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CHICAGO — Augmented reality biofeedback could be an effective tool to reduce abnormalities in gait and could be used to provide telerehabilitation services to patients who may not have access to traditional clinics, according to a presenter at the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists Annual Meeting and Scientific Symposium.
“In general, there are abnormalities in balance and/or gait that require rehabilitation,” Jonathan Akins, PhD, of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Widener University, said in his presentation. “This is not specific to a limb loss population. Some limitations to what is currently available is that there is no standardization, as well as unmonitored time.
Particularly relating to unmonitored time, if you have an individual going to physical therapy and they spend 1 hour there, three times per week, that is a lot of time that is being unmonitored.” Akins and other researchers hypothesized that real-time biofeedback could provide instantaneous information on balance and gait adjustments, as well as improvements.
Smart glasses, which project a screen onto the lenses, would be an ideal technology to display and provide instant biofeedback, he said. To design a biofeedback interface for smart glasses, as well as to evaluate effectiveness at measuring participant performance, researchers used Epson Moverio BT-200 smart glasses and recruited 10 healthy participants. A control unit for the interface was placed in a belt that was secured to the lumbar spine.
An accelerometer control unit measured lumbar and lateral flexion. With the use of an Android application, researchers could display real-time biofeedback onto the lenses of the smart glasses, so data could be seen by the wearer. Researchers tested visual conditions with the participants wearing the interfaced belt as they performed balance and gait exercises under the following conditions: first, not wearing the glasses; then, wearing the glasses but receiving no biofeedback; and finally, wearing the glasses and receiving biofeedback.
According to Akins, participants reported a significant increase in root mean square values — calculated from angles sagittal and frontal planes to determine trunk angle magnitude from vertical — for two-limb stance when they wore the smart glasses and received biofeedback. Regarding gait, investigators found a significant decrease in flexion and lateral flexion root mean square values. They also found a significant decrease in gait velocity.
“This pilot study was an initial step to investigate balance and gait changes in response to augmented reality biofeedback,” Akins said. “In the future, research is needed to investigate the optimal kinematic or gait parameter, identify the most effective and preferred feedback modality, and investigate immediate and long-term effects in a pathological population.”
L’amministratore delegato di Apple, Tim Cook, nel corso del weekend ha preso parte ad un evento con la comunità tecnologica in Utah, ed ha fornito non poche indicazioni sui progetti futuri della società da lui diretta, in particolare su tutto ciò che riguarda la realtà virtuale ed aumentata.
Secondo Cook, proprio la realtà aumentata, o mista, decollerà e diventerà una parte fondamentale della società del futuro. Il CEO però sembra aver mostrato meno entusiasmo nei confronti di quella virtuale, che “sarà ancora importante, ma non quanto quella mista che diventerà diffusa come tre pasti al giorno”.
L’amministratore delegato però non ha condiviso alcuna notizia specifica sulla visione che ha Apple di queste nuove tecnologia, ma ha comunque dato delle indicazioni del modo attraverso cui la tecnologia dovrà presentarsi.
In primo luogo, dovrà essere integrata bene nei sistemi operativi, in quanto il supporto è cruciale. Dopo di che si dovrà lavorare sulla diffusione, dal momento che secondo lo stesso avrà lo stesso impatto dei primi smartphone, ed in futuro non potremo più vivere senza.
Non è la prima volta che Cook parla della realtà virtuale ed aumentata, già in passato aveva discusso dei piani della Mela a riguardo, ma anche allora non aveva fornito nessuna indicazione sui dispositivi. L’intervista integrale è disponibile in calce alla notizia.
Il paradigma è cambiato: non è più necessario cercare le informazioni, sono esse che ci trovano grazie all’IoT e a nuovi dispositivi come gli smartglass Epson Moverio
UXCON16, organizzata da SketchIn, società di consulenza strategica, è la conferenza che offre alle aziende un’occasione di confronto sul futuro del business e non solo. Al suo interno, sarà Mauro Rubin, uno dei massimi esperti italiani di realtà aumentata, a illustrare, insieme ad Epson, le nuove frontiere dell’industria.
La conferenza si terrà il 30 settembre a Brescia all’interno della manifestazione Supernova e durante il suo intervento, Rubin spiegherà come i nuovi trend e le tecnologie più innovative stiano trasformando radicalmente lo scenario industriale; insieme a lui, la responsabile Visual Instruments di Epson Italia, Carla Conca, illustrerà come gli smartglass Moverio siano fra i protagonisti di questa rivoluzione.
In particolare, ciò che spinge l’innovazione è un ecosistema in cui una nuova generazione di software adattabili può percepire l’ambiente e collegare l’utente con lo spazio circostante, riconoscendo eventi rilevanti e fornendo previsioni sulle esigenze future. E’ quello che si chiama Context Computing Ecosystem e che sta cambiando rapidamente il paradigma di interazione tra utente e informazioni.
“L’informazione – afferma Mauro Rubin, presidente di JoinPad e Moverio Evangelist di Epson Italia – deve raggiungere l’utente nel posto giusto, al momento giusto, per il giusto scopo. Realtà aumentata e dispositivi indossabili come gli smartglass Epson Moverio sono i punti chiave di questo sistema: approfittare di questi strumenti è fondamentale per lo sviluppo di strategie e per raggiungere nuove opportunità di business.”
Un nuovo approccio al software: più dati significherà maggior valore per le aziende
Oggi ci troviamo in un momento in cui sta avvenendo un cambiamento netto nello scenario industriale: sta nascendo una nuova generazione di software che si adatta al contesto in modo completamente nuovo rispetto ai software di vecchia generazione, poiché percepisce l’ambiente circostante e fornisce importanti dati come la posizione di un oggetto, il luogo in cui si trova, la sua forma e molto altro. Questi software producono una quantità di nuove informazioni che permettono di cambiare le carte in tavola nei processi industriali, poiché offrono un importante miglioramento sui processi facendo risparmiare soldi e tempo nella produzione, nella logistica, nella manutenzione: essendo adattabili, questi software possono essere utilizzati in diversi ambienti a seconda delle esigenze, offrendo un nuovo pattern di dati che può essere integrato con i vecchi software per una gestione completa del lavoro.
“La rivoluzione è già in atto”, spiega Rubin. “Sta alle aziende decidere se adottare per prime queste soluzioni, con il vantaggio di essere “pionieri” rispetto ai competitor. Non va inoltre sottovalutato l’aspetto patrimoniale, poiché il valore dei dati generati da questi software sta per essere capitalizzato da nuove normative e potrà essere presto messo a bilancio dalle società, senza contare il ritorno di investimento immediato offerto dalla semplificazione dei processi.”
Epson Moverio, gli smartglass che fanno la differenza
L’uso della realtà aumentata e dell’Internet of Things nel settore industriale è già una realtà. Molte importanti aziende del settore energetico, manifatturiero, petrolchimico e logistico stanno già implementando progetti che si basano sulla realtà aumentata e sull’IoT, grazie ad Epson che offre la più ricca gamma di occhiali intelligenti sul mercato: i diversi modelli, adattabili alle più svariate esigenze, permettono di fruire rapidamente delle informazioni per semplificare e ottimizzare i processi industriali.
London artist Keiichi Matsuda has a jarringly dystopian view of the future. In his concept film "Hyper-Reality," he shows what it could one day be like to do mundane tasks using an augmented-reality interface that looks like a cross between Google Glass and Marvel's fictional J.A.R.V.I.S.
In the film, the protagonist rides a bus and gets groceries in Medellín, Colombia, but it's much more complicated than that. Viewers watch from her perspective as she's bombarded by gamified activities, deal notifications, branded pop-up windows, customer service messages, and of course, advertisements. If you've ever found yourself annoyed by a commercial aspect of the internet, "Hyper-Reality" is sure to make you feel anxious.
Dopo la bufera per il prezzo di lancio di Oculus Rift, qualche considerazione a freddo sulle esperienze virtuali disponibili oggi. E su quelle che ci aspettano
Tanto tuonò che piovve. Virtualmente, sia chiaro. Mentre rimane difficile sapere se sarà Oculus Rift a traghettarci in massa verso lidi immersivi a 360 gradi, è il prezzo dell’headset virtuale di Facebook – 599 dollari per gli States, 742 euro tasse e spedizione incluse dalle nostre parti – a produrre la prima rivoluzione fra il pubblico, in subbuglio dopo l’annuncio: un costo non alla portata di ogni tasca, cui va sommato quello di un computer dai requisiti minimi non proprio minimali, quantificabili fra i 1000 e i 1500 euro aggiuntivi.
Per farla breve, oggi il biglietto per immergersi nel futuro sintetico costa quasi 2mila euro. Confort di alta gamma non compresi nel prezzo.
Eppure, nonostante anche le impressioni di Wired non siano univoche – si passa dall’ottimismo dell’edizione americana ai nostri toni più prudenti – pare che tutti concordino sul fatto che liquidare il Rift spacciandolo per l’ennesima chimera del virtuale sia una bocciatura quantomeno frettolosa.
