PAUL JACOBS KEYNOTES VR/AR ASSOCIATION ENTERPRISE FORUM

Wireless XR Will Give Users Superpowers!

Imagine being transported into a fully immersive virtual world, so rich in photorealistic imagery and sensory detail that you forget it’s not real life. As advancements in enterprise virtual reality (VR) applications speed up, the underlying wireless technologies to support lifelike experiences must keep pace.

“We will give people superpowers,” our Chairman and CEO, Paul Jacobs explained during his keynote address at the July 2022 VRARA Enterprise Forum. He went on to describe the high-performance applications enabled by XCOM Labs’ innovative Wireless XR system. “We’re really just getting started with this notion of extending reality.”

In developing the gold standard in wireless XR systems, the XCOM Labs’ team has achieved low latency, high throughput, and reliability breakthroughs that solve many of the issues that previously prevented users from experiencing the full potential of this exciting technology. Gone are the bulky backpacks and cords connecting users to powerful computers, or the cumbersome lags that can oftentimes cause feelings of motion sickness or glitches. Instead, using millimeter wave spectrum in the globally available 60GHz unlicensed band, our system allows multiple users to roam freely across a large space while experiencing seamless, high-quality content. 

One of the most powerful ways we’ve been able to illustrate these improvements recently is through our collaboration with The VOID, a hyper-reality experiential entertainment creator, to generate the most immersive VR experience yet. Using our highly reliable wireless system, we ditched the 22 pounds of equipment previously needed to provide such photorealistic quality visuals and moved heavy processing loads into a wireless network, or edge computer. 

Jacobs explained that the breakthroughs The VOID and XCOM Labs demonstrated also apply to enterprise applications, not just entertainment. 

“The experiences before were driven by the fact that you had this very heavy backpack on and power consumption was very high,” Jacobs said. “You had this big block of a battery that you had to carry around and it only lasted for about 30 minutes. Now, you’re going to be able to have extended experiences without sacrificing image quality.”

AWE attendees were transported from the 144-square-foot demonstration stage into a hyper-realistic experience that tapped into a variety of sensory details including, sight, sound, motion, and temperature. As users freely roamed the virtual space, they could interact with each other as well as the environment around them, without experiencing lags or sacrifices in the 4K video quality at 90 FPS with up to 400 Mbps per user. 

These next-level immersive enterprise environments enabled by our wireless technology include learning and specialized training to industrial automation, smart warehouses, and even telemedicine. 

“An expert at a remote facility will be able to instruct a novice who is doing surgery in the field, able to point out where that person needs to make incisions or do various procedures,” Jacobs explained. “The novice can even stand inside the avatar of the expert and follow their motions.”

Our system is designed for those who need the highest reliability to support their XR use cases, ensuring that wireless throughput and latency are never the limiting factors that curb human imagination. 

At XCOM Labs, we believe in unlimited possibilities and delivering the unexpected. Interested in learning more about how our next-generation wireless technology can elevate your XR experience? Contact us, today!

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4 Key Learnings from the VRARA Enterprise Forum 2022

by Jennifer Pastega

The Motive team was excited to attend the VRARA Enterprise Forum on July 21st, 2022. The event brought together industry-leading organizations interested in ideas surrounding enterprise digital transformation through immersive technologies.

As we all have experienced, the last few years have brought new changes and challenges to organizations. After attending the event, four themes stood out:

VRARA Enterprise Forum Key Learning 1

Hybrid is here to stay

The COVID-19 pandemic caused us to shift our workspaces from desks at the office to desks at home, forever changing the way we work. Before the pandemic, a Gallup study found that 32% of employees preferred working remotely compared to 60% who preferred working entirely on-site. After getting a taste of the flexibility that came with working from home, the number of employees preferring remote work jumped to 59%, with only 9% preferring entirely on-site. To remain competitive, companies need to provide hybrid work options.

The pandemic showed us that working from home and staying connected is possible. Even though many organizations have given the green light to return to the office, remaining flexible with options to meet in person is something that will continue. In his session on why the future of industrial work is immersive, Mark Wenzowski of Virtalis stated that 74% of American companies are using or plan to use a hybrid environment.

Sessions at the event echoed the complementary nature of virtual reality and hybrid work. This new hybrid-focused work environment benefits those interested in VR training. Given the ease of transporting headsets, training can occur no matter where an employee is. Using Motive, organizations can replicate their work environments using CGI, meaning employees can practice the skills they need in a familiar environment. Trainees no longer need to be on-site to complete their training.

VRARA Enterprise Forum Key Learning 2

Out of the Proof of Concept (POC) phase

The next trend we’re seeing take hold across the enterprise is a move away from PoCs and towards full-scale enterprise-wide deployments. With use cases continuing to expand and meaningful data readily available, there is no longer the need to prove that the technology works. 

In his opening remarks, Mark Grob, Head of Immersive Technology at UPS and Co-Chair of the VRARA Enterprise Forum, shared that the enterprise customer is now laser-focused on four key areas: security, automation, ease of deployment, and developing solid partnerships with solution providers. 

While immersive technology continues to progress, customers across healthcare, aviation, and government have all shared similar needs when looking at the wide-scale adoption of immersive technology solutions. 

With incredible competition popping up in the space, solution providers looking to carve out their competitive advantage should focus on listening to the needs of their enterprise customers. They can look to more robust security standards like SOC 2 compliance, seamless login experiences through SSO, and integration with internal systems like learning management systems. 

Motive is proud to have security and scalability at the heart of the platform, including SOC 2 Type II compliance and industry-leading integration support.

VRARA Enterprise Forum Key Learning 3

No code and low code tools 

Attendees of the event were also excited about no code and low code tools for building XR environments and scenarios. To meet the growing demand for AR and VR applications, non-technical users need the ability to author content. This ability gives power to those who understand the training and learning objectives and transforms how VR training is created. These tools already exist thanks to cutting-edge solutions made by innovative teams like Motive.

No code and low code tools substantially benefit learning, innovation, and XR teams looking to create XR projects. These tools transform the speed and cost of application development and help scale XR across an organization.

With these tools, individuals with no coding experience or technical expertise, be it SMEs or instructional designers, can quickly develop, change, and deliver XR experiences. Percy Stocker of TeamViewer emphasized that “drag and drop tools make it easy and interesting for non-technical users to develop the content of the future.”

It may seem natural to think that developers see these tools as threats. However, that’s not the case. Developers see no code and low code tools as the perfect partner to help them save time while working under pressure. There’s no wonder why a Gartner report forecasted that by 2024, low-code adoption will comprise 75% of global software solutions. 

VRARA Enterprise Forum Key Learning 4

The data to back it up

Lastly, it’s clear that we have a level of data that wasn’t available before. In the early days of VR training, we all looked to the same few studies to evaluate the return on investment. While these studies were powerful, for most organizations, seeing transformational change was aspirational rather than concrete. In 2022, we now have hundreds of references to look to. 

Organizations using and scaling their VR training consistently see faster training times and cost savings, sometimes in the tens of millions of dollars. Oberon Technologies Chief Marketing Officer Vi Kellersohn shared in their experience that companies have saved 30% to 70% of costs on average by using VR training. Mark Wenzowski from Virtalis reported that organizations had experienced a 40% decrease in training costs when using VR training.

