Liang Guan, General Manager at Rokid, enthusiastically stated:
“Numerous top-tech companies currently explore AR, XR, or the metaverse. As early as 2016, Rokid has been proactively expanding our AR product pipeline across leading technological areas of optics, chips, smart voice, and visual image. Today, we have X-Craft deployed in over 70 regions and Air Pro has been widely used in 60+ museums around the world. Moving forward, Rokid will keep delivering real value to enterprises through its line of AR products.”

Rokid products empower the frontline workforce, providing real-time analysis, views, and documents to the control center. Many media and participants were surprised after trying Rokid products. Saying that the various control modes provided by Rokid AR glasses are very convenient for users to operate and can effectively improve work efficiency.

Rokid X-Craft, demonstrated live at the AWE 2022, has officially received ATEX Zone 1 certification from TUV Rheinland Group. Becoming the world’s first explosion-proof, waterproof, dustproof, 5G, and GPS-supported XR device. This is not only a great advance in AR and 5G technology but also a breakthrough in AR explosion-proof applications in the industrial field. Many users at the event said after the trial that safety headsets are comfortable to wear and are highly competitive products in the market. It not only effectively ensures the safety of front-end staff, but also helps oil and gas fields increase production capacity.

Rokid Air Pro, a powerful binocular AR glasses, features voice control to help you enjoy a wide variety of media including games, movies, and augmented reality experiences. Rokid Glass 2, provided real-time analysis, views, and documents to the control center, and successfully improved traffic management and prevention to ensure the long- term stability of the city.

VRDays Europe 2020 (November 4 – 6) will be a virtual event this year and the three-day conference and exhibition will include two programs of particular interest to organizations pursuing Enterprise AR:

Enterprise XR. Immersive technologies are an attractive solution for enterprises seeking to increase productivity while reducing costs. Virtual training and simulation can give companies a competitive advantage by delivering a knowledge retention rate of as much as 80% – four times that of traditional methods. VRDays’ Enterprise XR program will feature VR/AR suppliers of virtual training and simulation tools, European industry use cases, and speakers offering specific guidelines to help any company deploy immersive technologies.

Training & Simulation – Rescue. VRDays’ Training & Simulation – Rescue program will feature speakers discussing how immersive technologies can contribute to educating healthcare professionals and first responders. How should virtual simulations be designed in order to give the most accurate representation of real-life interventions? How can institutions combine traditional and virtual training methods? Industry partners will present a selection of best cases of virtual training for police, defense, firefighters and medics with the goal of inspiring institutions to invest in technology that will prepare professionals for the future.

Visit here to learn more and register. And, don’t miss out on the AREA’s support and participation in this event; our Executive Director, Mark Sage, will be supporting the session ‘Enterprise XR’ as an industry expert and,  we’ll be hosting a virtual AREA ‘area’. There’s lots to look forward to, not to mention that we’ve secured a special member’s discount with the organisers.

The months of May and June bring a flurry of AR events that
the AREA and its members support. So, with my travel bag in hand and a list of
industry experts with whom I would like to meet and discuss the work of the
AREA, panels to chair and talks about the growth of the enterprise AR
ecosystem, I say goodbye to my family and travel to the US.

VRX Immersive Enterprise – Unleash the Full Potential of
XR in Enterprise – 21/22 May, Boston

I’m always excited to attend enterprise-focused events like
VRX. This was my second year and it continues to grow. The speakers were
excellent, albeit perhaps focusing more on VR than AR. This year I moderated a
panel titled – AR for enterprise – What’s happening now and what does the
future hold?

I was joined by:

• Rich Rabbitz, Lockheed Martin – I’ve been
  lucky to chair a number of panels with Rich, he is an expert and practitioner
  in the AR space.
• Doug House, Porsche Cars of North America
  – Doug and his team have pioneered the use of remote assistance to make service
  at its dealerships hugely more efficient.
• Caroline McManus, PTC – Caroline is a Senior
  Market Strategy Analyst, Augmented Reality and was able to provide real insight
  and experience to the panel.

 We covered the key
use cases being implemented in the industry, the benefits / ROI (both tangible
and intangible) that the companies deploying AR have received, and the
challenges they have had to overcome (including convincing stakeholders to
invest, safety, security and technology issues). A great panel and engaged
audience!

As part of the AREA’s media agreement with VRX, I offered
and ran a mini-master class on Enterprise AR. This intimate, interactive
workshop was a great way to present the work of the AREA. The focus is on
highlighting its members thought leadership, explaining the key use cases
(problems being solved), case studies (examples of companies deploying use
cases) and how to overcome potential barriers to adoption. A good session with
lots of positive feedback!

AWE US – 29– 31 May, Santa Clara

After a few days back in the UK, I once again boarded a
plane to the US – this time, Santa Clara. This was my fourth time at AWE US, an
event that is always well-attended with the expo floor growing year over year.
The number of speaker tracks has also increased.

