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FEATURE XR: AUGMENTED, MIXED AND VIRTUAL REALITY


Feature sponsored by


Don’t sweat the inDustrial metaverse... just yet


Jon Arnold


Jon Arnold, VP of EMEA, RealWear, examines why AR is a key enabler today, and a building block for the metaverse tomorrow


assisted reality – is already available on the frontline, allowing you to keep your hands free and your head up for the work, while providing you with real-time information and even subject matter experts. This helps you retain talent and puts you on the path toward the metaverse.


adopting assisted reality T


he roll call of ‘metaverse’ investors reads like a who’s who of big tech, tools, gaming and social media firms, including Roblox,


Take-Two Interactive, Nvidia, Unity Software, Microsoft and Meta (formerly Facebook). There is, however, a segment that’s not mentioned in the mainstream media – industrial companies. This active community is talking about the


industrial metaverse and, during a recent panel conversation, we asked: What is it? When will it be available? Who is building it? Why does it matter? And is the industrial metaverse just virtual reality with a new name? (The answer is no). In industrial settings, immersive use cases,


as the industry calls them, revolve around virtual training, ‘see-what-I-see’ collaboration, and virtual inspections and audits. Benefits touted include cost savings and efficiencies, and improved creativity, productivity and employee wellbeing. The larger vision of the industrial metaverse is


a long shot, but there’s enough firepower behind it to give it a chance of being realised; and its not something executives should ignore. As Lareina Yee, lead author for McKinsey’s report Meet the metaverse: Creating real value in a virtual world says, executives need to ‘be open-minded in terms of what some of the potential applications for their business might be’. Meanwhile Ed Grieg, chief disruptor at Deloitte, said: “Think big, start small, test often.” As an example, lets take


a look at an energy and utility company, where risk management is essential. For such companies, it is necessary to understand the technology available today and where it’s heading to give a long-term strategic adoption plan. Technology – like


augmented reality and 2 DESIGN SOLUTIONS JULY/AUGUST 2022 0


There’s a global labour shortage. In January 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that 4.5 million Americans left their jobs in November, the highest level since the agency began tracking this data in 2000. Imagine if one of your subject matter experts could assist ten people a day without the need to travel to each site by plane, boat, or car? As Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI


Research and a top AR analyst suggests, the industry has to deal with ‘a severe impact with downtime and knowledge loss’ driven by an ageing, retiring, workforce with ‘highly siloed expertise around high-cost equipment’. Other challenges include complex (or


changing) workflows, environmental intensity, the need for certified or intrinsically safe devices and sufficient connectivity, sometimes in challenging locations. For Abbruzzese, these are strong justifications as to why the energy and utilities industry is a fast-growing adopter of assisted reality technology. It is, he says, one of the largest verticals for AR Head Mounted Displays (HMD), and it’s fascinating to watch the story play out. “Technicians on job sites can use AR to


view real-time information, access complete documentation, and receive instructions from remote experts that can also alleviate the shortage of skilled workers,” said Abbruzzese. “While keeping both hands free for repairs,


field workers can maintain environmental awareness, reducing accidents, errors and, ultimately, downtime.” Equipment inspection, leak identification,


preventive maintenance, storm restoration, and quality monitoring and control, are all possible through AR and are already being implemented alongside the more foundational enterprise AR use cases. Renewable energy operations can introduce new operations and maintenance requirements, and AR can help reduce the time to train workers and perform services within these new operations. Abbruzzese estimates that by 2027 there will


be over 11 million AR HMD users in the energy and utilities industry, compared with just over a million today. These numbers will be primarily driven in four key areas – remote expertise, assembly, training and field service. He sees a multitude of benefits. Some of the


most prominent use cases support usage that can reduce downtime and support knowledge capture. Remote expertise and training are strong as expected, but safety notification is a prominent element due to hazardous and complicated working environments. “AR can reduce errors, and thus reduce


In industrial settings, immersive use


cases, as the industry


calls them, revolve around virtual training, ‘see-what-I-see’


unplanned downtime events, using remote assistance and workflow guidance,” explained Abbruzzese. “AR can also be used for hands- free and real-time knowledge capture to lessen the impact of the retiring workforce. With a strong enabling platform partner, these applications can automatically create content with automated data tagging, making future use as training material and onboarding simpler and more efficient.” The data here is invaluable. With more users and scenarios, the richness of the data will inform decision-making and lead to improvements in how the technology can become even more efficient and effective. This data can also feed into the metaverse. As the industrial metaverse becomes better defined, data derived from AR devices will enrich metaverse applications. AR is one of the best gateways to the industrial metaverse. It gives workers the digital tools to get started with the digital world, while maintaining safety as a top priority.


collaboration, and virtual inspections and audits


RealWear www.realwear.com


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