These significant returns on investment are now commonplace. A bigger divide is forming between companies that harness the power of VR training and those that do not. It’s officially a competitive advantage. While VR technology continues to advance, it’s a better time than ever to tackle your first VR training project or take your POC and begin to think about scaling.

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Recap: VRARA Enterprise Forum Showcases VR/AR in Business and Industry by Jon Jaehnig of AR Post

By Jon Jaehnig

The VR/AR Association Enterprise Forum took place virtually on March 17. The one-day marathon event drew together a number of the usual suspects, including Varjo, Lenovo, and Microsoft, all of whom hosted keynotes. In addition to keynotes, the event featured a number of expert talks and panel discussions.

Enterprise VR/AR: Before, During, and After the Pandemic

One less-than-shocking trend at the Enterprise Forum, as well as other recent digital events, involved echoing the sentiment that enterprise VR/AR has exploded in recent months. This is an objective fact that typically comes with the prediction that the technology won’t go anywhere when coronavirus distancing and travel restrictions lift.

“Through this very difficult time that we are all going through, which seems to be gradually coming to an end, this industry has been catapulted more quickly than any of us could have imagined,” said Cathy Hackl, futurist and Global Advisor to the VR/AR Association. “I’m excited to see where we’re going. Enterprise has really taken off from an adoption standpoint.”

Virtualware CMO David Moreno, in the same welcome address, suggested that the growth of these technologies would continue. Speakers throughout the enterprise forum agreed that the faster, more affordable, and more environmentally friendly remote collaboration would not soon disappear simply because conventional travel is allowed again.

“Enterprises are creating a new reality of work,” Microsoft Canada’s Azure Mixed Reality Lead Sean Graglia said in a later keynote. “MR is here to stay. It’s adding value today and it’s positioned to add even more value on Microsoft.”

How Enterprise Leverages VR/AR, According to Microsoft

Graglia wasn’t just at the enterprise forum to shill Microsoft. As one of the industry’s rare multinational end-to-end powerhouses, Microsoft has potentially unparalleled access to real numbers and use cases across a huge swath of enterprise verticals and Graglia shared a few of them in his keynote.

“As the technology has matured, so too has the portfolio of use cases that the technology is being used to address,” said Graglia, pointing out huge growth particularly in education and health fields.

Specifically, Graglia identified six key use cases that were not only increasing in adoption but beginning to merge and overlap as industry adopters expand how they use VR/AR. Those key use cases are:

• Remote Collaboration;

• Guided Training;

• Training and Simulation;

• Sales and Marketing;

• Design and Prototyping;

• Contextual Data Overlay.

This kind of convergence of use cases is partially because of the versatility of VR/AR, but it can also arise organically in companies that aggressively pursue it. In last year’s virtual GDC series from VIVE, Amy Peck pointed out that a virtual asset created through remotely collaborative design and prototyping can then be reused for training, sales, and beyond.

Announcements

Varjo representatives gave a keynote focusing on their new VR and MR headsets which recently started shipping.

Updates From Lenovo ThinkReality

Lenovo ThinkReality representatives gave a keynote focusing on the new A3 AR glasses announced at CES. However, the company is still keeping quiet on often-asked questions like release date and price points, though Lenovo’s AR/VR Hardware Project Manager Mike Lohse hinted at some potential features including battery packs and expanding hardware compatibility.

“Some of our current customers with our A6 want to do that 8-hour shift, and we want to find solutions that allow them to do that,” Lohse said in a call with ARPost after the forum. “The glasses themselves don’t have their own power source, they rely on the host device, which is also running its own applications.”

Material from ThinkReality affirms that the enterprise version of the glasses is only compatible with select Motorola phones, which act as a controller and keyboard through a companion app. However, subsequent releases may have a wider range of product compatibility, as suggested by Lenovo’s AR/VR Software Product Manager Mayan Shay May-Raz.

“It’s been our plan all along, but we’re very dependent on the XR services that are on the flagship phones,” Lohse said on the call. “Right now, we really only know what Motorola has and does so we can really crawl into that situation… in this case, we’ve really been able to drive a lot of internal support.”

May-Raz also commented on the ability of the glasses to access virtual content, as well as 2D content in a 3D manager. One major application of the glasses, particularly the cabled PC edition, will be virtual screens. This application will feature the ability to have screens remain in a user’s field-of-view, or be pinned to locations in the physical world.

Qualcomm Exploring Perception Algorithms

During the same keynote, Patrick Costello, Senior Director of Business Development at Qualcomm, commented on the chips that the company provides to ThinkReality that split processing between host and client devices for smaller form factor, better battery life, and lower heat output.

“We’re spending a lot of time exploring algorithms, particularly perception algorithms, and harnessing those to use less power,” said Costello, who also said that Qualcomm chips reduce power consumption by as much as 36%.

The Enterprise Forum Is Over but VRARA Returns in June

It’s been a busy cycle for VR/AR. The organization’s larger VR/AR Global Summit is coming in June.

Last year’s Global Summit saw huge news including HP’s launch of the Reverb G2 Omnicept, as well as ThinkReality’s first teaser for their A3. With the crazy year that VR/AR has had since then, we can only expect that this year’s Global Summit will be huge as well but this year’s Enterprise Forum was enough to hold us over until then.

VRARA Enterprise Forum 2021 – Round Up by John Woods

By John Woods

The VRARA Enterprise Forum revealed some exciting updates for the VR/AR for enterprise space, with industry leaders Varjo, Lenovo, and Microsoft sharing essential news and insights for 2021 and beyond.

Throughout the event, more than 600 executives from automotive, aerospace, construction, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and other sectors came together to hear the latest news from global brands leading the VR/AR for enterprise space.

Here are some of the critical updates we gathered from the event.

Varjo Talk Product Design With Mixed Reality

Leading hardware developers, Varjo, started the event with a keynote on the new age of product design with collaborative mixed reality.

Alongside a detailed look at all the latest features of the next-generation of its flagship XR-3 and VR-3 headsets, Head of Design and Research at Varjo, Hannah Nilson, explained how mixed reality is transforming the way businesses engage with customers in 2021 and beyond.

One feature of particular interest discussed during the event was the powerful Varjo Eye-tracking capabilities that enhance consumer research by giving detailed real-time analytics of customer experience in virtual or mixed reality stores based on their point of vision.

With this eye-tracking tool, Varjo tells us that businesses can now monitor and report on valuable metrics based on how customers view their products and what part of the product design best drives conversions.

Lenovo Discuss ThinkReality A3 Release

Lenovo also had some exciting updates to share regarding the upcoming release of its new ThinkReality A3 enterprise-grade augmented reality smart glasses.

While we still have no confirmed price or release date, the Hardware Product Manager of Commercial AR/VR at Lenovo, Mike Lohse, told us the company is currently putting the final touches on its device ahead of the forecasted launch in Q2 2021.

Some of the final touches Lohse mentioned during the keynote included better drop impact protection on the A3 Industrial Edition and the possible inclusion of a second battery pack and software optimization to reduce battery consumption.

He also mentioned that while the ThinkReality A3 currently offers mobile support for Motorola handsets alone, the company is looking to expand its offering to other mobile developers in the future.  