The AREA was unable to secure a speaking slot this year but
did run a very successful AREA meetup. With an 8 am start on Thursday morning,
coffee and doughnuts fuelled the conversation. Our thanks to AREA member PISON for allowing us to use their
meeting room. Over 50 earlier birds attended and heard from AREA sponsor /
board members. Brian Vogelsang from Qualcomm, Marc Schuetz from PTC, Christine
Perey from PEREY Research and Consulting, Jay Kim from Upskill, and Peter Tortorici
from Medtronic all discussed the experiences, insights, and benefits they have
gained from AREA membership.

We also heard from a few of the AREA Committee chairs (the
AREA runs monthly calls focusing on working together to reduce barriers to AR
adoption including Research, Safety, Security, Human Factors, Marketing and
Requirements). Tony Hodgson from Brainwaive (Security Committee Chair) and Christine
Perey (Research Committee Chair) spoke about the objectives and deliverables
from their respective groups.

Back home for a few days, bags packed and I’m excited to
attend…

LiveWorx 2019 – 11 – 13 June, Boston

It was my first visit to LiveWorx and really enjoyed the
experience! The event is focused on helping companies digitally transform. PTC
CEO (and AREA member) Jim Heppelmann delivered a keynote that covered a wide
range of solutions including the latest PTC AR technology, featuring live demos
of many of PTC solutions. There were also many speaking tracks, including one
dedicated to AR.

I was delighted to present the work of the AREA in a 45-minute
session titled “The State of Enterprise AR.” We drew a sizeable audience, and I
was able to cover many subjects including: the history of AR (using Gartner’s
hype cycle); the key use cases being deployed; and the how the AREA’s research
work – including the AREA
ROI Calculator,  Research
in AR Wearable Security and AR
Human Factors and Safety framework – are helping to overcome barriers to
adoption.

The AREA members wanted to offer an in-depth, insightful and
comprehensive workshop, so I was honoured to be joined by Shelley Peterson
(Lockheed Martin), Mary Claire McLaughlin and Rachel Boykin (Newport News
Shipbuilding) and Chris Ambrose (Strategy Analytics) in running a 90-minute
workshop.

With a focus on interaction, the attendees were able to ask
any questions to the team. We covered a wide range of topics on enterprise AR,
from detailed questions on use cases to ROI and benefits. We also addressed a
wide range of barriers and how these companies had successfully deployed AR. It
was a great session and the feedback was amazing, with everyone who attended
thanking the team for their honest insight and feedback. It was a great way to
finish the event season!

Thank you to the event producers, the companies sponsoring
and the attendees. Our industry continues to grow and with more real-world case
studies and enterprises deploying AR solutions, I look forward to kicking off
the 2019 second-half event season!

The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) kindly
hosted the workshop which saw more than 70 participants from a range of
industries, including energy/utilities, buildings and infrastructure,
aerospace, defence, industrial equipment, mining, automotive and consumer high
tech, converge on the shop floor of Factory 2050 for a jam-packed series of
presentations, interactive workshops, demonstrations and networking.

Day 1 was opened by AREA Executive Director Mark Sage and
AREA President Paul Davies, who delivered a high-level overview of AR,
supported by leading companies and AREA members who have deployed AR.
ExxonMobil, Welsh Water and Boeing all helped paint a detailed picture by
sharing their use cases, experiences and challenges.

We then heard from Jordi Boza of Vuzix who shared his
thoughts and ideas of how to get started in AR followed by a presentation by
Atheer that took attendees through a case study showing how Porsche transformed
automotive dealer services with AR.

The last session of the day was an intense, hands-on session
presented by the AREA’s Dr. Michael Rygol who helped attendees get under the
skin of AR by discussing and documenting use cases and their key requirements
in working groups. Presentations by attendees led to some healthy debate and
interesting insights. The day was finished off with an informal networking
session where participants had the opportunity to take a closer look at some of
the organisations who were there with demo tables and to connect with
colleagues both old and new.

The second day was an early start at 8am and then straight
into a presentation from Theorem Solutions on the cognitive gap and potential
of XR technologies followed by a lively panel discussion on workforce
challenges led by AREA Board member Christine Perey of PEREY Research &
Consulting with representation from Boeing, ExxonMobil and VW Group UK. We then
explored more on the AREA’s Research capability by looking at past projects
before jumping into a master class on AR human-centred design from London-based
ThreeSixtyReality. A full agenda took us into a presentation on Human Factors
and related safety challenges and a pre-recorded session on overcoming the
challenges of AR security followed by a polished presentation from Microsoft on
their MR strategy and the eagerly anticipated HoloLens 2. A three-minute
provider pitch finished off a jam-packed day before participants headed home.

In summary, the depth and range of
content and sessions provided participants with a framework within which to navigate
(or continue navigating) their own AR journeys. Among the takeaways:

• Staying in the AR game
  is tough. Organisations should consider both the opportunities and limitations of
  the current evolving environment.
• The AR supplier ecosystem
  is continuing to grow, offering new and varied opportunities.
• Clearer understanding
  and definition of the barriers to adoption (including safety, security, user
  experience) and paths forward to overcome these is essential.
• Sound, appropriate use
  cases are key to learning more about AR. The number of use cases where AR
  delivers value continues to grow (and we need to capture and share these –
  hence the ASoN initiative from the AREA).
• Digital eyewear to
  support AR is maturing rapidly (e.g., new models from Vuzix and Microsoft).
  Ensure you stay informed on new developments.
• There is broad interest
  in AR across a number of industries – from industrial flooring to mining.
• Considering the business
  benefits of AR is essential to obtaining buy-in from stakeholders and
  decision-makers.
• There may be significant
  issues around safety and security where AR is concerned. Don’t ignore them.

