AR And Wearable Tech: A Marriage Made For The Enterprise
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
According To Beecham Research, business applications will be the real drivers for augmented reality and wearable technology.
The future of augmented reality (AR) and wearable technology will be in business applications, driving growth over the next five years according to a new report from technology market research, analysis, and consulting firm Beecham Research.
The report, Augmented Reality and Wearable Technology – an Operational Tool for the Enterprise, examines the benefits and challenges of adopting AR and wearable devices in enterprises and points to manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and retail as some of the most dynamic markets where AR offers a new way for people to interact with information hands-free, to provide a greater depth of control and access to knowledge.
“It is clear that the overall status of the enterprise market for AR and wearable technology is at a tipping point, moving from trials and testbed projects to real commercial deployments,” said Matthew Duke-Woolley, market analyst at Beecham Research and author of the report. “While it is still questionable to provide a firm forecast, if this speed of transition accelerates as companies quickly recognize the benefits and return on investment, we believe the market can reach just under $800 million by 2020.”
Recent acquisitions that are reflective of the growing market activity and consolidation include PTC’s purchase of Vuforia at the end of last year for $65 million to support its next generation of technology solutions for manufacturers. This follows acquisitions of IoT companies ThingWorx and Axeda, according to an iotglobalnetwork blog post. Other acquisitions in 2015 included Apple’s purchase of Metaio, borne out of a project at Volkswagen and Facebook’s purchase of AR company Surreal Vision.
Among the emerging business applications of AR and wearable technology (WT) highlighted in the report are head-up displays in manufacturing systems to support complex production processes, collaborative product design and prototyping; remote assistance of specialist distant engineers and technicians; medical systems to enable surgeons to access relevant data in theatre without being distracted; and education and training.
“Current human-computer interfaces in mobile computing are primarily based around touchscreens, but AR along with WT offers a hands-free computing environment, enabling greater interaction with information and the user’s surroundings,” said Saverio Romeo, principal analyst at Beecham Research. “We expect to see rapid evolution of smart glasses with more miniaturization and better field of view and battery life, while there will also be increasing attention on the convergence with virtual reality (VR) technology and the Internet of Things to deliver competitive advantage. Collaboration with AR/VR and IoT players will be crucial.”
The report predicts that business enterprise applications of AR and wearables will quickly outpace consumer-fronting uses, based on recent market activity.
“AR technology and wearable devices blur the lines between computer and human environments and provide a more immersive and interactive experience,” said Duke-Woolley. “While it is still unclear where the consumer ‘killer-apps’ will appear, there is real momentum building around business-use cases that will gain pace over the next two years with more product releases, real-world deployments and market acquisitions.”