“Net4 Connect is a welcome addition to the AREA,” said Mark Sage, AREA’s Executive Director. “We look forward to the contributions they will make to our alliance in the use of augmented reality and their knowledge and expertise in AI, IoT, and 5G.”

About Net4 Connect

Empowering Innovation with Cutting-Edge Technology Solutions. Visit our website: https://net4connect.com/.

About the AR for Enterprise Alliance (AREA)

The AR for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) is the only global membership-funded alliance helping to accelerate the adoption of enterprise AR by supporting the growth of a comprehensive ecosystem. The AREA accelerates AR adoption by creating a comprehensive ecosystem for enterprises, providers, and research institutions. AREA is a program of Object Management Group® (OMG®). For more information, visit the AREA website.

Object Management Group and OMG are registered trademarks of the Object Management Group. For a listing of all OMG trademarks, visit https://www.omg.org/legal/tm_list.htm. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The post The AREA Welcomes Net4 Connect as a Member appeared first on AREA.

“Each year, ORAU supports the research and professional development of emerging leaders at the universities who are members of our consortium,” said Ken Tobin, ORAU chief research and university partnerships officer. “The Powe Award program is always extremely popular and very competitive. We are grateful to join with GDIT and The AREA in expanding the research focus of these awards.”

“The AREA is excited about supporting faculty research in higher education to support the use of AR in the enterprise,” said Mark Sage, AREA executive director. “Our mission is to further the adoption of interoperable AR-enabled enterprise systems.”

Alex McGuire, GDIT’s vice president and supply chain officer, added, “As a supply chain innovator, we’re honored to support ORAU grant recipients and their research to advance and apply next-generation science and technology.”

The Powe recipients, each of whom is in the first two years of a tenure track position, will receive $5,000 in seed money for the 2024-25 academic year to enhance their research during the early stages of their careers. Each recipient’s institution matches the Powe award with an additional $5,000, making the total prize worth $10,000 for each winner. Winners may use the grants to purchase equipment, continue research or travel to professional meetings and conferences.

Since the program’s inception, ORAU has awarded 910 grants totaling more than $4.55 million. Including the matching funds from member institutions, ORAU has facilitated grants worth more than $9 million.

The awards, now in their 34th year, are named for Ralph E. Powe, who served as the ORAU councilor from Mississippi State University for 16 years. Powe participated in numerous committees and special projects during his tenure and was elected chair of ORAU’s Council of Sponsoring Institutions. He died in 1996.

Recipients of the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards for the 2024-2025 academic year are listed below:

For more information on ORAU member grant programs, visit https://orau.org/partnerships/grant-programs/index.html.

ORAU provides innovative scientific and technical solutions to advance national priorities in science, education, security and health. Through specialized teams of experts, unique laboratory capabilities and access to a consortium of more than 150 colleges and universities, ORAU works with federal, state, local and commercial customers to advance national priorities and serve the public interest. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and federal contractor, ORAU manages the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the U.S. Department of Energy. Learn more about ORAU at www.orau.org.

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OakRidgeAssociatedUniversities

Follow us on X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/orau

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/orau

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orautogether/?hl=en

About the AR for Enterprise Alliance (AREA)
The AR for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) is the only global membership-funded alliance helping to accelerate the adoption of enterprise AR by supporting the growth of a comprehensive ecosystem. The AREA accelerates AR adoption by creating a comprehensive ecosystem for enterprises, providers, and research institutions. AREA is a program of Object Management Group® (OMG®). For more information, visit the AREA website. Object Management Group and OMG are registered trademarks of the Object Management Group. For a listing of all OMG trademarks, visit https://www.omg.org/legal/tm_list.htm. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The post ORAU awards 35 research grants totalling $175,000 to junior faculty at its member universities; GDIT and the AREA fund single grants in new specialty areas appeared first on AREA.

Each section contains the benefits and challenges of using AR and includes a summary to the left when it is clicked on. There is also a detailed page for the section when clicking the ‘LEARN MORE’ button to help you understand the benefits and potential risks and how to manage them.

