There seems to be considerable excitement about the capabilities that augmented reality (AR) can bring to the manufacturing workforce—particularly the idea of maintenance personnel accessing hands-free instructions and remote guidance to help them complete their tasks. But it’s important to keep in mind that not all AR is created equal.
Upskill, an AR software developer, has announced that its Skylight platform is now available for public early access on Microsoft HoloLens. This means that the software platform that previously supported an assisted-reality version of AR on mobile devices is evolving to be a multi-experience platform covering mixed-reality scenarios on HoloLens. “What we are doing with the Skylight for HoloLens is we’re evolving that experience to be more immersive,” said Jay Kim, Upskill’s chief strategy officer.
从广义上讲，AR是任何可以增强用户现实世界中环境的体验。其中，有一些能力范围的子域。Kim解释说，使用辅助现实的可穿戴设备，效果类似于握住7英寸平板电脑的长度，您的视线中只有一个固定屏幕。天窗的单眼硬件示例已在先前可用，包括玻璃企业版，Vuzix M300和Renwear HMT-1/Z1。
Kim指出，该技术的重点是在最小，最轻的形式下实现免提工作。但是，某些应用程序可能需要更强大的体验。“It is a relatively small screen, so if you’re working on a particularly complex task, assisted reality has inherent limitations, where you could only browse one type of content at a time—whether that’s your work instructions, or it’s a video, or it’s a photo, or it’s a remote assistance session with someone else,” he said. “Because of the relatively small screen, it’s difficult for the system to convey all kinds of different types of content.”
HoloLens, with its binocular technology, provides mixed reality, which is on the more immersive end of the AR spectrum. Not only does it provide a larger screen for placing more open windows, it provides depth as well, enabling users to move instructions backwards or forwards as needed. This is particularly relevant for hands-on workers completing complex tasks in manufacturing, maintenance and repair, as well as for on-the-job training.
“With Skylight for HoloLens, you can place different windows all around you so that, for example, if you’re fixing a piece of equipment or building something, you can have the instruction manuals or your SOP in a PDF format that is right in your line of sight,” Kim said. “And then if you turn your head slightly to the left, you might also have access to reference videos, for example, that could be giving you step-by-step video while that work is being done.”
Skylight’s spatial content placement gives users the ability to place, move and resize digital content in the real world and reference it hands-free while completing their work. They can also simultaneously visualize, resize, interact with and cross-reference numerous sources of content in one, large screen.
要查看HoloLens中的天灯，请参见下面的视频或watch on YouTube.
“The problem that we’re trying to solve for is a lot of wasted motion that’s happening on the factory floor, with people having to go and refer to all kinds of different pieces of information, as well as stopping to go and type information, say, on a laptop or a nearby workstation as they’re performing work,” Kim said. “Now users have instant access to all of those capabilities. That’s the fundamental benefit that Upskill has been working with our customers to unlock for the eight years that we’ve been in business.”
金说，重要的是，制造商能够使用他们已经拥有的内容（工程图，工作说明，参考手册，标准程序等）。在PC上。“这是企业拥有的所有内容，天窗也可以集成到您现有的流程自动化系统中。”
可以在多种设备类型（包括智能眼镜和混合现实耳机）（例如HoloLens）上利用天窗可用的所有功能（包括企业可伸缩性，安全性以及几乎任何系统或数据库无缝集成的能力）。