Microsoft Demonstrates Value of Enterprise MR 

Following on from their Microsoft HoloLens Forum and Microsoft Ignite events earlier this year, Microsoft sent Azure Mixed Reality Lead for Microsoft Canada, Sean Graglia, to the VRAR Enterprise Forum to discuss the accelerating value of enterprise MR.

During his keynote, Graglia explained how mixed reality is transforming enterprises across the spectrum, from remote collaboration and training through to sales assistance, design, and prototyping.

According to sources mentioned during the presentations, global spending on mixed reality is expected to reach an astonishing USD 160 billion by 2023, with 87% of large companies already exploring, piloting, or deploying the technology today.

Garcias also added that at least one-third of enterprises would support mixed reality experience platforms, including augmented reality, by 2021, proving how quickly adoption of VR/AR tech is already spreading through the world of big business.

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More brands / end-users confirmed for our VRARA Enterprise Forum in March!

More info and tickets here

The VRARA Enterprise Forum brings together the best minds in the Virtual & Augmented Reality ecosystem in the enterprise sector!  Meet the top vendors and end-users who are leading in this space!  

We expect 500+ executives from leading vendors and top brands/end-users in automotive, aviation, manufacturing, mining, telecoms, and address uses case/solutions such as field services, maintenance & repair operations, inspections and surveying, production operations, among others. 

In addition to presentations, sessions, and demos, we will have the best-in-class online networking!  We will have group networking, plus, a 1-on-1 networking area that will enable you to connect on video or via chat with all the Speakers & Sponsors and other executives attending, where you can preview each other's credentials and bio, and talk business!

Confirmed end-users/brands participating include Ciena, Dolby, Daimler, DPR Construction, KLM, Medtronic, Lockheed Martin, Orange, Siemens, Toyota, among others! 

More info and tickets here

"In 2020, I attended two VRARA online forums. The 1-on-1 networking was exceptional. I met CEOs and industry leaders from all over the world, and it was truly a blast! Having 5 minutes of undivided attention with industry leaders is fantastic (better than at in-person events where people can be distracted). I got 70+ leads for my business to pursue. The content and speakers were outstanding, so I'd say I totally got my money's worth. The online platform ran smoothly so I have zero complaints there. This platform does a great job of enabling you to reach key decision makers in a relaxed yet fun way. I highly recommend it."  - Cathy Edstrom Grochowski

Daimler, KLM, Medtronic, Lockheed Martin to speak at our VRARA Enterprise Forum in March!

The VRARA Enterprise Forum is a very focused event for the Enterprise that will bring together the leading industry players.

Confirmed end-users/brands participating include Daimler, KLM, Medtronic, Lockheed Martin, Toyota, among others!

We expect 500+ executives and we will cover automotive, aviation, manufacturing, mining, telecoms, and address uses case/solutions such as field services, maintenance & repair operations, inspections and surveying, production operations, among others.

In addition to presentations, sessions, and demos, we will have the best-in-class online networking in groups and 1-on-1's that will enable you to connect on video or via chat with all the Speakers & Sponsors and other executives attending!

If interested to speak or sponsor, email info@thevrara.com

If you haven't yet, get tickets here today before the early-bird pricing ends!

In 2020, I attend two VRARA online forums. The networking ("speed dating" / 1-on-1 networking) was exceptional. I met CEOs and industry leaders from all over the world, and it was truly a blast! Having 5 minutes of undivided attention with industry leaders is fantastic (better than at in-person events where people can be distracted). I got 70+ leads for my business to pursue. The content and speakers were outstanding, so I'd say I totally got my money's worth. The online platform ran smoothly so I have zero complaints there. This platform does a great job of enabling you to reach key decision makers in a relaxed yet fun way. I highly recommend it."

- Cathy Edstrom Grochowski

Recap of VRARA Enterprise Summit at LiveWorx - our Members gave stellar presentations to the industry on the latest Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Solutions

We invite you to participate in our VR/AR Global Summit Nov 1&2 in Vancouver! More info here

The VR/AR Association (VRARA) partnered with LiveWorx to host the VRARA Enterprise Summit at LiveWorx 2019 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. LiveWorx is the world’s most respected digital transformation conference for the enterprise to experience the most innovative and disruptive technologies — VR/AR, IIoT, machine learning, blockchain, robotics and much more.

VRARA Members had the opportunity to present to some of the top industrial companies from across the globe like Applied Materials, Arcadis, Boeing, ExxonMobil, Franke, Hasbro, Johnson & Johnson, Julabo, Medtronic, Miller & Long, Toro, Sajo, Shell, Siemens, Sprint, Unilever, Zimmer Biomet, Vaillant Group, Verisk. Presentations included topics on AEC, Aerospace & Defense, Energy, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Training.

Kris Kolo of VRARA and Cathy Hackl VRARA’s Board of Advisors & Enterprise Strategy at Magic Leap.

Enterprise VR/AR Spending is expected to reach $13-20B in 2019, and experience a 89% growth to $120B by 2023. So, where are Enterprises spending all of that money? And are they getting the value out of this level of investment in VR/AR? Matt Short of Accenture from our Silicon Valley Chapter shared with us what Accenture is seeing in the market and where their clients are spending the money.

Dan Cotting of Shockoe from our Virginia Chapter gave an excellent overview of strategy for delivering a rapid return on enterprise VR/AR. Dan has worked with clients like Lexus, JB Hunt, Arrow Electronics which has helped shape his beliefs that VR/AR are poised to usher in an entirely new approach to business operations.

Raj Puran, Intel from our Austin Chapter talked about how Intel is driving VR into enterprise and how to overcome the resistance of adopting new technologies.

Marlo Brooke of Avatar Partners from our LA Chapter demonstrated to us an example of how VR/AR is used in the commercial construction industry.

Sivan Iram, Lenovo from our Silicon Valley Chapter demonstrated the newly announced ThinkReality Platform and AR headset from Lenovo, and gave us some great insights!

Frank Black of HTC Vive Enterprise shared with us high-value use-cases from the DoD, Healthcare, and Emergency Response sectors.

Chad Eikhoff of Trick 3D Studios from our Atlanta Chapter along with their customer InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG), discussed an end-to-end enterprise strategy how VR/AR can be used across sales, design, marketing, and design departments in enterprises.

John Cunningham of DiSTI Corporation, from our Orlando Chapter (which is considered to be the Modeling & Simulation Center of the US!) organized an amazing panel on the use of VR/AR in Aerospace.

A fascinating group presentation on healthcare and VR/AR was given by Zimmer Biomet and Precision OS’s Danny Goel, a practicing Surgeon and CEO from our Vancouver Chapter. Together, they are reimagining the educational landscape for health care professionals.

Geof Wheelwright of Atheer, from our SF Chapter and Chair of our Enterprise Committee organized an excellent panel that explored where VR/AR are getting the most traction and how the market has evolved over the last couple of years.

Corporations invested $87B on Training in 2018 and according to Nielsen reports, Enterprises can save 15% ($13B) on Training with VR/AR; VR has retention rates of 75% while traditional methods are only 10%. Jonathan Moss of Sprint Retail Stores and a Member from our Missouri Chapter and Co-Chair of our Retail Committee showed how he’s using VR to train his staff and the ROI benefits. Our Training panel of speakers further discussed VR/AR and Training with additional real-world use cases from Tom Turner of Exxon Mobil and Jay Fraser, HP.

