March 19, 2024 • 12 mins
AREA Researcher Dr. Michael Rygol describes a number of current barriers to adoption for Enterprise Augmented Reality and what is being done by the AREA community to overcome them. Please visit thearea.org.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello and thank you forlistening to this Area podcast.
This podcast compliments the area blogarticle on what are the current business
barriers to AR adoption and whatis being done to overcome them.
Industry analysts continue to predictthat the augmented reality or AR market
will exhibit significant growth and willsupport a transformation of the ways in
(00:21):
which many companies runtheir businesses. However,
as with any new technology,
early adopters lead the way and manycompanies have not yet reaped the business
benefits promised by ar.In this area podcast,
we take a look at some of the reasonswhy some companies are not yet ready to
fully embrace the potential of augmentedreality and also what is the AR
(00:42):
ecosystem doing to overcomethese concerns. In short,
what are the current barriers toadoption of augmented reality?
We break down this topicinto the following, subject domains, business barriers,
use case applicability and deployment,
deployment IT and security human factors,
content and enterprise systemsintegration. Let's take a look at
(01:06):
each one and start with business barriers.
Key to business adoption and successof any new technology is the ability to
focus on the business value of the newtechnology rather than the technology
itself.
Augmented reality vendors need to positiontheir offerings in ways that appeal
to senior business buyers and decisionmakers in order to lower the barrier of
(01:28):
uncertainty. Often faced by executives,
the recent publication by area member,
a fear of a proposed maturity modelfor AR helps companies paint their own
vision for a roadmap to AR adoption bybuilding on the work of those who've gone
before.
This maturity model is a useful toolto describe the steps required for a
(01:49):
company to deploy AR successfullywithin their businesses.
Jeff Wheelwright, director of MarketingCommunications at Athea comments,
the maturity model articulates howto get started and also how to mature
enterprise use of AR to the point whereit really does provide a competitive
advantage. The AR maturity model helpsorganizations understand each of the
(02:12):
four distinct stages of AR maturity andthe clear steps they need to take to
move on from one stage to the nextarea Member Christine Perey of
Perey Research and Consulting adds,
new technology adoption requires theactive support of business managers.
In an ideal scenario,
the business line managers as well assenior management are ready to embrace the
(02:34):
new technology. However,
most AR introductions suffer from oneor more of the following shortfalls in
management, lack of leadership,
either due to lack of confidence in theteam or the technology or at the other
extreme company leadership that isadvocating for technology introductions
without full understand of the timingand perhaps too early or too quickly or
(02:58):
imbalances or poorly informedrisk analysis and assessments.
Despite constructing a seemingly soundvalue proposition for the adoption of AR
technology projects oftenflounder for a number of reasons.
Christine Perey comments further.
Many AR projects encounterfinancial barriers.
(03:19):
Either funding is insufficient and orthe resources are not distributed across
all of the components of asuccessful AR adoption campaign.
There's also a generalshortage of information about the costs and components of
a return on investment. Finally,
AR product and service providers aresearching for new and different business
models, data as a service, softwareas a service, hardware as a service,
(03:42):
which can be unfamiliar to customersand need to be tested before proven
to help companies create a robustassessment of the ROI offered by ar.
The area is currently trialingan online OI calculator.
Please contact Mark Sage at thearea to find out more. However,
challenges remain Christine per adds,
(04:04):
despite tools to calculate OI.
There continue to be challenges due tolack of clarity in the file cost of AR
hardware services and software licenses.Unique or unusual recurring costs,
which greatly impact the total cost ofownership will benefits other than time
savings and error reduction that arenot easily measured in pilot projects.
(04:25):
Our next barrier is use caseapplicability and deployment,
a previous area editorial discuss theissues related to the fact that AR
investigations often stallafter development and the demonstration of a cool
demo highlighting the critical importanceof ensuring that investigations into
AR are firmly groundedwithin an appropriate use case and application of the
(04:48):
technology that makes sensefor the investigating company.
