Augmented Reality Insight

I have been connecting with people to understand what Augmented Reality meant for them, here is the response I got…

• A friend from Apple, mentioned… Imagine if the line between the virtual and the real simply, didn’t exist. Augmented reality is a new way to use technology that transforms how you work, learn, play and connect with almost everything around you. And this is just the beginning. Welcome to a new world.
• My friend from Google says, AR overlays digital content and information onto the physical world. AR opens up new ways for your devices to be helpful throughout your day by letting you experience digital content in the same way you experience the world. It lets you search things visually, simply by pointing your camera at them. It can put answers right where your questions are by overlaying visual, immersive content on top of your real world.
• Friends from Facebook, Imagine the possibilities of new type of content creation. With AR in Instagram, it will lead to a new form of content creation. This will also tie up with existing market place of to expand the reach of the content.
• Friends from Amazon & Alibaba mentioned, augmented reality can be the next shopping tool that lets you see how certain items will look in your home before you buy them

In my secondary research, I was able to connect data that help me connect some good stories with Charts and Data.

• Worldwide Spending on Augmented and Virtual Reality Expected to Reach $18.8 Billion in 2020, According to IDC

• Augmented Reality help in changes an User experience in the real world

• 88% of Mid-Sized Companies Are Already Using AR in Some Capacity, Link
• The number of AR Mobile Apps Are Already Available is in Thousands, Link

• Microsoft’s First-Generation AR Glasses, HoloLens, Sold Over 50,000 Units, Link
• IDC, worldwide AR/VR headset market returned to growth after a year of decline as global shipments, Link

• Over 3,000 AR-focused Startups Are Listed on Angel List, Link

Let’s take a small break from the above numbers and focus on a small user experience of a person and how AR can address a change in User experience.

The above is a Hyper Reality from Keiichi Matsuda, Link

Industry Adoption & Dynamics.

Entertainment- AR has been used effectively in PR and marketing initiatives for motion picture, television, and other media promotional campaigns. Typically, these have included printed graphic or real life object recognition where the software identifies a unique symbol via web cam or cell phone camera.

Gaming- The value of the augmented reality gaming is expected to reach almost $285 billion by 2023. Most exciting play using these technologies like Unity 5, ARPA, XCode 7, Wikitude, Vuforia. Pokemon Go is one of the most loved games of augmented reality. Due to its reputation and marvellous gaming experience it has won the heart of million. The simple reason for change in gaming is due to four aspects making games that are more appealing, better controls, presence of options for end users to get involved and replacing old with new.

Manufacturing- AR helps transform this space in six aspects

• Hands-On And Safety Training- AR based training can lead to removal of safety issues and increasing efficiency. With the right AR applications and devices, these inexperienced personnel can be trained, informed, and protected at all times without wasting additional resources. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) teamed up with Bosch using the REFLEKT ONE or BOSCH CAP software platform to develop an application that visualized and provided “X-ray” vision into the Range Rover Sport vehicle dashboard. The app allows technicians in training to see everything behind the panelling without removing and then reinstalling the dashboard.
• Streamlined Logistics- A worker has to check the information, find the necessary product or goods, scan it and report the data, deliver it to the loading dock, and then sign off on the order. And with AR technologies a workers can tap into a connected system that tells them exactly where products and goods are, allowing them to work at a much faster pace. Popular shipping and freight service DHL is already testing mobile AR systems in local environments. DHL employees use smart glasses from wearable computing solutions expert, Ubimax that greatly increase productivity, and reduce errors.
• Maintenance- A maintenance crew could wear an AR device that relays this information every time they visit the factory or warehouse floor. This would take the guesswork out of the process, allowing for faster repairs, quicker response and recovery times, and better operations all around. At the same time, he now has two free hands to use along with a voice based control system. The U.S. Marines are already using a system similar to this for their mechanics.
• Product Design and Development- Concepting, prototyping, and traditional design is a complicated process that require several revisions and back-and-forth communications between related parties. An AR can eliminate some of the tedium of this process by augmenting and enhancing the task at hand, and streamlining collaboration and communication between parties. Thyssenkrupp is incorporating the latest technologies into product design and development of mobility solutions. The company incorporated HoloLens solutions to make the design process more personal for customers and to reduce turnaround time. Also, with the help of the HoloLens, the digitization of sales and manufacturing has reduced delivery times by 400%.
• Complex Assembly- Modern manufacturing, with 130 miles worth of wiring in every new Boeing 747-8 Freighter, this world-leading aviation giant eases the task with smart glasses and the Skylight platform from Upskill. Skylight is a wearable technology that gives Boeing technicians the instructions they need right in their viewfinder. With voice command capabilities, and bar code readers this is a huge time saver that has improved productivity, produced higher quality, and better ergonomics.
• Expert Support- Leybold, a leading vacuum pump manufacturer, has incorporated augmented reality applications into its onsite customer support and sales activities. The company partnered with REFLEKT, to create The Leybold Maintenance App with their recently introduced TURBOVAC i/ix line of vacuum pumps. The app allows customers to visually explore components and features of the pump on the iPad and HoloLens.

