to work with a fantastic manager who taught me to look at our work efforts on multiple levels and from various perspectives. This has been very useful throughout my career, and I appreciate the patience, the insight, and the willing to carve time out of a very busy schedule to work with a young engineer.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I lead our OptimEyez Team, which builds augmented reality capabilities to help our teams at Lockheed Martin build spacecraft. We are finding that we can reduce the time it takes for some activities by 90% ! There are thousands of fasteners and sensors on a spacecraft. When a technician puts on augmented reality glasses, like the Microsoft Hololens, and views the work instructions in augmented and mixed reality (created using Scope AR’s WorkLink platform), they can complete an 8-shift activity in 6 hours. They have completed an 8-hour activity in 45 minutes. We have repeated this at multiple sites on numerous programs since 2017. It’s exciting to see, and fun to be a part of!
Can you imagine traveling to deep space? What an incredible experience that must be! It will offer new opportunities to explore and learn on so many levels. It is pursuit for true pioneers!
I’m also excited about advances in manufacturing. What happens when we can complete a 10-hour task in one hour? We are using augmented reality to provide a higher quality product in a shorter time at lower cost. (The rumor is that you can only accomplish two out of three of “better/faster/cheaper”. We are breaking the rules and accomplishing all three.)
And to see a woman travel to the moon…. That’s exciting!
Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?
There are always areas for improvement, and we all need to do our part in making STEM accessible to all and promoting STEM concepts to all. It takes a village… or at least it works much more effectively when we have that village.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech, or the space industry. Can you explain what you mean?
There are enormous opportunities for women in the space industry! For example, at Lockheed Martin it has been such a pleasure to work for our CEO, Marillyn Hewson, who just retired last month. I think all of the employees at Lockheed Martin Space are empowered to pursue their career goals and to play important roles in our space pursuits.
What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in STEM or Tech” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
There is power in diversity. In the space industry, we are often faced with unique challenges to solve. Having diverse approaches and diverse skills and abilities continually proves to enable more rapid solutions for these challenges. Diversity enables a broader range of creative solutions… just what we need when trying to solve new challenges.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I also serve on the Barbara Bush Foundation’s Technology Advisory Council, and I think that improvements in literacy could have a significant impact broadly. What if we could diagnose barriers to literacy and education (like dyslexia, ADHD, etc) at an earlier age? What if we could use eye tracking from today’s augmented and virtual reality devices to make that testing more accessible and lower cost to administer? What if we had better tools to gauge literacy levels, as well as improvements in literacy? Today’s literacy tests are fairly similar to those we have used for decades. You read a paragraph and answer some questions. What if we could use eye tracking in head mounted displays to more accurately assess literacy and comprehension? And what if we could use that same technology to assess improvements? We could optimize literacy instruction, and could reach more effective solutions on an accelerated timeline.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Peggy Whitson! And it would also be just absolutely amazing to have a chat with Buzz Aldrin! I’m a fan. Buzz rocks!
Scope AR, the pioneer of enterprise-class augmented reality (AR) solutions, today announced it has partnered with ServiceMax, the leader in asset-centric field service management, to enable a visual knowledge base for industrial work processes. As a trusted technology partner, Scope AR’s WorkLink platform will integrate with ServiceMax’s Field Service Management (FSM) platform to give field service technicians the real-time knowledge they need to more efficiently and accurately complete work orders. Users will now have access to detailed augmented reality work instructions and the ability to initiate live, remote assistance calls, while enterprise organizations can now capture and scale expert knowledge through the creation of work instruction catalogs.
“AR is uniquely positioned to help close the growing skills gap in field service across industries, and can deliver on-demand knowledge transfer and empower workers to become experts at any given task with very little training time,” said Dave Gosch, VP of sales and solutions at Scope AR. “We’re excited to be a part of the ServiceMax Partner Program and extend the value of their FSM platform.”
Beyond increased efficiencies out in the field, the partnership also delivers benefits at the enterprise level. Insights gained from data available across both platforms provide a comprehensive view of how work is actually completed, offering visibility into areas of continuous improvement or where additional training may be needed. Additionally, enterprise organizations can leverage the creation of work instruction catalogs to build a knowledge repository. This allows companies to effectively overcome the constraints of remote work and the growing skills gap that plagues field service teams. Additionally, companies retain and scale expert knowledge that can be permanently accessed after a worker retires.
“Visual work instructions that leverage AR provide the ultimate form of knowledge transfer to both novice and expert front-line workers alike, helping them perform the job faster, thus increasing overall business agility,” said Joseph Kenny, VP Global Customer Transformation at ServiceMax. “With the integration of all systems that affect this experience – from field service management and learning and development, to competency management, team communications and now AR work instructions – organizations are finally able to achieve optimized service and skills management.”
