Nov 23, 2015 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
Enterprise Augmented Reality engineers and content managers who published experiences created with Metaio’s software tools have or will soon encounter a situation they didn’t anticipate: the publishing and delivery environments are unsupported and not evolving to take advantage of the latest enabling technologies.
Sourced through Scoop.it from: thearea.org
Are you among this group? If so, you are not the only one to find yourself in this uncomfortable situation.
If there was a mandate to continue providing the value of their AR experiences to end users, customers of other AR software providers who are no longer supporting or advancing their platforms with the latest technology innovations hit the same roadblock.
Prior to agreement on standards, they could not “port” their experiences to another AR platform. Evaluating and choosing another proprietary AR technology platform, and then investing in re-authoring, testing and re-deploying AR experiences based on their original designs, was the only way forward.
Unfortunately, some of those reading this blog are in this awkward position today.
Successfully addressing the root causes of low AR experience “portability” and the inherent lack of integration or interoperability between AR authoring and publishing systems is an important, highly collaborative process. Different parts of the AR ecosystem must agree that there are issues, firstly, and then on principles for collaboration. Then, based on shared conceptual frameworks, they must work together towards implementing those principles in their workflows and solutions.
Supporting that collaborative process is the reason I’ve been leading the grassroots community for open and interoperable Augmented Reality content and experiences since 2009.
Is There Really a Problem?
Interoperable Augmented Reality is not a high priority for most people. Only about a hundred people are consistently investing their time in advancing the principles of open and interoperable Augmented Reality. We know one another on a first name basis; many of us compare notes in person a few times per year. Another few hundred people know of such activities but don’t directly invest in meaningful ways.
For most companies, the investment in AR has not been great. A few tens of thousands of dollars to rebuild and deploy a half dozen carefully handcrafted AR experiences is minor by comparison to investments in other enterprise technologies.
“There’s still too much innovation to begin working on standards,” is another commonly heard refrain. Clearly they haven’t been reading the posts or listening to the presentations made by AREA member IEEE Standards Association, or leaders of other standards development groups. When designed collaboratively and to address interoperability in strategic places, there are many examples of standards doing the reverse.
There are other reasons for many to turn a blind eye to the problems. They are valid for different people to different levels.
This is a Serious Problem
In my opinion, ignoring the lack of open and interoperable Augmented Reality solutions and services is doing everyone a disservice.
The fact that only a relatively low amount of money has been invested to date is a poor justification for investing yet more time and money into building experiences with another proprietary platform, only to have the same scenario in a matter of months or years.
In fact, innovation in Augmented Reality is not what it should be today because many of the best AR developers are building a better mouse trap: smart engineers are working to solve problems that have, for the most part been solved by others, in a different way. Whether it’s for reasons of avoiding encroachment on a third party’s patents or something else, this investment of effort is in highly integrated proprietary silos and at the expense of solving other problems that remain unaddressed.
There are three more serious problems with having only proprietary technology silos and very low use of widely agreed standards for Augmented Reality experiences. The first of these is that enterprises with assets that could be leveraged for AR experiences are unable to integrate production of AR experiences into their corporate workflows. T
his lack of integration between AR as a method of information delivery and other information delivery systems (e.g., web pages and mobile services without AR support) means we can’t seriously stand before a CIO and recommend they support the development of AR content. What we are recommending requires setting up another entirely separate and different content management system.
In the same vein, the second reason that enterprise CIOs and CFOs are justifiably reluctant to deepen their investment in AR projects is that they cannot deploy modular architectures in which multiple vendors can propose different components. In today’s landscape of offerings, it’s all or nothing. The customer can buy into provider A’s system or that offered by provider B. If provider C comes along with a better option, too bad.
The third reason the lack of standards is a serious problem worthy of your support is closely related to the other two. Deep collaboration between AR-enabling technology vendors (providers of technologies) and service providers is currently very difficult.
They are not working to improve customer outcomes: they are working much more on competing with one another for attention and for the small investments that might be made.
Three serious enterprise AR obstacles that agreements about open and interoperable AR could reduce:
1) Low or lack of content or experience portability between proprietary technology silos;
2) Strong customer aversion to risks due to vendor lock-in;
3) Low cooperation between competitors or ecosystem members to partner for best customer outcomes.
This situation with lack of interoperability and fear of vendor lock-in would be addressed if the vendors took a more serious look at possible open interfaces and standards within a larger framework. Conversely, vendors might study new approaches and establish some level of interoperability if they believed that customers would respond by increasing their budgets for Augmented Reality.
This is all very serious.
Another recent development is not helping: it’s clear that some internet and IT giants are paying a lot of attention to AR. The lack of visibility into what highly competitive and successful companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple and PTC will do about AR interoperability and integration has cast a very cold spell over enterprise AR adoption.
Their lack of support for standards and their unwillingness (to date) to shed light in a public way on how they will cooperate or how their proposed (future) systems will interoperate is causing so much uncertainty. No CIO or CFO should seriously invest in enterprise Augmented Reality until these companies’ plans with respect to integration and interoperability are clearer.
Progress is Being Made
We should be open to the possibility that 2016 will be different.
Thanks to the dedication of members of the grassroots community, the situation is not as bleak as it could be.
A few weeks ago a few dozen members met in Seoul, Korea, to compare notes on progress. SK Telecom, a strong supporter of open and interoperable Augmented Reality, hosted two days of sessions. We heard status updates from four standards organizations that have highly relevant activities ongoing (Khronos Group, Open Geospatial Consortium, IEEE and ISO/IEC). We also received reports from AR developers who are working to advance their solutions to support standards.