Social AR- Social Application help content creators, markets and end users in a human way to sell, receive and enhance almost any information. This has set three things in motion:

• 5.112 billion mobile phone users worldwide, up 2% year-on-year
• 4.388 billion internet users worldwide, up 9.1% year-on-year
• 3.484 billion social media users worldwide, up 9% year-on-year

A few application that can almost help ever person are:

• LinkedIn- For a available candidate imaging this with smart glasses. While walking in a business part you can actually see a company building and see the vacancies of that premises. Also if you are available then why stop there, also see if you can give an interview with tele-presence, or walk in. The recruiter instead of looking at a paper of screen can simply view you details on their glasses and have more humane conversation.
• Instagram- How to effectively market a place or a subject. Features of Instagram, one of the popular social media apps:
• Share photos and videos, stories with creative effects
• Browse your feed and interact with posts
• Go live to connect with your friends at the moment
• Message your friends in private
• Discover videos, photos, and stories you might like in the Explore tab
• Snapchat/Tumbler/ TikTok- The existing users can create a content in the form of picture or a short video as a message which automatically disappears after a few seconds. They way this information is going to be used by an end user will change dramatically. The existing features mentioned below can change dramatically
• Create and add filters, lens, 3D Bitmojis to your photos
• Live messaging and video chat with up to 16 friends at once
• Watch their Stories from friends, top publishers, and creators
• Check out snaps shared earlier with free cloud storage
• Facebook- The largest user base and monthly active use. It is easy to get started and browse through and supports almost all types of content format images, text, videos, stories, and live videos. All this convent will be accessible. When this gets integrated with selection option that is AR based and a payment option. Then it can redefine shopping.
• Tinder- VR will take the user-friendly interface to level that enables more human conversation than look at the screen.

Travel- A few things that can be more effective:

• Solo Travel- Some simply want to travel without the distraction of a companion. Few things the AR can help the solo traveller is with apps that can help in language translation, helping with food, accommodation and travel options. In short giving the best option to a travel based on their budget and expectation or likes or dislikes.
• Eco Traveller- A new generation becomes increasingly relevant in the marketplace. An AR based application can give Eco travel simple options, such as the availability of carbon credits when booking a flight or the option to rent an electric instead of a conventional vehicle. More sophisticated examples might include tourism with a volunteer element, perhaps working on a nature reserve or engaging in conservation work.
• Be a local- Today’s tourists don’t want to be insulated from the places they visit inside a cultural bubble. They want to engage with and participate in the local culture. From enjoying local cuisine to celebrating regional festivals and holidays, local experiences are set to become some of the top tourist trends to watch. Integration with a Social AR and Marketing application can help in a major way
• Personalization- Personalization can apply to every aspect of the tourist experience. An AR app can help with giving an experiences that closely match their personal preferences, from destinations to accommodation and the kinds of activities they’ll engage in.

