The Ministry of Defence said, “The operation was performed by a medical team headed by Colonel Doctor Ahmed Al Jahuri, senior consultant and head of the Orthopaedic Department at the Armed Forces Hospital, and medical staff from the orthopaedic, anaesthesia, operations, radiology and medical engineering departments.”

Speaking about the surgery that employed cutting-edge technology, Dr Al Jahuri said, “The Armed Forces Hospital was able to use state-of-the-art technology in augmented reality as a solution for the development of minimally invasive spine surgeries.”

Dr Al Jahuri added, “In this technique, low-dose 3D CT scans are combined with optical imaging with fixed cameras, which results in the creation of a three-dimensional display of augmented reality of the patient’s internal anatomy, and this combined image acts as an exploration device that guides the surgeon in fixing the vertebrae with surgical screws in place.

“This helps us conduct surgery that is precisely defined and reduces the chance of injury to nearby sensitive tissues such as nerves and blood vessels,” he went on to say. ““Following this approach leads to increased clinical accuracy as the surgeon can be sure that the surgical instruments are in the right place before the operation and this helps the doctor reduce surgical risks, medical errors, pain, and blood loss, which leads to faster patient recovery and reduces their in the hospital, as well as cuts down on subsequent medical complications and costs.”

The technology is expected to have a significant role in enabling surgeons to perform complex operations, especially in the field of spinal curvature. Thanks to the ability to adapt augmented reality to the needs of the surgeon, doctors can focus on what is happening right in front of them.

The tech also offers surgeons direct x-ray vision into anatomical areas that are not visible to the naked eye, which makes this new technology a mainstay in the future of surgery.

Ali bin Hamdan Al Ghafri, the patient who underwent the operation, said, “I was suffering from spinal pain, and after continuous review at the Armed Forces Hospital and the necessary medical examinations, the results showed friction in some of the vertebrae of the spine, and it was decided to perform a surgery using augmented reality technology.”

“I was briefed about the details and stages of this procedure from the doctors concerned with the operation, and what encouraged me to agree to perform the procedure was the presence of an Omani medical team of high reputation and efficiency, as well as what the Armed Forces Hospital possesses in terms of advanced modern devices in the field of spine surgery.”

Hanan bint Saif, who oversees the operating theatres at the hospital, said, “Spinal operations are complex procedures that require the surgeon to be careful when dealing with the nerves and vessels connected to the spinal cord.”

“Augmented reality technology is one of the latest technologies in spine surgery,” she added. “Globally, many doctors have been able to perform this surgery using this technique.”

The solution works using sustainability targets from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA), which aims to build a carbon-neutral future for the planet.

Citing EPA figures, ThirdEye said the COVID-19 pandemic sharply reduced global transport traffic, which was the “largest contributor to anthropogenic [US] greenhouse gas emissions at 29 [percent].”

ThirdEye’s AR/MR telepresence solutions allow companies to lower their carbon footprint by reducing the overall need for global transport, and the firm’s RemoteEye platform has cut onsite visits to allow significant cost savings, leading to a major improvement in return on investment (ROI).

Nick Cherukuri, Founder of ThirdEye, said his company’s RemoteEye platform aims to include a Carbon Footprint Score for its users to calculate the organisation’s carbon footprint with AR.

Explaining further on the benefits of AR technologies, he continued, stating,

“Not only are AR and MR teleconferencing platforms financially prudent due to traveling less, but by using this technology to share knowledge and operational workflows, there are tremendous carbon emission savings. For example, we can bring education and telehealth to underprivileged areas around the world with augmented and mixed reality”

The company’s RespondEye, which complies with the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), also allows doctors to tackle health problems for remote patients “anytime, anywhere.” Doctors can later assign patients and carers medical diagnoses and treatment options.

Enterprises can also benefit from the introduction of 3D digital twins to reduce inventory and other digital assets, ThirdEye said, adding doing so would reduce production emissions and costs.

The news comes as the US firm aims to expand its solutions to the Asia-Pacific with its X2 MR smart glasses and a major partnership with Go VR Immersive, a Hong Kong-based XR startup.

Tthe smart glasses would be deployed to remote workers across China, just shortly his firm inked a major partnership with Microsoft to deploy HoloLens 2 MR head-mounted displays in the Asia-Pacific region.

