Augmented Reality (AR)

The field of application of augmented reality technology is unlimited: virtual 360º tours, location search, product demonstrations, remote training, testing and promotion.

Virtual and augmented reality devices

• Virtual and Augmented Reality Devices Market

2024: Oppo unveils voice-controlled augmented reality glasses

On February 27, 2024, the Chinese company Oppo announced Air Glass 3 augmented reality glasses with generative artificial intelligence functions. Users will be able to interact with a voice assistant based on the AndesGPT fast neural network. Read more here.

2023: AR headset created that uses' X-ray vision 'to detect invisible objects

At the end of February 2023, the MIT introduced the X-AR AR headset, which gives the user a kind of X-ray vision. The device uses radio frequency (RF) signals for operation. The latter are most often used for communication, for example, in walkie-talkies, mobile phones, etc. Their ability to pass through solid material makes them good locators - as long as the hidden object has an electronic device tag to receive, process and resend a signal (RFID). Read more here.

How does augmented reality differ from virtual reality?

The main goal of virtual reality is to transfer the user from the real world to a new computer-generated one. That is why the maximum immersion effect is felt in a special helmet that completely hides the user from the surrounding world.

Augmented reality, unlike virtual, adds the necessary digital objects. In other words, when a person sees something in AR, they see something virtual in the real world. For example, applications in a mobile phone allow you to add various effects and labels right during a video call. Augmented reality video glasses are a convenient form factor for such a gadget. Transparent displays allow you to see the world around you and move around calmly, without fear of unexpectedly stumbling upon an obstacle.

AugmentedReality Application Areas

Education

The clearer the learning process, the better the result, and through augmented reality it has become even easier to provide this clarity. For example, the Occupational Safety Scaffolding system creates virtual 3D scaffolding models, demonstrating their proper assembly and operation. Agree, this is much better than dry description and even text with ^[1]

Modern AR textbooks not only convey certain facts, but immerse a person in the past, revive chemical formulas or, like the New Horizon application, help to learn a new language using animation. Of course, AR technologies have not yet become ubiquitous, but it is expected that soon with their help it will be possible to get new skills faster. And large, including state institutions, are already taking this useful novelty into service - for example, students of children's technology parks "Quantorium" are already mastering the development of augmented reality applications based on EpsonMoverio video glasses.

Medicine

Main article: Augmented Reality in Medicine

Remote Technical Support

A sudden accident or breakdown in production can bring colossal losses, and a specialist of the necessary qualifications can be thousands of kilometers away at the head office of the company. To solve these problems, large companies, including multinational structures, began to introduce augmented reality into their work processes.

For example, in case of any technical problems, a simple tunneling machine leads to colossal losses. Specialists of the German company VMT propose to use Epson Moverio augmented reality smart glasses to provide round-the-clock technical support for employees directly in the tunnel. Video from the built-in camera is transmitted to the head center, where technical experts are sitting, and they, in turn, send the necessary instructions and diagrams that are displayed on the display of the "field" employee's glasses.

Another already Russian industrial giant SIBUR in 2018 announced that it was developing an industrial AR platform based on augmented reality technologies. The AR platform is designed for efficient communication of maintenance, maintenance and repair services with geographically remote internal and external experts. According to the developers, the software platform and AR-glasses will allow the specialist to receive additional support information and advice on the operations performed.

Developing such applications is not cheap, but the ability to correct inaccuracies in the project in the early stages is expensive.

Aircraft industry

Pilots of modern fighters are often forced to make quick decisions, so they use special helmets, where the picture of the real world is supplemented by instrument readings. High accuracy is also needed in the production of such aircraft, because the cost of an error is very high - starting with the pilot's life and ending with financial costs of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The military-industrial corporation Lockheed Martin (USA), which produces aviation equipment, introduced augmented reality glasses with a specially designed application into the arsenal of its engineers. With their help, the task of information support for specialists has been greatly simplified - during the assembly process, the technician sees on the screen data on where and how to connect the necessary part. It became almost impossible to make a mistake! And monitoring the results confirms this: the Canadian company NGRAIN, which was involved in the implementation of this equipment, says that thanks to this solution, workers spend 30% less time on tasks, and labor accuracy has increased by as much as 96%.

Culture and art

Augmented reality is an "old friend" of guides and museum workers. Video guides with 3D images of long-lost exhibits and interior elements are used today by many museums in the world. They are also used in Russia, for example, in the Astrakhan Museum of Local Lore. In order to look at a revived mammoth, a traditional Kazakh dance or a floating fleet from the time of Peter I, you just need to wear Epson Moverio glasses provided by the museum. Moreover, for visitors with hearing impairment, a version of the excursion with sign language translation is available.

And in one of the most famous museums in the world - the Hermitage in April 2019, a competition was launched for university students. They must develop applications with augmented reality elements, which will later be used in the State Hermitage.

Telecom

2021: AT&T launches video calls in augmented reality

In mid-July 2021, AT&T and Facebook Reality Labs announced that they were joining forces to work on an augmented reality video call project as well as augmented reality capabilities in Facebook apps. The companies will use Spark AR, a platform from Facebook that delivers augmented reality across all of the company's devices and apps. Read more here.

How AR Cloud Technologies Are Changing the Information Transfer and Processing System

The concept of augmented reality (AR) combines technologies for projecting various digital information over the screen of electronic devices. AR allows you to see the real physical world, augmented by virtual objects - useful text information, video, graphics, etc. AR can be implemented using applications for smartphones, tablets, augmented reality glasses, stationary screens and other devices.

AR Cloud, by the official definition of the international organization AWE, is an accurate 1:1 scale model of the world that is constantly updated in real time. These are billions of recognizable computer data and cloud points corresponding to the real coordinates of the world, the so-called "software copy" of the world obtained by scanning physical objects around us, to which elements of augmented reality are added. AR Cloud is a new word in the development of the AR direction, which can change and improve the world we are used to. The experts of the company "" (Computer Vision Systems part of the Civil Code) LANIT reviewed the current state of affairs in this area, assessed the potential and ways of development of one of the most promising technologies of the XXI century. Read more here. [1]

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