Wärtsilä’s augmented reality glasses: a new tool in the tanker engineer’s toolkit
Currently, Wärtsilä is carrying out pilots with selected customers to establish smart procedures for using augmented reality in a broad range of seals and bearings tasks.
“Augmented reality enables repair and maintenance services to deliver significant added value in terms of quality, lower costs, and increased uptime. They will take the seals and bearings-related repair and maintenance services to the next level,” Pauly concluded.
See the full story here: https://www.tankershipping.com/news/view,wrtsils-augmented-reality-glasses-a-new-tool-in-the-tanker-engineers-toolkit_53749.htm
Magic Leap One’s field of view leak signals another AR disappointment
Developer documentation suggests that Magic Leap One’s augmented field of view will be 40 degrees horizontal by 30 degrees vertical, a 4:3 aspect ratio akin to iPad screens. By comparison, HoloLens has a 16:9 aspect ratio with a 30-degree horizontal and 17-degree vertical field of view, while Sony’s PlayStation VR has a 16:9 aspect ratio with a roughly 100-degree horizontal field of view.
How to Design Gesture Interactions for Virtual and Augmented Reality
Take aways: Whenever you design gesture-based interaction for virtual and augmented reality, you need to make gestures as simple as possible. Users should be able to learn how to interact using gestures without having to learn a completely new language.
In order for gesture-based interaction to be successful, it’s crucial that you learn enough about the physicality of arm movements to know when gesture interaction becomes too tiresome. While big arm movements can look really cool, few users will be able to keep up that style of motion for long. You should also consider which affordances your users expect from different digital objects. If a digital object is similar to a physical object, users will expect to be able to perform the same kinds of actions with it. Finally, being aware of the social nature of gestures, both in the digital and physical world, is critical. Certain gestures are inappropriate or potentially embarrassing to perform in front of other people.
See the full story here: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/how-to-design-gesture-interactions-for-virtual-and-augmented-reality
22 new and notable augmented reality apps and games from the last four months (3/24/18 – 7/30/18)
See the full story, which lists the apps and has images and videos, here: https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/07/30/22-new-notable-augmented-reality-apps-games-last-four-months-3-24-18-7-30-18/
Apple Adds Former DAQRI Designer to the Team, Bolstering AR Smartglasses Rumors
Apple continues to build its augmented reality hardware and software team in stealth mode. The latest addition comes via the hiring of a former DAQRI user experience designer and VR app developer.
First reported by Variety, Sterling Crispin joined Apple in May as a prototyping researcher. Before joining Apple, Crispin published VR painting app Cyber Paint for the Oculus Go, Daydream, GearVR, and HTC Vive in 2017 through his own development company. Prior to that, Crispin spent a little over two years at smartglasses maker DAQRI, first as an artist-in-residence and then as a lead UX designer.
See the full story here: https://next.reality.news/news/apple-adds-former-daqri-designer-team-bolstering-ar-smartglasses-rumors-0186289/
Partnerships Can Light The Path To Effective Oil And Gas Digitisation
At the recent LiveWorx event in Boston, PTC President and CEO Jim Heppelmann laid out the solutions that are available. The most interesting use cases for oil and gas are around connected workers, smart maintenance of refinery, connected refinery and remote asset monitoring with predictive maintenance capability that improves the uptime of the plant and refinery.
With its industrial innovation platform, based on both ThingWorx and Vuforia, PTC has helped customers to source, contextualize and analyze data, and to orchestrate flows that optimize how business processes work, and to engage users and new applications that unlock productivity. “We certainly feel like we've been doing our part to enable this digital transformation, but it's a very big world out there, and we can't do it all alone,” Heppelmann adds. “That's why we turned to Microsoft.”
In a partnership that PTC and Microsoft announced in January, they have agreed to align PTC's PLM, IoT and AR software with Microsoft's Azure IoT, the HoloLens mixed reality technology, and their Dynamics ERP, in an integrated solution for industrial IoT and digital product lifecycle management. At the center of this collaboration is PTC’s selection of Microsoft's Azure and IoT hub as its preferred cloud platform.
See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markvenables/2018/07/31/partnerships-can-light-the-path-to-effective-oil-and-gas-digitisation/#7e2449a03084
9 Powerful Real-World Applications Of Augmented Reality (AR) Today
Award-winning airport app
The Gatwick airport passenger app ...
Ikea Place, Dulux Visualiser, and Lowe’s help remodel
For those who have purchased furniture and discovered once it was delivered it didn’t work in the space, the Ikea Place app ...
Sephora Virtual Artist and Rolex
Cosmetic company Sephora uses AR technology to allow customers to try out different looks and eye, lips and cheek products as well as colors right on their own digital face....
Augmented reality in healthcare
AccuVein is a handheld device that can scan the vein network of a patient that leads to a 45% reduction in escalations.
AR for fun
Rather than increase sales, sometimes AR is just created for fun or to engage with customers such as the Bic DrawyBook app or teeth brushing games from Georgia-Pacific’s Dixie brand.
See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/07/30/9-powerful-real-world-applications-of-augmented-reality-ar-today/#1847e242fe95
Can Women Make Virtual Reality Mainstream?
The female bosses behind the new Oculus Go headset are on the front lines of a technological revolution.
So how can VR companies win over women? Hire them.
As key decision makers, the women shook up the status quo by rethinking the physical headset (it’s cordless, lined with the same fabric found in bra straps, and a dove gray rather than Oculus’s signature stark black) and the social experience. (The Venues and Spaces apps allow users to hang out, cheer on sports teams, or watch movies with friends who are physically in different locations.)
...
Enter Rachel Franklin, head of social VR at Facebook. After designing high-profile games, including the Sims, Franklin, 47, joined Facebook in 2016 to perfect Oculus avatars. Many of the headset’s virtual experiences require you to generate one, and she wanted to make the options as inclusive as possible. “We created bouncy curls, Afros, tight curls,” she says. Franklin thought of her children—she is Caucasian and her husband is African-American—and a coworker with alopecia (and therefore no hair or eyebrows) when crafting the virtual personas. “People need to have a ‘digital me’ to feel part of the experience.”
...
See the full story here: https://www.marieclaire.com/career-advice/a22560159/virtual-reality-for-women-oculus-go/
Baobab Studios To Debut Crow: The Legend At Venice Film Fest
Crow: The Legend is inspired by the origin of the crow, played by John Legend, who is a brilliantly plumbed bird who is nominated by his fellow animals to bring warmth back to a world stuck in an endless winter. His journey is rewarded and he carries the gift of fire back to his fellow animals in his beak however, in doing so he sacrifices what is most dear to him.
“Crow: The Legend is inspired by long-told Native American folklore, but brought to life in 21st-century ways. With its focus on how we can all do better for the world around us, I was honored to participate,” said Eagle Heart, CEO, Native Americans in Philanthropy.
See the full story here: https://www.vrfocus.com/2018/07/baobab-studios-to-debut-crow-the-legend-at-venice-film-fest/