A few things mentioned include:

• Eye examinations can be done at a fraction of the cost
• Magic Leap’s next generation AR glasses are smaller lighter, faster
• They have a greater field view – this has doubled in their next gen device
• Vertical representation e.g. surgery digital content overlaid across the knee and look at virtual screens
• Bringing light dimmer to bring more focus to what needs to be concentrated on (again surgical use)

Answering criticism about lack of progress, Johnson argued that 4 healthcare companies are testing the devices right now and other industries are working with Magic Leap at the moment. These include:

• Health
• Defense and Public Sector
• Manufacturing
• Automotive and Transport
• Oil and Gas
• Architecture, Engineering, Construction (AEC)

You can watch the video here 

This offers a frontline connected worker platform for the integration of multiple assisted and augmented reality (SLAM) experiences into a high-performance industrial solution

RealWear Navigator™ 500 solution is the all-new head-mounted device product platform specifically designed to engage, empower and elevate the frontline worker for the next several years.

Building on the accumulated experience of the last four years, working with 5000 enterprise customers in 60 countries with solutions based on our HMT-1™ and HMT-1Z1™ platforms, this new product brings targeted innovation in all the key areas that matter most to achieving solid results at scale.

RealWear has been known for establishing and gaining major customer deployments for frontline worker solutions based on “assisted reality”.

The core concept of assisted reality is that it makes a different tradeoff than mixed reality. Assisted reality is better suited to the majority of industrial use cases where user safety is paramount.

The goals of assisted reality are to keep the user’s attention in the real world, with a direct line of sight, for the most part unoccluded by digital objects or “holograms” that require extra cognitive focus for humans to process.

Situational awareness of moving machinery, approaching forklifts or other vehicles, steam escape valves, slip and trip hazards and electrical and chemical hazards is key for RealWear’s customers. These are the same working environments that mandate specific personal protective equipment for safety glasses and goggles, to hard hats, hearing protection, heavy gloves and even respirators. Users in these situations mostly require both hands to be available for the use of tools and equipment, or to hold on to railings, ropework, etc.

In turn the user interface for assisted reality cannot rely on the availability of hands to operate handheld controllers, or to draw gestures in the air.  RealWear’s assisted reality solutions rely on voice recognition that is field proven in very high noise environments, plus the minimal use of head motion detection. The platform uses a single articulated micro-display easily adjusted to sit below the dominant eye that does not obstruct direct vision and provides the user a view similar to a 7-inch tablet screen at arm’s length.

A core concept of mixed reality has been the placement of virtual 3D digital objects overlaid on the physical world – such as 3D models or animations. This requires two stereoscopic see-through displays that are brought to a point of focus that typically is not in the same plane as the real-world object. The resulting vergence-accommodation conflict – where the greater convergence of the eyes when looking at near objects is in conflict with the focal distance, or accommodation of the eye’s lens needed to bring the digital image into focus – is a source of eyestrain, discomfort and in some cases headaches after extended use. In addition, in bright conditions, especially outdoors, mixed reality displays struggle to provide sufficient contrast with the real world and therefore they always either cut a significant amount of light from the real world using darkened glass or have to generate such a bright display that battery life is very short unless tethered with a cord to a separate battery pack. Both situations contribute to eyestrain with extended use.

However mixed reality applications do allow information to be overlaid on the real-world asset which in some use cases can provide an additional boost in productivity in identifying the item to be worked on.

So how could this tradeoff be solved?   Is it possible to tag or overlay information on the real 3D world while also maintaining safety, situational awareness, low eyestrain, hands-free use and full-shift battery life?

We’ve long believed that the answer lies in amping up the amount of “assistance” in assisted reality rather than solely focusing on the amount of reality, with power-hungry, wide field of view, super bright stereoscopic, transparent and ultra-high resolution displays. With advanced camera capabilities and computer-vision processing, key information about real-world assets can be placed on the camera view shown in the single, monocular, non-see-through (opaque) display.

Read more. 

With the latest funding, ManageXR will support its expanding team and go-to-market strategy as the company has experienced rapid growth since becoming available to beta users in November 2019 and officially launching in April 2021. The startup will continue to look for ways to expand its partner network of hardware and software companies across the globe, Luke Wilson, founder and CEO of ManageXR told TechCrunch. The company will focus more on large enterprises next year, he added. 

ManageXR built an enterprise device management platform designed for VR and AR devices to serve as the core infrastructure for organizations. Its platform looks to scale enterprises’ XR deployments, enabling them to control remotely every aspect of their XR device fleet, including distributing apps and files, customizing the home screen user experience, tracking device health and usage and more. 

“Device management solutions have been around for years, but until recently, there hasn’t been a viable option for VR and AR devices. We’re solving that problem for businesses at an inflection point in the industry,” Wilson said. 

