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Unlike VR, when you’re talking about augmented reality, describing what an experience is like can be incredibly difficult — primarily because the experiences are even more contextual than relatively static virtual worlds that don’t involve real-world settings.
In AR, everything is about how “you” see things interacting with your real environment. Such is the case with what I’m calling the most important demonstration of Magic Leap technology to date in the form of an AI assistant called Mica.
Together, the team described a world in which a Magic Leap user will be able to interact with intelligent assistants in the form of fully realized augmented reality humans that can recognize your position in a room, as well as items in that room. Having mapped the area and your position within it, the AI assistant will then interact with you to help you do any number of things.
For example, as detailed in the presentation, the AI assistant might scan the Magic Leap One wearer’s eyes to detect his mood and then suggest an appropriate song to play through the home’s music system. Similarly, the AI assistant my access the Magic Leap One user’s preferences to adjust things such a the level of light in a room at a certain time of day.
We’re already becoming accustomed to such interactions on the audio plane via digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and, to a lesser extent, Apple’s Siri. But what Magic Leap is describing is putting an even more robust and responsive version of such a digital assistant in the form of a human that inhabits the same space as you, thus taking the assistant metaphor to its highest level. It sounds and looks a bit like science fiction, but it’s not.
What Magic Leap is describing is so close to reality, the company now feels comfortable enough to offer demonstrations of a rudimentary version of the dynamic at work with the Magic Leap One in conjunction with its intelligent assistant Mica.
The result is a stunning experience that takes AR into brand new and exciting territory.
I met Mica for the first time earlier this week. And if you get a chance to meet her, she will fundamentally change how your view the Magic Leap One and augmented reality in general.
When Magic Leap’s team brought me into an empty room hidden deep in the bowels of an LA event center, I didn’t know what to expect. The space was designed to look like a normal room, complete with a table, two chairs, and other furniture situated around the table. Nothing looked particularly futuristic or tech-enabled, so I wasn’t expecting much. Wow, was I wrong.
Upon donning the Magic Leap One, I’m greeted by a virtual woman (Mica) sitting at the very real wooden table. Then, Mica, with an inviting smile, gestures for me to join her and sit in the chair opposite her. I oblige, and then a very weird interaction begins — she starts smiling at me, seemingly looking for a reaction.
I’ll admit, I deliberately avoided smiling (though it was really hard, Mica seems so nice) and kept a poker face in an attempt to see if I could somehow throw the experience off by not doing the expected, that is, returning the smile.
Undaunted, Mica continued to look into my eyes and go through a series of “emotions” that, surprisingly, made me feel a bit guilty about being so stoic.
It’s at this point that I should mention that she doesn’t speak yet, so all of our interactions were conducted in silence, and instead of using words, she communicated using gestures, eye moments, and various body language. At first, I thought this might be a limitation, but retrospect, I think this served to make the experience even more impactful.
That would have been enough to mildly impress me, but what came next was the kicker. She then pointed to a real wooden picture frame on the table, gesturing for me to hang it on a pin on the wall next to us. I did as asked, and… it was the eurekamoment. This was a virtual human sitting at a real world table and she just got me to change something in the real world based on her direction.
But then it got better. Once I’d hung the empty frame, Mica got up (she’s about five feet six inches tall) and began writing a message inside the frame, which in context looked about as real as if an actual person had begun writing on the space.
Alas, I don’t remember what the message was (honestly, I was too blown away by what was happening), but I’m assuming it was somewhat profound, as Mica then looked to me in a way that seemed to ask that I consider the meaning of the message. After a few beats, the life-sized, augmented reality human walked out of the room. But she didn’t just disappear into a wall in a flurry of sparkly AR dust. Instead, she walked behind a real wall in the room leading to a hallway. It was a subtle but powerful touch that increased the realism of the entire interaction.