E non tanto perché sulle superbe potenzialità economiche dell’infante, analisti e attori in gioco convengano (Cta e Gfk prevedono che, nel solo 2016, il fatturato globale della VR toccherà i 540 milioni di euro, una crescita del 440% anno su anno); piuttosto perché a prescindere dal Rift, dal Vive Pre (in uscita ad aprile e con un prezzo che le ipotesi vorrebbero sui 1500 euro), da PlayStation VR (800 euro secondo un leak di Amazon Canada, smentito da Sony), ebbene a prescindere da qualsiasi visore magari ancora da progettare, una e una sola cosa è certa: il nostro domani sarà virtuale. E almeno aumentato.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
La quotidianità sarà sempre più pervasa da contenuti alternativi o integrati di qualsiasi tipo, ma comunque immateriali. Si tratti di un altrove – VR –, o di qualcosa sovrapposto al circostante – AR -, pensare a un mondo in cui materico e digitale siano separati sarà retaggio d’altri tempi. Non è un caso aumentino gli psicologi che, come Matteo Lancini nel suo Adolescenti navigati (Erickson), fanno notare quanto i più giovani percepiscano le propaggini digitali come un continuum con la propria identità, meglio un evidente “prolungamento del sé”.
Lungi dalle premonizioni, la cosa appare una logica conseguenza di quanto testato negli ultimi 2 anni. E soprattutto di quanto fatto intravedere da aggeggi ancora acerbi e dall’appeal massivo tutto da dimostrare.
Vero, Oculus potrebbe non essere il nostro Virgilio fra le lande virtuali, ma Caronte lo è di sicuro. Senza gli occhialoni concepiti dal 23enne in infradito di Long Beach, lungi dal tornare fra i trend tecnologici più chiacchierati del mondo, realtà virtuale e aumentata sarebbero rimaste quella chimera pseudo-scientifica di mezzo secolo fa, tradotta in hardware da esperimenti grotteschi. O un’oscura tecnologia maneggiata tuttalpiù dall’esercito e, ça va sans dire, dall’industria del porno.
Ecco perché qui di seguito raggruppiamo le 5 esperienze virtuali più interessanti al momento. Non tanto le più belle e meglio realizzate, sia chiaro: piuttosto, quelle che anche in fieri dimostrano come potranno trasformarsi alcune nostre certezze.
Che i videogiochi predicano il futuro si è ribadito più volte. È dunque opportuno partire da loro per immaginare l’impatto delle nuove tecnologie visive, soprattutto perché proprio dall’ambito ludico queste hanno mosso i loro nuovi passi verso la conquista del mondo. Nondimeno, perché proprio a una frazione di giocatori Luckey si è detto interessato almeno nella prima fase di diffusione dei suoi occhiali.
Se e quando quella porzione possa diventare la totalità per poi estendersi a tutti è il dilemma dell’industria. E i pareri sono antitetici, come dimostrano da un lato gli entusiasmi di Sony, Valve, Microsoft e pure Google, e di contro la reticenza di colossi come Electronic Arts, che per almeno 2 anni, ha dichiarato, non crederà ad alcun miraggio virtuale.
Tant’è, già oggi titoli come l’italiano Assetto corsa, o la simulazione spaziale di Frontier Developments, Elite: Dangerous – attualmente la miglior esperienza fruibile via Oculus –, sono la prova di come generi classici possano rinascere grazie a un visore VR, e offrire esperienze senza precedenti né paragoni in quanto a immersività, divertimento e percezione.
Sembra allora già doveroso criticizzare l’impatto percettivo di “videogame a 360 gradi”, soprattutto se – come per esempio dimostrato da Star Citizen – i giochi promettono di riscrivere le dinamiche di community online, o di generare transazioni reali e mercati grigi mai così verosimili, insomma di avere conseguenze più umane dell’umano: a un anno dalla sua pubblicazione, l’universo spaziale creato da Cloud Imperium già alimenta compravendite di mezzi digitali a tiratura limitata, contrattazioni su servizi in game, o forme di associazionismo sintetico “in anticipo”, delineando orizzonti relazionali tutti da scoprire. E di cui sarà necessario valutare l’impatto soprattutto sul pubblico più giovane.
Che cosa accomuna i Dallas Cowboys, i San Jose Sharks e un pilota di mech corazzati? Tutti e tre rivelano quanto domani sport e universi sintetici saranno non solo contigui, ma sempre più sovrapposti. Talvolta indistinguibili.
L’anno scorso, i mastini di Dallas sono stati la prima squadra professionistica a utilizzare caschetti virtuali per allenarsi. Merito di StriVRLabs, compagnia fondata dagli ex giocatori Nlf Derek Belch e Trent Edwards insieme con Jeremy Bailenson, attuale direttore del Virtual Human Interaction Lab della Stanford University, con lo scopo di affinare la pratica sportiva tutelando l’incolumità degli atleti. In altri termini permettendo il perfezionamento degli schemi di gioco senza che i campioni ci rimettano l’osso del collo.
Di più hanno fatto Otoy, New Deal Studios e Immersive Media, che ad aprile 2014 avevano permesso per la prima volta ai possessori di Oculus o Gear VR di vedere in diretta i San Jose Sharks contro i Los Angeles Kings da qualsiasi posto in arena preferissero, linea di porta e panchina delle riserve comprese. Il tutto rimanendo comodamente seduti in poltrona, a casa propria. Un’anteprima di come, presto, anche il ruolo dello spettatore potrebbe rinnovarsi.
A tal proposito, Rigs – Mechanized Combat League promette di essere la sintesi fra nuovi modi di praticare lo sport e tifarlo. Il tripla A in produzione per Guerrilla Cambridge non solo consentirà di vivere in prima persona e attraverso PlayStation VR una nuova disciplina in grado di mescolare calcio, pallacanestro e tiro al bersaglio corazzato – i giocatori competono pilotando robot di 3 metri super armati; a detta del suo game director, Piers Jackson, sarà uno spettacolo coinvolgente come pochi, qualcosa di divertente anche solo da guardare. Come i migliori sport “tradizionali”. Un cocktail futuribile – e buonissimo – di agonismo, tecnologia e spettacolo. La fusione definitiva di eSport ed esperienza in prima persona, si sia atleti in campo o tifosi sul divano.
Per non dire dell’intrattenimento audiovisivo
Non che per cinema o musica la voglia di essere dentro l’esperienza sia da meno. Lo suggeriscono gli accordi di Facebook con 20th Century Fox, che al lancio del visore renderanno disponibile su Oculus Store un centinaio di titoli della major (fra cui Alien, Die Hard o Cast Away), così come la volontà di produrre – si vedano il recente The Walk di Robert Zemeckis, ma anche un progetto simile dedicato a The Martian di Ridley Scott – intere sequenze fruibili a 360 gradi.
In ambito musicale, le riprese dei concerti di Paul McCartney o dei Coldplay realizzate da JauntVr o NextVr sono il corrispettivo della pulsione al protagonismo celebrata da Guitar Hero Live, ultimo nato in casa FreeStyleGames. Il titolo rinvigorisce la serie di Harmonix Music Systems titillando, attraverso l’esperienza in soggettiva e la condivisione in rete, le più intime fantasie da rockstar dell’utente. Non è un caso se lo sviluppatore si sia detto molto interessato ai futuri orizzonti della realtà virtuale.
Non solo; progetti come The Nepal Quake Project, una testimonianza da dentro la tragedia commentata da Susan Sarandon e realizzata dalla media company Ryot, dimostrano come anche il giornalismo potrebbe ricalibrarsi sul desiderio condiviso di vivere i fatti più che di sentirseli raccontare. Il “New York Times” ha già spedito ai suoi lettori un Google Card Board.
A scuola, dal medico al museo. Non che sia obbligatorio divertirsi
L’intrattenimento, in effetti, sembra solo un ambito di un futuro fatto di virtualità stereoscopica. E, a dirla tutta, nemmeno quello principale. Lo scorso settembre nientemeno che la Sorbonne ha ospitato il gotha mondiale della realtà aumentata e virtuale: studiosi, filosofi, sviluppatori, inventori. La quattro giorni, ribattezzata Immersion 2015, itinerante e da anni organizzata dal movimento internazionale immersiveeducation.org, è l’apice di una sensibilità sempre più spiccata nei confronti di quanto ar, vr, intelligenza artificiale e robotica possano produrre se integrate.
Senza toccare vette accademiche, progetti come Relive – Future of Health Award 2012, oggi gratuito su Steam -, The Apollo 11 Experience, ma anche la collaborazione fra il duo di artisti digitali Streamcolors e il museo milanese Poldi Pezzoli – che inventa un nuovo modo di visitare spazi e collezioni e che ha a che fare con la virtualità tridimensionale solo in nuce – lo ribadiscono: lungi dal farci giocare a Farmville o Minecraft in 3d, o dal trasformarci in piloti galattici con Eve: Valkyrie – il gioco compreso bel bundle iniziale di Oculus -, ci ritroveremo realtà virtuale e aumentata in ogni ambito del nostro tran tran quotidiano.