ManageXR has facilitated more than 200,000 sessions to date across thousands of VR and AR devices used by small, midsize and enterprise companies, including XRHealth and Brink’s. The company also recently partnered with Pico Interactive, a VR and AR hardware manufacturer, to preload ManageXR on all Pico devices in the U.S.

“We see a growing trend in companies delivering XR to their employees at a very large scale, evidenced by Accenture’s latest deployment of 60,000 headsets. These organizations are using XR to onboard, train, and upskill employees, as well as unlock new workflow, using the metaverse as a new place to communicate, collaborate, and get work done,” Wilson said. “Device management is not a new concept to these corporations, and they understand how crucial this type of infrastructure is to ensure technology can be used in a scalable and secure way.”

Wilson founded ManageXR in 2018 with the intention of building VR experiences for pediatric patients in the hospital. At the time, the company had to develop its own rudimentary device management platform to deliver its content in the healthcare environments, Wilson told TechCrunch. In late 2019, the company realized that every other company, like ManageXR, would have to solve the same problems on its own, so it pivoted to focus solely on ManageXR in early 2020. Its team understands the challenges of using XR at scale on a deep, personal level, and it’s made a huge difference in how they operate the company, Wilson said. 

Its competitors include incumbent mobile device management companies, which build similar tools for mobile phones and laptops, and some device manufacturers. However, XR is a nascent and fast-moving market with different requirements that these companies are not equipped to handle, Wilson continued. 

“These hardware manufacturers have created their own rudimentary device management systems, but they consistently miss the mark in terms of functionality and usability. These OEM management systems also force their users to only use one manufacturer’s hardware, which prevents customers from using the wide variety of hardware on the market,” Wilson said. 

Its customers pay a monthly or annual fee per device, Wilson noted. Depending on the product tier, the licenses cost $7-$10 per device per month. Its premium product tier, which costs monthly $10 per device, is by far the company’s most popular offering. 

“Between the recent investments in the space from the largest tech giants and businesses now using VR and AR for everything from employee training to patient care to sales enablement, extended reality in the enterprise is at the cusp of mass adoption and we’re thrilled to have Rally Ventures join us for the ride,” Wilson said. 

“XR is set to fundamentally change how we conduct business, collaborate, and experience the world in our professional and personal lives, but as adoption increases, so do the challenges that businesses face in successfully implementing their programs,” said Jay Borenstein, venture partner at Rally Ventures. “I am very excited to support Luke and his growing team as they accelerate how corporations can manage and benefit from XR devices at scale and ultimately bring enterprise-wide XR to the mainstream.”

Altoura 5.0

Altoura 5.0 is built with a secure enterprise infrastructure for 3D asset management, spatial collaboration tools, and a no-code Experience Builder® that empowers organizations to easily design spatial (3D) experiences like immersive training and collaborative visualization, tailored for their industry needs and workflows. Business-critical use cases that once required a physical presence—such as employee training, product prototyping, facilities design and planning, space layout, and high-end product demos—can now be completed as immersive experiences inside Altoura from any location on any device. This shift from physical work to virtual remote work creates operating efficiencies and increases employee engagement.

“Altoura is the pioneer of optimizing high-fidelity 3D models for collaborative visualization,” said Jamie Fleming, CEO of Altoura. “With Altoura 5.0, organizations can do more than traverse the metaverse. They can import 3D models of their buildings, machines, and equipment into Altoura’s collaborative and immersive virtual environment so their employees can plan, design, configure, and train on those assets from any location. This is how knowledge can be captured and transferred to the next generation of employees, and how hybrid work becomes productive work in the metaverse.”

Altoura is used by the world’s leading manufacturing, retail, engineering, and technology firms such as Microsoft, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Wabtec, Cummins, GAP, Target, and many others. “We use Altoura to help visualize, tour, plan, and manage our most important facilities investments before they are built, which at scale translates to big savings in physical prototyping costs and travel expenses,” said Salla Eckhardt, Director of Transformation Services at Microsoft.

Train-to-Work

Train-to-Work is the only comprehensive immersive training solution for hybrid work, and includes Altoura 5.0, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides, and HoloLens 2. It is an integrated solution that enables workers to train on 3D models inside Altoura’s collaborative virtual environment. Then, when they deploy for work at their physical location, they can use Dynamics 365 Guides and HoloLens 2 for AR assistance to complete their tasks. The training experience is consistent and familiar across both virtual and physical environments, which accelerates learning and improves worker confidence.

Line of business leaders and learning and development (L&D) professionals also benefit from Train-to-Work. Because of Altoura’s native integration with Dynamics 365 Guides, training content creators need only build training materials once in Dynamics 365 Guides, then import them into Altoura. This approach lets them deliver a consistent user interface and training paradigm to their employees in both virtual and physical environments.