As I said earlier, it’s incredibly difficult to describe just how profound this experience was, but if and when it’s made available to the public, you’ll be doing yourself a grave disservice if you pass the opportunity up. `
I’ve been trying to think of tool or app that would compel me to wear the Magic Leap One for an entire day. And while I’ve had the device for months now, I haven’t been able to think of anything that would get me to wear it beyond one hour spurts of activity. That’s all changed now. Although battery life and the experience itself aren’t quite ready for such rigorous and extended use, I could easily see coming home and slipping on the Magic Leap One for the rest of the night if it meant having access to such a fully realized AI assistant such as Mica.
After meeting Mica, I have no doubt that this is what the virtual assistant future will look like for most people in the very near future. It’s not assured that it will be Magic Leap that delivers it, but whichever company does, I think it’s safe to say that Magic Leap was first to show us that future in this particular way, and it’s incredible.
Hevolussvela le innovative soluzioni di mixed reality messe a punto per il Gruppo Würth, player mondiale nella distribuzione di sistemi di fissaggio e montaggio.
In questo settore, Hevolus propone HoloWarehouse e HoloMaintenance, piattaforme che consentono la massima interazione tra operatore e sistemi informativo. Un vero e proprio cambio di paradigma per chi lavora sul campo, il tutto basato sui visori attivi Microsoft Hololens. In dettaglio, HoloWarehouse è una App in Mixed Reality per la presentazione e configurazione delle soluzioni logistiche. Mentre Holomaintenance è deputata alla gestione di attività post-vendita di manutenzione e assistenza remota.
Grazie ad HoloWarehouse, ad esempio, sarà più facile per un’azienda meccanica capire in che modo potenziare la sicurezza degli ambienti di lavoro. Così possono fare ora clienti – attuali e potenziali – di Würth, installando nei propri stabilimenti di produzione i distributori automatici per l’antinfortunistica Würth (che includono guanti, mascherine, occhiali di sicurezza, ecc.).
Grazie alla tecnologia Hevolus e agli Hololens di Microsoft, l’ologramma 3D del distributore ne mostra il funzionamento: al passaggio di un badge elettronico, il dispenser eroga al lavoratore l’equipaggiamento di sicurezza personalizzato in base alla sua mansione lavorativa, garantendo all’azienda il tracciamento quotidiano dei prodotti stoccati e permettendo la gestione in tempo reale dei riordini.
Invece, in caso di guasti o malfunzionamenti, grazie a HoloMaintenance, Würth può gestire in tempi celeri gli interventi di manutenzione o riparazione del distributore in modo diretto, ottenendo le informazioni necessarie dall’ologramma 3D o in modalità remota, chiamando in videoconferenza il supporto tecnico specializzato che potrà vedere esattamente ciò che l’operatore on site visualizza con gli Hololens e indirizzarne diagnosi e procedure di intervento.
Hevolus sarà presenta a SMAU Milano. Hevolus presenterà in fiera ulteriori novità in cantiere, tra cui i suoi programmi di ricerca più recenti e l’innovativa soluzione Photoplanner, studiata per Natuzzi, la più grande azienda italiana nel settore dell’arredamento.
Antonella La Notte, CEO di Hevolus Siamo orgogliosi di prendere parte a SMAU anche quest’anno continuando a portare innovazione tecnologica in un settore in cui fino a poco tempo fa sembrava impensabile, quale il mondo retail. La Mixed Reality rappresenta per le aziende un’incredibile opportunità per regalare ai propri clienti un’esperienza d’acquisto unica e siamo lieti che partner di pregio come Würth ci accordino la propria fiducia per portare la customer experience su un nuovo livello.
OnSight is mixed-reality software that allows scientists and engineers to virtually walk and meet on Mars. It was created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in collaboration with Microsoft, for the HoloLens. The software won NASA’s Software of the Year Award 2018. For more about NASA’s exploration of Mars, visit https://mars.nasa.gov
When you work at a factory that pumps out thousands of a single item, like iPhones or shoes, you quickly become an expert in the assembly process. But when you are making something like a spacecraft, that comfort level doesn’t come quite so easily.
