Intelligent Realities For Workers Using Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Beyond
workers by making their realities more
intelligent.
I NTRODUCTION
An intelligent reality is defined here as a
technologically enhanced reality that aids
human
cognitive
performance
and
judgement. As compared to the base reality,
an intelligent reality can have much greater
dimensionality,
reduced
occlusion,
transcendence of distance, better guidance
and improved communication with other
actors. This definition deliberately does not
exclude non-physical realities in domains
such as finance and cybersecurity, but the
focus of this article is on intelligent realities
based on physical realities and fed by IoT.
Through all the industrial revolutions, tools
and machines have been central to workers’
realities. But it is only recently that large
portions of a worker’s reality could be
digitized with IoT devices and approaches. In
2015, Henning Kagermann, former CEO of
SAP AG, argued that this “digitization—the
continuing convergence of the real and the
virtual worlds will be the main driver of
innovation and change in all sectors of our
economy.” 1 This simple act of creating
digital streams produces information that
can be expressed in many different ways, on
many different types of materials, and in
many different systems. 2 This article argues
that
modern
reality
presentation
technologies are compelling mediums for
the expression of digital IoT streams.
Consider a technician looking at a machine
while wearing an AR Head Mounted Display
(HMD) can see both the service history and
prediction of future failures. This gives the
worker a view on the fourth dimension of
time, both backwards and forwards. Instead
of having to take the machine apart, the
worker can see an IoT driven mixed reality
rendering projected on the outside casing.
By just glancing away from the machine, he
can see a virtual rendering of the operations
of the same type of machine at a distant
location. Then, he can interface with both
artificial and human remote experts about
next steps, which could include the expert
Such reality presentation technologies
include the eXtended Reality (XR) family of
technologies 3 -- Augmented Reality (AR),
Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) –
as well as more mature and accepted
technologies such as smart phones, tablets,
and PC flat screens. When combined with
IoT, analytics and artificial intelligence,
applications can be created that can aid
1 H
Kagermann, “Change Through Digitization-Value Creation in the Age of Industry 4.0,” Management of Permanent Change, p
23, 2015. Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284761944_Change_Through_Digitization-
Value_Creation_in_the_Age_of_Industry_40
2
J. Brennen, D. Kreiss, “Digitization,” The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy, p 557, 2016 .
3
C. Fink, “War of AR/VR?MR/XR Words,” Forbes, Oct 2017.
Availablehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/charliefink/2017/10/20/war-of-arvrmrxr-words/#2d75b71e8d07
IIC Journal of Innovation
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