The fact that the ISO/IEC JTC1 Joint Adhoc Group for Mixed and Augmented Reality Reference Model is nearing completion of its work is a major development about which I presented in Seoul.
In the spirit of full disclosure: the community of people in support of open and interoperable AR was the environment in which this work began, and I have been a member of that ad hoc group since its formation. If you would like to obtain a draft of the Mixed and Augmented Reality Reference Model, please send me an email request.
We are also seeing increased interest from industry-centric groups. There is a German government supported project that may propose standards for use in automotive industry AR. The results of an EU-funded project for AR models in manufacturing became the basis for the establishment of the IEEE P1589 AR Learning Experience Model working group (which I co-chair).
In a recent meeting of oil and gas industry technologists, formation of a new group to work on requirements for hands-free display hardware was proposed.
These are all encouraging signs that some are thinking about open and interoperable Augmented Reality. If you want to monitor the activities of the grassroots community focusing on this topic, and to receive announcements of upcoming meetings, visit this page and register yourself for one or more of the mailing lists.
Have you seen other signs that there is increasing awareness of the problems? Do you know about any new standards that should be monitored by and presented during a future meeting of the grassroots community?
See on Scoop.it – Augmented World
Nov 23, 2015 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
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.
Sourced through Scoop.it from: thearea.org
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.
See on Scoop.it – Augmented World
Nov 11, 2015 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
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.
Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.information-age.com
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.
See on Scoop.it – Augmented World
Nov 7, 2015 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
Entrare nella casa di Oleg, ucraino di 11 anni, distrutta dai separatisti filo-russi oppure salire sulla piroga con cui Chuol, 9 anni, è fuggito trascinato dalla nonna dal suo villaggio nel Sud Sudan sotto attacco. O, ancora, seguire la giornata di lavoro della 12enne Hana, fuggita dalla Siria e ora insediata in un campo profughi nella valle della Bekaa libanese, in attesa di tempi migliori. Da oggi è possibile farlo sullo smartphone grazie alle realtà virtuale introdotta dal New York Times.
La carta stampata entra così nel’era della realtà virtuale. In seguito all’accordo siglato con Google, il New York Times ha reso disponibile in questi gioni la sua app per la realtà virtuale, NytVR (sia per iOs che per Android), e da oggi è disponibile il primo servizio con il video che si può scaricare e vedere arricchito in realtà virtuale, con il lettore completamente immerso nella realtà dei profughi.
Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.ilsole24ore.com
L’inaugurazione di questa nuova modalità di fruizione dell’informazione parte infatti da uno dei grandi temi che interroga quotidianamente il mondo, quello dei milioni di profughi che si stanno muovendo quotidianamente verso il mondo sviluppato in fuga da guerre, devastazioni, integralismi e povertà. Il servizio del New York Times Magazine del prossimo weekend racconta la storia di tre bambini che riassume la realtà di 30 milioni di minori in tutto il mondo che hanno dovuro abbandonare la loro casa in seguito a guerre e persecuzioni.
La loro esperienza è raccontata dal quotidiano americano in un documentario multimediale con interviste video, fotografie e, per la prima volta, un video girato appositamente per la realtà virtuale. In base all’intesa con Google, il New York Times ha recapitato questa setitmana ai suoi abbonati un dispositivo di cartone in cui infilare il proprio smartphone e visualizzare il video in modalità immersiva, con la realtà virtuale.
Anche chi non ha l’apposito dispositivo, può comunque scaricare sul telefonino il video e vederselo in modalità 360 gradi. Non è la stessa cosa, ma aiuta a capire la realtà di milioni di bimbi in tutto il mondo meglio di tante parole.
See on Scoop.it – Augmented World
Nov 6, 2015 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
Come è noto la Oculus VR, società specializzata nella realizzazione di soluzioni e dispositivi per l’intrattenimento in realtà virtuale, è divenuta tempo fa una controllata di Menlo Park; in questo modo anche l’implementazione del visore Oculus Rift è entrato a far parte dei progetti realizzati sotto l’egida del gruppo capitanato da Mark Zuckerberg.
Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.touchblog.it
Grazie alle risorse tecnologiche e ai capitali di Facebook questo device ha potuto integrare nei mesi scorsi numerose nuove funzionalità, una tra queste sarebbe finalizzata a fornire una sorta di un sistema altamente immersivo che consenta agli utilizzatori di muoversi senza alcun vincolo o ostacolo all’interno di una realtà simulata.
Una prima conferma in proposito sarebbe giunta nel corso del Dublin Web Summit, dove ilChief Technology Officer del social network più grande della Rete, Mike Schroepfer, avrebbe fatto riferimento ai più recenti sviluppi riguardanti Oculus Rift facendo capire che la corporation californiana starebbe lavorando a una sistema per il "teletrasporto".
Nello specifico il dirigente del Sito in Blue avrebbe accennato ad un progetto che anche se non a breve, ma entro un periodo di tempo della durata di circa una decina d’anni, dovrebbe permettere agli utilizzatori di sfruttare realtà virtuale e realtà aumentata per spostarsi velocemente (o meglio, instantaneamente) in qualsiasi luogo del Pianeta.
Chiaramente in questo caso non sarà la materia e tanto meno la persona che utilizza Oculus Rift ad essere "teletrasportata", ma la sua user experience; al di là quindi delle previsioni a carattere fantascientifico, si dovrebbe quindi creare una sorta di alternativa plausibilmente più economica ai viaggi e agli spostamenti fisici.
See on Scoop.it – Augmented World
