If you haven’t had the chance to try a VR experience like the Samsung Gear VR, Sony Playstation VR, or HTC Vive, you should. It’s unlike any other experience, a sort of cross between a video game, IMAX theatre and lucid dreaming. The technology is selling like hot cakes in the consumer market, but what’s really exciting is the potential of virtual, augmented and mixed realities (VR, AR and MR) in manufacturing.
What if a mentor could tap into the perspective of their apprentice, and see things exactly as they do? Or virtually place a new machine’s location on the shop floor? Most importantly, what if you could show up to the morning stand-up meeting and actively participate, without ever leaving the house?
augmented reality overlay. (image courtesy of Scope AR.)
Scope AR, a developer of enterprise-class augmented reality solutions, is aiming to fill just that need with the launch of Remote AR for Microsoft HoloLens, marking the first cross-platform live support video calling solution available for the platform. Designed with enterprise customers in mind, Remote AR is the company’s remote assistance augmented-reality (AR) application, designed to enabled real-time, remote collaboration. It’s already seeing use at leading enterprises, such as Lockheed Martin, Siemens and Eaton.
With today’s launch, Remote AR brings live remote support with 3D annotation to the Microsoft HoloLens. With the most sophisticated spatial tracking available, field technicians can use the HoloLens to connect to a remote expert to receive assistance and perform tasks without the need to hold a mobile device.
“Remote AR was designed to support enterprise needs of getting expert knowledge to workers, when and where it’s needed, by allowing users to select their device of choice, whether it’s a smartphone, a tablet, or now, Microsoft HoloLens,” said Scott Montgomerie, CEO and co-founder of Scope AR. “We’re integrating the latest technologies, like Microsoft HoloLens, into our solutions so organizations can focus on the work at hand.”
Proponents of AR’s industrial and business applications claim it delivers the ability to save time and money, as well as improve knowledge transfer and retention. By combining AR with live video streaming, voice, 3D animation, screen sharing, whiteboarding and world-locked annotations, Remote AR can be used, for example, to overlay digital content onto the real-world view of what the user is seeing to walk them through a task or help diagnose and resolve a problem.
Microsoft HoloLens support expands upon these capabilities, delivering a hands-free experience for a user looking to collaborate with a remote expert. Use case examples include:
- A heavily automated manufacturing environment, such as an automotive plant, where a small number of individuals on site can maintain a large array of robotics and assembly equipment with the proper remote expertise available.
- A newly trained technician encountering a complex equipment problem can now show the issue directly to a remote veteran, who can act as though they’re looking over the on-site technician’s shoulder to resolve issues immediately without the need for additional travel costs and delays.
- A pharmaceutical production line with strict restrictions, preventing workers from entering a controlled environment and then re-entering standard areas to avoid contamination. The ability to remotely access those controlled areas keeps workers productive, rather than forcing them to end their day.
Here’s the product launch video about Remote AR support for Hololens. (For the ‘Cliffs Notes’ version, skip to 0:52 in the video to see the product in action.)
For more details on Scope AR, visit their website.