Marketing- The primary target of any marketing firm to make that emotional connection. With presence of data from below mentioned sources that gap can be addressed. With VR the say the information is consumed by and end user will have a two way exchange of information

Your social contributions

• IoT devices at home ( Heater, light sensors)
• Shopping patterns & Payment ( Amazon, Google pay)
• Search Options
• Mobile phone data
• Wearable device ( smart watch)
• Entertainment data (movies, songs etc...)

More effective & efficient marketing-

• Marker-based AR ads require a marker (i.e. a target image) that customers scan with their smartphone cameras to bring virtual content to life.
• Location-based AR ads don’t require any markers (so there’s no need for a print image), as they overlay virtual content based on a user’s location (with the help of GPS).
• Boost sales- Augmented reality ads aren’t the only way of promoting products or services. AR offers other ways for marketers and advertisers to increase sales volumes: virtual try-ons.
• Improving Hyperlocal Advertising- Advanced machine learning algorithms to analyse user behaviour and interests in order to recommend the right products and services to the right people. Augmented reality ads offer marketers an even better opportunity: advanced hyperlocal advertising.

Education- Probably the most fundamental in all the sectors. AR might be replacing the traditional medium of books and stepping into the real world. Augmented reality technologies overlay digitally created virtual elements onto our real-world environs. This gives the user a digitally immersive experience in real-time. The benefits of this are:

• Retention of people/ subject matter- With subject matter getting more detailed and visualization being a major element. Medical science, Engineering, Construction and almost all areas that can he aided with better visualization and interaction are benefiting from AR. Since, education is a very cost sensitive area, the best results of this can only be found if it reaches the masses. Australian university will pilot VR and AR technology for teaching anatomy students- Link
• Individual learning needs/ Personalised experience- Similar to a video game this opens up areas for every individual to see and do more and learn at their own pace. Link
• Active learning/ Collaboration- With improved connectivity, access to cloud, network groups being formed with no geographical boundaries. The end result will be more meaningful to both the system and the candidates. This might also help students to work on an idea and develop a solution that could very well help in solving a small or unseen problems in the society.
• Samsung Digital Discovery Centre (SDDC)- When content is created for Libraries, Museum, the same can also be provided to students Link

Retail- Retail being the last chain of events that connect any customer to a seller, VR plays a major role in here. A few trends and applicable places...

• Ecommerce has aided in convenience selling, VR is the next evolution of the same. Link
• Customer Interaction- Imagine automating order taking vending machines to VR. This would routinize self-service kiosks to evolved menu options to table service. McDonald’s, KFC almost every food outlet could benefit from this. How is it today, Link
• Specialised space- Fitness Mirror, sorts brands like Nike, Adidas that would like to connect with individual user right now could possibly connect like never before Link
• Customer Query- A huge portion of retails today evolves will this be right for me, this can be a job for a Smart Mirror – Link
• Want to know more on the product- While Block Chain is good , a VR can help access that information for any retail customer on their mobile phone, Link

Auto mobile- A brief look at tow that Auto sector is doing to help boost sales

• Volvo- Help connect showroom user centric details to manufacturing floor, Link
• Hyundai digitises Owner manuals, Link
• BMX- Google play app, imagine doing this in the comfort of your own home, Link
• Mercedes Benz- Road side assistance app/ First responders, Link

Healthcare- This sector along with Education sector might be VR test grounds for the most basic human requirement. In a hospital today, a huge percentage of things done are paper driven. Also, sometimes is a challenge to maintain and get the right papers in the right place. VR might change all that.

