数字和物理世界在未来的HMIS中发生冲突

For years, the manufacturing industry has been focused on “empowering operators,” which means arming them with more information gleaned from intelligent devices and data analytics to enable them to make better decisions. The next step in this era of“操作员4.0”是增强现实的增加，它允许现场服务技术人员为Microsoft Hololens等免提耳机戴上免提耳机，以访问3D工作说明，甚至可以通过Skype在远程专家中流式传输，以帮助进行故障排除。

All of this is great, and highly productive, but for forward-thinking companies, likePTC，这还不够。未来的人类机器界面（HMI）是人与技术的共生融合。这是在数字层上与物理世界接口的能力。信息的双向交换，以在对象之间创建复杂的交互。

为了获得下一代HMI，PTC一直在建立其增强现实产品组合，投资于最先进的技术，这些技术将重新定义人类与机器互动的方式。

PTC在2013年对ThingWorx的收购是一个为物联网构建和运行应用程序（IoT）的平台，是该公司以其CAD软件而闻名的转折点，是建造连接产品的基础。该协议之后是在2015年收购Vuforia增强现实（AR）技术，使该公司能够利用这两个平台将AR和IoT融合在一起。而且，去年年底，PTC推出了其Reality Lab测试中心，这是由研究人员领导的新兴AR技术的孵化器，他们将创建利用增强，虚拟，混合和物理现实的应用程序。目的是改变我们与物理环境互动的方式，将数字层添加到我们所做的一切中。

All of this is coming together with even more out-of-the-box thinking, which was on display earlier this month duringPTC Liveworx. In particular, the company demonstrated how AR technology from MIT Media Lab tech startup Waypoint Labs, which PTC recently acquired, can chronicle the real-time movements of a person wearing an AR headset by monitoring the individual both audio-visually and spatially in 3D. According to the company, the technology enables users to capture this information through a knowledge processing engine and convert it into any number of formats, including an interactive website with photos and videos, Microsoft Word documents with photos, or an interactive AR training where trainees wear a similar headset.

Waypoint和另一个最近获得的技术（称为Reality Editor）目前构成了PTC Reality Lab。现实编辑器是MIT Media Lab Fluid Interfaces Group出生的，是一种基于Web的工具，用于数字控制物理世界。

Referred to as “a digital screwdriver to fix and manipulate how things behave,” Reality Editor works as if everything has a digital layer on top of it that allows a person to adjust information about the environment around them. For example, with the visual programming editor within the application, people can create complex interactions between objects. In a simplistic example, a child can use this open web technology interface to program a Lego car by holding an iPhone over the discrete components, then simply pointing on the phone screen where they want the car to go. The physical object then responds, rolling to the location that it was digitally programmed to go by the child through the phone interface.

说实话,看起来那么容易,这是一个困难的概念t to grasp. But the work that PTC is doing with the MIT Media Lab, which it is now a member of, promises to change the way in which we design, program, deliver and maintain the products we make.

这不仅仅是改变制造业，而且是改变人类。It was uplifting to hear that PTC also recently announced a project with Boston Children’s Hospital, the number one pediatric hospital in the U.S. Together, the organizations will explore the use of augmented reality to help children with autism and related developmental disorders, finding new ways for them to communicate and learn more effectively.

The goal, overall, is to use AR to make a difference in business and in people’s lives. I like where this is going.