“Just about every time, we are building something for the first time,” says Brian O’Connor, the vice president of production operations at Lockheed Martin Space.
Traditionally, aerospace organizations have replied upon thousand-page paper manuals to relay instructions to their workers. In recent years, firms like Boeing and Airbus have started experimenting with augmented reality, but it’s rarely progressed beyond the testing phase. At Lockheed, at least, that’s changing. The firm’s employees are now using AR to do their jobs every single day.
This piece first appeared in our twice-weekly newsletter, Clocking In, which covers how technology is transforming the future of work. Sign up here—it’s free!
Spacecraft technician Decker Jory uses a Microsoft HoloLens headset on a daily basis for his work on Orion, the spacecraft intended to one day sit atop the powerful—and repeatedly delayed—NASA Space Launch System. “At the start of the day, I put on the device to get accustomed to what we will be doing in the morning,” says Jory. He takes the headset off when he is ready to start drilling. For now, the longest he can wear it without it getting uncomfortable or too heavy is about three hours. So he and his team of assemblers use it to learn a task or check the directions in 15-minute increments rather than for a constant feed of instructions.
LOCKHEED MARTIN
In the headset, the workers can see holograms displaying models that are created through engineering design software from Scope AR. Models of parts and labels are overlaid on already assembled pieces of spacecraft. Information like torquing instructions—how to twist things—can be displayed right on top of the holes to which they are relevant, and workers can see what the finished product will look like.
The virtual models around the workers are even color-coded to the role of the person using the headset. For Jory’s team, which is currently constructing the heat shield skeleton of Orion, the new technology takes the place of a 1,500-page binder full of written work instructions.
Lockheed is expanding its use of augmented reality after seeing some dramatic effects during testing. Technicians needed far less time to get familiar with and prepare for a new task or to understand and perform processes like drilling holes and twisting fasteners.
LOCKHEED MARTIN
These results are prompting the organization to expand its ambitions for the headsets: one day it hopes to use them in space. Lockheed Martin’s head of emerging technologies, Shelley Peterson, says the way workers use the headsets back here on Earth gives insight into how augmented reality could help astronauts maintain the spacecraft the firm helped build. “What we want astronauts to be able to do is have maintenance capability that’s much more intuitive than going through text or drawing content,” says Peterson.
For now, these headsets still need some adjustments to increase their wearability and ease of use before they can be used in space. Creating the content the workers see is getting easier, but it still takes a lot of effort. O’Connor sees these as obstacles that can be overcome quickly, though.
“If you were to look five years down the road, I don’t think you will find an efficient manufacturing operation that doesn’t have this type of augmented reality to assist the operators,” he says.
Ogni anno 400.000 persone in Europa, 60.000 in Italia, muoiono per arresto cardiaco improvviso; molte di loro potrebbero avere maggiori possibilità di salvezza se soccorse tempestivamente e adeguatamente. Se le persone che si imbattono in una vittima di arresto cardiaco iniziassero la rianimazione cardiopolmonare prima dell’arrivo dell’ambulanza, le possibilità di sopravvivenza aumenterebbero di 2-3 volte.
Oggi solo nel 15% dei casi viene eseguita la rianimazione prima dell’arrivo dei soccorsi. Se la percentuale aumentasse al 50/60% si potrebbero salvare 100.000 ogni anno.
È per questo che, per la prima volta, da quest’anno il 16 ottobre si celebrerà il “World Restart A Heart Day” cioè il giorno mondiale di sensibilizzazione sul tema dell’arresto cardiaco che vedrà iniziative in tutto il mondo con il patrocinio dell’Organizzazione Mondiale della Salute.
In questa occasione, i ricercatori e i volontari di IRC, Italian Resuscitation Council, saranno all’interno del Parco Archeologico del Colosseo a Roma, dalle 10 alle 17 per informare sulle manovre salvavita con dimostrazioni pratiche e con la novità della realtà virtuale: sarà possibile simulare in 3D e in modo realistico una corretta procedura di rianimazione.