An appropriate tool to use for suchevaluations is the opportunity versus
readiness map, which followinga set of weighted criteria,
definitions of potential positivebusiness outcomes and the technical
infrastructure and otherbusiness readiness aspects enables the initial mapping
(05:10):
of potential AR applications to gaina business-centric view of where to
focus initial investigations.
Please visit the area blog articleon this subject to learn more. Next,
we cover it and securityas AR often relies upon the
delivery of an enterprise's intellectualproperty or IP to new devices and
(05:31):
systems that are logically and physicallyoutside the corporate firewall,
there clearly must be sufficientmeasures in place to protect this ip.
A recent article provided on the areawebsite explores many of the issues
related to cybersecurity withar pointing out the position of
AR related innovation.
In presenting new and ill understoodchallenges to corporate IT leadership
(05:56):
to support understanding of these issues.
The area's security committee isfocused on studying security topics
within AR and proposing best practicesfor adoption by both vendors and
users of the technology.
Next up is human factors owingto the inherent nature of ar,
which involves both the deliveryof visual and audio content,
(06:18):
while in some cases capturinginformation about the users.
And this is often coupled with doing ajob differently. A number of concerns
have been both raised and studied.
Privacy protection is a common concernboth legally and at a more personal
level.
As AR enabled devices typically usecomputer vision technology with video
(06:38):
feeds from the device cameras in additionto capturing sounds and user location,
it's easy to see why theseare concerns. However,
industrial best practices provide a wayto mitigate many of these concerns by
ensuring users are aware of what is beingcaptured and how that information is
used.
Resistance to change caused by thetransformation of an existing role to
(07:03):
one that harnesses AR has been shown tobe partially offset by involving those
impacted in the processof technology adoption.
Christine Perry comments attention tothe worker technician attitudes about AR
is extremely important in allstages of the enterprise AR project.
Common steps to reduce resistance includeworking directly with end users in the
(07:25):
design of user interfacesand proving out use cases,
providing incentives for participationand feedback in AR proof of concept
project and trials,
and making sure that there is a highlyrespected tradesperson or technician on
board with the AR introduction plan.The wearing or carrying of
AR enabled devices hassafety implications.
(07:46):
They can cause discomfort or reducedsituational awareness amongst other
concerns.
A recently published report by theElectric Power Research Institute EPRI
described some key findings andidentified areas for further study.
Furthermore,
the area is actively engaged in supportingdiscussion of these topics with the
number of members actively participatingin the area human factors interest
(08:10):
group. Next we cover content.
The ready availability of applicablecontent to underpin scalable deployment of
augmented reality apps andexperiences is an ongoing challenge.
Such content spans 3D models,
step-by-step sequences for serviceand manufacturing processes and more.
(08:30):
A typical first foray into augmentedreality often involves the manual
remodeling of 3D product modelsto support the AR experience.
However, this manual task hasinherent cost and time implications,
typically raising management concernsabout the applicability of AR to support
scalable deployment of thesebusiness processes. Moreover,
(08:53):
within many companies,
there Are existing 3D CAD filesthat offer reuse possibilities.
If suitable transformation,
IP protection and optimization couldbe harnessed within an automation
framework. David Francis,
chief marketing officer atEthereum Solutions comments,
many companies will spend absolutely agesrecrafting their 3D CAD into something
(09:15):
usable in a games engine using aproduct like three DS max. However,
in doing so, the connection to theinitial design is lost. Moreover,
as the correct geometry isn't even used,
the experience may berepresentative rather than actual.
So if you are planning on using3D content in your XR app,
then it's probably best to find asolution that can make best use of your
(09:38):
existing CAD assets.
A solution that can read the geometryas if it were designed and will prevent
someone having to spend hours redoingsomething that the engineer has already
done. Next,
we cover enterprise systemsintegration and interoperability. A
compelling feature of industrial ARis the ability to present pertinent
(09:58):
content over the physical worlddepending upon the use case.
