Seeing Clearly

How do you like your sensory interactive experience? Immersed in a fully artificial environment? The real world overlaid with virtual objects? Or how about having your surroundings virtual blended with elements of reality?

In 2019, we can now choose how real or unreal we want our world to be opting for virtual, augmented and even mixed realities. Interfaces are now practical and easier to use hands-free – think Google’s Glasses, Microsoft’s freshly announced Hololens 2 (more on which later). In service, Real World’s rugged yet powerful HTM1 headset is gaining traction in the sector.

The benefits are solutions for long-term service issues: complex maintenance instructions kept on wads of paper, in hefty dog-eared manuals are becoming obsolete as clear, technical advice can be overlaid on a faulty part, viewed through specialist eye wear.

Service,has embraced the possibilities of the technology, and is set to reap its benefits, if it indeed it isn’t already. According to Bill Pollock, the technologies are now established enough that there is a danger of getting left behind if you’re even slightly hesitant about its adoption. “If you’re still mulling around, trying to figure out if you should move forward with Augmented Reality,” Bill said to me as guest on the Field Service Podcast, “those that have already started it over the past few years have now, in many cases, merged Augmented Reality (AR) with Virtual Reality (VR) and are providing services in a Mixed Reality (MR) scenario.”

Bill’s point is a valid one but I think there are still plenty of firms out there who are yet to dabble on the technology’s possibilities. Perhaps put-off by its complexity. Technology operates at a fast-pace, acronyms are common and people are keen to grab the headlines of a google definition when researching something new. We rarely drill down or find time to go beyond the opening paragraph. Perhaps it’s a trait more in line with a society who want information quick before moving on, but how many of us know the real-definition and meaning of something, particularly something that could be a core focus of a service strategy?

"Augmented, mixed or virtual. I think it’s important then to drill down to each strand and get an overview of how it operates..."

Let me take you to March’s Field Service Forum in Amsterdam, specifically to a roundtable hosted by Nick Frank. The thread of discussion was around Artificial Intelligence and its role in automated service management. Kicking off, Nick asked delegates for their a definition of AI and how it can impact their business Various explanations were offered, differing between each participant and with no real concensus. Nick goes into more detail in an article for Field Service News here, but for me, it suggested that defining what a technology actually is - succintly and concisely - is paramount.

Augmented, mixed or virtual. I think it’s important then to drill down to each strand and get an overview of how it operates.
To get there though, it’s a good idea to start with the baseline from which all three work from: The Reality -Virtuality Continuum.
Simply, the continuum straddles a reality and virtuality scale, where one end is real life - what we experience through our own senses - the other, a completely virtual world or virtuality, where the senses are immersed in an artificial environment.

The phenomena was created by Paul Milgram from the University of Toronto, who as part of his research sabbatical in the early 90s, worked with fellow academics from ATR Communication Systems Research Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan shared their findings in a paper entitled, Augmented Reality: A class of displays on the reality-virtuality continuum.

So where does each virtual world sit on Milgram’s scale? As mentioned, VR occupies the far-right section of the scale, where there is no element of reality; senses are completely enveloped by a virtual environment. Produced, for example, by a headset that feeds us a series computer-created images. Panning to the far left at the very end reality operates, but just before this AR takes its place, where virtual objects are overlaid on the real-world environment.

Mixed reality, however straddles across the majority of the spectrum and is essentially a form somewhere between virtual reality and augmented reality on the continuum, and perhaps even an advanced form of the latter. It is the lesser known of the three but it overarching influence across Milgran’s spectrum shows its importance.

In 2019, MR is starting to have more of an impact, particularly in enterprise, with the second incarnation of Microsoft’s enterprise focused HoloLens 2, unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in February, expected to transform the way repair and maintenance is carried out.

"At the moment Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Realities still need a human to operate them..."

“We optimized HoloLens 2 for long wear and comfort,” Microsoft’s Alex Kipman said during the device’s launch in Barcelona, Spain. “We 3D scanned the heads of thousands of people across a wide range of ages, genders, and ethnicities. HoloLens 2 has a universal fit system that works on the broadest and most diverse range of people, whether you wear glasses or not. Putting it on should be as simple as putting on your favorite hat.”

I spoke to Paul Haimes, VP of Business Development and Sales of Field Engineering at PTC about AR and its adoption and our conversation naturally referenced Microsoft’s MR device which he thinks “represents a huge step forward” for wearable devices and hands-free operations for engineers, compared to the device’s first outing (HoloLens 1) three years ago.

“HoloLens 1 is very powerful, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not got that core augmented capability that we see using a binocular view,” Haines says. “I think it’s fair to say it’s a fantastic piece of equipment and there are many, many companies out there using it, today, however it’s a heavy piece of equipment to wear; the battery life may or may not be an issue depending on what you’re trying to do with it but s I’m hugely encouraged by what we’ve seen with the launch of HoloLens 2, it looks better balanced.”

Microsoft have pitched HoloLens 2 solely at enterprise and made clear it is not aimed at consumers. It has the potential to be the wearable MR interface that the technology (and service) has been waiting for. And if this is to be the great MR revolution, then we should start understanding MR, what it means and the role it plays.

But let’s finish with Milgram’s Reality-Virtually Continuum and the biggger question it raises. Since its publication in 1994, the research has been aligned with computer science or new media, however – and perhaps rather philosophically – the continuum is mentioned as an element of anthropology; the idea of what makes us human.

At the moment Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Realities still need a human to operate them. The human touch remains in their operation and this is pleasing. The end-user - the customer - ultimately benefits from service’s use of this technology and we have to keep this firmly in mind when considering integrating the technology into our processes.

Virtual, augmented or mixed; it doesn’t matter. Reality is the important environment here. The one your customer operates in, and one that doesn’t require a wearable to tell you you’ve done a bad job.

Features Augmented Reality future of field service Virtual Reality mixed realities

About the Author: Mark Glover

Mark is an experienced B2B editor and journalist having worked across an array of magazines and websites covering health and safety, sustainable energy and airports.

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About the Author: Mark Glover

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