“Our mission is to help companies in all parts of the AR ecosystem achieve greater operational efficiency through the smooth introduction and widespread adoption of interoperable AR-assisted enterprise systems,” said Mark Sage, Executive Director of the AREA. “Our AR Safety Infographic provides reliable guidance that makes the path to AR adoption surer, shorter, and smoother.”

The sections include:

AR Experience – integrates the digital and physical worlds seamlessly, and any interactions should feel like you are interacting within a real-world environment.

Cognition – Effective use of technology-based environments and augmented reality reduces cognitive load by scaffolding information and lessons’ contents

Sensory – Engaging in immersive experiences can offer many benefits, catering to personal growth, entertainment, education, and even therapeutic purposes.

Environmental – Augmented Reality has all the trapping to encourage sustainability in the energy sector; AR is being used to power renewable energy systems by providing a more detailed understanding of energy sources and their potential.

Physical – The most prevalent benefit is the AR headset experience, enabling users to see their physical surroundings while interacting with virtual assets. This allows not only safety for the user by seeing their surroundings but also mobility.

Devices & Accessories – Augmented Reality Devices encompass various hardware, each offering unique immersive experiences.

See the AREA website for member companies contributing to the AR Safety Infographic.

About the AR for Enterprise Alliance (AREA)
The AR for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) is the only global membership-funded alliance helping to accelerate the adoption of enterprise AR by supporting the growth of a comprehensive ecosystem. The AREA accelerates AR adoption by creating a comprehensive ecosystem for enterprises, providers, and research institutions. AREA is a program of Object Management Group® (OMG®). For more information, visit the AREA website.

Object Management Group and OMG are registered trademarks of the Object Management Group. For a listing of all OMG trademarks, visit https://www.omg.org/legal/tm_list.htm. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The post Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance Announces the AR Safety Infographic appeared first on AREA.

“AR is a technology that poses challenges enterprises must address to have successful project implementation,” said Mark Sage, Executive Director of AREA. “We’re offering enterprise users and AR solution providers an innovative tool they can use to streamline their planning and execution of AR implementations.”

Key Benefits:

• Streamlined research and planning to simplify scoping AR projects with ready-built, actionable use cases and requirements.
• Accelerated development allows users to generate RFP/RFQ proposals faster and more efficiently, speeding up the development lifecycle.
• Enhanced collaboration: users can work seamlessly with stakeholders, suppliers, and team members.
• Search and reporting functionalities to streamline workflows.

Try the free ASON tool today.

About the AR for Enterprise Alliance (AREA)

The AR for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) is the only global membership-funded alliance helping to accelerate the adoption of enterprise AR by supporting the growth of a comprehensive ecosystem. The AREA accelerates AR adoption by creating a comprehensive ecosystem for enterprises, providers, and research institutions. AREA is a program of Object Management Group® (OMG®). For more information, visit the AREA website.

Object Management Group and OMG are registered trademarks of the Object Management Group. For a listing of all OMG trademarks, visit https://www.omg.org/legal/tm_list.htm. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The post Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance Announces its Statement of Needs Requirements Platform appeared first on AREA.

Established in 2014, the AREA was born out of recognizing that AR held transformative potential for industries worldwide. With the mission to facilitate dialogue, share best practices, and advocate for AR adoption, the alliance united industry leaders, innovators, and experts to explore the vast possibilities of AR technology. Over the past decade, the AREA has achieved significant milestones:

• Overcoming Barriers to Adoption: Collaboratively, our members have diligently identified, classified, and prioritized AR security, safety, and human factors risks, culminating in developing comprehensive risk reduction recommendations.
• Collaborative Research Initiatives: The AREA has spearheaded groundbreaking research projects, fostering collaboration between industry stakeholders and academia to advance AR technologies and applications.
• Knowledge Sharing and Education: Through workshops, webinars, and conferences, the AREA has served as a knowledge hub, equipping professionals with the insights and skills needed to harness the full potential of AR in their respective fields.
• Strategic Partnerships: The AREA has forged partnerships with leading technology companies, startups, and research institutions, driving innovation and accelerating the adoption of AR across diverse industries.