This data in principlecan be extracted from
LM or other business systems.
This systems integration task is oftenperceived as difficult and costly if
indeed possible at all. Additionally,
there should be systems inplace to deliver content that is relevant up to date,
(10:22):
secure and correct.
David Francis agrees that when suchdelivery systems are not available,
that any downstream changes to 3D CADmodels will need to be manually remodeled
as these are maintained outsideof the PLM process. However,
there is growing supportfor such enterprise systems integration by vendors in
the AR ecosystem, but more is needed.
(10:44):
The area interoperability and standardsprogram is promoting a workshop in
January, 2020 to specificallyfocus upon AR interoperability
requirements with the aim of sharingthe outcomes with the standards
developments,
organizations and AR vendors to helpaccelerate adoption of standards within
the AR community.So we've covered all our points.
(11:06):
So to conclude, let'srecap the points made. One,
to overcome business barriersof uncertainty or value AR vendors should elevate
their sales positioning to focus on thevalue propositions of embracing their AR
offerings. Two,
the IT and security concernsare often fear of leakage of ip,
coupled with a lack ofunderstanding of AR solutions.
(11:29):
These can be mitigated by engaging ITleadership with unambiguous technical
means of addressing their concerns. Three,
human factors concernsaround privacy, safety,
and often simply the process of changeare often addressed by engaging with the
workforce and ensuring that closeattention is made to these concerns.
(11:50):
Four content.
Rather than recreatingexisting 3D card assets,
vendors should focus on automated contentprocessing pipelines to optimize and
protect these 3D assets.
Five AR vendors should ensure thattheir offerings offer the ability to
integrate with and leverage data fromexisting enterprise systems to ensure that
(12:13):
the true value of enterprisescalability with AR can be achieved.
The area continues to work with theAR community to help address these
concerns,
numerous committees are facilitatedby the area with active involvement of
members, with the goal of movingthe enterprise ecosystem forward.
We invite you to learnmore@thearea.org and thank you.
Hello and thank you forlistening to this Area podcast.
This podcast compliments the area blogarticle on what are the current business
barriers to AR adoption and whatis being done to overcome them.
Industry analysts continue to predictthat the augmented reality or AR market
will exhibit significant growth and willsupport a transformation of the ways in
(00:21):
which many companies runtheir businesses. However,
as with any new technology,
early adopters lead the way and manycompanies have not yet reaped the business
benefits promised by ar.In this area podcast,
we take a look at some of the reasonswhy some companies are not yet ready to
fully embrace the potential of augmentedreality and also what is the AR
(00:42):
ecosystem doing to overcomethese concerns. In short,
what are the current barriers toadoption of augmented reality?
We break down this topicinto the following, subject domains, business barriers,
use case applicability and deployment,
deployment IT and security human factors,
content and enterprise systemsintegration. Let's take a look at
(01:06):
each one and start with business barriers.
Key to business adoption and successof any new technology is the ability to
focus on the business value of the newtechnology rather than the technology
itself.
Augmented reality vendors need to positiontheir offerings in ways that appeal
to senior business buyers and decisionmakers in order to lower the barrier of
(01:28):
uncertainty. Often faced by executives,
the recent publication by area member,
a fear of a proposed maturity modelfor AR helps companies paint their own
vision for a roadmap to AR adoption bybuilding on the work of those who've gone
before.
This maturity model is a useful toolto describe the steps required for a
(01:49):
company to deploy AR successfullywithin their businesses.
Jeff Wheelwright, director of MarketingCommunications at Athea comments,
the maturity model articulates howto get started and also how to mature
enterprise use of AR to the point whereit really does provide a competitive
advantage. The AR maturity model helpsorganizations understand each of the
(02:12):
four distinct stages of AR maturity andthe clear steps they need to take to
move on from one stage to the nextarea Member Christine Perey of
Perey Research and Consulting adds,
new technology adoption requires theactive support of business managers.