I ricercatori e i volontari di IRC saranno accompagnati dai volontari della Fondazione “Giorgio Castelli”, che ha formato alla rianimazione cardiopolmonare gli addetti del Parco Archeologico del Colosseo a Roma e donato 11 defibrillatori all’intera area. È prevista anche la partecipazione di volontari dell’ANPAS, della Croce Rossa Italiana, di Conacuore e di altre associazioni.
Quello del 16 ottobre, però, è solo uno degli eventi della campagna “VIVA! la settimana per la rianimazione cardiopolmonare”. Durante la settimana che quest’anno è dal 15 al 21 ottobre, saranno organizzati incontri e dimostrazioni pratiche in tutta Italia.
«Vogliamo anche quest’anno attrarre l’attenzione per spiegare come alcune semplici azioni, eseguibili da chiunque, possono salvare la vita di chi è colpito da arresto cardiaco. Per questo la nostra associazione è molto impegnata nella formazione e nella divulgazione: solo nell’ultimo anno abbiamo realizzato oltre 10.000 corsi di formazione rivolti a quasi 130.000 partecipanti tra operatori sanitari e persone comuni con particolare attenzione al mondo della scuola», dice Andrea Scapigliati, presidente di Italian Resuscitation Council e dirigente medico dell’Unità operativa di cardioanestesia e terapia intensiva cardiochirurgica della Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli.
«VIVA! rappresenta un’ottima occasione di sensibilizzazione per la popolazione nei confronti della cultura del primo soccorso e delle buone pratiche di rianimazione, cultura di vita e di attenzione ai bisogni primari del prossimo», aggiunge Vincenzo Castelli, presidente della Fondazione Giorgio Castelli onlus e dirigente medico della Unità di Medicina interna dell’Ospedale Vannini di Roma.
Per favorire la diffusione delle manovre salvavita, cioè il massaggio cardiaco, le ventilazioni di soccorso e la defibrillazione precoce, IRC ha creato un nuovo strumento che utilizza la realtà virtuale indirizzato non solo agli operatori sanitari ma anche alla gente comune e agli alunni delle scuole. Indossando il caschetto della realtà virtuale è possibile infatti simulare un primo soccorso su una vittima di arresto cardiaco.
Per favorire l’insegnamento nella scuola, IRC, ha inoltre ormai consolidato l’applicazione per cellulari “Un picnic mozzafiato” dedicato ai bambini della scuola primaria.
L’elenco delle iniziative della settimana VIVA! è disponibile sul sito dedicato all’iniziativa.
REALTÀ AUMENTATA, REALTÀ VIRTUALE, INTELLIGENZA ARTIFICIALE E DEEP LEARNING STANNO IMPATTANDO ANCHE IL MONDO DELL’ARCHITETTURA. LA PROLIFERAZIONE DI STRUMENTI DIGITALI CI DÀ LA POSSIBILITÀ DI TRASCENDERE – PER LA PRIMA VOLTA DA GENERAZIONI – LE PRATICHE ARCHITETTONICHE TRADIZIONALI. LA REALTÀ IMMERSIVA E IL DEEP LEARNING PROMUOVONO L’INNOVAZIONE E INTERROMPONO I FLUSSI DI LAVORO PRECEDENTI NEL SETTORE DELL’ARCHITETTURA.
Per sperimentare tutta la potenza rivoluzionaria della realtà aumentata bisogna capire che siamo di fronte a un nuovo oggetto comunicativo. E’ una nuova sintassi che sta nascendo, destinata a condizionare la comunicazione e il marketing.
Not only the experience of sporting activities and events, but also rehabilitation after sports injuries are changing due to cutting-edge technologies. In sports medicine, the future holds a shift towards prevention through genomics, nutrigenomics, countless trackers and wearables, while there are many great technologies which aim to alleviate the pain and shorten the time of recovery – if, against all odds, a sports injury still happens.