“We envision a future where AR seamlessly integrates into everyday workflows, unlocking new possibilities for productivity, efficiency, and creativity,” Sage added.

About the AR for Enterprise Alliance (AREA)

The AR for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) is the only global membership-funded alliance helping to accelerate the adoption of enterprise AR by supporting the growth of a comprehensive ecosystem. The AREA accelerates AR adoption by creating a comprehensive ecosystem for enterprises, providers, and research institutions. AREA is a program of Object Management Group® (OMG®). For more information, visit the AREA website.

Object Management Group and OMG are registered trademarks of the Object Management Group. For a listing of all OMG trademarks, visit https://www.omg.org/legal/tm_list.htm. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The post Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance Announces its 10th Anniversary appeared first on AREA.

Introduction

With the availability of more Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, people are starting to experience more realistic and interactive immersive services. Thanks to the advanced technology embedded into the headset we are getting more powerful devices, able to compute and render images of increasing resolution and quality. Yet the development of longer and more realistic experiences is progressing slowly, limited by battery consumption, device form factor, and heat dissipation constraints. Many service providers have started to deploy services in the cloud to address these issues. However, running the application in the cloud imposes additional challenges: latency, bandwidth, reliability, and availability of the service. 5G cloud architecture can overcome those issues with solutions that can be applied incrementally, each differently affecting the complexity of the application, but each improving the ultimate experience for the user. Additionally, the ultimate vision for 5G architecture as applies to immersive experiences calls for new relationships among the ecosystem members – the consumer, communications service provider, hyperscale cloud provider, and developer/service provider.

This paper examines key aspects to launch an immersive service using 5G cloud infrastructure. First, reviewing recent offerings and developments, then walking through a set of use cases each exploiting more and more offload to the cloud. We follow with a description of 5G technologies that satisfy the use cases, and finally, reflect on the evolution of the stakeholders’ ecosystem in relation to their technical and commercial relationships to establish an immersive service using 5G.

The post The evolution of delivering immersive media over 5G/Cloud appeared first on AREA.