The AREA annual workshop is an opportunity for members and non-members to connect, learn and share more on AR. We at the AREA are fortunate to have the opportunity to do this annually and it wouldn’t be possible this year without the valuable support of AREA members and our sponsors: Theorem Solutions, PTC, Vuzix and Atheer.

By Christine Perey, PEREY Research & Consulting, AREA Board member and chair of the AREA’s Membership and Research Committees.

Augmented Reality, and how it converges with IoT, AI, Cloud and Edge Computing technologies, was among the loudest and brightest themes of Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2019.

LiveWorx has earned a spot on everyone’s calendar of must-attend events due to its content-packed agenda. The June conference in Boston really does deliver a year’s worth of technical learning in four days, addressing all the major technologies driving digital transformation – from AR and IIoT to blockchain and robotics.

Led by Michael Rygol and Christine Perey, the workshop attracted 33 attendees from a variety of commercial users of AR, as well as AR technology suppliers and academic/research institutions. With a truly international feel, we were pleased to welcome delegates from throughout Europe and North America, in addition to those from Japan, China and South Korea.

The workshop objectives included:

• Discussing five widely-validated AR use cases to collaboratively derive a set of structured and related requirements;
• Generating new content for the AREA’s recently launched AREA Statements of Need (ASON) management tool;
• Providing networking opportunities

Following the introductions, Nicole Le Minous and Muriel Deschanel, of B<>COM (a Technology Research Institute focused on digital technologies, based in France) presented insights from a recent survey of 77 participants regarding AR use cases and challenges. The presentation is now available to download.

Michael then discussed the need for structured and connected use cases and requirements in order to help move the AR ecosystem forward, with reference to the ASON taxonomy. The goals were to help vendors understand the AR requirements of their customers; and to provide companies seeking to use AR with a neutral view of needs from the industry itself.

The AREA’s ASON provides users with the ability to manage, connect, review and report numerous artifacts used to help articulate a neutral set of needs. Such artifacts include business process scenarios, use cases, requirements, personas, industries and settings, and more to help create an actionable repository of connected data.

The audience was then organized into five groups, each of which included AR users, suppliers and researchers. Each group discussed its overview use case definition and applied it to a setting of their choice, from which they created a set of requirements. These use cases were (with the group-chosen specific application in parentheses):

1. Remote assistance with AR (onsite troubleshooting with a remote expert in an industrial setting)
2. AR for complex assembly (factory assembly of medical devices)
3. Inspection and quality assurance with AR (as-built vs. as-designed inspection for hotel construction)
4. Virtual user interfaces with AR (utilities controls within restricted access buildings)
5. AR for training (rapid training and instructions for business audio/video hardware installations)

To finish, a representative from each group presented a summary of their discussions.

The workshop was a very useful exercise and the content captured is now being entered into ASON for further use by the AREA community.

On September 18 to 20, I had the opportunity to attend the VR/AR Summit at the TechXLR8 event at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore. Produced in collaboration with the XR Alliance and the VR AR Association, the VR/AR Summit spanned the value chain of solutions driving enterprise adoption of AR and VR across Asia.

For me, the highlights of the AR/VR Summit were the presentations by early adopters of AR and VR. We heard talks on implementations in Healthcare, Education, Entertainment, and Retail/eCommerce. Presenters included representatives from: Japanese telco KDDI; the National Institute of Education; Deloitte; the Singapore Radiological Society; payment provider Wirecard; and a few small Enterprise AR providers.

These speakers shared their expertise, use cases, and useful tips for a successful AR/VR implementation. The overall tone was guarded optimism. While they generally agreed that AR/VR offers great promise, many presenters stressed the need to carefully calibrate customers’ expectations in the near term.

I took advantage of the opportunity to introduce participants to the AREA – who we are and how we are working with our members and the ecosystem to advance the successful implementation of enterprise AR. It was a promising first step in developing the AREA ecosystem in Singapore and Asia-Pacific.

Act quickly to take advantage of a great money-saving offer from AWE Europe 2018 and the AREA – €100 off the cost of access passes to the two-day must-attend event. Coming to the MOC Exhibition Centre in Munich on October 18 and 19, AWE is the world’s #1 AR and VR conference and expo and is expected to attract 100 exhibitors and 2000 attendees, including many enterprise AR leaders.

It’s a great offer, but it’s only good through Sunday, July 22, so act now. Click here to register and save €100!

What is the AREA doing to foster the adoption of Augmented Reality in the enterprise? What kinds of benefits are AREA member organizations beginning to realize from their AR deployments? AREA Executive Director Mark Sage provided the answers to these and other questions in a video interview by TechTV at the AR & VR World conference at the TechXLR8 event in London in mid-June. Watch the interview here.