Dalla guerra al porno: con tutta la tua vita in mezzo.
E a chi, ancora scettico, non credesse allo Smart Helmet per operai del futuro presentato due settimane fa al CES da Daqri – 9 telecamere incorporate e un chip Intel per elaborare informazioni sovrapposte alla realtà lavorativa di ogni giorno – non rimarrebbe che consigliare una panoramica sulle due industrie più all’avanguardia di tutte: quella militare e il porno.
Circa la prima si rimanda a un reportage che ben più di anno fa raccontava novità da lasciare attoniti. Ai profeti del porno di certo sarà dedicata più di qualche riga prossimamente.
Mobile technology a hot topic, while big data and security take a back seat. The customer continues to be the brightest star in retail, according to presenters and exhibitors at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York this week.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
Retailers like Kroger and Macy’s presented sessions titled “Getting personal through customer science” and “Delivering personalized shopper journeys.” On the show floor, about 34,000 attendees experienced the latest and greatest in technology designed to help engage customers throughout the purchasing process.
Big data, which has been a strong theme at the show for the last few years, was less prevalent. Hershey’s and American grocer wholesaler Supervalu shared an interesting business case on micro-insights that allow retailers and suppliers to grow business by better understanding shopper motivations.
On the other hand, mobile technology and the concept of the connected consumer was a hot topic. Payment is increasingly added to the mobile conversation, as applications that make transactions easier are being developed and offered to consumer.
Retailers are also seeing benefits from providing unique experiences for their customers, even if those experiences don’t directly lead to a sale. Outreach effort is a critical way to stay relevant to the consumer.
For instance, it may seem counter-intuitive for a supermarket retailer to offer free yoga classes when they don’t typically sell mats or apparel, but these kinds of experiences are becoming all the more important as millennials choose to forgo traditional shopping trips in favour of shopping online.
One session at the conference gave the example of Target’s Cartwheel app, with which shoppers receive personalized deals based on their shopping history and can scan products while in store to see if there are deals available. The presenter, Google’s retail industry director Julie Krueger, said it was a “wonderful way to reward customers and add a little thing to the shopping experience.”
As always, there were a few real innovations presented. Augmented reality, for one, can be best described as incorporating stock images into an actual view on a digital device. For example, adding stock decorations from a catalog to a dinner table for a consumer or enhancing a store aisle set with images of new products or signage. IBM has an app that uses augmented reality technology to provide shoppers with personalized information while browsing the shelves.
Gamification is used by retailers to make otherwise onerous tasks like training and labour scheduling fun. LevelsPro, a start-up from Brooklyn, provides technology that helps retailers engage their employees through the playing of games that provide incentives to work smarter.
One interesting no-show at NRF this year was enterprise security. Last year, after a series of spectacular data breaches, dozens of vendors were promoting the safety of their systems and several more were presenting specific applications that addressed issues like payment fraud and cyber attacks. This year, the issue was barely discussed in the sessions and only a few exhibiters had signage on their booths around the issue, even as cloud solutions that have long worried retailers and other in terms of security have proliferated.
Apple's latest hire hints that it's exploring VR technology. Apple has added another notable name in the virtual reality industry to its team.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company recently hired VR expert Doug Bowman from Virginia Tech, The Financial Times reported, which TIME has confirmed. Bowman worked at the university as a computer science professor, also serving as director of the institute’s Center for Human-Computer Interaction.
Bowman is an accomplished researcher in the virtual reality space, having received the 2014 Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee technical achievement award from the Institute of of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
The hire is Apple’s latest move signaling it’s exploring possibilities around virtual reality. Apple last year poached a key audio engineer from Microsoft’s HoloLens team, which Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster first pointed out in a research note from August. In May of last year, Apple acquired augmented reality startup Metaio, and in November it purchased motion-capture firm Faceshift.
Industry watchers speculate that the technologies developed by both of these companies could give Apple the assets necessary to create some type of augmented or virtual reality device.
Augmented reality gadgets, such as Microsoft HoloLens or Google Glass, overlay virtual images on top of the real world. Virtual reality differs from augmented reality in that it takes the viewer into a completely virtual environment.
Imagine that you are the Chief Security Officer for a large enterprise organisation and you suddenly find a small TV crew working its way through your offices, panning a video camera back and forth, recording who knows what: product schedules on white boards, financial reports lying about on desks, an org chart pinned to a wall, customer data displayed on screens - all sorts of confidential information.
There would be an audio track, as well, recording hallway conversations about customers, product problems, release schedules, sales probabilities - the possibilities are endless.
As CSO, you would probably scramble to grab any uniformed guards in the building and stop the TV crew in its tracks. You might, if possible, confiscate their recording. After all, if the recorded information were leaked, it could trigger all sorts of regulatory fines.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
Few organisations are likely to discover a local news team roaming through their building, but they are quite likely this year or next to have individuals capable of recording video and audio and taking pictures with wearable technology, such as the Google Glass.
And from a data security and governance point of view, the risk posed by these devices is just as great as that posed by an invasive TV crew.
In a typical office, healthcare facility, or manufacturing plant, confidential information is everywhere. It’s on desks. It’s on screens. It’s drawn out in bright colours on whiteboards in conference rooms.
True, someone could record this information with a smartphone camera, but in most offices taking pictures, especially of other people’s workspaces, is conspicuous. The unnerving element about wearables like Google Glass - the thing that earned the wearers of the consumer version of this product the sobriquet 'glassholes' - is that no one other than the wearer knows what is being recorded. The Glass wearer can trigger recordings with a simple glance, twitch, or remark.
Google has pulled its consumer version of Google Glass from the market. It is now releasing an enterprise version, and the product has genuine promise in fields such as healthcare and technical support.
Surgeons can wear Google Glass while receiving instructions and guidance in real time from medical device makers. Technicians can repair equipment in the field, consulting diagrams and documentation visible on their lenses while keeping their hands free.
The potential for wearables to improve patient care, reduce Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) for equipment providers and utility companies, and facilitate a range of other manual tasks all but guarantee that wearables will become more common in the enterprise.
But enterprises need to exercise caution in adopting these devices. They should establish security policies before putting wearable devices in use. And these policies should address at least four aspects of wearable technology.
First, enterprises should remind wearable users that the security and compliance rules already in force apply to wearables and their data. Recorded or transmitted data should therefore be managed with the same diligence and control as other sensitive data.
In addition, archives of recordings should be secured and audited. Also, to mitigate security risks, some locations and events may be ruled off-limits for wearables.
Second, enterprises should recognise that wearables are almost always networked devices capable of sending and receiving data over internal networks. Accordingly, wearables should be managed like other mobile devices gaining access to the network. As a result, network access should be tracked and suspicious network activities investigated.
Third, enterprises should be aware that many wearables can run third-party apps. Some of these apps might not be secure. Some might contain malware or harbour vulnerabilities that could give hackers access to internal networks and data.
Just as enterprise IT organisations vet the security of apps for smartphones and tablets, so should they vet the security of apps for wearables. They may even want to establish formal white lists and black lists for approved and disapproved apps.
Fourth, enterprises should consider establishing social protocols for the use of these devices. Employees may want to be notified before recording begins. Simple courtesy here might remove some of the discomfort that the consumer version of Google Glass engendered, when people in public places were not sure whether they were being recorded.
By thinking about security and compliance upfront, enterprises can ensure that wearables behave like a good pair of sunglasses: protecting what’s sensitive from exposure, while making it easier to act with discernment, even in adverse conditions.
2014 has certainly been the year for augmented reality. On September 8, exactly eight months after its launch, the augmented reality community met at the NUMA offices in Paris, to work together on approved priorities for action.
Since January 8, the members of this community have further developed the Plan for a New Industrial France by setting the priorities for action and defining the innovative applications associated with augmented reality. “The roadmap set out by the government at the beginning of 2014 was approved on June 4 by the steering committee chaired by the Minister,” says Vincent Marcatté, Director of Open Innovation at Orange Labs, chair of the Images & Networks cluster and lead on the augmented reality plan.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
At the meeting held on September 8, Vincent Marcatté outlined the main features of the current French landscape into which augmented reality is emerging: “there are clearly opportunities on the world market,” he explained. “But to make them happen, we need to facilitate meetings between the stakeholders who are experts in the technology and applications, and all the market sectors that will use augmented reality to boost their competitiveness. Augmented reality will feed into every sector of the economy.”
Laure Duchaussoy, from the DGE (The French Directorate General for Enterprise), emphasized: “Augmented reality will have a significant impact on practices in the cultural, industrial and health sectors, in e-education, digital content, online commerce, video games, etc., all of which are promising avenues for development. We need to build partnerships to make these initiatives a reality, and this is why we have recommended launching a call for expression of interest in setting up these new projects.”