Technology will change the experience of sports injuries and rehabilitation
When was the last time you went out for a run without Endomondo or had a bike tour without Strava? Have you thought about how different the commentaries for live football or basketball matches were only a couple of years ago? Where were those sixteen cameras that have been monitoring the field and performance of football players since 2007? Where was the hawk-eye technique to track the trajectory of balls in cricket or tennis before 2001? What about professional timer services? Who saw whether the ball was in or out if not the camera?
The experience of sports and following sports events radically changed in the last two decades due to technology. The assessment of performance, the training methods, the episode of cheering for your team – all activities connected to sports have been hijacked by technology.
The most painful event of them all, being a victim of a sports injury, is no exception either. There are many technologies which aim to improve the state of sportsmen and sportswomen going through the rough period of recovery, as well as technology-based methods to prevent those injuries. The appearance of the following tools falls neatly in line with the general trends, namely that there is a palpable shift from proactive to preventive medicine.
Here, we collected the most relevant and exciting examples, which could help professionals in sports medicine make sportsmen and sportswomen less prone to injuries and if an accident happens they can recover in less time.
Preventing sports injuries
Technology gathers data about every second of the performance of the players during training or the actual race. Data not only helps to analyze, create new strategies and thus boost players’ performance in the arena but can also monitor health state and warn about overstraining. Current scientific achievements also give the chance to sports fanatics to dig deeper and discover what health risks they carry in their genes or what diet they should follow to stay on top for a long, long time.
1) Preventive genomics
What if your genes could tell you how you should change your work-out or your overall training to prevent injury? Or what kind of nutritional demands do you have? Wouldn’t life be more comfortable if you could personalize your training regimen or your diet based on your genetic background?
It is already possible. The Nova Scotia-based performance company, Athletigen Technology Inc. works with several athletes aiming to use collected DNA information to improve performance, health, and safety. These genetic tests reveal additional insight about a possible heightened risk of injury or specific nutritional demands. Later, these results allow the helpers of an athlete to adjust his or her workout plan and nutrition accordingly.
With regards to the appropriate diet plan for athletes, the new field in dietetics, nutrigenomics could be the answer. In my case, the data of my entire DNA sequence at home in a digital file showed that I’m sensitive to caffeine and process alcohol more thoroughly than most people (I’m Hungarian after all). But you don’t have to figure out this information by yourself. There is a California-based start-up, Habit, which might help you with that. If you send back their required blood sample kit, they will analyze your DNA, and create a personalized meal plan that works best for your body. The spread of nutrigenomics could be of massive help for athletes to find the right diet boosting their performance to reach new records and make their immune systems stronger to fight off diseases and prevent injuries easily.
2) Monitoring health through sensors and wearables
There is a gazillion of healthcare wearables and sensors out there which aim to support training, keep sports professionals healthy while help them reach their very best. Most of the time, they offer constant health data management, real-time performance monitoring, and immediate feedback. We already know about Pebble Time and the Android Sleep App which follow your sleeping habits; Fitbit Surge or Fitbit Ionic tracking your fitness activities, while PIP giving you an overview of your stress levels.
However, there are many specialized tools for monitoring the stress load and performance of players to avoid fatigue-induced injuries. For example, athletes who do lots of jump roping during their training might want to try Vert. It helps them measure and improve their jumping capabilities; and know when they are nearing an unsafe level of fatigue that may lead to injury. Blast Motion does something similar. It tracks and analyses players’ swings during training to optimize performance and decrease the risk of injury.
Osman Hassan Ahmed, a physiotherapist to the Football Association in the UK, told The Medical Futurist that in the future, sportswear will be able to show the clinician standing at a playfield’s sidelines vital physiological data in real-time. That will enable them to gain an accurate picture of the individuals’ status;and combining this with GPS data may also help to make decisions as to when to substitute the player in a match or to remove him from the field of play when training, he added.