Agenda

• 8:30 am – 9:30 am – Exhibit Hall – Cross-consortia Demo Sessions. Demos feature Security and Trust, Immersive Factory of the Future, AI Infused-Compliance and Assurance, Multi-Agent Modeling, Smart City Microcosm, Intelligent Transportation, Fintech, and Smart Assets.
• 9:30 am – 10:00 am – Keynote: Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence; The Coming Wave of Radical Upheaval in Industry and Manufacturing. The impact of humans and new technologies on the world in the present and long term.
  Keynote speakers: Dr. Adam Drobot, President and Chairman, Open Tech Work, and guest.
• 10:15 am – 10:45 am – OMG Community of Consortia; Advancing Value through Digital Transformation. With a cross-consortia focus on Generative AI and enabling technologies, Consortia leaders talk about areas you can influence and become part of developing best practices driving the next digital transformation era.
  Presenters: Mike Bennett, CTO, Object Management Group SDO; Dan Isaacs, CTO & GM, Digital Twin Consortium; Mark Sage, Executive Director, AREA.
• 10:45 am – 11:15 am – Panel: Unlocking Growth: The Value of Digital Transformation in Today’s Landscape. Industry experts and thought leaders discuss the impact of digital transformation across various sectors.
  Panelists: Claudio Soarzo Cataldo, Director, Head of Digital Technology (Chile) at NTT DATA; Bassam Zarkout, Founder, IGnPower; Bob Martin, Senior Principal Software and Supply Chain Assurance Engineer, MITRE; Daniel Young, Senior Manager Product Standards, Toshiba America.
• 11:15 am – 11:45 am – Panel: Dynamics of AI: Exploring the Benefits and Challenges. Explores topics related to AI adoption, including enhanced operational efficiency, intelligent decision-making, data-driven strategies, implementation, interoperability, regulatory challenges, and responsible computing.
  Panelists: Dr. Adam Drobot, President and Chairman, Open Tech Work; Eric Stahlberg, Director of Cancer Data Science Initiatives, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research; Pieter Van Schalkwyk, CEO, XMPro; and Marlon Rodgers, Software Engineer, IT Lead, Lockheed Martin.
• 11:45am – 12:15pm Enhancing Realties: The Integration of AR/XR & Digital Twins. This panel brings together experts at the intersection of AR/XR and digital twins to discuss the transformative potential of their integration. From leveraging real-time data visualization through spatial computing capabilities, the discussion will explore innovative applications, challenges, and future trends. Join us as we uncover the synergies between AR/XR and digital twins and their role in shaping the future of immersive realities.
  Panelists: Carlos Toro, Head of Data and Analytics (Chile) at NTT DATA, Digital Twin Coordinator LATAM (Global Innovation Center); Justin Piwetz, Asset Management Lead – Research and Innovation in Virtual Technologies, BP; Ursla Vold, XR Engineer, Lockheed Martin; and Ashley Stowe, Director, Oak Ridge Enhanced Technology and Training Center
• 1:00 pm – 1:30 pm – Panel: Navigating the Interplay of 5G and XR Technologies. Explore the complexities of connecting various devices through advanced networks, including mobile, portable, and wearable XR devices.
  Panelists: Christine Perey, Founder, Perey Research and Consulting; Aristides Staikos, 5G and XR Industry Expert, Former Verizon/US Navy/US Army; and Tangi Meyer, DELMIA Augmented Experience Strategic Planning, Dassault Systemes.
• 1:30 – 2:30 pm – Workshop: Demystifying Digital Twins: Practical Approach for Digital Twin Development. Learn about the Composable Framework, including the Digital Twin Capabilities Toolkit and Reference Architecture Platform Stack from the Digital Twin Consortium Ambassadors driving the next digital transformation era.
  DTC Ambassadors: Pieter Van Schalkwyk, CEO, XMPro; David McKee, CEO, Counterpoint Technologies; Carlos Toro, Head of Data and Analytics (Chile) at NTT DATA, Digital Twin Coordinator LATAM (Global Innovation Center).
• 2:30 pm – 2:45 pm – Upcoming Member Engagement Opportunities and Wrap-Up. Learn about Consortia events and activities.

Register today for the event. The price is $99.

About Object Management Group
When tech organizations, governments, and academia must solve discrete pieces of a technology puzzle or discuss matters of common interest, they often seek to join or form a consortium. Since 1989, Object Management Group® (OMG®) has created and nurtured a productive community with common technology interests and problems to resolve. OMG is global, not-for-profit, and vendor-neutral. For more information, visit the OMG website.

About the AREA

The Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) is the only global non-profit member organization. Whether you view it as the next computing paradigm, the key to breakthroughs in manufacturing and service efficiencies, or the door to unimagined applications, AR will have an unprecedented impact on enterprises of all kinds. AREA is a program of Object Management Group®. Visit https://thearea.org for more information.

Note to editors: AREA is a program of Object Management Group® (OMG®). See the listing of all OMG trademarks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The post Object Management Group Hosts Event on the Impact of Digital Transformation across Industries appeared first on AREA.

I’ve compressed my vague sense of hope and excitement down into a few enterprise AR trends I will be watching over the next 11 months. These are not predictions but significant areas of focus that I believe will drive innovation and the adoption of enterprise AR. I’m now officially keeping track of these trends to see where, how, and if they come about.

Please share these with your colleagues and your partners. Do you have evidence that either confirms or questions any of these trends in your companies? I hope you will share your evidence, feedback, and ideas with me at cperey@perey.com.

Artificial Intelligence

The convergence of AI and AR is the most significant and least surprising of the trends to watch in 2024. The signs are everywhere.

#1 Enterprises are beginning to internally test Generative AI (GenAI), including LLM lakes and private co-pilot solutions. Early adopters will increasingly combine these capabilities with AR tools. There are dozens of ways that the use of AI improves workflows and reduces the costs of enterprise AR. Well-positioned and programmed AI can extract relevant content from corporate data sets for visualization. Here are a few examples of where and how GenAI could boost AR:

Using Digital Twins for baseline and AI for detecting and matching features in 3D environments (rare in 2023), we expect enterprises to expand their interest in and need for spatially-aware apps and services. For example, we will see a proliferation of AR-assisted Visual Positioning Services for navigation and risk detection based on 3D maps.