Vincent Marcatté added: “It is also an issue of data sovereignty and it is essential that we are able to play a key role along the whole of the augmented reality value chain, from creating content, through mediation, to installing applications on new terminals. We need to pool our efforts to be more competitive, to speed up the technological switchover, to make more widespread use of augmented reality and to communicate our expertise and successes.” “This is what will kickstart this sector,” he concludes.
Dopo la loro presentazione ufficiale avvenuta alcuni anni fa e l'entusiasmo iniziale dei consumatori che pensavano di trovarsi di fronte a qualcosa di eccezionale, si è assistito nel corso degli anni ad un interesse sempre inferiore nei confronti dei Google Glass da parte dei consumatori, che ha portato il colosso di Mountain View a chiudere il programma Explorer e ripensare dal principio il progetto rispetto agli obiettivi iniziali.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
I nuovi Google Glass sono quindi in lavorazione presso un team dedicato nei laboratori Google X, guidato da Tony Fadell. E in attesa di conferme ufficiali, alcune interessanti indiscrezioni sembrano confermare dettagli sul futuro del progetto che avrebbe preso una strada diversa.
Le indiscrezioni arrivano da un documento che mostrerebbe un prodotto misterioso, identificato con il codice FCC ID A4R-GG1, presentato da Google alla Federal Communications Commission, che identificherebbe proprio il prossimo modello di Google Glass.
Tra le caratteristiche citate il supporto alle reti Wi-fi, Bluetooth Le, presa USB, batteria ricaricabile e supporto allo streaming video.
In tal senso, la Enterprise Edition dei Google Glass, potrebbe riferirsi ad un modello degli occhiali destinato al mercato aziendale, confermando quindi le voci che vedrebbero Google impegnata a realizzare un prodotto non più pensato per il mercato di massa, ma esclusivamente per aziende e professionisti.
Non è una possibilità remota se si considera che i risultati migliori ottenuti dai Google Glass nel corso del programma Explorer sono arrivati proprio dall'adozione nel settore medico, ad esempio durante operazioni chirurgiche e non solo.
At the NeuroGaming Conference, an expert panel was there to discuss the future of augmented reality. There were a lot of discussions regarding how augmented reality technology could grow and affect our social lives. In a world where people are almost always connected to their smartphones, socializing has stopped. Our lives now revolve around our phones and we interact with others mainly through these devices. Even our postures are getting affected with this constant interaction. Let us have a look at what some of the panelists had to say about augmented reality potential.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
Brian Selzer, Daqri VP of business development, said in the conference “I think it’s a natural evolution that we will all be wearing some lightweight, head-mounted display in the far future.”
This inevitable future was also supported by majority of the panelists. Virtual reality involves strapping a pair of goggles to our head and getting completely immersed in the virtual world. But augmented reality shows both the virtual and the real world to the users with devices like Google Glass, Microsoft HoloLens, etc.
This makes it tough for developing augmented reality experience for the consumers as the technology is not limited to a controlled, virtual environment.
Selzer said “A lot of the use cases [today] usually have an understanding of the environment beforehand. You’re in a classroom, you’re on a factory floor, you know what the lights are like, and you can design and craft the environment to support that experience. If you’re out in the real world, that’s where it gets challenging: Day, night, lots of trees, reflective glass, all that kind of stuff.”
Augmented Reality will Continue to Develop
Despite the difficulty, augmented reality will continue to develop. In fact Digi-Capital had recently predicted that by 2020, AR could be four times bigger than VR as it aligns with the developing mobile ecosystem. Rony Abovitz, the CEO of Magic Leap thinks that AR glasses could even replace all computing devices, including smartphones one day.
Many panelists believe that augmented reality could help us get past the phone-addicted slouching phase and overcome the social limitations.
Conor Russomanno, the CEO of OpenBCI said he saw a distinctive change in the behavior of his fellow subway riders when he rode New York’s M Train from Manhattan into Brooklyn the first time. This change in behavior was seen when the train moved above ground.
He said “Most of the time on the subway, it’s the only time you’re walking around in public and looking at people’s faces. But the M Train, you’re going over the bridge, and everyone’s down, staring at their phones.”
Dave Chavez, the CTO of ZSpace said “I think the Apple Watch is like that, in a way, where you’re not stuck looking at [your phone],” Chavez said. “I think we want to look at each other and interact with each other because that’s how we’ve evolved for however long it’s been. That’s too much of a barrier, to be looking at your phone while you’re at dinner.”
So, we can hope a future where we are not slouched and busy typing away on our smartphones. With immersive augmented reality our postures and our social lives could be fixed.
Tra qualche tempo potrai infatti usare occhiali a realtà aumentata per individuare eventuali danni alla tua auto. Merito della Texa, azienda specializzata nella produzione di strumenti per la diagnosi del settore automobilistico, che ha vinto due riconoscimenti nei settori Electronics & Systems e Repair & Diagnostics all’Automechanika Innovation Award 2014 di Francoforte.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
Riparare l’auto con la realtà aumentata?
Uno di questi premi (quello della sezione riparazioni e diagnosi) è stato conferito per il lavoro svolto sulla realtà aumentata. L’idea della Texa, infatti, è futuristica: produrre occhiali capaci di interfacciarsi via rete telefonica wireless con l’automobile. Spettacolare. Ma – in poche parole – a cosa servono questi occhiali?
Questo tool potrebbero essere particolarmente utile ai meccanici per avere sotto controllo tutte le informazioni per riparare il veicolo. Il vantaggio sarebbe immediato: risparmio di tempo, facilità di azione nelle zone anguste e capacità dell’operatore di mantenere alta l’attenzione.
Gli occhiali, infatti, rispondono al comando vocale e possono visualizzare in tempo reale le informazioni richieste ed eventuali pericoli. Ecco come e perché l’Epson BT-200, ovvero il primo Head Mounted Display destinato al mondo delle officine, può migliorare il lavoro dei meccanici.
Intel is joining the hordes of tech companies hopping on the augmented reality bandwagon by snapping up a 30% stake in the smart-glasses manufacturer Vuzix.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
The U.S.-based chip-builder has shelled out $24.8 million in an attempt to position itself on the cutting edge of the wearables industry.
The cash injection was announced this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Vuzix is exhibiting new products, including a pair of video glasses designed to ship with the Nvidia Shield handheld gaming device.
In addition to stock in the company, Intel’s investment allows it to appoint two added members to the company’s board of five directors. According to Vuzix, the money will allow it to "accelerate the introduction of next generation fashion-based wearable display products into the consumer market."
Intel has been interested in wearables for a while. In addition to incorporating its processors into Google Glass, and partnering with Luxottica to build high-tech glasses, this 30% stake in Vuzix gives Intel an added foothold in the nascent—but very exciting—smart-glasses industry.
The launch of Pokémon Go this summer was a huge success—both for the gaming industry and for Augmented Reality (AR). After launching in July 2016, the game hit its peak in August of almost 45 million users. Despite the fact that Niantic, the American software development company that developed Pokémon Go, has failed to maintain high levels of engagement on the game (its current user base is now 30 million users), the phenomenon demonstrated AR’s potential to be adopted by mainstream culture.
In a previous piece I discussed why some AR apps are destined to be forgotten as gimmicks, and what mistakes marketers should avoid when trying to deploy them. But it is just as important to ask: What has contributed to AR’s increasing success?
Aside from complex technological advances (e.g., mobile devices are now powerful enough to handle AR software and tracking systems), three other elements have enabled the mass adoption of AR apps: 1) meaningful content, 2) convincing and realistic interaction of the virtual with the physical environment, and 3) unique value that goes beyond what other technologies deliver.
Pokémon Go hits all of these targets, and it offers useful direction for designing future AR games. But it also has implications for areas outside of entertainment, such as marketing, fashion, tourism, and retail, where commercial AR apps have already been increasing in numbers and popularity. This growing presence of AR results from a long trajectory of development that has been full of hits and misses. Understanding this timeline is crucial, as it highlights the value that AR can offer in various contexts.
Phase 1: Attention-grabbing early efforts The first AR technology was developed in 1968 at Harvard when computer scientist Ivan Sutherland (named the “father of computer graphics”) created an AR head-mounted display system. In the following decades, lab universities, companies, and national agencies further advanced AR for wearables and digital displays. These early systems superimposed virtual information on the physical environment (e.g., overlaying a terrain with geolocal information), and allowed simulations that were used for aviation, military and industrial purposes.
The first commercial AR application appeared in 2008. It was developed for advertising purposes by German agencies in Munich. They designed a printed magazine ad of a model BMW Mini, which, when held in front of a computer’s camera, also appeared on the screen. Because the virtual model was connected to markers on the physical ad, a user was able to control the car on the screen and move it around to view different angles, simply by manipulating the piece of paper. The application was one of the first marketing campaigns that allowed interaction with a digital model in real time.
Other brands started adopting this idea of situating content on a screen and having consumers interact with it through physical tracking markers. We start seeing more advanced versions by brands such as National Geographic in 2011, which showed rare or extinct animal species as if they were walking through a shopping mall; Coca-Cola in 2013, which also simulated environmental problems, such as ice melting right beside you in a shopping mall; and Disney in 2011, which showed cartoon characters on a large screen in Times Square interacting with people on the street.