3) Prevention through sensory garments, helmets, mouth guards
The Australian company, Catapult Sports is considered one of the biggest suppliers of sports tracking devices. More than 1500 professional teams are using their trackers worldwide. Players wear their small, pocket-sized GPS trackers on the back of their training tops, and the device tracks over 100 metrics from speed through heart rate until acceleration. As a consequence, the coach can monitor players’ information on the sidelines in real time – just as Hassan Ahmed said. Players in the National Football League wear the chip of Zebra Technologies on their shoulders that send data to receivers placed around the stadium.
Maryland-based Zephyr Technology backed by Medtronic produces among others a bio-harness, which allows coaches to see the intensity of a specific training regarding biomarkers, such as heart rate, temperature or acceleration. The company’s trauma-monitoring patches that stick to the player’s body measure force and impact so that specialists could have more data about concussion risks for football or hockey players.
Beyond gadgets, imagine chips and clothing measuring vital signs and devices boosting performance actively! Many athletes in professional clubs now wear unique shirts that measure their vital signs during practice or even games. HexoSkin developed a shirt with sensors woven into it that measures heart rate, breathing, number of steps, pace, and calories burned. The London-based D30 introduced a smart material this year. It provides terrific shock absorption and impact protection capabilities, which are naturally an ideal fit for basically every sport.
In the future, many high-contact sports, where players have to use helmets for their safety will utilize high-tech hard-hats. These helmets utilize shock absorbers that release air when the head has suffered an impact. This air inflates the protective interior of the helmet and reduces the amount of quick movement the head sustains, thus reducing the chance of a concussion. Special mouth guards can now even alert athletes if they are at risk for a shock: sensors warn the player when an injury that could lead to a concussion has occurred.
Sports injury rehabilitation
As the Tao says, injuries happen. Technologies might decrease the occurrence rate, but accidents will still occur in the future. However, state-of-the-art diagnostics and appropriate rehabilitation tools could shorten the time of recovery and alleviate the pain along the way to feel well again.
Regarding diagnostics, portable medical devices and real-time visualization will make a difference in the future. Osman Hassan Ahmed says that musculoskeletal ultrasound is becoming more common in elite sport. He thinks that’s a forward-looking solution, but it would be great if the technology emerged to a level where a clinician could have an on-pitch scanner which could work through clothing and wouldn’t need conducting gel. Start-uppers – here’s an idea for success. Go for it!
After breaking a bone, injuring a knee or rupturing a ligament, it takes much time and a long rehabilitation process to be able to do sports again. The AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill allows patients to work out without bearing their full body weight. The machine can take over between 20-100 percent of the original weight enabling to move muscles and bones without overstraining them. The treadmill could do wonders not only in sports rehabilitation but also in neurological, orthopedic, senior rehabilitation or with weight loss. Another product of the company, the Bionic Leg provides patient-initiated motor assistance during sit-to-stand exercises, overground walking, and stair climbing. It strengthens weak muscles, increases balance, and helps patients to learn faster how to walk again!
Going one step further, complex robotic structures called exoskeletons could also support rehabilitation in the future. They could help the recovery of stroke or spinal cord injury patients, and already let paralyzed people walk again. For example, a gait-training exoskeleton suit helped Matt Ficarra, paralyzed from the chest down, walk down the aisle on his wedding day! How amazing is that?
2) HawkGrips, dynamometers and exercising machines
Sometimes the worst stories have the most hopeful endings. In 1997, Frank Osborne broke his neck, back, wrist, arm and both shoulders in a terrible ski accident. As a result, he struggled with debilitating pain for more than a decade. Thirty surgeries, extensive physical therapy, and alternative treatments offered little help. Until he met Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (IASTM) treatments, where a hard-edged instrument made of metal, plastic or ceramic is used to add shearing stress to soft tissue to enhance the body’s healing response. The method was so effective that he promised to make the best instruments for the technology. That’s how HawkGrips was born.
