Category: News

Make no mistake, the fourth industrial revolution is upon us. While conservative industries are still observing the action from the sidelines, leading 4.0 industries are reaping the benefits of their investments in AR-enhanced maintenance, repair, and operations practices.

Continue reading to learn more about how augmented reality is taking preventive, corrective, and predictive maintenance and remote assistance to the next level.

Augmented reality in maintenance

Maintenance plays a vital role in the industrial sector. Since it has a direct influence on performance, productivity and product quality (not to mention profit and reputation), maintenance is an area that is always being improved and perfected over time. And, rest assured, the current innovation in maintenance is augmented reality technology.

Augmented reality, in a nutshell, allows users to enhance their field of view with real-time superimposed digital information. But, more than that, it is a valuable solution for many of the challenges which surround industrial maintenance, repair, and operations.

Before we dig into practical applications, let us review some proven advantages of implementing a finely-tuned AR-enhanced MRO system:

General benefits of augmented reality maintenance

Don’t take our word for it. Controlled augmented reality case studies proved AR solutions to be indispensable in increasing the efficacy and cutting the error rates :

Boeing cut its wiring production time by 25% and reduced error rates effectively to zero. GE Aviation experiences an average of 8-12 % in efficiency improvement. GE Healthcare warehouse workers had a 46% increase in productivity using AR. GE Renewable Energy wiring technicians are yielding a 34% increase in productivity.

As they say, numbers don’t lie. Considering such attractive advantages and adding to the fact that large-scale factory breakdowns are often far more costly than maintaining a regular MRO program, more and more AR maintenance use cases are coming to life.

AR maintenance use cases

Industrial maintenance has humble origins. Back in the day machinery was slower, demand was milder, control systems were very simple and breakdowns were not as drastic. Fast-forward to the present day, and we have a whole different story.

Much has changed since the origins of the industrial revolution, with the more prominent developments emerging in the last decades. From physical documentation, we moved on to the desktop, then progressed to smart mobile devices and have now reached the hands-free wearable technology era.

AR-powered solutions for maintenance and repair operations:

Even though the above-mentioned solutions have their unique value, augmented reality remote assistance is definitely worthy of a closer examination.

Augmented reality in remote assistance

Commonly referred to as the “see-what-I-see” remote collaboration, this solution is the new preferred way to have specialized expertise on-site anytime, anywhere. Whenever a new or complex problem arises, field service technicians can now connect with experts to get a faster diagnosis and solution, decreasing repair downtime, saving time and money.

Thanks to its real-time two-way audio and video capabilities, which allows annotations to be made and remain stable on the shared scene, the costly expenses of moving skilled workers from site to site are being drastically reduced. Learn how Coca-Cola is reducing costs, improving quality control, and increasing efficiency throughout its supply-chain by using augmented reality.

“We no longer need to fly in people from Germany – where our main equipment suppliers are based – to troubleshoot our machines. Now they can virtually see what we are seeing, instantaneously, and help diagnose and solve issues without stepping foot in a plant. This allows us to operate ‘virtually’, unencumbered by time or distance.”
Helen Davis, VP of the supply chain, Coca-Cola Refreshments

Persistent AR experiences and worker collaboration

Collaboration among workers is a key driver for including AR technology into enterprises’ systems and processes. The display of real-time (or saved) 3D annotations on environments and objects help teams solve problems efficiently and with no extra relocation costs.

Features like Scene Recognition, Instant Tracking and, Persistent Instant Targets facilitate the sharing of AR experiences among professionals. While Scene Recognition helps workers overcome the challenge of tracking industrial sites and machines, Instant Tracking allows remote experts to guide onsite workers on the fly. The ability to ‘save and load’ AR experiences with Persistent Instant Targets allow staff to leave important messages directly on the machinery itself for the next shift to be aware of.

Combined, these three features bring AR collaboration among different users, devices, and operating systems one step ahead.

Maintenance is only one of the many use cases of augmented reality and Wikitude is proud to provide the technology which enables so many innovative and positive solutions to come to life.

All things considered, implementing an augmented reality maintenance program has a vast array of advantages. If you are interested in incorporating augmented reality solutions to support your specific needs, we encourage you to explore the features of our powerful SDK.