In an ideal scenario,
the business line managers as well assenior management are ready to embrace the
(02:34):
new technology. However,
most AR introductions suffer from oneor more of the following shortfalls in
management, lack of leadership,
either due to lack of confidence in theteam or the technology or at the other
extreme company leadership that isadvocating for technology introductions
without full understand of the timingand perhaps too early or too quickly or
(02:58):
imbalances or poorly informedrisk analysis and assessments.
Despite constructing a seemingly soundvalue proposition for the adoption of AR
technology projects oftenflounder for a number of reasons.
Christine Perey comments further.
Many AR projects encounterfinancial barriers.
(03:19):
Either funding is insufficient and orthe resources are not distributed across
all of the components of asuccessful AR adoption campaign.
There's also a generalshortage of information about the costs and components of
a return on investment. Finally,
AR product and service providers aresearching for new and different business
models, data as a service, softwareas a service, hardware as a service,
(03:42):
which can be unfamiliar to customersand need to be tested before proven
to help companies create a robustassessment of the ROI offered by ar.
The area is currently trialingan online OI calculator.
Please contact Mark Sage at thearea to find out more. However,
challenges remain Christine per adds,
(04:04):
despite tools to calculate OI.
There continue to be challenges due tolack of clarity in the file cost of AR
hardware services and software licenses.Unique or unusual recurring costs,
which greatly impact the total cost ofownership will benefits other than time
savings and error reduction that arenot easily measured in pilot projects.
(04:25):
Our next barrier is use caseapplicability and deployment,
a previous area editorial discuss theissues related to the fact that AR
investigations often stallafter development and the demonstration of a cool
demo highlighting the critical importanceof ensuring that investigations into
AR are firmly groundedwithin an appropriate use case and application of the
(04:48):
technology that makes sensefor the investigating company.
An appropriate tool to use for suchevaluations is the opportunity versus
readiness map, which followinga set of weighted criteria,
definitions of potential positivebusiness outcomes and the technical
infrastructure and otherbusiness readiness aspects enables the initial mapping
(05:10):
of potential AR applications to gaina business-centric view of where to
focus initial investigations.
Please visit the area blog articleon this subject to learn more. Next,
we cover it and securityas AR often relies upon the
delivery of an enterprise's intellectualproperty or IP to new devices and
(05:31):
systems that are logically and physicallyoutside the corporate firewall,
there clearly must be sufficientmeasures in place to protect this ip.
A recent article provided on the areawebsite explores many of the issues
related to cybersecurity withar pointing out the position of
AR related innovation.
In presenting new and ill understoodchallenges to corporate IT leadership
(05:56):
to support understanding of these issues.
The area's security committee isfocused on studying security topics
within AR and proposing best practicesfor adoption by both vendors and
users of the technology.
Next up is human factors owingto the inherent nature of ar,
which involves both the deliveryof visual and audio content,
(06:18):
while in some cases capturinginformation about the users.
And this is often coupled with doing ajob differently. A number of concerns
have been both raised and studied.
Privacy protection is a common concernboth legally and at a more personal
level.
As AR enabled devices typically usecomputer vision technology with video
(06:38):
feeds from the device cameras in additionto capturing sounds and user location,
it's easy to see why theseare concerns. However,
industrial best practices provide a wayto mitigate many of these concerns by
ensuring users are aware of what is beingcaptured and how that information is
used.
Resistance to change caused by thetransformation of an existing role to
(07:03):
one that harnesses AR has been shown tobe partially offset by involving those
impacted in the processof technology adoption.
Christine Perry comments attention tothe worker technician attitudes about AR
is extremely important in allstages of the enterprise AR project.
