The application and imagination of AR technology in the industrial field

After the appearance of Pokemon Go, the public's awareness of AR (augmented reality) technology is no longer confined to the research stage, and the broad market opportunities that investors had previously considered promising are gradually emerging. Many institutions predict that in the near future, the industry size will reach hundreds of billions of dollars. Digi-Capital, a market research company, predicts that by 2020, the market size will be more than four times that of VR. At the same time, with the popularity of games and more and more devices on the market entering the industrial field, many existing work models will be changed or even overturned.

Pokemon Go has opened the imagination to the mass consumption of AR. In industry, AR is also changing the way people produce. So what kind of technology is it? In fact, AR is short for 'Augmented Reality', which means Augmented Reality technology. It's a technology that seamlessly connects the virtual world with the real world. Using this technology, we can see the virtual scene in the real scene through the screen medium. Different from VR (a computer simulation system that can create and experience virtual worlds), which is widely used in the entertainment and game fields today, VR technology presents virtual things created in the computer in front of people. AR technology allows people to see part of the real thing, part of the fake virtual thing. VR is close to reality, AR is beyond reality

AR+ industrial field

At present, AR technology focuses on precision instrument manufacturing and maintenance, auxiliary teaching and training, medical research and anatomical training, military reconnaissance and combat command, rescue and disaster relief and other fields. Here are a few application scenarios to make it easy for you to understand:

1. Industrial assembly

In the production sites of large equipment such as ships, aircraft, trains, automobiles and machine tools, there are a large number of highly skilled workers, whose complicated operation and many steps are prone to omission or repetition, causing safety risks and high requirements for workers.

If workers wear AR glasses and conduct standardized operations according to the guidance of the holographic picture, they can see the next work steps, the information of the equipment or items in front of them, and the working action route. It not only avoids mistakes, but also improves efficiency and shortens worker training cycles.

If workers encounter problems, they can wear AR glasses and connect with experts remotely, so that the experts can observe the situation from the workers' first perspective, and then understand the problem and instruct the workers how to deal with it. Not only can the problem be dealt with immediately, but also do not need the expert to the scene, saving a lot of travel expenses.

2. Industrial maintenance

With more and more types of industrial equipment, more and more quantity, more and more complex site environment, maintenance and maintenance has become an increasingly severe problem. Maintenance personnel to identify different brands/models/parts, fault diagnosis, use appropriate tools, replace the corresponding parts, take targeted maintenance methods, to rely on a lot of experience accumulation, low efficiency, high error rate, maintenance personnel is also relatively high requirements.

If the maintenance personnel wear AR glasses, they can know the product model and maintenance record of the equipment after scanning the machine. The maintenance manual of the equipment can be downloaded directly to show the specific operation steps to solve the equipment failure, even to the detail of how to disassemble the parts, which can greatly reduce the training cost and training cycle of the maintenance personnel.

Can be remotely by AR technology, collaboration and work instruction, make the background experts see maintenance personnel at the front desk first perspective images, real-time to provide efficient work instructions and guidance, reduce the human error, because inexperienced field personnel and the low efficiency, wait for expert's time cost, and so on and so forth, at the same time, improve the work safety.

3. Practical operation training

In the industrial field, there are a large number of workers in need of operational training. The effect of traditional training methods is limited, and enterprises spend high training costs. However, there are always pain points such as learners' inability to learn and use immediately and the time and energy of teaching staff are wasted.

If the workers wear AR glasses, the system will guide all standard steps, so that the learning scene and the working scene are infinitely close to and even overlap, and free their hands, directly solve the problem of "can't be used during school hours, can't be learned while using time", and greatly improve the user experience of training.

What is the current situation of development at home and abroad

From the above application scenarios, AR technology has a broad application base. In fact, there are many typical practical application cases in foreign countries, such as:

A. As early as the early 1990s, Boeing Company of the United States has applied AR technology to the connection of power cables and the assembly of connectors in aircraft manufacturing.

B. In 2003, Germany successfully developed the Starmate system and Arvika system for industrial equipment assembly and maintenance. Since then, the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) has used the Arvika system to guide workers to easily complete high-density wiring work.

C. In 2016, Microsoft partnered with NASA on a project code-named "Sidekick," in which astronaut Scott Kelly used HoloLens augmented reality on the International Space Station to use and repair the station.

According to Cui Shengdai, executive deputy secretary general of the China Augmented Reality Industry Alliance, domestic AR and VR are developing rapidly, but there is still a certain gap between them and foreign technologies, but the gap is narrowing. He predicted that AR technology has great prospects and space in Internet and enterprise application, and the industry is likely to usher in a tipping point in the second half of this year.

From the current solutions in the domestic market, we can see that AR technology is widely applied. In the field of home furnishing, IKEA is one of the representatives. From the point of view of the industrial field, the industrial details and operation management to show incisively and vividly is also a major strength of AR technology play; Take the automotive field, the car through the combination of virtual and real terminal to allow consumers to see the specific form and characteristics of satisfactory models is more conducive to promoting car sales, the previous section of the fire is the auto home to introduce AR technology to the field; Finally, taking a look at the field of education, the chemical reaction between AR technology and education is quite obvious. We can see a wide variety of AR books on the market.