Our AEC specific presentations included Katy Rupp of Ghafari and member from our Detroit Chapter, Aubrey Tucker of ETRO Construction, and a member from our Vancouver Chapter, Vivek Sharma of Magic Leap, and a panel moderated by Mike Festa, VRARA’s Boston Chapter President.

Next we had a Group Presentation focusing on 2 case studies - Siemens Power/Gas & HP Digital Printing and how VR/AR is being used to improve technician and field services.

A recent Gartner report stated "The biggest barrier to the adoption of VR/AR is the lack of good user experience," and Clare Bond of EPAM Systems from our SF Chapter showed us how we can bring experience design to VR/AR.

Thank you again to our Summit sponsors!

We invite you to participate in our VR/AR Global Summit Nov 1&2 in Vancouver! More info here

Companies participating at our VRARA Enterprise Summit at LiveWorx June 10th. You can still save $800 for LiveWorx June 10-13

Get tickets here!

The VRARA Enterprise Summit at LiveWorx starts next week on Monday, June 10th, taking place at at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. LiveWorx is June 10-13. With our Summit ticket, you save $800 on the LiveWorx All-Access-Pass (4 days)!

Our Summit will bring together the best minds in VR/AR from across the globe. Presentations from industry leaders will include topics on AEC, Aerospace & Defense, Energy, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Training, UX & Design, and much more.

LiveWorx is the world's most respected conference for the enterprise to experience the most innovative and disruptive technologies — VR/AR, IoT, machine learning, blockchain, robotics and much more. 6500+ attendees are expected. LiveWorx is June 10-13.

Below are sample of companies attending the Summit and more info about the events:

• June 10th at LiveWorx (LiveWorx is June 10-13)

• 30 Sessions, Panels, Demos. 40 Speakers

• Presentations & demos from Accenture, Atheer, Boeing, ExxonMobil, Fidelity, Intel, Julabo, Lenovo, HP, HTC, Magic Leap, Siemens, Sprint, Zimmer Biomet, and others.

• Meet executives from Applied Materials, Arcadis, FlightSafety, Franke, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Miller & Long, Toro, Sajo, Shell, Sprint, Unilever, Vaillant Group, Verisk, Whirpool, and other industrial corporations looking for VR/AR solutions!

• Networking Lunch, Breaks, and Reception

• $800 discount for LiveWorx All-Access-Pass (4 days)!

• See the event page to learn more!

• June 10-13 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center

• 6500+ attendees, 640+ speakers, 240+ sessions, and a 200,000 sq. ft. exhibit hall filled with VR/AR, IIoT, Robotics, and Enterprise solutions.

• See Event website here

• Demographics from 2018:

Get tickets here!

The VR/AR Association Publishes the Enterprise Industry Sector Report with over 100 Companies

Get a copy of the report

VRARA Enterprise Industry Sector Report

Worldwide spending on VR/AR is forecasted at $20B in 2019 with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 69.6% (IDC). According to Gartner, the use of VR and AR are one of six top technology workplace trends that will drive the digital workplace and “are ready for mainstream businesses.” And, Nielsen concluded enterprises adopting VR/AR training technology will save $13.5B that would otherwise have been spent on traditional training that includes instructors, dedicated learning spaces and traveling to remote facilities.

There are plenty of other examples and predictions that demonstrate the importance of VR and AR to forward-thinking enterprises in the immediate future. Successful trials (and increasing number of deployments) of VR and AR in enterprises are getting the competitors of early adopters companies to start recognizing that they may be missing out on the real strategic advantage they can achieve.

The VR/AR Enterprise Industry Sector Report includes a wide range of companies and the kinds of customers they serve, showing how impactful their VR and AR solutions have become to enterprise customers. A quick look through this report also makes it clear just how targeted many of these companies are, with products and services often aimed squarely at specific industries and use cases.

The Report will be presented at our VRARA Enterprise Summit at LiveWorx in Boston on June 10th. For details about the event and tickets see here

Thank you to our Sponsor Atheer for helping with this report!

About VR/AR Association
The VR/AR Association (VRARA) is an international organization designed to foster collaboration between innovative companies and people in the VR and AR ecosystem that accelerates growth, research and education, and develops best practices and guidelines. VRARA has over 4200 companies and 26,000 professionals registered, over 50 chapters globally, and 20 industry committees. VRARA programs & initiatives are designed to accelerate anyone’s growth, knowledge, and connections. Learn more here  

Contact:

info@thevrara.com

Enterprise AR: Hear from ExxonMobil, Fidelity, Intel, Julabo, Lenovo, Accenture

See detailed program and get tickets here

VRARA Enterprise Summit at LiveWorx

The premier event for industrial VR/AR applications

Presentations and demonstrations will include topics on AEC, Aerospace & Defense, Energy, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Training, and much more.

The VRARA Enterprise Summit, hosted by the VR/AR Association, will take place on June 10th at the LiveWorx digital transformation conference at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The full-day event will bring together the best minds in VR/AR from across the globe. Presentations from industry leaders will include topics on AEC, Aerospace & Defense, Energy, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Training, UX & Design, and much more. LiveWorx is the world's most respected conference for the enterprise to experience the most innovative and disruptive technologies — VR/AR, IoT, machine learning, blockchain, robotics and much more. 6500+ attendees are expected. LiveWorx is June 10-13.

JULABO is the world's leading experts in temperature control systems.

Lenovo - Sivan Iram, XR Business Development Manager North America, will talk about the newly announced ThinkReality Platform and ThinkReality A6 AR headset.

Fidelity - Matthew will present VR education and training modules for multiple business units

Intel - Raj’s keynote will be about proposing VR, AR or MR into any enterprise environment can raise eyebrows within business units, IT operators and Finance teams. There are lots of questions and there always concerns around viability and efficacy. As company that drives technology enablement in the enterprise segment for MNCs, large scale businesses and SMB shops, Intel has been right in the center of the tremendous growth of technology. Intel has seen first-hand the successes and failures of enterprise and scale deployments of new technology. Come listen to Raj Puran, Director of XR Business Development and former IT Systems Engineer  from Intel Corporation share the experiences Intel has had in deploying new technology to the enterprise like VR and AR and how to build customer confidence.

See more info and get tickets here

The Enterprise Reality Ecosystem: how VR/AR is driving ROI

Come see Tim Merel speak at our VRARA Enterprise Summit at LiveWorx June 10th in Boston!

While consumer AR/VR is proving itself, enterprise AR/VR is already delivering strong return on investment (“ROI”) for major corporations like Walmart, Lockheed Martin and Verizon. But the market remains a series of connected point solutions, not a fully functioning ecosystem (yet). As major players like Microsoft build towards an end-to-end stack and win half-billion dollar contracts from the US Military with HoloLens 2, we’re still in the earliest stages of the Enterprise Reality Ecosystem. How is enterprise AR/VR driving ROI today, and what else does it need to scale across platforms?

(Note: this qualitative analysis is based on discussions across the industry extracted from Digi-Capital’s Augmented/Virtual Reality Report Q2 2019, and will be updated as the market develops)

Active Users

For the Enterprise Reality Ecosystem to thrive, it needs active users. Lots of them. Not hundreds of millions to billions like a consumer ecosystem, as even wildly successful enterprise platforms like Slack have just 10 million active users today. For our purposes, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands to millions of active enterprise AR/VR users.