Powering sleek and lightweight AR glasses, Wikitude will help revolutionize the immersive AR-experience.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 22, 2019 – At Game Developers Conference (GDC), Wikitude – the world’s largest independent augmented reality (AR) technology provider, revealed the first steps taken in conjunction with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc to advance immersive AR computing. Wikitude has optimized their AR platform and integrated on XR Viewers powered by Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855 Mobile Platform. Extended reality (XR) Viewer devices, announced at Mobile World Congress 2019 combines the compute power of Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform with the speed of 5G-enabled smartphone provides mobile XR experiences with six degrees of freedom tracking.

This integration will help kick start the next generation of immersive AR computing, and this is also applicable to Standalone HMDs enabling users to experience realistic and highly engaging content via XR devices. With Wikitude’s activity growing strongly by more than 7,500 business customers, this will augment the offering to rapidly grow consumer and enterprise user base in AR.

Scene understanding includes real-world surroundings 

The powerful combination of Snapdragon 855 with the Wikitude AR SDK allows real-life walls, floors, and environments to seamlessly blend into the virtual world. To demonstrate this immersive AR experience, Wikitude invites XR enthusiasts attending GDC to visit Qualcomm’s demo room located at W Hotel from March 21st to March 23rd. The interactive gaming demo uses plane detection on AR smartglasses to simulate the space-ship wall.

“This is what Wikitude’s ‘plane detection’ feature does best: it quickly identifies all aspects of an environment and makes devices spacially aware,” says Wikitude CTO Philipp Nagele. 

Smart glasses as light and slick as sunglasses

Light-weight AR glasses will change the game in the smart glass market. “They are lightweight, more affordable and can be used outside of wifi coverage because the heavy computing part is being handled by XR optimized phones. Adding Wikitude´s powerful augmented reality software to the mix can bring immersive experiences to the next level,” says Martin Herdina, Wikitude CEO.

“At Qualcomm Technologies, we believe the Wikitude platform opens new opportunities, for developers to create immersive experiences with features like plane detection, image, object, and scene tracking, all seamlessly integrated and fully optimized for both Standalone HMDs and the next generation of AR devices”.

Hiren Bhinde – Director, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. 

Stay tuned for upcoming companies integrating Wikitude’s offering in future demos. Learn more about Wikitude’s technology at www.wikitude.com or by visiting the Qualcomm booth at the upcoming GDC in San Francisco, where the company will be providing demonstrations of its solution in action.

About Wikitude

Wikitude is the leading independent augmented reality platform for phones, tablets, and smart glasses with over 100,000 registered developers, 25,000 published apps, and 1 billion app installs. Wikitude enables developers, agencies, and enterprises to create AR experiences that delight, amaze, and provide tangible return on investment. Learn more at www.wikitude.com

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm and Snapdragon are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries.

Qualcomm Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries.

SALZBURG/TOKYO – February 20, 2019 – Wikitude and Cybernet, a leading Computer Aided Engineering software provider in Japan, are proud to announce their partnership to boost augmented reality technology in the Japanese market. 

Starting April 2019, Cybernet will own the rights to distribute Wikitude’s augmented reality SDK, Cloud, Studio and Enterprise offerings, to support the growing demand of medium and large enterprises looking to include AR in their strategy.

As a leading computer-aided engineering solution provider, Cybernet has been contributing to CAE-based solutions for over 30 years in a wide array of fields: research and development (R&D), engineering departments of manufacturing companies, along with university and governmental research institutes.

Wikitude in Japan

Wikitude first started its activities in the Japanese market in 2015 thanks to GrapeCity, the previous partner owning reseller rights of Wikitude’s technology. These rights have now been fully transferred to Cybernet.

GrapeCity customers holding a Wikitude SDK license will continue to have their active licenses running with no changes. GrapeCity will close its previous website on March 29th, 2019. All future information regarding Wikitude and Cybernet can be found on this new website.

By adding Wikitude’s augmented reality tools to its portfolio, Cybernet aims to help AR technology expand more rapidly inside the Japanese market.

The Wikitude SDK

Wikitude SDK is the go-to tool for businesses and agencies that wish to create a wide variety of AR-based solutions. It allows developers to track, save and share AR experiences, connecting digital data to world spaces, images, objects and more.

The AR market has grown rapidly in recent years with the spread of smart devices. According to a survey from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the market size for AR / VR worldwide was 229.7 billion yen in 2016, and it is estimated that by 2020 the market will reach approximately 1,316.7 billion yen.