• The second layer of things is today there are a lot of IoT related things available at the patient and Doctor Level. VR can help pair with that patient device and the Doctor patient consultation will be more on an active data source than passive one.
• There is an element called systematic literature review(SLR), this is focused to ?nd, interpret, and evaluate those research results that were addressing the formulated research question, the levels of back end process are:

o  Define search

o  Define search Strategy

o  Document Search

o  Inclusion and exclusion of criteria

o  Quality assessment criteria

o  Qualitative meta- Analysis

With AR coming in with a few allied technologies it surely could help in language translation (Text to Text, for Speech to Text), Help Doctor focus more on more relevant things, duplication of paper work will be eliminated.

Entertainment- Probably the sector that has the biggest image is this. The changes happening there are:

• Rethinking How to broadcast a program- There were over 4 billion internet users as well as over 5 billion smartphone users at the end of 2018, and the numbers will  grow. All these users utilise their free time more effectively.

o Might be the end of TV, A very interesting clip from Adobe Link  

• End-users Democracy & Interaction - End users are more mobile, this has helped to bridge the gap between unidirectional entertainment. A breakdown of benefits of Pokemon Go are as so:

o Gets a person moving

o Boosts up the mood also help interact with others

• The above changes are now visible in places like :

o Marketing Theatre events- New York show Sleep No More, Link. According to recent surveys, over 66% of people are interested in visiting such a concert. So, it’s an excellent investment which can give a stable income for several years.

• Museums- Helps them with:

o Interact with the visitors with a VR game

o Help’s in allow image recognition or augmented reality to advance a narrative 

o Augment something misunderstood- Spread the right message

o Amusement Parks- In three ways:

o  Create a Digital brochure where kids can interact more

o  In the park, use the same app to communicate specials & wait time for visitors

o  Help communicate with visitors more personalised way

o Art Gallery- Help share more insight to end users, Link

Real estate- In terms of share of wallet this is probably where we spend most of our money in. VR use cases:

• Guided Visits- Help showcase the salient features of a property or a commercial space in a much more meaningful way with entering the person space of a visitor
• Interactive Visits- Customer can also use options the paint a wall, make a fire place, and arrange the Kitchen area. All this inputs can later be store in a file and passed on to the right teams for them to do their work
• Staging- Imagine showing an empty property with no or very few pieces of furniture. Now imagine exactly the same house or apartment but full of furniture and looking cozy and appealing
• Architectural Visualization- Help with layer of a image, to view potential faults in say water system, years after a property is made. This also eliminated the use of a paper based system
• Virtual Instructions for Tenants- Technology can help landlords communicate efficiently with tenants. This interaction can help the tent to know how utility services at a property work and more…

Sport- There are three aspects in sports where AR fits in:

• Marketing- Aspects mentioned in the Marketing & Entertainment parts can be adopted. Few ASPECT THEY HAVE WORKED ARE:

o Marker-based AR ads require a marker (i.e. a target image) that customers scan with their smartphone cameras to bring virtual content to life.

o Boost sales- Augmented reality ads aren’t the only way of promoting products or services. AR offers other ways for marketers and advertisers to increase sales volumes: virtual try-ons.

o Specialised space- Fitness Mirror, sorts brands like Nike, Adidas that would like to connect with individual user right now could possibly connect like never before Link

o Rethinking How to broadcast a program- There were over 4 billion internet users as well as over 5 billion smartphone users at the end of 2018, and the numbers are grow. All these users utilise their free time more effectively.

• Broadcasting- For those who are unable to buy tickets at the stadium or prefer to watch in the comfort of they are:

o  End-users Democracy & Interaction - End users are more mobile, this has helped to bridge the gap between unidirectional entertainment

o Build from Art Gallery- Help share more insight on game, tournament, player to end users, Link

o Virtual Instructions for People in Stadium - Technology can help marketing team communicate with fans present. VR combines with a social poll can give more anchoring points to fans in the stadium

o Intel TruVR- Link, click this to see how it looks like on a scree

• Training- It is a common site this days that kids are able to drive a car in a game well before they can do the real thing. The same ease of doing things also can be enhanced in training a player, they can do it one and repeated the same Link. Device- Link

o  VR in training helps limit the number if injury, helps recreate the one time scenario that a player gets in ten games, every single time, thus making a great player in a single year rather than 10 years

o  Use of Haptics suits will just make this experience more real

Military- Three aspects in Military usage:

• Application-

o Synthetic Training Environment (STE)- Similar to a war game, replicate scenarios in a training field. Also with GIS information every aspect of the mission can be rehearsed before it happens. The Army Research Laboratory (ARL), University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, Combined Arms Center-Training (CAC-T) and Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) are now developing the main principles that should govern the STE project. Link

o One of the key objectives pursued by the STE developers is to create such a training option that would allow commanders to establish adaptive units with a higher readiness level.

o Digital Battel field / Monitoring ( Enhanced Situational Awareness)- With GIS and also other active data sources, Link. BAE Systems CV90 glassbox, Link

o Holographic Tactical Sandbox: Augmented Reality for Mission Preparation, Link

o Maintenance- Steven Henderson’s video clip on, AR for maintenance and repair, we designed, implemented, and user tested a prototype augmented reality application to support military mechanics conducting routine maintenance tasks inside an armoured vehicle turret, Link

• Kind of devices-

o Head Mounted Display- F-35 Gen III Helmet Mounted Display System, Link, Link

o Smart Glasses- Israel-based firm created a heads-up displays for the military and built its own smart AR smartglasses for cyclists, Link

o Handheld devices- A device, ELCAN Specter? DR 1-4x dual role weapon sight Link, How it works Link

• Digital Solution solving:

o Documentation

o Navigation

o Work flow optimization

o Others aspects that comes with the job

The major trends that will change AR are as we know it:

• Wearable tech betting better- There are three phases in here:

o  The wearable devices getting smaller and easier and more reliable to control

o  Integration with IoT of things

o  Giving an end user an option to create their own content

• Automation- Robots, Chatbots, AI & Automation. Connie, the Hilton Hotel chain’s robot concierge. The experience with an AR based chat bot will only make things better.
• Recognition technology- The bio metrics gates in airport the first step. With system recognising a person based on image, voice and other aspects things will never be the same. Levels of data used for recognition are mentioned below. With such data if there are one hundred people sitting in a theatre, rather than treating them to a single content there can be so many options to tailor the need.

o  Your social contributions

o  IoT devices at home ( Heater, light sensors)

o  Shopping patterns & Payment ( Amazon, Google pay)

o  Search Options

o  Mobile phone data

o  Wearable device ( smart watch)

o  Entertainment data (movies, songs etc...)

• Connectivity- The smartness of a device today is mostly dependent on its ability to process information. With things getting connected to cloud, 5G becomes that enabling factor
• Cyber Security- As people and thing get more connected with time, equipment manufacturers and their customers will be impacted in a number of ways. With malware attacks on the rise and many organizations having been negatively affected by the increased prevalence of ransomware, companies (both literally and figuratively) can’t afford to overlook cybersecurity as a top priority in 2020 and beyond.

My Hypothesis of Augmented Reality:

• There is a clear distinction between the real word and the Digital world, Augmented reality might make that like a mirage by helping the real world interact with the digital word when needed
• Every aspect of work that needs multi tasking, can see a portion of Augmented reality come in. As simple solution would be to have a Heads up display on the car for directions instead to look an a mobile screen
• There is going to be a convergence of many things due to which systems can get more smarter. For example, planning for a week end get away can Power and Utility companies drive the grid better, Marketing campaigns to be more effective and so on
• Augmented reality might not just be limited to glasses, it can be a collection of things placed in a smart way

My take away on Augmented Reality:

• Keeping it simple is the most important accept of Augmented reality
• Most of the devices today are constrained by prices, battery life and connectivity challenges in real world use
• And end user thinks of using a AR device with an other device, this support is still c challenge
• There are simple use of AR applications that can be passed on to an end user, that can be in the form of a shared message