The largest installed base for smartglasses today is Microsoft HoloLens 1, reported at 50,000 total across all enterprise customers (note: active users is a different number, due to both multiple enterprise users per device and device attrition). The launch of HoloLens 2 and Microsoft’s 100,000 headset US Army contract could more than double this figure in the short term, taking enterprise smartglasses active users into the hundreds of thousands.

Other enterprise smartglasses companies like Vuzix are in the tens of thousands, while Google has not discussed numbers for Google Glass for Enterprise. Recent industry surveys indicate Microsoft HoloLens (even before HoloLens 2 was announced) is seen by the industry as the market leader. (note: Magic Leap is often discussed in creator/consumer terms, but also supports enterprise)

Consumer VR is largely a games/entertainment market, particularly in light of Facebook/Oculus’ John Carmack’s comments. Yet VR headset makers and startups are also focused on enterprise. Enterprise VR active users (note: again different to installed base) are beginning to reach critical mass in the training vertical in particular. Enterprise VR training company Strivr partnered with Walmart to roll out 17,000 Oculus Go headsets loaded with its software to 4,700 stores and 1 million employees, as well as Verizon using it to train 22,000 employees across the US.

One of the veterans in the enterprise VR space, Ford (led by former Immersive Realities Tech Specialist Elizabeth Baron) developed its own Ford immersive Vehicle Environment (“FiVE”) system back in 2012, and has seen usage grow 50% annually ever since. Over 10,000 staff used it in 2017 across engineering, design, user experience/ergonomics and performance (motorsports), with over 1,000 “product health” reviews in 7 countries.

Mobile AR has hundreds of millions of compatible and configured smartphones and tablets that could run enterprise mobile AR already, but active enterprise mobile AR users make up a very small percentage of that number today. Just because someone’s mobile device is capable of running your enterprise mobile AR app, that doesn’t mean they have downloaded it or used it yet.

Nonetheless, PTC Vuforia EVP Mike Campbell says that it has “over 630,000 registered developers and 5,000 enterprise AR customers today, with 85% of Vuforia Studio usage on mobile AR and a $20 million software only (no services) business.” Those figures are pretty encouraging, and enterprise mobile AR has potential to grow active users far beyond its current base.

High Frequency Users

For enterprise AR/VR to succeed, it needs to become an indispensable, everyday business tool. Solutions that are used all day, every day, are why companies like Microsoft, Salesforce and Slack are so valuable in the broader enterprise IT space. High usage frequency is a good yardstick for the value of enterprise AR/VR solutions.

Upskill CEO Brian Ballard points out that type and frequency of use for enterprise smartglasses depends on use cases, “In manufacturing and logistics, we have most customers applying Assisted Reality (HUD-style) smartglasses in all-day, every-day use, sometime across multiple shifts. In field services, we see smartglasses predominantly used in exception-based repairs.”

The largest rollouts of VR in enterprise have been in training, which by its nature is an occasional activity for most staff. There are other enterprise VR use cases (e.g. design) where staff use it many times per day, but the jury is still out on high frequency usage of VR broadly across enterprise. High frequency usage in mobile AR is also early in its development.

Critical Use Cases

We think about enterprise use cases on a spectrum from valuable to critical. Critical is interesting, valuable not so much. Valuable might be cool and technically hard to do, but doesn’t transform enterprise user experience or isn’t something most enterprise users care about. And what enterprise users really care about is ROI. This is where enterprise AR/VR is beginning to shine across platforms.

Lockheed Martin’s Emerging Technologies Lead Shelley Peterson explains that its “satellite operations have used HoloLens 1/Scope AR to reduce training time by 85%, as well as dramatically cutting operating times across alignment (-34%), Design for Inspection (“DFI”) (-39%), drilling (-46%), torque (-50%), and cable fastener activities (-93%). Cost savings at this level are unheard of in the satellite industry.”

Getting back down to earth, BAE Systems division building electric battery propulsion systems for hybrid buses has used Microsoft HoloLens 1/PTC Vuforia to cut front-line assembly workers cycle times by 50%, training by up to 40%, all at a tenth of the cost of alternatives.

Upskill’s Ballard described how they’ve leveraged smartglasses with clients across automotive, aerospace, and retail, “We’ve seen employee ramp time reduced by a week (25% faster), FTQ (First time quality) improved by 38% during training, productivity increases from 12% – 300% (mean 40%), and time to first fix improvement reduced from weeks to hours. Positive ROI is now measured in months, not years.”

For operational capability/readiness, King County is seeing ROI from working with Taqtile’s Manifest platform running on Microsoft HoloLens. Perhaps the most significant benefits have come from transferring and codifying institutional knowledge from a retiring workforce to new workers.

Remote collaboration is emerging as another way that enterprise ROI is being delivered, with smartglasses maker DAQRI CEO Roy Ashok describing how it “has enabled clients’ service departments to cut troubleshooting time by 60%, eliminating the cost of sending a technician entirely in many instances.”

Trimble has focused on the use of HoloLens for early identification of discrepancies between design and construction to reduce rework in architecture, engineering and construction (“AEC”) projects. Aviad Almagor, Senior Director – Mixed Reality and BCI, said that “using mixed reality for early resolution of clashes and coordination issues has saved clients weeks of work, prevented cost overruns, and schedule delays.” Trimble has also announced XR10 with HoloLens 2 bringing mixed reality to front-line workers.

In enterprise VR, Bell used HTC Vive to cut development time for its new FCX-001 helicopter from an industry standard of 5 to 7 years to just 6 months. While these time and cost savings are impressive, the increased competitive advantage and revenue growth from dramatically faster time to market are measured in the millions of dollars.

Strivr’s CEO Derek Belch explained how the company’s enterprise VR training solutions have enabled its customers including “Walmart to improve training test scores for 70% of associates, United Rentals to cut training times by 40%, Fidelity to grow customer satisfaction by 10%, and a Fortune 100 insurance client to reduce training times from 3 hours to 25 minutes.”

Integrated VR/CAD modelling company Mindesk has been helping AEC clients replace physical models with virtual ones. CEO Gabriele Sorrento said that this has resulted in customers “saving $2,000 or more per design phase, and delivering positive ROI straight away. Our integration with standard CAD software has also eliminated preparation/conversion between systems, cutting costs even further.”

Remote collaboration platform Streem is focused on using mobile AR to make enterprise expertise more accessible, enabling white goods and insurance company clients to cut up to 42% of service technicians callouts (“truck rolls”) and related costs. CEO Ryan Fink said this is achieved through, “using the customer’s smartphone camera to connect them to remote experts and call centers, while empowering the expert with more contextual insights than were possible before. This includes spatial mapping for accurate remote measurements, AR tools, and object recognition/OCR for automatic serial/model number capture, and context identification.”

Critical Apps

For reference, enterprise users access 8 enterprise mobile apps per month on average, with IT departments deploying another 2 to 3 enterprise mobile apps on average per year. So critical use cases for new platforms are not enough. They need to be part of existing enterprise apps, or something an enterprise IT department will actually roll out.