The Baltimore-based international company, BTE, offers complex rehabilitation systems in over 35 countries. It has various rehabilitation equipment, such as the Primus RS dynamometer or the Eccentron, resistance trainer. The former evaluates patients’ movements – how firm their grip is, whether they can lift a box – so the physician can assign the appropriate rehabilitation exercises for them. In case of the Eccentron, the exercising machine is an essential part of both rehabilitation and performance enhancement. It targets purely eccentric exercise for both assessment and then sets up an appropriate training program.
3) AR/VR in sports medicine
Although virtual reality and augmented reality are already used in several medical specialties, their application in sports medicine is limited, explained Osman Hassan Ahmed. However, given the unique demands of this discipline, he believes that blending existing evidence-based rehabilitation strategies with cutting-edge VR technologies which could replicate the players in their own stadium, the noise of the fans would be a valuable adjunct.
Fortunately, there are already some positive examples leading the way to the full-blown utilization of VR in sports medicine. Israeli start-up VRPhysio harnesses the power of gaming technology to help treat neck, spinal and other injuries through VR and rehabilitating games. It has created a platform that makes physiotherapy exercises easily accessible and enjoyable to patients, while also being easily monitored and analyzed by doctors and physiotherapists.
In the future, the appearance of VR/AR will be more frequent in sports medicine. Some visualize an augmented reality app which helps physicians check the collisions of players in real time sitting on the bench next to a trainer, assess the impact and make the decision whether or not a player should be taken off the field. It’s a wonderful idea, and just as AR could assist surgeons before complex operations or med students in their practice, this app might be used both for training or in real sports events. Here, another way to disrupt medicine and another idea for start-uppers. The future indeed seems to be exciting!
Just as every other specialty, sports medicine will change a lot due to AR/VR, trackers, wearables or exoskeletons. The challenge is to learn how to use those technologies to make sports medicine physicians better at their job without losing the human touch. Patients need interaction while they can enjoy the benefits of using digital health.
With an understanding that customers must trust their online purchases will meet their expectations, WatchBox, the global e-commerce platform for the buying, selling and trading of pre-owned luxury watches, has invested $200,000 into developing an Augmented Reality feature within the company’s free eponymous mobile app, WatchBox. Nearly one-third of all online purchases are returned because of a disparity between what the customer sees online and what they receive, according to e-commerce agency, i95 Dev. WatchBox’s advent into AR remedies this; all watches “appear” on wrists in their approximate size and shape dimensions, allowing customers to virtually see how their new watch will look on their wrists in real life.
See the WatchBox AR component in action.
“Try-on” a watch through the WatchBox mobile app.
The WatchBox AR component allows customers to see how a watch will look on their wrists before buying online.
“Technology plays a crucial role for WatchBox and our omni-channel approach,” said Danny Govberg, co-founder of WatchBox. “But it’s not just technology for technology’s sake. Every innovation we pursue always has the end goal of providing personalized service, education, expert council and convenience for our customers. Our investment into augmented reality is for our e-commerce customers to feel confident in their online purchase.”
Available to “try-on” now through the Augmented Reality component are several watches that premiered at 2018’s two most important watch industry shows, SIHH and Baselworld. These include new product releases from Audemars Piguet, Breitling, Tag Heuer, and many others, none of which will be available for customers to purchase until later this year. The WatchBox app, however, allows customers to get a sense of what these new releases will look like on their wrists now.
Hailed as the “Kelley Blue Book of Watches” by Forbesbecause of its revolutionary Watch Pricing Guide, the addition of AR places the WatchBox app ahead of all other apps -– and retailers — within the category. By printing and wearing a proprietary bracelet, available through the WatchBox app or downloadable from http://thewatchbox.com/ar, watch enthusiasts can virtually “try-on” hundreds of watches from WatchBox’s growing inventory of brands, including Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Omega, Patek Philippe and more. Users can then take photos of watches “on” their wrists through the app to share with friends or post on social media.