Let’s face it: augmented reality (AR) comes with a history of hype, and it isn’t difficult to see why. AR has always been the technologist’s dream and fantasy, evident in the classic Tom Cruise film Minority Report and even the holograms in Star Wars. Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope. Yes, that’s AR — and it is deeply embedded into our tech culture.
So when we started actually getting the real tech — the Google Glass, the Hololens, and ARkit in every phone, the technology zealots unleashed a fury of industrial possibilities fueled by Photoshop-ridden CAD mockups. We know it viscerally… we at Scope AR started as one of them: as dreamers, as pioneers and as (slightly) insane entrepreneurs.
Only, without the Photoshop. We wanted the real deal.
Bridging the gap from hype to a practical reality has been a process of awakening. Now, some 8 years later, we’ve partnered with hundreds of customers as they go through the journey from hype-fueled interest to real production of AR systems for industry. We’ve observed early on that much like the technology’s journey through the Hype Cycle, the customer goes through a similar cycle as well.
So, we hacked it.
The Hype Cycle
Let’s take a moment to review the hype cycle before diving into the hacks. You may recall this graphic common to MBA programs, Gartner reports, and industry critics:
These excerpts from Affinity VR describe the cycle well, and I’ve added comments that relate to the customer journey perspective.
1. Technology trigger
This is the initial phase of any rising technology where the concepts and ideas related to technology take place. No products are launched in the market, and the management is keen on people’s interest.
Following our customer journey metaphor, no attempt to use the technology has happened yet.
2. The peak of inflated expectations
In the second stage, the technology is implemented in the market and a lot of publicity happens on both successful and unsuccessful criteria.
Hopes for AR and knowledge distribution skyrocket as key influencers in the customer’s organization get onboard, spawning long-term strategy impacts on whiteboards. It’s in these meetings where the technology is heavily oversold to blue sky futures, and distanced from the practical realities for which they were intended.
3. Dip/Trough of disillusionment
This is a crucial phase where many companies fail to alter their products with upgraded versions and [too] few who were successful in addressing problems [have the ability to] continue investing more.
The first results with a customer are in, and they are a bit of a let-down. What happened?! The fair-weather champions in the management team now flip 180 degrees.
4. Slope of betterment/enlightenment
At this point, innovation and investment become more important for growth as, companies establish products based on future technology and test them in the real environment.
Now somewhat seasoned, the end users and adjacent teams within the customer learn more about their own use cases and applications for AR.
5. Elevation/Plateau in productivity
In the last phase, productivity elevates and deepens its root in that technological field. Products become widely implemented in technology and producers establish quality standards.
Finally, long term productivity improvements set in, however it only experiences a gradual growth in impact because of internal scarcity in AR authoring skills and the difficulty of scaling customization for their use cases.
So how did we hack it?
Ok, so on to our approach. We believe that there are 3 key things that you can do to help a company scale augmented reality faster, more productively, and more legitimately:
Realize early that AR is not a silver bullet
Start with the right use case, then scale
On-board, enable and train with the right Partners
And here is the impact of this approach:
Realize early that AR is not a silver bullet. This is achieved by curbing some enthusiasm, and digging really deep into the customer’s fundamental needs. A good Sales handbook would describe this as something like “understand your customer and their specific Why”. As AR solution partners, we get there by asking hard questions early, and being frank when it isn’t a fit. Questions like:
Why is the organization looking to AR?
Who is it important to, and what does it mean to be successful?
How big is the problem?
What is the motivation for this Business Unit?
Who is driving the program, and what are their motivations, and how are they measured?
The effect of this is that yes — the peak of visibility isn’t quite as high — and it is somewhat delayed through the qualification process. The real benefit though is that expectations are correctly set, leading to a much healthier and happier overall experience.
Start with the right use case, then scale. This is the big one. For technology zealots who hold a hammer: the world too easily looks like a nail. Instead, at Scope AR we are laser focused on the customer’s value — not the gadget. This means we iterate continuously on the first use case as it is so critical. It needs to pass many tests before we deploy it, else the domino effect of scaling up and to other departments just doesn’t happen. To find the right use case, we must:
Align outcomes and expectations
Know what is the environment and does it align to the software / hardware?
What is the expected ROI? Does it make sense based on expected value?
How are they addressing the problem today, and can you measure it (time, errors, etc)
Is it repeatable and scalable?
Make it a polished experience (from scope, service work, to support)
The effect of this is that the dreaded Trough of Disillusionment is substantially mitigated — and the customer’s outlook on the technology remains positive and well-adjusted. It also sets up real experience towards the right enterprise scaling direction. If there’s one undeniable advantage of Scope AR — it is that we truly understand industry use cases and are disciplined about how we launch them. It also means that the customer experiences “enlightenment” and reaches productivity much earlier.