Many smartglasses rollouts require a significant services component for implementation and compliance, while SaaS solutions can be simpler and faster to implement. Microsoft’s approach with an integrated suite of standardized enterprise solutions like Dynamics 365 is aiming to make enterprise implementation/compliance easier, and leverage the company’s decades of enterprise experience.

But even with strong progress across the market, enterprise customers tell us it is too early to make a call on critical enterprise apps for smartglasses, VR or mobile AR.

Cloud/Data

The Enterprise Reality Ecosystem needs a strong cloud backbone and data analytics/business intelligence to support decision-making. The enterprise AR Cloud is emerging with Microsoft Azure Spatial Anchors, as well as broad AR Cloud startups like 6D.ai and Ubiquity6. So despite its early stage, there appears to be a path forward for the AR Cloud to support both smartglasses and mobile AR. There is less clarity for the enterprise VR cloud, although some have suggested blockchain as a solution. For enterprise AR/VR data analytics/business intelligence, Digi-Capital’s AR/VR Analytics Platform launched as the first dashboard solution to service this market at Google in mid-2018.

Installed Base

While the largest enterprise platforms today have users in the billions (PC, mobile, Microsoft Office etc.), enterprise AR/VR platforms need installed bases in the hundreds of thousands to millions to scale. Microsoft HoloLens 2 will reach hundreds of thousands of enterprise devices in the short term, but be highly concentrated in the company’s massive US Army contract at first.

HoloLens 2 (and eventually 3) could scale from that base to millions of devices across industries, but it might take Apple launching smartphone tethered smartglasses and bring-your-own-device (“BYOD”) demand for enterprise smartglasses installed base to reach their inflection point. Digi-Capital first forecast Apple launching in late 2020 over 3 years ago, but only Tim Cook and his inner circle really know if and when that could happen (and what it might look like).

VR’s enterprise installed base has seen individual corporate rollouts in the tens of thousands of units for training (e.g. Walmart), but still has a way to go to scale more broadly across enterprise.

Mobile AR has an enterprise installed base in the hundreds of millions today due to the ubiquity of compatible and configured devices. Again this isn’t active users, which is a much smaller number today.

Critical Hardware

Enterprise tech platforms don’t just need critical use cases and apps, they need critical hardware to run on. As above, HoloLens 2 could become smartglasses’ first critical hardware, with other players competing for that title (again Magic Leap has been primarily consumer/creator focused, but is also positioning for enterprise).

VR’s high-end and mid-range headsets from HTC, Facebook/Oculus and others have been used by the enterprise community for several years now, with ultra-high-end VR headset Varjo also launching this year. iOS/Android smartphones/tablets already do most things that enterprise mobile AR users need without dedicated hardware, although rear-facing depth sensors could add functionality as they become more commonplace.

Investment

Investment is a key driver to fuel the Enterprise Reality Ecosystem, with internal corporate spend as important as VC funding of startups.

In the consumer smartglasses market, Digi-Capital’s AR/VR Analytics Platform tracked Magic Leap raising over $2.6 billion so far. In the enterprise smartglasses market, Microsoft’s internal spend on the HoloLens ecosystem could dwarf that number (note: Microsoft has not discussed a figure). This appears to be yielding results, with the company’s $480 million US Army contract the largest single contract with an enterprise customer to date.

VC investment into consumer VR has dropped dramatically in recent years, with some enterprise VR exceptions. Facebook and HTC continue to spend internally to grow their enterprise VR businesses, with some large enterprise contracts to show for it. Investment into enterprise mobile AR has been small compared to smartglasses so far.

Leaders

There are strong players in specific parts of the enterprise AR/VR market, but only a handful of companies with resources and capabilities to lead across the stack (in a similar way to Apple in the broader smartphone market, not just enterprise).

For enterprise smartglasses, Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 and ecosystem look like the ones to beat in the Enterprise Reality Ecosystem. Google and Apple could challenge, but Google Glass for Enterprise is an indirect competitor in some ways, and Apple remains Sphinx-like. Magic Leap has been positioning itself too, so it will be interesting to see what it delivers.

For enterprise VR, HTC, Facebook/Oculus and Microsoft (with partners) are the contenders for full stack enterprise solutions leadership. Likewise Apple and Google for enterprise mobile AR.

Too early to tell

The Zhou Enlai quote “it is too early to tell” is an appropriate summary of the Enterprise Reality Ecosystem today. Enterprise smartglasses, VR and mobile AR have solved parts of the puzzle, but each needs key pieces to become a true ecosystem in its own right. The focus, energy and talent focused on the challenge are formidable, so it’s going to be exciting to see where things goes from here.

(A big thank you to other great folks who helped in the research: Herb Schilling of NASA, JR Dawkins of Verizon, Jan Pflueger of Audi, Amar Dhaliwal of Atheer, Dirk Shart of Re’flekt, Marco Campanari of Hyperfair, Karl Maddix of Masters Of Pie, Florian Haspringer of Holo-Light and Daniel Seidl of Innoactive)

About Digi-Capital: Digi-Capital is a Silicon Valley based AR/VR adviser (reports, analytics platform, strategy consulting, investment banking)

Come see Tim Merel speak at our VRARA Enterprise Summit at LiveWorx June 10th in Boston!

The VR/AR Association issues an Open Call for Companies to participate in the VR/AR Enterprise Industry Sector Report

Fill out this form if you are interested in being featured (VRARA and non-VRARA Members are welcomed if you are a B2B company with a VR/AR solutions or services) and email info@thevrara.com if you would like to Sponsor this report

This industry report will feature companies specializing in VR/AR for B2B Enterprise solutions. The report will be published in June and will be promoted to the industry globally via our Newsletter (25K emails), Website (20K monthly visitors), and at our Global Summits, and via our partners’ networks.

Foreword

by Geof Wheelwright, Co-Chair, VR/AR Enterprise Committee

We are in an industry that most major analysts agree is growing fast. According to a December 2018 report from International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide spending on augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) is forecast to be nearly $20.4 billion in 2019.

This number is part of a five year growth prediction by IDC spanning the 2017 to 2022 period forecasting that worldwide spending on AR/VR products and services will achieve a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 69.6%. And IDC is not alone in making this kind of prediction.

According to Gartner Distinguished VP Analyst Matt Cain, the use of VR and AR are one of six top technology workplace trends that will drive the digital workplace. “Immersive technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality, are ready for mainstream businesses,” he predicts in a March 2019 story that discusses evolving workplaces.

Meanwhile, research firm SuperData (a Nielsen company), recently concluded that enterprises adopting XR training technology (covering Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality) will save $13.5 billion that would otherwise have been spent on traditional training that includes instructors, dedicated learning spaces and traveling to remote facilities.

Another big story lies in where AR and VR are being rolled out. AR. in particular, has a strong mobile story - with analyst predictions suggesting that it will only grow stronger in the coming years. According to a recent story in AR Insider - also quoting recent SuperData numbers - there has been tremendous growth in the development of Mobile AR apps, particularly for iOS mobile devices.

Mobile AR applications are not, however, primarily driven by enterprise needs - but the steep growth in overall app development for ARCore and ARKit - reflects the massive installed base and opportunity they represent for enterprise AR developers.

There are plenty of other examples and predictions that demonstrate the importance of VR and AR to forward-thinking enterprises in the immediate future. The real story right now, however, may be in the “second wave” of adoption that will come in behind the first wave of adoption we are seeing now.