WatchBox’s venture into AR is led by the company’s new Chief Technology Officer, Shri Ballal, who previously served as Managing Director at EA Games Core Engineering Group. With Ballal’s industry expertise in creating authentic user experiences within the gaming industry, the AR component was developed in-house with some assistance from an outside agency. WatchBox’s continued dedication to marrying retail with technology is one of many reasons Singapore-based CMIA Capital Partners invested in the company last year.
Since its 2015 debut, the WatchBox mobile app has become an unparalleled mobile personal assistant for watch enthusiasts worldwide. With the popular Watch Pricing Guide, users have discovered how much a watch sold for over a twelve-month period, giving a benchmark to price their own watch for personal resale. The guide includes over 80,000 references based on WatchBox’s proprietary algorithms and database of millions of pre-owned market transactions. Since introducing this market value component, there have been more than 250,000 value searches.
The My WatchBox feature allows users to upload pictures of their watches into the app, providing an easily-accessible virtual depository of ownership information, including purchase date and price, serial numbers, warranty details, service history and more. Users can also create wish lists and opt-in for notifications when a desired watch becomes available.
My WatchBox integrates with The Watch Pricing Guide to display the current market value of each watch within the user’s collection, while providing a total estimated value for their entire collection. With this feature’s popularity, the total collective value of all registered My WatchBox user collections currently exceeds $500 million.
The Shopping feature puts WatchBox’s complete inventory of pre-owned watches at their fingertips for purchase. Users can sell or trade their watches with WatchBox concierge through the Sell or Trade feature by providing identifying details (watch brand name, model, and reference number), disclosing whether box and papers are available, and uploading current pictures. If trading for another watch, users can also select up to four watches from the WatchBox or Govberg inventory to complete their trade. A WatchBox concierge will then contact the user to conclude the transaction.
The News feature gives access to the latest watch industry blogs and articles, and broadcasts live shows from WatchBox Studio’s daily hands-on video watch reviews. These videos are produced by WatchBox’s own in-house studio and narrated by experts with specialized brand knowledge.
Verso la digitalizzazione non si muovono, una volta tanto, solo le grandi imprese, ma anche le mitiche Pmi italiane stanno scoprendo i vantaggi dell’arrivo del digitale.
Grazie anche agli incentivi del governo e all’appartenenza a catene di fornitura che in caso contrario le avrebbero estromesse, le piccole e medie imprese offrono forti segnali di interesse per il mondo 4.0.
Un’indagine svolta per il ministero dello Sviluppo economico da Met, in vista della prossima Relazione annuale del garante delle Pmi, spiega che il 17,7% delle imprese fra 10 e 49 addetti già impiega sistemi che vanno dall’Internet of things alla robotica alla manifattura additiva al cloud. Il 9,4% ha intenzione di adottarli a breve e l’1,2% è già inserito nel mondo 4.0.
I dati Istat sulla digitalizzazione delle Pmi
Superando la soglia dei 50 dipendenti si arriva al 32,2% di utilizzatori fino a 249 e 45,2% oltre i 250. Se poi si include nella valutazione tutto l’universo industriale, comprese le microimprese (1-9 addetti), meno sensibili alla svolta, il totale si abbassa e le imprese 4.0 diventano l’8,6%. Il dato significativo è però l’interesse delle imprese fra 10 e 49 addetti certificato anche dai segnali che arrivano dall’Istat.
Oltre un terzo delle imprese con meno di 50 addetti (34,2%) considerano l’ipermmortamento fiscale che incentiva l’acquisto di tecnologie 4.0 rilevante per la scelta di investire, a fronte del 57,6% delle grandi.
Le “piccole” hanno poi rappresentato il 68% delle imprese beneficiarie del credito di imposta per investimenti in ricerca e sviluppo, sempre più finalizzato alle trasformazioni digitali.
L’altra faccia della medaglia dice che sul 67% complessivo di imprese che nel 2017 ha dichiarato di aver effettuato nuovi investimenti, l’Istat stima che per le Pmi la quota si fermi ancora al 42%.
Augmented World 