Fortune 500 customers around the globe already benefit from Train-to-Work. For example, Thermo Fisher Scientific uses Altoura, Dynamics 365 Guides, and HoloLens 2 to train technicians in their Pharma Services Group (PSG) responsible for servicing analytical machines that enable scientists to conduct COVID-19-related vaccine work. They complete virtual training guides in Altoura, then follow those same instructions in Dynamics 365 Guides while wearing a HoloLens 2 as they perform tasks on physical equipment on the front lines. In a recent webinar available on http://www.altoura.com, Chris Binion, Innovation Lead at Thermo Fisher Scientific, said, “With Altoura, we’ve cut training time by up to 60 percent while improving employee productivity, increasing knowledge retention, and reducing training costs.”

Train-to-Work can be configured for rapid evaluations and deployments. In addition, systems integrators around the globe provide a range of services to help organizations use Altoura to design immersive training programs for their specific industry needs. It can be purchased from Altoura or Altoura partners for a set monthly price depending on the number of users required.

Partner Support for Altoura 5.0 and Train-to-Work

Microsoft

“Altoura was one of our first mixed reality partners building solutions for HoloLens 2, and their commitment to deliver customer value has really set them apart,” said Yancey Smith, General Manager of Mixed Reality at Microsoft. “We’re excited for Altoura 5.0 and what it means for our many joint customers that are using metaverse technologies to establish a competitive advantage in their respective industries.”

“Altoura gracefully guides enterprises through the Mixed Reality journey, bringing together the Altoura platform with Azure cloud services, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides, Power Apps, and HoloLens 2 to deliver no-code solutions in the metaverse that massively improve worker productivity,” said Eric Kamont, Mixed Reality Strategic Partnerships Lead at Microsoft.

Insight

“Altoura’s platform is proven in the market and used by the best brands in the world, so we’re thrilled to partner with them to build solutions for our clients that improve productivity and drive down costs,” said Matt Fedorovich, Immersive Technology lead at Insight, a Fortune 500 technology and services provider. “The combination of Altoura with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides and HoloLens 2 makes it possible for us to build immersive training solutions for our clients that have a critical need to upskill their remote workers and continue to train them once they are deployed on the front lines.”

Velrada

Dan Hookham, CIO of Velrada, a global systems integrator, said that his company has designed an MR-as-a-Service offering to help enterprises set up a Train-to-Work® proof-of-concept in a matter of days, at a set price, with expert assistance. “We’re thrilled about the new capabilities of Altoura 5.0 and Train-to-Work because our global customers continue to express a real need for immersive training to upskill their hybrid workforce,” he said.

About Altoura

Altoura is the pioneer of interactive digital twin technology and maker of the productivity platform for the metaverse. Altoura 5.0, the company’s no-code platform, transforms physical assets into high-fidelity 3D models that power immersive, interactive, and collaborative experiences for remote workers. Altoura is a Gold member of Microsoft’s elite Mixed Reality Partner Program (MRPP) and a strategic partner with Facebook, Unity, Insight, Velrada, and many global systems integrators. With a large and growing base of Fortune 500 customers, Altoura is the #1 platform in manufacturing, retail, healthcare, AEC, RE&F, and technology companies that are driving digital transformation initiatives to empower their hybrid workforce with the tools to be productive from anywhere.

Learn more about Altoura 5.0: https://go.altoura.com/altoura5
Learn more about Train-to-Work®: https://www.altoura.com/train-to-work.html

PwC’s ‘Seeing is believing’ report explores how virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) may add value to the economy by 2030 as well as the benefits it may bring to industries including manufacturing, healthcare, energy, retail and training and development.

Their findings forecasts that virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) have the potential to add $1.5 trillion to the global economy by 2030.  From creating new customer experiences to speeding up product development, VR and AR can present a broad range of opportunities for businesses.

PwC’s report is enhanced with augmented reality experiences which will provide you with additional insights.  You can visit the PwC website to download your own copy and find out the results of their report, detailing how VR and AR are transforming business and the economy.

Go to: Seeing is Believing 

Also from the PwC website:

We estimate virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can bring net economic benefits of $1.5 trillion by 2030. But where did we get that number from? As you can imagine, estimating the potential impacts of new technologies like VR and AR is tricky and uncertain. The task is even more difficult when these technologies are expected to develop rapidly and become more deeply ingrained in our everyday lives. But we feel it’s important to highlight the potential in a way that give our clients the facts to build a business case to act – and that starts with a robust methodology.