There will always be companies that have the budget, interest and bandwidth to conduct pilots and do field trials of potentially useful technologies. And those have been the primary enterprise customers for VR and AR technologies over the past couple of years.

We are now, however, on the cusp of a moment where the successful trials (and increasing number of deployments) of VR and AR in enterprises are getting the competitors of early adopters companies to start recognizing that they may be missing out on the real strategic advantage they can achieve.

The range of companies you’ll see in this report - and the kinds of customers they serve - are a great example of how impactful their VR and AR solutions have become to enterprise customers. A quick look through this list also makes it clear just how targeted many of these companies are, with products and services often aimed squarely at specific industries.

Just consider the range of applications on offer (and the sectors they aim to serve):

• Virtual meeting room technology from Ireland’s meetingRoom.io, which counts the Bank of Ireland among the enterprise customers for its low bandwidth remote work platform.

• Spiral Technologies, a company that uses Mixed Reality technology to deliver a solution for the aerospace industry that is aimed squarely at the MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) market. The company’s solution provides remote calls and video streaming, object recognition, display of static information, interactive voice assistance and 3D visualisation.

• Apprentice.io, which aims its AR-based solution at lab, line and suite environments, with extensive specialization in pharma and biotech industries. The company says its solution is used to empower scientists, engineers and manufacturers who operate in various complex, compliance-driven environments

• 900lbs, a creative agency and innovation lab offering VR/AR/MR experiences, with an impressive enterprise customer list that includes PepsiCo, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Shell, NTT Data, Bell Helicopter, DXC Technologies, Perot Museum of Nature and Science and Activision/Blizzard.

• Dimension10, a company that aims squarely at meeting the needs of industries such as  oil and gas, architecture, engineering and construction - where three-dimensional models in VR can deliver real value. Enterprise customers include Skanska, ÅF Group, Aker BP, Framo, NTNU and AF Gruppen.

• Atheer, a pioneer in the development of the Augmented Reality Management Platform, with customers in the automotive, aviation, manufacturing and logistics sector. Customers include Porsche Cars North America, which says it has shortened service resolution times at its dealerships by up to 40 percent through the use of Atheer’s AR platform.

• Frozen Mountain, which brings live streaming to AR and VR devices in the enterprise. The company provides the software, tools, and professional application development services that enable the delivery of multi-party ultra-low latency live video and data streaming.

• vSpatial is designed to be a virtual reality workspace that connects users to their computer applications and coworkers. It allows virtual office collaboration using a VR headset while providing access to popular productivity applications.

• VR Vision is a XR (Extended Reality) company that provides immersive technology training platforms for use across multiple vertical markets, including healthcare therapy as well as hospice and retirement homes. The company counts Toyota, Siemens, Thales, the University of Toronto and Alchemy Systems amongst its customers.

• Viewpointsystem, a Vienna-based company with two decades of experience in eye-tracking technology, has made eye-tracking the centerpiece of its latest product:.the new “VPS 19” smart glasses that consist of Eye Hyper-Tracking glasses, a separate Mixed Reality click-on (that includes a waveguide display and is placed in front of the lenses) and a pocket-sized intelligent hardware component called the Smart Unit.

• MeetinVR, as the name suggests, is a company all about using VR to empower and enhance enterprise collaboration. The company's public roadmap for VR hardware support includes Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, Oculus Go and Windows Mixed Reality.

— Geof Wheelwright, Co-Chair, VR/AR Enterprise Committee

Companies already included in the Report include:

• Apprentice.io

• Atheer

• meetingRoom.io

• Spiral Technology

• EndeavorVR

• 900lbs

• Dimension10

• Frozen Mountain

• Tech Guilds

• vSpatial

• VR Vision

• Viewpointsystem

• MeetinVR

• VRgineers, Inc.

• NextReality

• Plus, 100+ Companies are listed in our Directory)

Fill out this form if you are interested in being featured (VRARA and non-VRARA Members are welcomed if you are a B2B company with a VR/AR solutions or services) and email info@thevrara.com if you would like to Sponsor this report

VRARA Enterprise Summit: More Speakers from Siemens, DiSTI, Zimmer Biomet, Precision OS. We'll demonstrate VR/AR in Aerospace, Defense, Energy, Healthcare

More info and tickets here

Come see experts from the Aerospace and Defense, Energy, and Healthcare verticals demonstrate the latest industrial VR/AR applications!

Rick Smith, Live & Digital Surgeon Learning Manager, Zimmer Biomet

Zimmer Biomet is a publicly traded medical device company. It was founded in 1927. The firm is headquartered in Indiana, where it is part of the medical devices business cluster. Zimmer designs, develops, manufactures & markets orthopaedics products.

John Cunningham, Chief Revenue Officer for the DiSTI Corporation

John is the Chief Revenue Officer for the DiSTI Corporation, a leading virtual training software and solutions provider where he is responsible for global sales, marketing and product management. Since joining DISTI in 2017, he has been focusing on helping Manufacturing and Defense organizations incorporate Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies into their business practices. John is located in Orlando Florida which is considered to be the Modelling and Simulation Center of the United States.

Kevin Carpenter, Director - Global Operations Training Network , Siemens Energy, Inc.

Kevin will discuss how Siemens Power and Gas is incorporating VR/AR technology into technician training and field services.

Danny Goel, Orthopaedic Surgeon and CEO/ Co-Founder at Precision OS, Clinical Associate Professor, University of British Columbia

Danny is the CEO and Co-Founder of Precision OS Technology, a VR/AR software company in Vancouver, BC. He is also an Orthopedic Surgeon with an interest in resident and surgeon education. Danny is an examiner for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons a member of the UBC Residency Training Committee, Codman Society, American and Canadian Shoulder Elbow Society. His research interests include health care economics, patient access to timely care, ocular perception during surgery and training with VR applications. He is also a manuscript reviewer of several leading Orthopedic Journals Danny and his co-founders have created an immersive, and comprehensive approach to VR orthopedic surgery. Precision OS technology was a semi-finalist at the Orthopedic Research Society, identified as a Ready to Rocket company and nominated by the Technology Impact Awards for Excellence in Technology Innovation.

More info and tickets here

PTC and Shockoe sponsor the VRARA Enterprise Summit at LiveWorx

See event website and get tickets here

The VRARA Enterprise Summit, hosted by the VR/AR Association, will take place on June 10th at the LiveWorx digital transformation conference at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The full-day event will bring together the best minds in VR/AR from across the globe. Presentations from industry leaders will include VR/AR Enterprise topics on AEC, Aerospace & Defense, Manufacturing, Training, UX & Design, and much more. LiveWorx is the world's most respected conference for the enterprise to experience the most innovative and disruptive technologies — VR/AR, IoT, machine learning, blockchain, robotics and much more. 6500+ attendees are expected. LiveWorx is June 10-13. More here

About PTC

Enabling Industrial Digital Transformation. As a global software company, PTC drives Industrial digital transformation by enabling companies to design, manufacture, operate, and service things for a smart, connected world. Since 1985, PTC has been enabling customers to stay one step ahead of the competition by combining our strategic vision with leading, field proven technology. PTC technology helps companies to quickly unlock the value now being created at the convergence of the physical and digital worlds through the IoT, augmented reality, 3D printing, digital twin, and Industry 4.0. With PTC, global manufacturers and an ecosystem of partners and developers can capitalize on this promise of physical digital convergence today and drive the future of innovation. More here

About Shockoe

Emerging Technology - We like to keep an eye on what’s new, next, and noteworthy. It’s a way for us to help your business stay ahead of the competition. But we do more than simply watch from the sidelines—we can help you bring your ideas to life. Our strategists, designers, and developers are able to help you craft a technology roadmap for the next five weeks, five months, or five years. We’ll help your organization understand the best possible use cases for everything from voice and augmented reality (AR) to virtual and mixed reality (VR/MR). More here

VRARA Member ThirdEye partners with Verizon for 5G and Mixed Reality Glasses that can help change how we see the world

Come see ThirdEye present at our VRARA Enterprise Summit! More info here

Today, there are already a plethora of augmented reality (AR) use cases for businesses, however, bulky headsets and motion sickness have become big barriers to scaling usage. The cost of such devices has also made them unattainable for consumers since expensive computing power needs to be built into the headset.