Cybernet has been engaged in the development of AR / VR solutions for several years. By adding Wikitude to its CAE software portfolio, they believe this will greatly contribute to the development of AR applications in Japan and continue to accelerate the adoption of this technology in a variety of sectors.

About Wikitude GmbH

Wikitude is the leading independent augmented reality platform for phones, tablets, and smart glasses with over 125,000 registered developers, 25,000 published apps, and 1 billion app installs. Wikitude enables developers, agencies, and enterprises to create AR experiences that delight, amaze, and provide a tangible return on investment. 

About Cybernet

Cybernet Systems Co., Ltd. provides a wide array of leading-edge software solution services in the field of scientific computation, with a focus on services related to CAE (Computer Aided Engineering). These include the provision of software, training services, technical support, and consulting services in a wide variety of industries and fields including electric equipment, transportation equipment, machinery, precision equipment, healthcare, and educational/research institutions. Specifically, the company handles diverse world-class software products including those for structural analysis, injection molding analysis, acoustic analysis, mechanical analysis, control system analysis, communication system analysis, signal processing, optics design, illumination analysis, electronic circuit design, general-purpose visualization, and medical image processing. The company thus caters to a range of customer needs.

Details of Cybernet Systems Co., Ltd. are available on the following website: http://www.cybernet.co.jp/english/

SALZBURG/VIENNA – OCTOBER 15, 2018 – Constantia Flexibles, headquartered in Vienna, is one of the world’s leading producers of flexible packaging for the food and pharmaceutical industries. The company’s customers include international food, pet food, personal care, and pharmaceutical corporations and local market leaders.

Be it a chocolate bar, a pet food container, or a yogurt: the packaging of these products could soon be enriched with digital information experienced by consumers via smartphone. This feature also allows brands to learn a lot about customer shopping habits. With that in mind, the company has developed the innovative platform “Constantia Interactive”.

The strategic technology partner is Wikitude, the world’s leading independent AR technology provider. Thanks to the AR software from Salzburg, smartphones can easily recognize a variety of shapes and packaging. The aim of the partnership is to jointly expand the “Interactive Packaging” market.

69 percent of consumers want more information

Conscious buyers want to know more: What is really in the product? What else can I use it for? There is usually not enough space for extra information on a drink or medication package. However, consumers want precisely that: “According to our survey, 69 percent would rather choose a product for which they can call up useful additional information with their smartphone” says Alexander Baumgartner, CEO of Constantia Flexibles. “Our answer is ‘Constantia Interactive’. As soon as the smartphone camera detects the innovative product packaging, additional information about ingredients, instructions for use or interactive marketing campaigns appear.”

Augmented Reality: from niche to the hands of every consumer

Exactly because packaging comes in different shapes and sizes, it’s important to have a reliable mobile app that can recognize them all. Augmented reality apps based on Wikitude can do that whether the user has an Android, iOS or Windows device. Wikitude CEO, Martin Herdina is confident these capabilities will change the world:

“Google search revolutionized the Web 20 years ago. Likewise, augmented reality will fundamentally change the way we consume information.” The strategic collaboration with Constantia Flexibles is another important step in that direction. “When customers unite product discovery with such apps on their everyday shopping, augmented reality will soon be the norm to every consumer”, says Herdina.

Pack Expo in Chicago: Interactive Packaging is a hot topic among packaging champions

For Constantia Flexibles, ‘Interactive Packaging’ will be one of the key topics at this year’s Pack Expo, the largest packaging trade show in the world which takes place in Chicago from October 14 to 17. For brand owners the benefits of interactive product packaging and the associated customer relationship platform are obvious: they learn a great deal about the wishes and habits of their consumers. With this valuable data, companies can improve their products and target consumers more effectively without having to pass on data to third parties. All of this strengthens the customer’s relationship with the brand.

More information about Wikitude and Interactive Packaging from Constantia Flexibles Holding GmbH.

Download „Constantia Interactive Demo App”
Apple App Store or Google Play Store

Download Wikitude Software Development Kit (SDK) 8
http://www.wikitude.com/download/

Press Material Constantia Interactive

Release video (0:30)Press release

Press Material SDK 8

Release video (2:50)
Press release

Pictures

Picture 1: CEO Martin Herdina © Mike Vogl
Picture 2: CEO Alexander Baumgartner © Thomas Smetana
Picture 3: Constantia Interactive – Marketing-Tool with WOW_Effect© Constantia Flexibles
Picture 4: Example AR Packaging © Wikitude
Picture 5: SDK 8 Product Augmented Reality by Wikitude © Wikitude

All images are free of charge for press use. In full size for download available here.

