Industrial XR / 3D Tech / Reality Capture / Digital Twin / AI / Spatial Computing / Connected Workforce
August 8, 2024: Issue 106
Ready to get a sneak peek into the future? 🤔 Dive into our latest What’s Big Story, featuring highlights from Meta Reality Labs’ Dan Nieves' session at the 2024 Industrial IMMERSIVE Week: “A Closer Future: New Technologies for Human Connection.”
🙌 Bonus, there is a link to see the whole session for FREE!
What’s Inside:
🔮 A Closer Future: New Tech for Human Connection
🕵️ Mystery Solved: Industrial AI Agents & What We Can Learn From Iron Man
🔎 AREA’s Latest Research: Adoption of Real-Time AR Inspections for Quality & Compliance
⛰️ Using GenAI to Scale XR Training for Enterprise
At Industrial IMMERSIVE Week, Meta's Dan Nievesshared his vision for the future of work, with an inspiring session titled, "A Closer Future: New Technologies for Human Connection." Looking back at past tech breakthroughs, he reminded us that change often feels sudden, even when it's gradual. The key is to focus on your customers' needs and use tech to meet them in new ways.
Nieves began by acknowledging the enthusiasm in the room, emphasizing the thrill of working with new technologies at such a pivotal moment.
He cited examples of skepticism towards new technologies, reminding the audience of how the internet was once dismissed as a passing fad.
To illustrate this point, Nieves shared a clip of Bill Gates being interviewed about the internet—twelve years after its launch—highlighting how even then, its potential was underestimated. This served as a reminder of the importance of embracing innovation and preparing for technological shifts to gain a competitive advantage.
Nieves shared compelling statistics from a Deloitte study, showing that 92% of surveyed manufacturers are experimenting with at least one metaverse-related use case.
He showed how companies like Duke Energy and Mortenson are already using immersive tech for training and efficiency. By the end of the decade, he predicts mixed reality will be part of our everyday work. Think seamless collaboration on global projects, AI-powered creativity boosts, and comfortable smart glasses that keep you connected all day.
Nieves outlined three key technology areas crucial for this future:
Mixed Reality
Advances in AI
Evolving Form Factors
The future of work isn't just about cool gadgets – it's about connecting in new ways. Imagine lifelike avatars that make video calls feel like you're in the same room! This is the exciting future Meta is building, but it's a team effort. We all need to work together to make this vision a reality.
Robo-Whiz: Learn more about industrial agents, "an agile and robust software entity that intelligently represents and manages the functionalities and capabilities of an industrial unit.” Put more simply, industrial agents perform specific tasks in a human-like manner when trained with the right data and when using the right AI model and capabilities. If we take inspiration from the movies, we’re getting closer to Iron Man’s “Jarvis” assistant - a supercharged intelligent virtual agent that communicates via voice commands and helps Iron Man do his best work.
AI Overdrive: GenAI is the trending tech term of 2024, with Apple Vision Pro and spatial computing following closely behind. GenAI is sending shockwaves across the globe, from consumer to enterprise. Discover how leading XR firms are incorporating genAI to enhance and scale enterprise immersive learning.
Inspect-o-Vision: AREA's most recent research project titled "Adoption of Real-time AR-assisted Inspections for Quality and Compliance" examines and proposes approaches to addressing the barriers to adopting Augmented Reality (AR) to assist or enhance inspections for quality and compliance. Download the Executive Summary to learn more.
WHAT'S NEXT
HTC has reduced the price of Vive XR Elite, its flagship standalone headset, cutting it from $1,100 to $900. Meanwhile, HTC released a video late last month promising something “coming soon,” teasing what promises to be the next XR headset from the company.
VirtualSpeechannounced that it is collaborating with Lenovo and Qualcomm to introduce its XR software platform on the ThinkReality VRX headset and Snapdragon Spaces ecosystem. By partnering with Lenovo, VirtualSpeech can reach new milestones in achieving global enterprise scalability.
Hexagon's Manufacturing Intelligence division has launched its new digitalization solution, Digital Factory, designed to help manufacturers build accurate digital replicas of their factories.
During the company's Q2 2024 earnings call today, Mark Zuckerberg told investors Quest 3 sales are "outpacing our expectations".
Elsyca, an international leader in ‘Digital Twin‘ simulation software, welcomes Strada Partnersas its new majority shareholder. Strada joins forces with the current management team and investor Think2Act.
One specifically enterprise-focused AI startup, Cohere, from Toronto, Canada, has just today announced a fresh $500 million Series D fundraising round. That brings the company’s total valuation to $5.5 billion.
WHAT ELSE
Virtual Battlefields: United States Army's New Frontier
(Image Credit: U.S. Army)
To achieve its modernization priorities, the Army will need to bring together the digital and physical aspects of conflict through spatial computing, according to the author of a new paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army.
“The Army should … include spatial computing research as its tenth priority research area and allocate additional resources to bridge the seemingly overlooked gap within the Army Modernization Strategy,” Maj. Daniel Eerhart writes. “In multi-domain environments, where the lines between the digital and physical aspects of conflict become increasingly blurred, the Army must make a concerted effort to invest in technological research that brings together those environments.”
In “Army Modernization and Spatial Computing,” Eerhart, a psychological operations officer serving as a cyber policy, law and strategy research scientist at the Army Cyber Institute, contends that the Army cannot achieve its modernization goals absent spatial computing research.
Everyday technologies, including smartphones, self-driving cars and virtual meeting technology, rely on spatial computing, but civilian adaptation and innovation outpace the Army’s willingness and ability to integrate, Eerhart writes.
The ability to merge digital and physical spaces is central to the Army’s six modernization priorities, which include long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicles and Future Vertical Lift platforms, among others.
The Army’s autonomous multidomain launcher, a vehicle that uses an unmanned launcher capable of autonomous navigation, could benefit from more nuanced object detection through spatial computing, Eerhart writes. Learn more --> (h/t AUSA)
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