In each of these examples, the AR technology was used to engage customers at events or in public spaces. These types of displays aren’t always scalable, as they require considerable investment—but we still see them today. For instance, Skoda ran a campaign in 2015, placing an AR mirror in a Victoria railway station in London, so that people passing by could customize a car and then see themselves driving it on a large screen.
Phase 2: Trying on products at home Simulating digital products, so that they interact with movements in the real world in real time (usually through paper printouts), was a popular approach to AR in the early 2010s, especially for watches and jewelry. This technology let people virtually “try on” a product. Even the Apple watch was available for a similar virtual try-on. However, the task of printing out and cutting a special paper model so that it could fit one’s finger or wrist has always been somewhat clunky, and it requires some effort from the consumer.
Much more successful apps are those that can offer a more seamless experience. Trying on products virtually, by instant face recognition, has been one of the most successful uses of AR in the commercial context so far, and make-up companies have been leading this use. Predecessors of this technology were websites that overlayed make-up on an uploaded photo or avatar. But AR mirrors, developed by agencies like Holition, ModiFace and Total Immersion, have allowed customers to overlay make-up on themselves in real-time. The technology behind this is highly sophisticated, as it requires adapting virtual make-up to an individual’s actual face. In order to create this personalization of virtual content—and make it seem real—the software uses 2D modeling technology and advanced face-tracking techniques. The effect delivers a highly perceived value: seeing one’s face augmented with make-up not only offers a more convenient and playful way to try it on, but also allows consumers to assess looks that they would not have been able to create themselves or to try on combinations that they would not have thought of. That can’t be delivered by simply uploading a photo to an app.
And this type of technology continues to advance. London-based AR agency Holition and agency Coty recently launched an AR app for the make-up company Rimmel, which lets a consumer scan the make-up of another person or an image and then immediately try that same look on his or her face. It takes the experience of look creation to a whole new level. Not surprisingly, the fashion industry has touted the technology, already picking up on its practicality, and consumer ratings for this type of AR apps keep increasing.
Phase 3: A broader range of uses Aside from try-ons, a rich body of research also shows that AR can be incredibly valuable for exploring various cultural, historical, and geographic aspects of an environment. This type of app typically operates on the basis of a user pointing his mobile device towards an object or a site, in order to see superimposed content on the screen.
Apps developed for tourism purposes started appearing in the 2000s, but initially they were predominantly created in university labs. They’ve only started to become more widely used in recent years, thanks to technological advancement and a better understanding of the consumer experience. For example, the Museum of London has an app that shows you how the particular London street you’re standing in used to look in the past—you just have to point your phone camera at it for the augmented version to appear on your screen. Similarly, apps designed for museum contexts let visitors get more information about famous paintings by overlaying a description over it on smartphone screens in real time. Then there’s also Google Translate, an app that lets you instantly translate a text, whether it’s on a sign or elsewhere, into a language you can read. And Google Sky Map can help you identify stars and planets if you just point your phone camera view toward the sky.
Research I conducted with Professor Yvonne Rogers and Dr. Ana Moutinho from University College London and with the English National Opera, suggests that AR apps could offer innovative support to cultural institutions as well. We observed how opera singers and theatrical make-up artists would take to virtual try-on apps: the AR mirror assisted singers as they were getting into character and building their roles; and make-up artists used it as a helpful tool for developing the artistic looks for each character. Visitors also interacted with the mirror to see what they’d look like as one of the operatic characters.
Each of these examples demonstrate how AR has distinctly evolved to complement and transform the way users experience products and their surroundings. And it will continue to advance as people come to expect more from it. Recent research I conducted with Dr. Chris Brauer of Goldsmiths, University of London, explored how this new generation of digital technologies are changing consumer experiences. Wearables and the Internet of Things have made consumers expect highly customized solutions and instant access to detailed personal data. And AR is reinforcing consumers’ appetite for compelling and creative visualizations of content.
However, our research has also shown that despite the increased use of such technologies, consumers are not yearning for the robotic digitization of their everyday lives. Rather, they want technologies that weave themselves seamlessly into their activities. Consumers expect their digital experience to be more human and empathic, to be filled with emotional content, to surprise them with serendipitous occurrences, to allow for reciprocity and interactivity, and to offer the option of personalized adaptations. As designers and marketers continue to craft AR experiences, it will become crucial to acquire better understanding which areas of human lives can be visually enhanced.
Per ora le applicazioni di realtà aumentata toccano smartphone tablet, in attesa di una flessione dei costi per i display indossabili
L’interesse per le soluzioni di realtà aumentata cresce ma, almeno nel prossimo futuro, a generare business saranno soprattutto le applicazioni in ambito business e meno in quello consumer. Lo indicano le rilevazioni di Juniper Research, secondo cui il boom di Pokemon Go ha certamente portato il tema della realtà aumentata all’attenzione di tutti ma è il settore enterprise a crescere: dai 515 milioni di dollari di investimenti stimati per quest’anno a 5,7 miliardi nel 2021.
Secondo Juniper la crescita del mercato è legata anche allo sviluppo tecnologico. In particolare il miglioramento delle caratteristiche dei display indossabili (HMD, Head Mounted Displays) per quanto riguarda l’ampiezza del campo visivo e la latenza delle immagini li rende alternative sempre più convincenti a soluzioni più classiche come smartphone e tablet. Questi comunque continueranno a catturare la maggiore fetta degli investimenti aziendali da qui al 2020.
Anche perché in campo HMD si parla quasi sempre di contenuti e piattaforme sviluppati ad hoc, il che ne aumenta i costi. È proprio il fattore costo a frenare la realtà aumentata nelle imprese, che per ora e per i prossimi due anni sarà ancora un tema da “early adopter”.
Lo stesso vale per il segmento consumer. Gli HMD costano troppo e il canale preferenziale per la realtà aumentata restano smartphone e tablet. Nel mondo consumer mancano però le motivazioni di produttività che possono favorire l’AR nel mondo business, il che deve spingere gli sviluppatori a una innovazione continua nei contenuti che tenga alto l’interesse dei consumatori.
Non è più fantascienza, il primo computer olografico è già realtà e non c’è limite alle cose che l’intelligenza artificiale potrà realizzare in un futuro sempre più “prossimo” al presente. Ma per il momento limitiamoci al modo in cui Microsoft HoloLens potrà modificare la professione infermieristica e le cure ai pazienti.
Sono sempre di più i colossi dell’informatica che investono in intelligenza artificiale e salute, IBM con Watson Health è già balzato agli onori della cronaca in queste ultime settimane, per essere riuscito nel difficile compito di diagnosticare un raro caso di leucemia ad una donna del sol levante e nell’aver proposto contestualmente la terapia più appropriata.
Anche Apple ha già realizzato apparecchi medicali sofisticati, dei veri e propri moduli aggiuntivi (Skinvision) per i propri iPhone, che riescono a trasformare un semplice smartphone in un apparecchio in grado di rilevare un melanoma, con un margine di errore inferiore al 10 %, ed inferiore anche rispetto al margine di errore di un bravo dermatologo.
Microsoft Hololens sarà di grande aiuto nel realizzare:
Formazione infermieristica:
HoloLens consentirà di fare formazione come mai fatto prima. Dallo studio del corpo umano alla dissezione dei cadaveri (negli USA è, anche così, che gli studenti di infermieristica studiano l’anatomia e la fisiologia). La realtà virtuale permetterà di simulare infiniti scenari di assistenza. Alcune abilità, come imparare ad inserire un sondino naso gastrico o un catetere vescicale, posizionare un PICC line potranno essere acquisite virtualmente, con l’aiuto dei docenti che passo dopo passo potranno far da guida, grazie a ciò che vedranno attraverso le lenti dei loro studenti.
Formazione per i disastri:
HoloLens creando scenari realistici darà modo agli infermieri di esercitarsi nel dare una risposta concreta in caso di disastri come un terremoto, attacchi terroristici, disastri aerei o di vario tipo. Telemedicina: il modo in cui gli infermieri hanno sempre inteso la telemedicina non avrà più senso di esistere. Non più paziente ed infermiere dietro ad uno schermo, con la propria visione del mondo che li circonda. Con HoloLens sarà possibile per l’infermiere interagire con il paziente nel suo ambiente in maniera assai realistica.
Risposta alle emergenze:
chiamare il 911 o l’equivalente italiano del 118 o 112 potrà voler dire per i soccorritori vedere immediatamente la situazione. Quando ogni minuto conta, HoloLens permetterà ai clinici di dare le giuste indicazioni, in attesa del loro arrivo.
Favorire la comprensione:
i pazienti potranno usare HoloLens per esprimere se stessi. Uno schizofrenico potrà rendere il suo mondo interiore e lasciare che un infermiere veda lo struggimento che prova e le immagini terribili che visualizza e senta le voci agghiaccianti, sviluppando un modo di dare assistenza realmente empatico.