A report by The Elec suggests that Microsoft and Samsung are working together on future augmented reality hardware. It is not disclosed whether this is for the consumer market, enterprise market, or both. All that is known is that the project is AR-related and may involve some sort of hardware Samsung will be producing (rather than Microsoft). Samsung’s investments in DigiLens, the company behind tech found in AR display devices, may further substantiate the idea that the former will be handling the physical gadgetry in its collaboration with Microsoft.

Apparently, several divisions of Samsung are involved in the project, with Samsung Display, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, and Samsung SDI are all tied in. This AR project started in the middle fo 2021 and aims to result in a commercially viable product by 2024.

Fully optimized for hands-free use, RealWear Navigator 500 is an innovative platform solution that combines hardware, software, and cloud-ready services with a rugged design that is one-third lighter and slimmer than the previous generation, making it easier for frontline workers to wear the device for their entire shift. The hardware is designed as a modular platform with an upgradeable 48 megapixel (MP) camera system, a truly hot-swappable battery, with Wi-Fi, and an optional 4G (and soon-to-be-available 5G) modem. The voice-controlled user interface includes unique noise-cancelation technology designed for high-noise environments. RealWear has more than 200 optimized partner apps supporting a variety of use cases, such as remote collaboration, guided workflow and IoT and AI data visualization.

Assisted reality [infographic available] is a non-immersive experience and has become the preferred Extended Reality (XR) solution for frontline industrial workers, especially where high situational awareness is necessary. Assisted reality experiences are closer to the physical world, compared to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences that immerse workers in the metaverse.

With RealWear Navigator 500, RealWear has again raised the bar for how assisted reality and other XR technologies are deployed at the world’s leading industrial companies. Automotive, logistics, manufacturing, food & beverage and energy companies, among others, can use RealWear Navigator 500 to deliver real-time access to online information and expertise to the world’s more than 100 million industrial frontline workers.

“With pandemic concerns continuing to press upon the global economy, how technology is enabling a ‘new way to work’ is very much in focus, particularly for industrial frontline workers,” said Andrew Chrostowski, Chairman and CEO of RealWear. “Today we’re unveiling something far bigger than a product. The RealWear Navigator 500 delivers the next generation of work with a ‘reality-first, digital-second’ enterprise solution for remote collaboration, operational efficiency, and hybrid work in safety-critical industries. Assisted reality – more so than augmented or virtual reality – is designed specifically for the frontline worker who requires both hands for the job, striking the perfect balance of keeping workers 100% present and self-aware with the ability to safely navigate industrial surroundings. After all, nobody wants to be near hazardous equipment with their head stuck into the metaverse.”

Read the rest of the full press release here. 

The new service is offered by Ford’s Technical Assistance Center (TAC), a centralized diagnostic troubleshooting team that provides support to all Ford and Lincoln dealerships’ technicians who diagnose and repair customer vehicles.  Dealer technicians can initially reach out to TAC specialists via a web-based portal or even on a phone.  With the new See What I See program, TAC specialists can now start a remote AR session using TeamViewer Frontline through a pair of onsite RealWear smart glasses to share, in real time, exactly what the repair technician is looking at.  TAC specialists can add on-screen annotations and additional documentation directly in the line of sight of the repair technicians, as well as zoom in, share their screen, record the session and even turn on flashlights remotely.

“My team diagnoses some of the most complex and complicated vehicle issues,” says Bryan Jenkins, TAC powertrain operations manager.  “I would frequently hear my team say that if they could only see what that technician is talking about, or what the technician is doing or how they’re completing a test, then they could solve the problem more accurately.  A picture is worth 1000 words, but sometimes that still wasn’t quite enough, and we needed a way to see something live and in action.  And that’s what really kicked this whole program off.”

Ford’s See What I See program is an additional layer of support that is already used by more than 400 dealers in the U.S., Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K.  Currently Ford is promoting the new program to its full network of 3,100 U.S. based dealers, with a positive response. “Feedback from the dealers has been really good,” says Jenkins.  “From the dealer technician perspective, they just turn on their smart glasses and accept an incoming call, then it is like my specialists are there looking over their shoulder to help resolve the problem.”

“We are very excited to add Ford to our growing list of forward-thinking customers that are leveraging AR solutions to improve business processes,” says Patty Nagle, president of TeamViewer Americas.  “The majority of workers globally do not sit in front of a desk.  Our goal is to enable those frontline workers with AR guided solutions to enable them to do their jobs better by digitalizing and streamlining processes.”