Domestic and foreign cases

It can be said that the market prospect is broad. Now let's take a look at the recent popular AR applications at home and abroad, which involve games, movies and television, daily necessities, etc., to deeply show what AR technology is and what are the main fields in which this technology is applied at present.

The application of AR in the game industry

The best example of this is Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go is based on Pokemon, Nintendo's popular role-playing game. However, when this game meets AR technology, it plays something new. You can see real buildings, offices, and roads combined with the virtual world of Pokemon's pavillion and pet stations. Such a strong sense of substitution, the realization of many people in pursuit of the second world entrance dream, play to stop at all.

② The application of AR technology in film and television

China's first full-action CG animated film Legacy of Ravage is a typical example. The combination of AR technology and film shows the creator's avant-garde consciousness despite the plot of the film.

One is the combination of real people and magic CG scenes. It is a real character performance, but the scenes and costumes are all virtual computer CG. It is true and false, which reflects the creative team's exploration of the real and virtual technology.

Second, the surrounding films and TV programs are promoted through AR. The film and television peripheral products will be connected with AR cross-dressing APP, that is, the movie fans can use their mobile phones to illuminate and appreciate the appearance of themselves wearing the costumes of the characters in the film on the screen (through AR);

Third, AR+IP+ new outdoor advertising. In the People's Square (Fuzhou Road) bus station TV screen, as long as the user stands in front of the screen, the camera will automatically face recognition, for the user is equipped with the movie "Legend" of the character's helmet and soul loop, so that each user is the avatar of the king and apostle, war in the continent of Oting.

The application of AR in the field of clothing

There are many different styles in the T-shirt world, from cool Freestyle hip-hop to cute, sweet styles to memorable T-shirts. When the AR technology is integrated, the T-shirt style becomes more specific. For example, Nagin's 100 Face APP, AR skull, xiao long bao, hippies and other personalized T-shirts, as long as you use the mobile APP scan, the T-shirt patterns immediately appear in the real scene singing and dancing, it is very strange. What's more interesting is that the AR image of the hero's head can also be changed by you upload a new head.

④The application of AR in articles for daily use

The field of daily necessities is large, and the application of AR in it is also a great effort, attracting attention. From the DEMO of Nagin Network, AR technology has been applied to umbrella industry, paper industry and other fields. Nagin network launched a daily use is to integrate AR technology into the ordinary can no longer be ordinary paper, as long as the use of App scan, the boys and girls on the paper will be close to each other, give each other a sweet kiss, very love.

⑤The application of AR in education

Still prowling around the secret garden? Now Disney is working on something even more exciting, adding an App to the coloring book that will bring clunky elephants, cute ladybugs and silly octopuses to life.

⑥The application of AR in the field of automobile

A. Reversing image is one of the most common applications of AR technology in the automotive field, and they are not so far-fetched as imagined. So AR is not far away from us, but this is just the beginning of the conceptual model of AR+ safe driving.

B. BMW and Qualcomm launched a type of AR glasses specially equipped for car owners. With this AR glasses, drivers can see navigation data, driving speed, speed limit tips, fork information and so on when driving. The AR glasses can provide drivers with more than just the above-mentioned driving information. Messages received by users will also be displayed on a virtual screen in front of them, it said. Throughout the journey, the driver can handle a variety of tasks while driving safely with only one screen in front of him. The BMW Mini's augmented reality device shows us what AR can do now, but also gives us a glimpse of what we can do in the future.

The future development

It can be seen that not only the cases listed above, with the rapid development of augmented reality technology, its application has penetrated into the vast majority of fields. Countries around the world have also actively made corresponding strategic plans for augmented reality technology. In addition, Microsoft, Google, Apple and other high-tech enterprises are also scrambling to lay out the augmented reality technology field, and strive to occupy the future technological heights.

At present, AR technology has not been developed in a more comprehensive way, and the difficulties it faces are as follows:

1. There is no multi-flowering and parallel application breakthrough, with narrow scenes and few applications, and aesthetic fatigue is easily formed.

2. There is no unified technical standard and application equipment, and the development cost is like a high wall, which blocks out the products and R&D ideas. Every time users experience an APP, they have to move on to another APP.

3. Limited equipment. Apart from the bulky AR headset, the screen of mobile phone or tablet also limits the user's vision, which weakens the seamless connection between reality and virtual world.

However, Apple's ARKit release at WWDC 2017 addresses part of this second problem. Because it's available on hundreds of millions of iOS devices. Many AR technology developers can also create based on this platform. However, for Android users, there is no way to realize this benefit. Even so, I think this is another milestone for AR technology.

For the first and third questions, it's simply a matter of content versus device. For content. Much of the excitement about AR comes from the prospect of end user participation in content creation. Personal content creation is the key to active engagement rather than passive observation. The author boldly imagines that users in the future can personally participate in AR content creation, and can be combined with today's hot live broadcast. With the rich imagination of the masses, why fear that AR technology will make people feel tired again? As for equipment, the author imagines that the AR screen media in the future can be as portable as eyes and will not give people an uncomfortable feeling. It can even be as thin as today's contact lenses attached to human eyes and directly transmit the virtual and real scenes to the brain.

(This article is from Narkii.)