Educazione al paziente:
HoloLens consentirà agli infermieri di educare con efficacia ed in maniera personalizzata i propri pazienti. Insegnare ad un bambino ad utilizzare il proprio spray diventerà più semplice e divertente. Spiegare in maniera semplice le procedure sarà altrettanto facile. La comunicazione efficace e la visualizzazione di ciò che accadrà renderà il paziente più compliante e saranno migliori gli esiti di cura.
Protesi personalizzate:
Le protesi del futuro potranno essere fatte su misura utilizzando questa tecnologia, che sarà la base per la realizzazione delle stesse, grazie a stampanti 3D. Questo percorso appena cominciato, nel futuro prossimo della tecnologia, sarà sempre più al servizio dell’assistenza e gli infermieri sapranno certamente farne un buon uso.
Se la tecnologia e l’intelligenza artificiale verranno messe al servizio dell’assistenza per migliorare l’erogazione delle cure, non c’è limite alle cose che potremmo riuscire a fare, mi auguro semplicemente che non sostituiscano mai l’autenticità di un rapporto, quello tra paziente-infermiere, che è ciò che rende il nostro lavoro non soltanto un lavoro, ma un gran bel lavoro.
"Virtual reality will grow, just as the telegraph grew to the telephone—as the radio to the TV—it will be everywhere."
While the above quote may sound like it was pulled from a recent analyst report on the emergence of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), it's from the 1992 film The Lawnmower Man, a reminder of the last flurry of interest and activity in the VR space that fizzled out nearly as quickly as it captured public attention. Recently, interest has been rekindled in AR and VR, and you could be forgiven for feeling that we've all seen these prognostications before and can safely ignore this technology once again.
What are augmented and virtual reality?
Like most emerging technologies, there is some confusion and overlap to the terms augmented reality and virtual reality. At a basic level, AR entails the presentation of digital information as an overlay on your visual reality. Consider a car that projects maps and directions onto the windshield, augmenting your view of the road with information about traffic and the next turn.
A more sophisticated AR could also display objects with which you can manipulate and interact. For example, a consumer might use AR glasses to display a new couch in his living room, and then use his hand to move the virtual couch around the room, change its color, or swipe between different styles of furniture. VR suggests a more immersive experience, where one or more of your senses are provided with a computer-generated or cinematic reality.
A great and low-cost VR experience that uses your existing smartphone can be had with Mattel's new VR View-Master. Load the app, place your phone in the plastic View-Master, and you can be transported to space, Roman ruins, or an African savannah, with graphics that far exceed what we experienced in the 1990s, all for around 30 dollars.
The View-Master can also be used like a Google Cardboard device, so it's compatible with most Cardboard apps you might find in the Google Play store or the App Store. It's easy to see the applications in industry for these technologies. AR could allow a remote technician to phone a friend who can provide expert diagnostic assistance from across the world, or allow an assembly line inspector to view checklists and inspection manuals while looking at a part.
Designers and engineers could view and manipulate virtual 3D prototypes right from their desk, while an executive could have a live financial dashboard projected on her glasses as she reviews company performance. VR might seem like the more science fiction technology, yet there are also compelling applications. An engineer might virtually inhabit a robotic drone operating in a hazardous area, while a surgeon could practice a complex operation at the kitchen table.
Why now?
While these applications are exciting and interesting, in many cases they are similar to the applications of AR and VR being touted in the 1990s. It's easy to point to cheaper and better technology as the key difference, but we've been living with Moore's Law for decades, and it did nothing to stir VR from its dormancy until now. One contributing factor that's changed, however, is that most humans have now experienced a limited version of AR and VR in the guise of the smartphone. It may offend purists to suggest that the early BlackBerries were AR devices, but they essentially augmented our physical reality with digital information.
During the first predicted VR revolution, the idea of getting a phone call, let alone a picture or digital message from anyone at any time, was far-fetched, yet now it's routine to see whole families staring at screens while sitting at the dinner table. Without so much as an Oculus Rift or HoloLens, we've essentially been augmenting our reality for years. Moving the digital content we've been consuming from a smartphone to a wearable device is more like changing the channel than first experiencing television.
Despite some early failures like the consumer adoption of Google Glass, as these devices become lighter and less conspicuous, interacting with our digital world that's presented in our field of vision will ultimately replace the comparatively clunky smartphone.
What does this mean for IT leaders?
Despite the hoopla, the AR and VR revolutions are still in their infancy, except for some key functional roles, primarily in design, engineering, manufacturing, and field support. Rather than buying a dozen VR headsets, consider how your IT infrastructure will adapt and evolve to a state where IT is more about capturing, analyzing, and presenting data than building monolithic applications.
If you've been actively participating in the transition toward mobile devices, you're likely already thinking along these lines. The true asset of IT will be in the conclusions it can draw from massive amounts of data, and the presentation layer will ultimately become a personal decision of the data consumer. Start planning for this migration today, and you'll be prepared for whatever mobile, augmented, or virtual reality heads our way.
Other options superior for quality control, hazardous environments
A report from independent research and advisory firm Lux Research Inc. has identified Google Glass coming up short in many usage cases, with smart glasses like Sony’s SmartEyeglass and Osterhout Design Group’s R-7 better suited for the needs of industrial workers, customer service reps and quality control agents.
The report categorized more than 70 enterprise deployments of smart glasses, focusing on three aspects of core criteria – access to information, real-time communication, and documentation.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
“Google Glass is in the game only for real-time communication,” the report concludes. “Google Glass is a truly viable option only in real-time communication applications such as online sales support. Even there it faces competitors like Vuzix, which is the best fit in this segment -- light enough to be worn all day and meeting the need for live video streaming.”
We agree with the Lux Research report on a number of counts. Back in summer 2013, we were fortunate enough to be invited into Google’s Glass Explorer program, where we received a first-generation Glass unit with 1GB of RAM and running XE1 firmware. We tried out the device for the next couple months, working all the way up to the XE5 firmware, and couldn’t help but conclude that development progress for many critical features was taking way too long. Core functionality was also very “experimental” to say the least. In one example, sending a text message or tweet using voice recognition was risky because the API would not always predict correctly and there is no “backspace” button, thus requiring several voice attempts to finally send a correct message.
Before ending its Explorer Program in January 2015, the company ended its consumer development with XE22 firmware (released October 2014). Nearly twenty-two updates later, the latest release finally allowed Android users see their notifications on the Glass interface.
"As next-generation glasses such as Epson's Moverio BT-2000 and Meta Pro emerge, the field will become even more competitive, ending a period of high premiums for hardware. Software and service will become the primary way to maintain margins," said Tony Sun, Lux Research Analyst and lead author of the report titled, "Better Than Google Glass: Finding the Right Smart Glasses for Enterprise." the inevitability of augmented reality slide
While most of the 70 smart glasses evaluated by Lux Research are still in pilot programs, many of them are expected to be deployed for the needs of factory workers, distribution centers, oil fields, field services, aerospace, construction, healthcare, and other industries. In fact, Garner estimates that smart glasses may begin to save the field service industry $1 billion per year in 2017.
During its CES 2016 keynote, Intel unveiled a pair of smart glasses that can help wearers see inside objects, for example. The X-ray like glasses were co-developed by virtual reality firm Daqri and aim to increase safety, productivity and well-being of workers in a variety of industrial settings.
"Smartglasses with augmented reality (AR) and head-mounted cameras can increase the efficiency of technicians, engineers and other workers in field service, maintenance, healthcare and manufacturing roles," said Angela McIntyre, research director at Gartner. "In the next three to five years, the industry that is likely to experience the greatest benefit from smartglasses is field service, potentially increasing profits by $1 billion annually. The greatest savings in field service will come from diagnosing and fixing problems more quickly and without needing to bring additional experts to remote sites." Other examples of smart glasses for enterprise use include video collaboration with experts in remote locations for faster repairs. Gartner says employees at remote sites can communicate and share video with experienced workers to obtain advice on diagnosing and fixing local problems. In healthcare industries, the glasses can be used for telemedicine and expert consultations with doctors in remote areas for guidance on how to perform medical procedures.
Lux’s analysis concludes that ODG’s R-7 is the “best all-around device” because it is only one of few on the market that does not need a wired controller and meets industrial standards for hazardous environments. The report also concludes that Sony’s SmartEyeglass “stands out for customer service and quality control” because it is light, small and competitively priced. The device also comes in a close second place behind the Meta-1 for warehousing, assembly and installation work.
The technical challenges in streaming a 360 video is huge.
Facebook is preparing for a world in which video is no longer flat.
The social network’s push into virtual reality with its Oculus Rift along with similar initiatives by Microsoft and Google is expected to create a flood of video for the devices. Meanwhile, companies like GoPro FB 4.01% are developing cameras that people can use to film themselves in 360 degrees while skydiving and snowboarding.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
To deal with the likely influx of huge video files, Facebook has built its own streaming technology that it says will work quickly and without straining its data centers. The social network discussed some of that innovation at its video technology conference on Thursday, joined by prominent streaming services like Netflix NFLX -1.59% and YouTube.