On-board, enable and train with the right Partners.Augmented reality solutions in enterprise are unavoidably nuanced — and that means good onboarding, enablement and training pay considerable dividends on scaling a program. The best way to do that is with the right Partner. It really needs to be easy, both for the users and the broader organization. That means working to establish the key stakeholder relationships with executives, IT, and Engineering to sort through:
IT infrastructure
Guided user Provisioning / authorization
Integrations (MES/PLM)
Integrations with other Vendors (ServiceMax, Salesforce)
Device management
Data and Insights
Security and network systems
Physical infrastructure (on-premise)
The change management process
Feedback from users
Transparency and address fears (job loss, safety, data privacy, and unrealistic expectations,)
The effect of on-boarding and training effectively is that the Plateau of Productivity phase is setup for serious enterprise scaling. It’s the reason the technology was invested in in the first place! When the enterprise hurdles are addressed with the right Partner, it becomes easier and easier to institutionalize and benefit from the network effect. It in fact becomes part of the culture — which is why in this phase the Change Management process and user feedback is important. Think the historical progression of Slack or Zoom in the workplace. When on-boarded and trained correctly, the cultural shift occurs and the deployment at scale just “happens.”
In Summary
The challenge of scaling a new technology in an enterprise is daunting, especially managing the swing of inflated expectations to the trough of disillusionment. However — for augmented reality technology, we have succeeded in guiding our customers through to productivity and success by being prescriptive in the approach and with a focus on value not scale itself.
FRAMINGHAM, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–International Data Corporation (IDC) today published an IDC Innovators report profiling four companies that provide augmented reality (AR) platforms for enterprise use. The four companies are: Atheer, Scope AR, Ubimax, and Upskill.
A new IDC Innovators report profiles four companies that provide augmented reality (AR) platforms for enterprise use.Tweet this
Augmented reality overlays digital information or objects within a person’s current view of reality. The included companies provide AR enterprise platforms that enable customers to use either mobile devices (such as smart phones and tablets) or smart glasses and head-mounted displays (HMDs). Capabilities can include see-what-I-see videoconferencing, digital instructions, real-time data access, knowledge capture, knowledge transfer, and more. A key component of any AR enterprise platform is its ability to keep a company’s data safe and secure.
Commercial organizations are looking for AR enterprise platforms to help drive new business processes, smooth virtual collaboration, train new employees, and enable front-line workers. The recent challenges around COVID-19 have caused many companies to accelerate their plans around AR enterprise platforms.
“As more companies move aggressively to leverage augmented reality to drive increased process efficiency, leverage remote workers, and facilitate faster knowledge capture and transfer, the role of the AR platform has become increasingly important,” said Tom Mainelli, group vice president of Device and Consumer research at IDC. “Companies want a platform that brings together multiple capabilities that also ensures data remains secure.”
The report, IDC Innovators: Augmented Reality Enterprise Platforms, 2020 (IDC #US46514020), profiles four companies that offer augmented reality platforms for enterprise use. The vendors profiled in this IDC Innovators document are driving technology advancements that should serve the augmented reality enterprise platform market well into the future.
Atheer offers a cloud-based, device-agnostic platform that provides a wide range of AR capabilities, including software that allows companies to create apps and tap into existing data.
Scope AR provides enterprise users with remote assistance capabilities that enable users to simultaneously view AR work instructions and talk with an expert.
Ubimax enables an organization to build its own AR experiences using a drag-and-drop editor and proconfigured industry-specific components that run on a wide range of hardware.
Upskill offers the ability access to digital information when and where it is needed, real-time collaboration with experts, and the ability to capture insights and streamline work processes.
About IDC Innovators
IDC Innovators reports present a set of vendors – under $100 million in revenue at time of selection – chosen by an IDC analyst within a specific market that offer an innovative new technology, a groundbreaking approach to an existing issue, and/or an interesting new business model. It is not an exhaustive evaluation of all companies in a segment or a comparative ranking of the companies. Vendors in the process of being acquired by a larger company may be included in the report provided the acquisition is not finalized at the time of publication of the report. Vendors funded by venture capital firms may also be included in the report even if the venture capital firm has a financial stake in the vendor’s company. IDC INNOVATOR and IDC INNOVATORS are trademarks of International Data Group, Inc.
For more information about IDC Innovators research, please contact Karen Moser at kmoser@idc.com.
About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC’s analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world’s leading tech media, data and marketing services company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the IDC Blog for industry news and insights: http://bit.ly/IDCBlog_Subscribe.
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