Enter 5G. With high bandwidth and low latency, as well as the power of mobile edge computing, 5G makes it possible for AR/MR glasses to offload the majority of their workload to the edge of the network. Thanks to the reduced compute and power needs, smart glasses are about to become significantly lighter and cheaper, ultimately increasing adoption.

Consider First Responders wearing AR/MR glasses – they’ll be able to travel to a scene and have images fed to the corner of their glasses to help plan rescue actions before they arrive on-site. The glasses can also display live video feeds from drones hovering over the scene as well as street or topographical maps to help them better prepare.

At Verizon’s 5G Lab in New York City, ThirdEye, creator of the world’s smallest mixed reality glasses, recently showed off this 5G use case. The company demonstrated how its smart glasses – along with its AR/MR software – can help bring about a new era of hands-free human interaction with computing at the edge. While wearing the glasses, users such as First Responders can directly interact with surrounding objects or digital information placed in their field of view.

Additionally, field service workers (like auto mechanics) will be able to scan an object, such as a complex motor, with the glasses’ built-in camera and send images to a remote expert for help. They can then receive live audio/video guidance from the expert appearing at the top right of their smart glasses while working hands-free, instead of having to look down at a tablet or booklet to repair the part.

“5G really helps in terms of latency,” said ThirdEye’s Nick Cherukuri. “For AR smart glasses we have to stream live video or live 3D models, which can end up using a lot of data. 5G will eventually help reduce latency to under ten milliseconds, which will be a total game changer.”

For consumers, using the smart glasses over 5G will allow for more interactive and collaborative gaming experiences, as well as enhanced in-flight entertainment. Imagine being given a pair of AR glasses preloaded with HD movies when boarding a plane, then after take-off, being able to stare at the ceiling or even look out the window and see your movie presented directly in front of you in a screen size much larger than the seat-installed TV.

Stay tuned next week for another cool 5G demo from Verizon’s 5G Lab!

For related media inquiries, please contact Christina.moon.ashraf@verizon.com

Source

Come see ThirdEye present at our VRARA Enterprise Summit! More info here

New sessions added to our VRARA Enterprise Summit at LiveWorx! Come see the latest in Training Solutions and get Market Insights!

More info and get tix here

We have exciting updates for you regarding our VRARA Enterprise Summit at the LiveWorx digital transformation conference at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Our Summit is on the first day, June 10, of the 4-day LiveWorx (June 10-13) event. 6500+ attendees are expected!

Our full-day event will feature solution & service providers and end-users of the technology to give you the best insights and demonstrations.

Market Insights Tracks

Enterprise VR/AR spending is expected to reach $13B in 2019. Get examples and data from both sides of the table, enterprise users & their suppliers. Also, get a snapshot of current R&D investment, XR usage by industry and common business use cases. Plus, you'll get the AR smartglasses landscape, their current major use cases, and what the future looks like. Sessions include:

1. Hard ROI from Enterprise VR/AR

2. Exploring Opportunities on XR's Next Frontier

3. AR/MR Smart Glasses Landscape

Training Track

Corporations invested $87B on Training in 2018. VR has retention rates of 75%. Learn about the myriad of VR training use cases and how companies small and large are leveraging immersive technology to train their workforce. Sessions include:

1. Transforming Learning in Retail with VR/AR

2. Disrupt & Add Value – VR Training On The Rise

3. New Shape of Location-Based VR and AR Experiences for Military Training

More info and get tix here

The Power of IoT Platforms for Building AR Applications (New Report)

Learn about the benefits and challenges of using an IoT platform to accelerate Augmented Reality solutions

Combined with IoT-connected data sources and historic product data from CAD files, Augmented Reality enables industries to deliver transformative experiences. Early-stage AR solution developers are seizing market-leader positions, while forcing competitors to reevaluate their business models and play catch up.

ABI research explores the realities of implementing AR solutions to help you:

• Recognize the benefits and avoid hidden challenges of building AR applications

• Understand the important role that IoT platforms and IoT data can play in building AR solutions

• Learn how real-world companies are leveraging their existing data to create rich AR experiences

Download Report

Also, we invite you to attend our VRARA Enterprise Summit, hosted by the VR/AR Association, that will take place on June 10th at the LiveWorx digital transformation conference at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The full-day event will bring together the best minds in VR/AR from across the globe. Presentations from industry leaders will include VR/AR Enterprise topics on AEC, Aerospace & Defense, Manufacturing, Training, UX & Design, and much more. LiveWorx is the world's most respected conference for the enterprise to experience the most innovative and disruptive technologies — VR/AR, IoT, machine learning, blockchain, robotics and much more. 6500+ attendees are expected. LiveWorx is June 10-13. More info and get tickets here

Learn how manufacturers are using AR to onboard new workers faster and to help workers of all skill levels become more effective (Analyst White Paper)

ARC White Paper: AR in Manufacturing

By introducing augmented reality to factory floors, manufacturers are improving KPIs and more importantly—closing the skills gap.

By introducing augmented reality (AR) to factory floors, manufacturers are improving KPIs and more importantly—closing the skills gap.

Learn how manufacturers are using augmented reality to onboard new workers faster and to help workers of all skill levels become more effective.

Analytics and automation have changed manufacturing operations. Now, augmented reality is similarly transforming human operations. Manufacturers that have embraced AR are seeing newer workers develop skills faster and workers of all skill levels become more effective and responsive.

Download this free analyst white paper from ARC Advisory Group to learn how AR is driving value for manufacturers, including:

• The most effective, mission-critical AR solutions for manufacturing

• Which KPIs are being measured to recognize AR effectiveness

• 5 strategies for success to consider during AR planning

Also,

We invite you to attend our VRARA Enterprise Summit, hosted by the VR/AR Association, that will take place on June 10th at the LiveWorx digital transformation conference at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The full-day event will bring together the best minds in VR/AR from across the globe. Presentations from industry leaders will include VR/AR Enterprise topics on AEC, Aerospace & Defense, Manufacturing, Training, UX & Design, and much more. LiveWorx is the world's most respected conference for the enterprise to experience the most innovative and disruptive technologies — VR/AR, IoT, machine learning, blockchain, robotics and much more. 6500+ attendees are expected. LiveWorx is June 10-13. More info and get tickets here