Common steps to reduce resistance includeworking directly with end users in the
(07:25):
design of user interfacesand proving out use cases,
providing incentives for participationand feedback in AR proof of concept
project and trials,
and making sure that there is a highlyrespected tradesperson or technician on
board with the AR introduction plan.The wearing or carrying of
AR enabled devices hassafety implications.
(07:46):
They can cause discomfort or reducedsituational awareness amongst other
concerns.
A recently published report by theElectric Power Research Institute EPRI
described some key findings andidentified areas for further study.
Furthermore,
the area is actively engaged in supportingdiscussion of these topics with the
number of members actively participatingin the area human factors interest
(08:10):
group. Next we cover content.
The ready availability of applicablecontent to underpin scalable deployment of
augmented reality apps andexperiences is an ongoing challenge.
Such content spans 3D models,
step-by-step sequences for serviceand manufacturing processes and more.
(08:30):
A typical first foray into augmentedreality often involves the manual
remodeling of 3D product modelsto support the AR experience.
However, this manual task hasinherent cost and time implications,
typically raising management concernsabout the applicability of AR to support
scalable deployment of thesebusiness processes. Moreover,
(08:53):
within many companies,
there Are existing 3D CAD filesthat offer reuse possibilities.
If suitable transformation,
IP protection and optimization couldbe harnessed within an automation
framework. David Francis,
chief marketing officer atEthereum Solutions comments,
many companies will spend absolutely agesrecrafting their 3D CAD into something
(09:15):
usable in a games engine using aproduct like three DS max. However,
in doing so, the connection to theinitial design is lost. Moreover,
as the correct geometry isn't even used,
the experience may berepresentative rather than actual.
So if you are planning on using3D content in your XR app,
then it's probably best to find asolution that can make best use of your
(09:38):
existing CAD assets.
A solution that can read the geometryas if it were designed and will prevent
someone having to spend hours redoingsomething that the engineer has already
done. Next,
we cover enterprise systemsintegration and interoperability. A
compelling feature of industrial ARis the ability to present pertinent
(09:58):
content over the physical worlddepending upon the use case.
This data in principlecan be extracted from
LM or other business systems.
This systems integration task is oftenperceived as difficult and costly if
indeed possible at all. Additionally,
there should be systems inplace to deliver content that is relevant up to date,
(10:22):
secure and correct.
David Francis agrees that when suchdelivery systems are not available,
that any downstream changes to 3D CADmodels will need to be manually remodeled
as these are maintained outsideof the PLM process. However,
there is growing supportfor such enterprise systems integration by vendors in
the AR ecosystem, but more is needed.
(10:44):
The area interoperability and standardsprogram is promoting a workshop in
January, 2020 to specificallyfocus upon AR interoperability
requirements with the aim of sharingthe outcomes with the standards
developments,
organizations and AR vendors to helpaccelerate adoption of standards within
the AR community.So we've covered all our points.
(11:06):
So to conclude, let'srecap the points made. One,
to overcome business barriersof uncertainty or value AR vendors should elevate
their sales positioning to focus on thevalue propositions of embracing their AR
offerings. Two,
the IT and security concernsare often fear of leakage of ip,
coupled with a lack ofunderstanding of AR solutions.
(11:29):
These can be mitigated by engaging ITleadership with unambiguous technical
means of addressing their concerns. Three,
human factors concernsaround privacy, safety,
and often simply the process of changeare often addressed by engaging with the
workforce and ensuring that closeattention is made to these concerns.
(11:50):
Four content.
Rather than recreatingexisting 3D card assets,
vendors should focus on automated contentprocessing pipelines to optimize and
protect these 3D assets.
Five AR vendors should ensure thattheir offerings offer the ability to
integrate with and leverage data fromexisting enterprise systems to ensure that
(12:13):
the true value of enterprisescalability with AR can be achieved.
The area continues to work with theAR community to help address these
concerns,
numerous committees are facilitatedby the area with active involvement of
members, with the goal of movingthe enterprise ecosystem forward.
We invite you to learnmore@thearea.org and thank you.
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