Combined with advances in hardware (see below), GenAI will permit the automatic generation of richer AR experiences for hundreds of use cases, including but not necessarily limited to 3D spatial maps. Multi-modal LLMs, an advanced type of AI that can understand and generate not just text but other types of data, such as images, audio, and possibly even video, are on the rise. These Multi-modal AI models incorporate previously captured scenes into new instructions. They will detect sounds from the environment and predict risks or propose the user to respond in specific ways without being programmed/coded in advance.

#2 AI and computer vision advancements could address concerns over privacy in data collection and handling. Privacy and sensitivity to security risks from the use of cameras and other sensors in the workplace continue to be obstacles to large-scale AR deployments. With AI, real-time image and feature detection, blurring, and obfuscation methods can be combined with AR displays (or their associated services and software) with lower cost and power. Enterprise AR solutions for protecting the privacy of things, places, and people (AR device users and those around them) with AI in the loop will proliferate in response to the need for compliance with corporate privacy policies as well as national and international regulations.

Hardware

#3 Aside from a few roles (e.g., architects or those viewing medical imagery), knowledge workers don’t need to spend their time or money on large, virtual screens (aka Apple Vision Pro). Video see-through isn’t a viable substitute for Optical see-through in the workplace, where employee tasks require hands-free AR and peripheral vision. Video quality issues, including distortion, fixed camera IPD, high ISO, low dynamic range, low camera resolution, and low frame rate, are exceedingly difficult (think: high power use) to overcome. However, a lot of money will be invested, and marketing campaigns will make people try. Try though they will, the entire Video see-through headset push will not make a significant dent in reducing the optical see-through requirement for enterprise AR displays. I’ve heard repeatedly that any risk manager who would approve the use of video see-through XR displays for use in a production environment where risks are high is risking their employment.

#4 Smaller, more powerful, and less power-consuming sensors will be more economical to deploy and manage. In addition to the lower cost of implementation and management of IoT, more specialized semiconductor solutions, especially those specialized in computer vision but also for processing audio and motion, are increasingly being added to AR display devices. Imagine sensors on the device detecting the user’s need for corrective lenses and then generating the corrected version of the real world (enhanced with AR, of course) without the user’s being aware or needing to wear two pairs of glasses. The improvements in display capabilities, combined with cheaper hardware distributed in the user’s environment (think: intelligent spaces) and connected to AI in the display or on edge computing hardware, are making context awareness less expensive to acquire and more reliable. A deeper understanding of context translates to many of the other trends identified below.

#5 More companies will introduce lightweight, cheaper (and less capable) AR glasses to the market. Not all users need or want a full “computer” on their heads. There are more ways to add value than a helmet or a heavy and powerful wearable AR display. Some devices are offloading processing to tethered phones. Others offer wireless, monocular AR glasses to display only heads-up messages to users. We will also watch for the audio-only AR glasses segment to expand where voice prompts and AI-enabled audio responses satisfy the use case requirements.

UX

#6 New modes of interaction are beginning to complement/replace/displace the need for controllers and virtual keyboards. We are already starting to see more use of eye tracking, gaze, and natural gestures (e.g., pointing with better hand tracking) for inputs. Improvements in hand gesture tracking technologies will, in many cases, translate to lower cognitive loads and lower computational loads. Neural inputs using a headband or muscular signals via a wristband allow users to control all their digital devices using natural human interfaces. The user’s tongue might even become a source of input. Also, look out for brain sensing with EMG.

#7 Similarly to #6, due to new and different sensors in devices, there will be developments in how users receive/perceive the digital data in context in the workplace. In addition to animations, video clips, still images, and text, we will see rapid experimentation and exciting opportunities to use spatial audio and to provide just-in-time instructions and information to users using combinations with other wearables (e.g., watches and smart garments).