Facebook executives spent a significant amount of time discussing 360 video, which lets viewers put themselves into the scene and gives them a view in any direction they choose. This 3-D view is considered to be an improvement over the two-dimensional video widely used today.
Three-D videos are closely related to virtual reality, albeit with slight differences, explained Jay Parikh in an interview with Fortune. Virtual reality is more immersive than 360 video in that people can interact with the content itself, he said. For example, in a virtual reality game like the upcoming Minecraft VR game, users can pick up objects and build towers in a virtual environment that seems to surround them.
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In anticipation of its users uploading 360 video to its servers, Facebook FB 4.01% has developed video processing and encoding techniques to help efficiently deliver the images. Because 360 video files are much bigger than for regular video, Facebook had to figure out a way to shrink them to reduce the load on its servers, said Facebook software engineer David Pio.
Part of the reason the files are so big is because of the way the 360 videos are formatted to accommodate the screens of computers and mobile devices. Think of 360 video as being a traditional rectangular image that is stretched and wrapped around an imaginary sphere, so that people can view it at different angles, Pio explained.
However, this creates some problems with how the video looks because some parts appear distorted as the image stretches to accommodate the sphere. Pio likened this to how land near the North and South Poles appears stretched on a globe and doesn’t accurately reflect its true size.
Additionally, stretching makes file sizes larger than they need to be. An excess of pixels end up having to be streamed.
To shave them off, Facebook instead decided to wrap the video around an imaginary square rather than a sphere. Essentially, each side of the square displays a portion of the 360 video and represents a different viewing perspective. Facebook’s video system then stitches the chunks back together and streams it without the distortion and excess imagery.
Facebook has worked on similar techniques to reduce the size of 360 videos when displayed through virtual reality devices like the Oculus. In this case, the 360 video files must be even bigger because the devices require files to be displayed at higher resolutions than traditional flat screens. This bulk results in file sizes that can lead to buffering, or long loading times, for people with slow Internet connections.
To solve this problem, Facebook developed a way to stream the 360 videos to VR devices that involves cutting the video into chunks. Only images in the viewer’s line of sight are streamed.
While gawking at a 360 video of the Eiffel Tower, for example, you’d want the monument to appear clearly while you may not care about how the buildings to the left look because they only appear in your peripheral vision. However, when you move your head, those buildings would appear sharper.
Facebook essentially cuts the video into 30 sections that represent different viewing perspectives of the scene. Additionally, each section has five different resolutions that Facebook’s servers can stream to viewers depending on their Internet connection.
In effect, Facebook’s system automatically streams the right viewing perspective of the video at its highest quality each time a person turns his or her head with the rest of the video streaming in chunks at lower qualities.
Many workplace scenarios require use of both hands to manipulate physical world objects. Having a display on the wrist or head (or both) with a variety of sensors and optional cloud services, offers attractive alternatives to tablets for supporting access to real time or contextual information.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
According to a Gartner Group report shared at the Enterprise Wearable Technology Summit (EWTS), sales of head-mounted displays will be greater in enterprise than consumers until at least 2020.
Unfortunately, the interest in enterprise wearable computing is not currently being addressed by consumer technology providers.
Connecting Those with Questions to Those with Experience
What are current enterprise customer requirements? What have enterprise wearable pioneers learned? What are enterprise customers’ best options today?
These were among the questions that the EWTS organizer, BrainXchange, set out to answer.
BrainXchange chose Houston for its inaugural event on October 20-21, 2015. The city is a business center for the oil and gas industry and is reachable from an international airport as well as from both coasts of the US.
Over 150 delegates from at least six countries gathered to hear from 60 speakers, including many veterans of the Google Glass Explorer program and vendors looking for new customers. The format offered plenty of networking in a convivial and relaxed atmosphere.
Criteria for Enterprise Wearable Success
There is wide agreement with the simple guidance that Joe White, VP and GM Enterprise Mobile Computing at Zebra Technologies offered during his opening remarks. White recommends that enterprises focus on systems that are:
- Technically sound
- Socially acceptable - Solve a problem
These criteria sound simple, but adhering to them requires careful research and planning. Many delegates at the summit who are shopping for wearable technologies don’t feel that the current commercial technology options are sufficiently mature for most of their use cases. One person confided that everything his team has evaluated to date “feels like a science project.”
Weight, balance and resolution remain significant technical obstacles but short battery life as a result of high power consumption continues to be high on the list of technology barriers.
One test of wearable display technology reliability is how well it performs in a live demo on stage. There were more videos than live demos, but Rafael Grossman, a highly promoted surgeon in the Google Glass Explorer program successfully demonstrated Atheer Labs’ AiR platform for the audience.
Another criteria added to White’s list over the course of the first day was cost. If devices are expensive to purchase and to operate or maintain, adoption and use will remain limited.
Regardless of the criteria and how firmly an organization wants to adhere to them, customers remain divided about what’s truly going to solve their problems. Some feel that their use cases require true Augmented Reality in enterprise. Others are, at least for the present, finding the “simple” delivery of live information or images to a wearable display (as currently done by Google Glass or Vuzix M-100) sufficient. In the opinion of those who use information “snacking” devices, real time registration and tracking of data in the real world are still expensive and technically difficult.
Connecting Remote Experts with those in the Field
Real time consultation between a remote expert and a person wearing a camera and display while performing difficult tasks is a highly compelling use case for most of the EWTS speakers. Although a few speakers mentioned their experience with AR-assisted remote assistance, the majority shared numerous and immediate benefits of having another “set of eyes” focused on a particular procedure.
For example, emergency medical technicians working on MedEx ambulances as part of the Google Glass Explorer program can transmit more information about injuries or patient conditions to emergency room staff ahead of their arrival at the hospital.
In another case study, a tradesperson working on a Rogers-O’Brien Construction job site can see and transmit the details of the job site and get guidance or feedback from an architect or supervisor in real time.
Some Industries Are Further Along
While the medical and construction industries were highly represented among the Enterprise Wearable Technology Summit speakers in Houston, some case studies and presentations highlighted the promise of wearable technology in the logistics industry. DHL and Ubimax described how they are working together to put their warehouse picking solution into production and conducting research on their next generation systems for pallet packing.
Energy production and distribution were also frequently mentioned. John Simmins of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), an AREA member, spoke of projects underway in some power generating facilities. Speakers from CenterPoint Energy and Sullivan Solar Power also attested they are actively exploring the use of wearables in their businesses.
Many Challenges Remain
An entire event could focus exclusively on expected and promised technology improvements. For example, uneven network coverage and issues preventing secure access to off-device content came up frequently. But, EWTS did not limit its scope to technology barriers.
Getting wearables into production requires companies in highly regulated industries such as healthcare and construction to educate decision makers and executives and to negotiate creation of many new policies. Those are both very lengthy and costly processes.
Complex regulatory environments are but one item in the list of business challenges.
Lack of trust is another significant obstacle to adoption. Large enterprises are looking for vendors that are on the one hand nimble and responsive to special requirements while on the other endowed with the financial resources to quickly ramp up production for large orders.
Despite these and other challenges, wearables continue to hold enormous promise and will increasingly demand the attention of enterprise technology buyers and users. We can expect these to be on the agenda at future BrainXchange summits. The company announced that it will produce its next event in June 2016 on the East Coast, although details were not provided.
Developers of Augmented Reality experiences select tools and technology for a project to match use case requirements. If the use case involves a page in a book or the side of a package, then in these cases 3D tracking is overkill. If the project accesses records in a company’s ERP, there must be plug-ins or a customization. If the customer needs reports (e.g., number of objects recognized, interaction of the user, etc.), then the platform needs to support their production. If the target is a movie poster, the security considerations are entirely different than if the target involves a proprietary industrial process.
After five years of Metaio’s dominance of the AR software provider landscape, developers’ options are changing dramatically. This post reviews the recent changes in this provider landscape, how these impact developers and suggests that those who license and purchase development tools could use this period of research and evaluation as an opportunity to communicate more clearly about their project requirements to all the tool and technology vendors.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
A Rapidly Changing Provider Landscape
In early 2015, Metaio’s ecosystem ranged from dedicated individuals producing one or two experiences, to Fortune 100 companies. Some were researchers designing prototypes; others were automotive industry giants like BMW and Audi who used Metaio’s robust tracking algorithms for precision engineering and design.
Then, in mid-May 2015, a message appeared on Metaio’s website saying that it would stop selling licenses immediately, and that support for its Augmented Reality services and software technologies would end on December 15 of the same year. The mysterious announcement took the company’s global developer ecosystem by surprise.
Many, if not most, of those developers’ authoring experiences for enterprise and industrial projects were using Metaio’s software tools. Metaio’s change in direction put developers in an uncomfortable position. Many were furious. Others expressed frustration. To this day there remain many questions about the circumstances that led to the announcement. Regardless of the changes to a company that the developer ecosystem had grown to trust, serious business issues remain:
What will happen to the channels published in a platform operated by Metaio?What will developers use in the place of Metaio’s tools?
