Augmented Reality in industry:
Currently, Augmented Reality is increasingly useful and necessary for different types of areas like video games, medicine, military uses, engineering, etc. The invention of mixed reality, smartphones and smart glasses, allow connecting the virtual world and the real world in real time allowing users to visualize the world in another way.
What is Augmented Reality?
Augmented Reality is the integration of digital information with the user’s environment in real time. This field allows developers to create virtual 3D modelings, images, animations and many types of interfaces that interact with the real world. The term Augmented Reality was invented for the Boeing researcher Tom Caudell where software was used to display the wiring plans on the pieces produced. However, it was later when this technology was properly born with two works, one of them with Louis B.Rosenberg who invented which is considered the first augmented reality system, a device that advises the user on how to perform specific tasks while they are presented, a kind of virtual guide for the US Army.
Augmented Reality applications:
Currently, Augmented Reality has become in a useful tool, with researchers from different universities, startups and developers of all around the world, the Augmented Reality every day covers more and more applications which will be used for different types of industries.
In automation, technicians will visualize industrial equipment with so many details like graphics that allow watching in real time how the machine behaves in a specific zone. Also, they will see if there is an issue, where precisely the problem is and fix it. Besides new technicians can improve more faster with interactive manuals that will help in real time interact with the equipment allowing to be more productive.
Augmented Reality is becoming a potential tool for medicine, specifically in surgery, where surgeons use this technology to visualize data and 3d virtual parts of the body and get better solutions in real time. They also use it to train new surgeons and watch patients at the moment of evaluation, increasing productivity and the opportunity of detection to diagnose patient’s problems quickly.
Neurosurgery is one of the most important areas where augmented reality is special. The capacity to see the brain in 3D on top of the patient’s actual anatomy is very useful for the surgeon. The brain is one of the parts of the body fixed, so its possible to register exact coordinates for visualization. However, Concern still exists surrounding the movement of tissue during surgery, affecting the precise positioning required for augmented reality to work.
In construction, engineers and architects have the opportunity to visualize a building in real time and also in 3d in front of your eyes, allowing to modify specific stuff in the construction, visualize how it will look and make tests in 3d like, material strength tests and architectural design.
Augmented reality can be used for design and construction in architecture. It can be used for design analysis, detecting problems when a complete construction is seen, allowing that architects can collaborate in the changes that happen in the construction in real time, even they can help in the prefabrication of building components.
In the military area, the Heads-Up Display (HUD) is the typical example of augmented reality. It consist in a transparent display in the helmet of the fighter pilot’s view. Data is visualize for him like altitude, air velocity, horizon line and other critical datas. The term “heads-up” name applies because the pilot doesn’t have to look down at the aircraft’s instrumentation to get the data he needs.
Ground troops use the Head-Mounted Display (HMD). Important stuff like enemy location, geolocation, analysis of the terrain.can be presented to the soldier within their line of sight. This technology is used especially in simulators for training process.
An excellent application, the NASA X-38 was flown using a Hybrid Synthetic Vision system that overlaid map data on video to provide enhanced navigation for the spacecraft during flight tests from 1998 to 2002. It used the Landform software and was useful for times of limited visibility, including an instance when the video camera window frosted over leaving astronauts to rely on the map overlays. The LandForm software was also test flown at the Army Yuma Proving Ground in 1999.
There are many types of applications that we can see and create with Augmented Reality. However, this is a technology currently very new so we can not see its real potential, companies like Google, Magic leap, Nvidia, Microsoft, apple.etc are developing a great helmet that will help people to visualize the world in another way.