Infrastructure

#8 Private 5G networks, combined with 5G compatible hardware and cloud and edge computing, will permit richer experiences without heavier or power-consuming devices. While the verdict is still out on the cost-effectiveness of private 5G networks based on current implementations and use cases, they are gradually improving. There will be more 5G support in the next-generation AR displays. These core enabling technologies will lead to increased adoption of AR experience streaming and collaborative AR experiences.

#9 Security for AR experiences may be addressed in the network using improvements in off-device and automatic authentication of AR users and devices. Ensuring corporate cybersecurity is an enormous concern for all IT departments, and most AR devices are ill-equipped to meet all the requirements. Expertise in security risk reduction is not a core competency of most AR providers. Innovations to ensure high corporate data protection, privacy and reduce exposure from AR user intentional or inadvertent actions will come from network technology providers. They and their service provider customers have solutions that are emerging from research and will be tested in the near future.

Software

#10 Low-code/no-code will continue to gain traction with the assistance of AI. There are now dozens of low-code/no-code solutions available. The problems are figuring out which ones meet the enterprise requirements, including but not limited to security concerns. While AI eats away at the need to manually code experiences, subject matter experts are becoming the authors of more and more custom experiences. The biggest winner from this trend will be medium-sized companies without the necessary engineering resources to meet all their AR use case needs. With the low-code/no-code options reaching greater maturity and ease of use, the need for dedicated and highly paid AR experience developers and tools with steep learning curves will diminish.

#11 Standards are increasingly relevant and, combined with the expanded support of open-source libraries, reduce the need to develop and maintain display-specific apps and content for delivering experiences across a range of AR devices. Although W3C WebXR continues to evolve slowly, the processing requirements for Web-based solutions are being increasingly met by the hardware in a broader range of AR display devices. The improvements in network infrastructure also make more edge processing possible. Using the Web to provide AR experience content is highly scalable and can be entirely deployed in a company’s Intranet. Khronos Group’s OpenXR is already widely adopted on AR hardware and, combined with support for glTF, is significantly simplifying the development of content creation platforms (fueling the no-code/low-code trend). We expect that other standards will be adopted for AR experiences.

#12 AR developers’ skill sets and tools become more specialized, and the learning curves become steeper. On the one hand, AI and adopting standards simplify and accelerate the creation of AR experiences; they also introduce new risks. These are golden opportunities for specialization. AR developers and those with expertise in adjacent fields will increasingly have new offerings, such as deeper integrations with Learning Management systems, Enterprise Resource Planning, and Product Lifecycle Management platforms. Editing of AR experience recordings to preserve knowledge and accelerate its transfer will combine AR expertise with AI tools.

The post Top 2024 Enterprise AR Trends To Watch appeared first on AREA.

The research addresses securing AR content and data at the application layer for multi-user devices. Typically, only one person at a time will use wearable and hand-held XR devices; the sessions must be authenticated, with content and generated artifacts removed once they have ended. Organizations must encrypt simulated sensitive information at rest, in transit to a device, and from the device upon logout or closing of the application.

This research will demonstrate an implementation of application-level authentication in the Unity development framework, the most widely adopted and supported application framework for head-mounted augmented reality devices. The outcome of this research provides a design pattern that organizations can apply in sensitive corporate environments, with a detailed discussion on additional cybersecurity considerations. The research also includes a Unity code that only the AREA members can access.

Please view an executive summary of the research report on the Deployment of Wearable AR in Highly Secure Corporate Environments from the AREA website. Please also consider the website’s executive summaries of other AREA resources and enterprise guidance. To learn about AREA membership, visit the AREA website.

About the AREA

The Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) is the only global non-profit member organization. Whether you view it as the next computing paradigm, the key to breakthroughs in manufacturing and service efficiencies, or the door to unimagined applications, AR will have an unprecedented impact on enterprises of all kinds. AREA is a program of Object Management Group®. Visit https://thearea.org for more information.

Note to editors: AREA is a program of Object Management Group® (OMG®). See the listing of all OMG trademarks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The post Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance Publishes Latest Research on the Deployment of Wearable AR in Highly Secure Corporate Environments appeared first on AREA.