About Wikitude

Wikitude® is the leading independent augmented reality platform for phones, tablets, and smart glasses with over 100,000 registered developers, 25,000 published apps, and 1 billion app installs. Wikitude enables developers, agencies, and enterprises to create AR experiences that delight, amaze, and provide a tangible return on investment. Learn more at www.wikitude.com

About Constantia Flexibles

Constantia Flexibles is the world’s fourth-largest producer of flexible packaging. Based on the guiding principle of People, Passion, Packaging, some 8,300 employees manufacture tailor-made packaging solutions at 40 sites in 18 countries. Many international companies and local market leaders from the food and pharma industries choose the sustainable and innovative products of Constantia Flexibles.

Press Contact

Wikitude
media@wikitude.com

Constantia Flexibles Holding GmbH
Grayling Austria GmbH
Siebensterngasse 31
1070 Vienna
+43 (0) 1 524 43 00
cflex@grayling.com

Wikitude’s augmented reality technology is now available for Qt-based apps through Felgo (former V-Play).

The constant growth of Wikitude’s ecosystem is, among other things, thanks to the wide range of frameworks supported by our SDK. Since 2012, when we released our first AR plugin for PhoneGap, Wikitude’s mission has been to make AR accessible to as many developers as possible.

By providing a variety of extensions and plugins, Wikitude ensures that its SDK meets the needs of hundreds of thousands of developers looking to boost their apps with augmented reality based on their favorite development framework.

Today, Wikitude proudly announces the expansion of its AR SDK to the Qt community, in partnership with Felgo.

This means Qt-based apps can now include image recognition, location-based AR, object tracking, instant tracking and other features based on Wikitude’s computer vision engine.

Qt for mobile app development

For those new to Qt: it is a powerful and feature-rich C++ framework used in many different industries. It supports the development of apps for Desktop, mobile platforms, and embedded systems – all from a single code base and has more than 1 million active developers using it.

Qt is available open-source, so you can check the full source code of the framework and change it based on your requirements. As Wikitude runs cross-platform, it makes sense to combine it with a solution like Qt.

One of the best things about Qt is QML, a reactive programming language that extends JavaScript. It allows creating stunning apps that save up to 90% of code compared to native development for iOS or Android. This is how QML code looks like:
You can click here and change the QML code yourself and see it update on your mobile app. This feature is possible with V-Play Live Code Reload (for more info, keep reading).

What is Felgo?

Felgo is a cross-platform development framework based on Qt which empowers developers to build better apps in a shorter time span.

Traditionally, Qt was a framework for desktop (Windows, Mac OS + Linux) and embedded systems. Although it also supports basic mobile features, for the development of polished native mobile experiences the Qt framework falls short. Felgo solves this problem by extending Qt with more advanced features for mobile app development and game development.

Felgo is an official Qt Technology Partner, meaning developers can use the full range of Qt APIs, in addition to the Felgo APIs to make cross-platform mobile apps shine. Here are some benefits of using Felgo for mobile app development:

• Native UI for iOS & Android, Cross-Platform

Felgo allows developing feature-rich, cross-platform mobile apps from a single code base, but with less code and much faster development time.

• Native Navigation with a Single Code Base

Felgo Apps abstracts specific navigation paradigms from iOS and Android and allows you to use just a single Navigation component that works cross-platform.

• Animations & Animated UIs made Easy

Creating and fine-tuning animations is often one of the most time-consuming tasks in mobile app development – with Felgo can cut this time significantly thanks to the QML language architecture.

• Custom UI and Branded UIs

A common trend in mobile apps is to share the same app layout and design across iOS and Android. The brand identity is becoming more important than strictly sticking to platform aesthetics.

To cover a brand identity, app designs usually require custom colors, fonts, animation and more. It is a frequent use case to re-use this layout, animation, brand identity and UI code across iOS and Android. Even more, navigation paradigms also get re-used across platforms like the bottom navigation bar pattern.

