Augmented Reality Based Workflow Systems /floAR

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Augmented Reality Based
Workflow Systems / floAR
Appearition Whitepaper
APPEARITION PTY LTD
352 VICTORIA PARADE, EAST MELBOURNE, VIC 3002 AUSTRALIA
/ ABN 35 160 392 003
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What is it?
Why is it significant?
Augmented reality is adding information and context to a real
object or place. Unlike virtual reality, augmented reality does not
create a simulation of reality. Instead, it takes a real object or space
as the foundation and incorporates technologies that add
contextual data to provide information on the subject. Augmented
reality can be used to add audio commentary, location data, his torical context, product information or other forms of content that
brings a new level of user experience and interactivity.
Since every object or place has a context, making that content
available to individuals interacting with those places or things
provides a richer experience.
Who is doing it?
Augmented reality technology has been put to use in a number
of fields, including medical imaging, manufacturing, aviation,
tourism, gaming, print media amongst others. In Education, trainers
are beginning to provide students with deeper, more meaningful
experiences by integrating training content with specific places
and objects. By supplementing these explorations with mobile
technologies and data-collection devices, it can be extended to
gain tangible business efficiencies.
In operational context, AR based applications provide a technology
that has the potential to support and speed up learning, while at the
same time increasing performance and effectiveness levels.
Some statistics suggest performance improvements up to 30% with
involved employees reporting higher levels of engagement.
Applications of AR that support technicians in the field have the
potential of reducing costs up to 25% through faster maintenance
or component substitution, identification and setup of new
connections, solution of faults and misconfigurations, with less
burden on backend personnel and system resources.
Additionally, thanks to the information that operators collect in
the field, the AR technology contributes to an improvement of the
quality of enterprise data.
According to Gartner’s latest research, AR is most useful as a tool
in industries where workers are either in the field, do not have
immediate access to information, or jobs that require one or both
hands and the operator's attention.
$1.2b
global annual revenue
genereated from moile AR
apps and services by 2015
*Source: Juniper Research
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$5.6b
30%
forecast global revenue
directly from AR by 2016
of mobile users will use
AR at least once a week
*Source: Juniper Research
*Source: Trigg-ar (2013)
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What’s driving it?
The business analytics & big data market continues to innovate
and grow at a solid rate. According to a 2013 report by IDC, the
market will reach US$50.7 billion in 2016 thanks to an annual
growth rate of 9.8%. The broader market for big data analytics
software is large and growing rapidly. It is occupied by players
like Pivotal, SAP, IBM, Oracle and others. A major trend emerging
within big data is video analytics, particularly rendered to portable
hand held devices.
“Big data describes a
massive volume of
structured and unstructured
data that is so large that
it’s difficult to process
using traditional
database techniques.”
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How can AR provide a solution to big data
difficulties?
The key issue experienced by our target customer group is to
seamlessly access and use all available data from a variety of data
sources to improve productivity of operations. While there are a
number of tools and software solutions that they can access for
this purpose, none of the existing options are able to meet the
requirement of extracting meaningful business data and make it
available to business users in a context specific manner.
Augmented reality solutions extract intelligent business data
from video cameras to integrate with other big data information
sources that fuel more informed business decisions.
The data driven augmented reality applications we have worked
on with our enterprise clients provide particular value through the
ability to render contextual video specific to a “market of one”.
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Overview of floAR
floAR by Appearition is an augmented reality based
workflow system for field operations and maintenance.
floAR is an easy to use quality and time tracking workflow solution
With fully configurable workflow wizards, it allows operators
to ensure there is a high level of standardisation and quality
control in their operational processes.
floAR is one of the few solutions in the Australian market with a
fully configurable Augmented Reality interface.
floAR is a web-based solution, that is easily accessed from
any location, it also allows for "offline mode" where there is no
internet connectivity.
floAR implements a strong reporting backend that allows production
of reports on any particular task, current work in progress or
staff performance. All reports can be exported to XML and CSV.
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Key features
Simple Configurable work flow wizards
Task and Job scheduling
Offline and Online capability (for clients in
areas with no internet connectivity)
Document integration
Powerful Reporting capability
Role based configuration
Augmented Reality (AR) interface
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Use case: floAR
Gartner report suggests that AR provides the highest benefit to
efficiency. It has the potential to improve productivity, provide
hands-on experience, simplify current processes, increase
available information, provide real-time access to data, offer
new ways to visualise problems and solutions, and enhance
collaboration.
Let us consider a scenario where periodic operational maintenance
needs to take place on a series of equipment at various sites on a
scheduled basis. This would require a series of standard procedural
tasks to be performed and an audit trail required.
1.
2.
3.
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1.
Field tech uses client to follow workflow instructions as
defined in the Business Workflow Tool.
2.
Using the AR mode build into the mobile solution, Field Tech
points at specific object.
3.
Projected objects are dynamically displayed on the user’s
screen which is a mixed world of real and constructed images. Eg. video overlay, pdf documentation, user manuals,
work instructions etc.
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The floAR solution layer consists of two
main components:
The floAR Server and floAR
Mobile Client.
floAR Server
floAR Mobile Client
Business Domain: Definition of business logic and tools. This
interface allows user and role management to the system,
job allocation, creation of operational workflows tasks, task
allocation, adding documents and media content.
Business Domain: Allows the field operator access to the
assigned maintenance tasks, relevant job code allocations
and record site information in forms.
AR System Component: This is a content Management
platform that is used to manage and define the media
content "target" and AR based triggers (eg certain pieces
of equipment) and link it back to operational workflows.
All information is updated through a web based client that
can be installed in an internal server or on the Cloud.
AR tracking: Through the AR trigger the field operator will
have the ability to download and view all the latest information needed for the successful completion of defined
operational tasks.
floAR Solution Layer
Mobile Client
Tracking
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Business
Domain
Server Administration
AR
Component
Business
Domain
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For carrying out such operational tasks the
floAR solution allows to:
Build a site database (location), equipment database (details
regarding components) and the content relevant to the specific maintenance and operational processes.
Allow for user management and user allocation to specific
sites or tasks.
For each equipment type, creation of workflows with a
variable set of maintenance tasks where in each task contains
several steps .
For Field operators, connected via their mobile device to the
secure server, ability to access the latest content and instructions regarding the assigned maintenance tasks.
Using AR technology to trigger off QR codes, barcodes or the
equipment itself, operators are supported during the task with
real-time information.
All the submitted information is available and accessible
online by the operators and managers who can track the
status of the execution of tasks by the field staff through
management dashboards
The same system can be used to support training, by creating
specific training programs, for “hands on” equipment training
and OHS programs.
In this context, the definition of the data structures of the maintenance scenarios is relatively simple, and can be done through the
simple web-based interfaces. For the media content, assuming the
company has some of this already, the AR content management
system allows for easy transposition of this data into the workflow
procedure.
About Appearition
Formed in 2005, HiddenCove Solutions is a niche technology
service provider working with customers in Australia as well as
the wider Asia Pacific region. In October 2012 Appearition Pty Ltd
was spawned.
Appearition specialises in the design, build and delivery of
Enterprised Augmented reality solutions.
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