Many developers are now doing what more could have done consistently over the previous years: investing their resources to evaluate other potential tools and technologies. The best developers will resume proposing projects to their customers once they have thoroughly tested the alternatives.
Gaps for Enterprise Augmented Reality
While there are alternate enterprise Augmented Reality technology providers with solutions and services worthy of evaluation (see table below), none offer the breadth and maturity, the professional documentation and support that Metaio provided for its SDK, Creator, Suite, Cloud and Continuous Visual Search matching system.
Metaio’s dominance wasn’t limited to breadth of offering and AR developer mind share. Among its peers, it probably also generated the greatest revenue from licensing its software tools and providing services. To deliver value to customers and drive development of its technology suite, Metaio employed over 75 of the world’s most qualified and experienced enterprise AR engineers.Table 1. Enterprise AR authoring providers and their products
Those that can have been furiously hiring engineers to write code and build out their teams and offerings but breadth and depth like what Metaio offered doesn’t happen in a matter of months.
Vuforia’s Focus on Consumer Use Cases
No one knows precisely how much of the Metaio developer ecosystem overlapped that of Qualcomm Vuforia, but anecdotal evidence suggests that developers who had use for both, leveraged their qualities for entirely different projects.
Vuforia is strongly optimized for delivery to consumers on smartphones: entertainment, cultural heritage, education and marketing use cases. For this reason, developers who explored its use for their enterprise or industrial projects did not place Vuforia’s current offerings at the top of their list of preferred enterprise-ready AR tools.
In an October 12 press release, PTC, a global provider of enterprise platforms and solutions for creating, operating, and servicing connected objects, announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire the Vuforia technology, and its developer ecosystem, from Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated.
The acquisition of Vuforia by PTC suggests that while Metaio technology is probably being integrated into a platform and tools for consumer-facing solutions, the tools most popular for consumer-facing AR experiences (i.e., the Vuforia SDK) will evolve to better meet the needs of developers seeking to address enterprise use cases.
The Landscape Continues to Evolve
The reversal of relative positions of the two popular Augmented Reality SDKs with respect to their target markets and one another is one of several trends.
First, the list of developer options is expanding. Firms that were previously quiet have the opportunity to engage with developers who are more interested in learning of their offers. Google is getting closer to its Glass at Work 2.0 release. Microsoft is showing HoloLens and the tools it has designed for authoring (aka “Holo Lens Studio”) to more developers.
Some firms with significant experience and investments in enterprise Augmented Reality are becoming more attractive, or at least more visible. For example, Diotasoft, a French technology provider with loyal enterprise customers including Renault, PSA Peugot Citroen, Total and Dassault Aviation announced a rebranding (the company is now called “Diota”) and launched a new platform for enterprise Augmented Reality.
Another trend is a shift in positioning. PTC and Vuforia’s statements in their October 12 press release emphasize where they see the greatest potential for impact. They draw a line between Augmented Reality and the need for people to visualize data stored in and managed by PTC’s Internet of Things-oriented systems. This echoes the suggestion made by Gerry Kim, professor at Korea University, in a meeting of the AR Community on October 6: Augmented Reality is the human interface for IoT.
As the number of options increases, so does the potential cost of integration. In a highly fragmented market one large enterprise could easily end up with solutions addressing different use cases based on multiple different and incompatible SDKs.
An Opportunity to Mandate Open Solutions
A unique opportunity lies in the middle of the increasing fragmentation and investment in new technology providers.
What if, instead of accepting the status quo of many competing and incompatible AR platforms, large enterprise customers and their developers were to clearly demonstrate their need for open systems?
Developers can seize the next few weeks and months to prepare a campaign describing new or existing systems with which they would prefer to create and manage enterprise content. They can document the barriers to interoperability and mount pressure on enabling technology providers. What if, prior to a purchase or licensing decision, the provider of an AR authoring platform were required to demonstrate interoperability with content generated from Metaio’s SDK?
Openness does not mean Open Source. Openness is a condition that is based on explicit or implied agreements between vendors. Providers of technologies must agree upon common data formats, and provide interfaces and APIs that are well documented and designed for interoperability with solutions of potential competitors.
Without issuing a clear mandate for AR technology providers to support a greater level of integration and interoperability with enterprise IT systems, developers should not be surprised if their options remain highly rigid and difficult to integrate. Unless some forward thinking people don’t take action, developers and their large enterprise customers must be prepared to face many more years investing in brittle transcoding systems or other approaches to “work around” the lack of openness and interoperability.
How are you going to respond to this rapidly shifting AR technology provider landscape? Are you taking this opportunity to share your requirements with new vendors?
Take a look at this "behind the glasses" view of Sean McCracken's new "Maelstrom" VR/AR walking app on the Moverio BT-200.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
This app allows the user to look around a virtual world (using head tracking), while also enabling the user to move around by physically walking in their real space. To show the behind the glasses view, we used the 3D printed camera rig and an HD camera, and then projected the content on a projector behind Eric here at the Epson office.
According to the National Parkinson Foundation, Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s, affecting about 1 million Americans and an estimated 4 million people around the world.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
In 2002, New York-based Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) launched its Dance for Parkinson’s Disease program, based on the concept that the movement and training used by professional dancers to build balance, power and coordination could also help Parkinson’s sufferers.
Last year, seeing the potential of wearable technology, program director David Leventhal applied for and was awarded one of Google's five Explorer grants for non-profit organizations to develop applications for the Glass platform.
The group teamed up with ad agency ad SS+K to help design, develop, and launch Moving Through Glass, an augmented reality app created to provide 24/7 aid for people with Parkinson's that's now available to the public.
Kevin Skobac, SVP, digital strategy and innovation at SS+K says people living with Parkinson's were invited to review and test the project at various development stages, while researchers from New York Presbyterian/Weill-Cornell Medical Center, and Stanford University's Movement Disorders Center are advising on, and testing the app.
Parkinson’s Disease is a movement disorder affecting nerve cells and one of the most common symptoms is having difficulty initiating movement. The app features warm-up routines to get people get moving.
A walking guide uses video and music to set a pace, to help with the tremors and jerky movements common with Parkinson’s that can make walking difficult. Parkinson’s sufferers can also become "stuck" in the middle of a movement and have difficulty re-initiating movement, so the app provides standing routines that gradually get users out of a freeze and back to walking.
The adoption of smart glasses is expected to increase significantly among enterprises and individual consumers for various applications in healthcare, industrial use, and logistics, among others.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
This report covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the Global Smart Glasses market for Augmented Reality for the period 20152019. The report covers the overall ecosystem of the Global Smart Glasses market for Augmented Reality which includes engine providers, software application developers, and smart glasses OEMs.
EON Reality to Showcase Augmented Reality App on Epson Moverio™ BT-200 Smart Glasses at 2015 International CES Conference.
EON Experience VR App Enables Access to Company’s Entire AR Content Catalog for Industry, Education and Edutainment.
2015 International CES, Sands Expo Booth #74728 – January 6, 2015 – EON Reality today announced it will demonstrate its EON Experience VR app on the Epson Moverio™ BT-200 smart glasses at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas at the Epson America booth #74728 in the Sands Convention Center.
Mirko Compagno's insight:
EON’s team at CES in Las Vegas presenting EON Experience VR applications on the Epson Moverio™ BT-200 smart glasses, see the Moverio BT-200 in action https://www.youtube.com/moverio.
EON Experience VR is focused on education and training using augmented reality, immersive virtual reality, and interactive experiences. Through EON Experience VR’s K-12, higher education, vocational training, and edutainment experiences, students and trainees learn by doing and visualizing complex concepts.
These experiences are split into three major subject areas: industry (e.g. engine maintenance, oil field services), education (e.g. the human eye, solar system), and edutainment (e.g. “Play with Dolphins” and “Nefertiti”).
“By bringing EON Experience VR to the Moverio BT-200, we wanted to create a mobile experience that accelerated knowledge transfer and truly immersed our users,” said Dan Lejerskar, chairman of EON Reality. “Virtual reality is much more compelling when it becomes a seamless experience and augmented reality comes into its own when you’re presenting the user real-time contextual information.”
“We’re honored to be working with EON Reality, a veteran in the field of AR and VR solutions, who will be providing more than 100 mixed reality experiences to the Moverio Apps Market,” said Anna Jen, director, New Ventures/New Products for Epson America. “The Moverio BT-200 smart glasses provide developers the opportunity to create exciting consumer and enterprise Android-based applications that take advantage of the Moverio platform’s unique ‘look-through’ transparent display capabilities.”
Leveraging Epson’s patented core technologies, the Moverio BT-200 offers an unparalleled binocular smart glasses experience optimized for augmented reality applications.
Micro projectors located on each side of the lens project transparent overlays of digital content directly in the user’s field of view over the real-world environment.
In addition to the Moverio BT-200’s sensors for head-motion tracking and hands-free navigation, the smart glasses include a front-facing camera for video as well as image capture that detects real-world markers for augmented reality (AR) applications.
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