See the Spotify or AirBnB apps as examples: their design, layout, and navigation are the same for both Android (the left screenshots) and iOS (the right screenshots):

If your app has similar requirements for custom UI and animations, Felgo enables massive time savings, because you can use the same code across platforms.

• Live Code Reloading

Felgo allows live code reloading, simplifying the process of tuning UI, animations, colors and designs which usually takes a lot of time of mobile app development. This means you can see your app update on iOS on a connected iPhone and iPad, and at the same time see your app update on Android phones or tablets.

You can try live code reloading in the Felgo Cloud IDE here, without having to install anything on your PC. Additionally, you can try live code reloading with every QML example linked in this blog post by clicking on the “Run this example” button.

Felgo offers many more benefits for modern mobile app development. You can find details about of the advantages of working with Felgo here and check the main benefits of this tool over Cordova, Angular, Ionic, Unity and React Native on the dedicated pages.

Why use Felgo compared to native app development?

Felgo helps you build apps FAST. The following chart shows how little code Felgo requires compared to other development platforms. The comparison is based on a real-world project (an app to search real estate properties) that got implemented in various frameworks and which is available on Github:
Those code and time savings are a major advantage to consider Felgo as your chosen cross-platform tool in comparison with native app development. With less code and a single code base for iOS, Android, and Desktop, your maintenance costs also dramatically decrease.

You can release updates to multiple platforms faster and have one team sharing its knowledge across mobile platforms, instead of having 2 kind-of competing teams (iOS & Android) for mobile.

If you have an existing native app, or plan to develop a new native app where you’d like to add the

Already got an app? Use Native iOS or Android code with Felgo

Wikitude AR content, along with other Felgo or Qt/QML components for rapid development, Felgo has you covered as well.

This diagram shows the tech stack of a mobile app powered by Felgo for both of the above scenarios:

You can use any native Obj-C/Swift or Java/Kotlin code in a Felgo app, and deploy your app from a single IDE.

If you have an existing native app and are used to working with Xcode or Android Studio, you can embed Felgo just as you would add a WebView. The V-Play view is shown with a Fragment on Android and within a UIView on iOS, which allows you to keep your existing workflows and mobile app structure. This allows a low-risk and low-effort switch to Felgo, as you can keep the native code parts that you already have.

If you’re new to Felgo and familiar with native app development, the get started links at the end of this post will help you learn Felgo within a day.

Why a Wikitude Qt / Felgo Plugin?

It was about time for AR to reach the Qt community! As mentioned, Wikitude prides its support for multiple development frameworks, cross-platform capabilities and development ease. Having recently introduced support for Windows, Wikitude strives to make AR as accessible as possible to a broad developer crowd.

With the growing popularity of AR, developers from the Qt and Felgo community have been looking for a simple and fast way to add AR functionality to their mobile apps.

With the new Wikitude Qt / Felgo Plugin, adding AR features to apps only takes a few hundred lines of code, and you can publish the AR app within days across platforms with a single code base. The plugin is based on SDK 8 and supports Wikitude’s latest scene recognition, extended object tracking, persistent instant targets, among other features.

“After researching the available AR solutions, Wikitude turned out as the winner as it is the most powerful and flexible AR technology. That’s why we decided to build the plugin based on the Wikitude SDK, bridging the AR gap between platforms with a single API. This solution aligns perfectly with Felgo’s mission: making mobile app development faster, across platforms.” says Christian Feldbacher, CEO at Felgo.

Ready to get started?

We hope you enjoy working with Felgo and Wikitude! You can get started by learning more about Felgo, downloading the Wikitude Qt AR Plugin and kick off your projects hassle-free with these handy guides.

• Felgo Get Started Guide for Android Developers
• Felgo Get Started Guide for iOS Developers
• Felgo Get Started Guide for Web & JavaScript Developers

Try the Felgo Wikitude Features on your Mobile

By clicking here, you can test one of the AR features the Felgo Wikitude plugin provides: Image Tracking with a video overlay. The full source code of the above example is only 83 lines of code! It handles downloading the AR assets at first app start and caching them, and displaying the AR demo that you can see in this video:

You can modify the code and then run it on your iOS & Android device, without installing anything on your PC for a quick demo. Also, make sure to check the release announcement of Felgo for more examples and documentation.

Got a fellow Qt developer that should hear the news? Share this story via Twitter using #wikitude and #qt.