Anyone who manages to walk away from that without feeling a little bit like a Harry Potter wizard (or witch) casting a successful spell, is likely leading a fairly jaded and joyless existence. There is something fundamentally satisfying, almost primal, to the empowerment of watching the world change as you command it to.

Yet even the naysayers can probably agree that voice-based technologies driven by artificial intelligence represent a huge market opportunity. Millions of us now own some sort of room-based voice device such as Google Home or Amazon Echo and the global voice and speech recognition market size is estimated to reach USD 31.82 billion by 2025. We are now witnessing a convergence of various emerging technologies in that space – such as voice recognition, natural language processing, and machine learning-powered by 5G connectivity and the AR cloud.

Millions of us now own some sort of room-based voice device such as Google Home or Amazon Echo
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In this screenless world of spatial computing, interfaces will need to become more intuitive, efficient, and empathic
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Immersive experiences like those afforded by the HoloLens offer a tantalizing glimpse of where this is all headed: a screenless world where our natural human interactions plug into the digital realm, creating an entirely new form of hybrid reality. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2020, 30 percent of web browsing will be done without a screen. The next technology revolution will usher in the era of spatial computing, where multisensory experiences allow us to interact with both the real and digital worlds through natural, intuitive interfaces such as haptics, limb and eye-tracking, and even elements such as taste and scent.

In this screenless world of spatial computing, interfaces will need to become more intuitive, efficient, and empathic. Let’s take a look at three ways in which voice technologies are already enabling this.

1 – Intuitive UX

Spatial audio and AI-driven voice technologies are crucial elements for creating compelling immersive experiences. As Kai Havukainen, Head of Product at Nokia Technologies explained in an interview for Scientific American, “building a dynamic soundscape is essential for virtual experiences to really engender a sense of presence.” Humans, he added, are simply hardwired to pay attention to sound and instinctively use it to map their surroundings, find points of interest and assess potential danger.

There are, however, design considerations that must be taken into account when tackling the challenges of an entirely new medium together with these fast-evolving technologies.

Tim Stutts, Interaction Design Lead at Magic Leap, highlights the sheer complexity of these UX challenges, “A level of complexity is added with voice commands, as the notion of directionality becomes abstract—the cursor for voice is effectively the underlying AI used to determine the intent of a statement, then relate it back to objects, apps and system functions.”

“For voice experiences, you need to have a natural language interface that performs well enough to understand different accents, dialects, and languages,” adds Mark Asher, director of corporate strategy at Adobe, who believes the advancement of voice technologies will serve to “bring the humanity back to computing,”

There are still many hurdles to overcome before we reach that utopian vision, however. As we move towards more pervasive and complex experiences where users have multiple applications open at the same time, they will need to circumvent problems such as unintentionally commanding a hologram when you’re actually talking to the person next to you.

Spatial audio and AI-driven voice technologies are crucial elements for creating compelling immersive experiences
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Yet looking at the exponential way AI technologies have developed over the past decade, it isn’t unreasonable to extrapolate that the next few years we will usher in real-time contextual applications that accurately identify and action commands based on accurate assessments of your surroundings (both real and virtual) your personal preferences, and even your biofeedback.

2 – Voice Biofeedback

XR technologies already deploy a multitude of sensors that enable collection of biofeedback, yet voice provides a rich vein of data which can be collected in a non-invasive way without the need for cumbersome wearables.

Apart from deliberately using commands to interact with the world around us, our voices provide the scope for AI to contextualize our XR experiences based on subconscious factors such as our mood and physical health. Cymatics – the name given to the process of visualizing soundwaves – gives us some insight into the depth and complexity of the unique patterns projected by our voice.

XR technologies already deploy a multitude of sensors that enable collection of biofeedback
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To produce speech, the brain communicates with the Vagus Nerve and sends a signal to the larynx, which vibrates out stored information through the vocal cords. Since vocalization is entirely integrated within both our central (CNS) and autonomic nervous system (ANS), there is an established correlation between voice output and the impact of stress.

Researchers have been developing methods for voice stress analysis (VSA) and computerized stress detection and body scanning devices for many years. Companies such as Insight Health Apps already leverage this rich data to feed corrective waveforms and patterns back into the body in the form of “Quantum Biofeedback”.

3 – Bridging the Uncanny Valley

When I was first invited to test social VR platform Sansar, I was shown around some of its virtual worlds by Linden Lab’s CEO Ebbe Altberg. To this day, my lasting impression of that demo was how our interaction felt very natural in spite of us being 5,000 miles and several time zones apart (I was in London and he in San Francisco) and the fact that his avatar looked nothing like his real-world persona.

Not only did Ebbe’s digital self have the face of a woman, but that face was attached to a cartoony blimp-like dinosaur bodysuit. Still, when he spoke, the avatar’s lips, teeth and facial muscles synchronized to the sounds in a way that my brain registered as true. It demonstrated one of the peculiar things about designing virtual experiences: the malleability of “reality,” and the fact we are more willing to suspend our disbelief for some aspects of it than others. Hence an avatar’s appearance doesn’t matter nearly as much as these subconscious prompts that form the core of human interaction.

It was an interesting way of avoiding the pervasive problem known as the “uncanny valley” which describes that awkward sense of unease you feel when a character or avatar appears human-like yet “not quite there.” Speech Graphics developed the technology that creates this notoriously difficult-to-achieve illusion that an animated face is the source of the sound you hear. Their pipeline merges powerful speech analysis with procedural animation techniques. To achieve this, the algorithm replicates not only the movement of the lips, but also decodes from that speech the energy and emotion of the speaker.

“In the sound of speech there is a wealth of information about what the speaker was doing when he or she made the sound—including the movements of the mouth as it produced the sound, and the energetic state of the speaker, from which we can deduce facial expression. From syllables to scowls,” its website reads. And because it is a universal physical model, it works for any language and any type of character, from realistic humans to cartoonlike avatars.

The Future

As digital experiences move beyond the familiar constraints of screens, our modes of interaction with the digital world are also evolving. Paradoxically, that evolution is taking us back to basic and instinctual forms of natural human interaction, hence the enduring relevance of Clarke’s law. Technology will soon be sufficiently advanced so that it will become an invisible layer of our reality rather than a separate realm requiring special skills to access. And in that hybrid reality we will experience an entirely new type of magic.

In the sound of speech there is a wealth of information about what the speaker was doing when he or she made the sound
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This article was originally published on Futurithmic

Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a XR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Unlocking the Magic of XR With Your Voice appeared first on Tech Trends.

Microsoft’s new piece of kit doesn’t disappoint, but the real excitement of its MWC announcement goes well beyond the hardware.

After unveiling the device at MWC, Microsoft then went on to demo it to a select group of invited media (myself included) and that’s where I finally got the chance to play with what has to be one of the world’s most sophisticated toys, certainly for that price range.

Microsoft is in this for the long haul and will continue cashing in just fine without even touching the consumer market
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I won’t go over the basic specs here. After tons of excited reporting, the device itself – and Microsoft’s strategy for it – have been thoroughly analyzed from every angle. From in-depth technical reviews to accounts of testing the prototype in Redmond prior to the launch, all the way to the nay-sayers who still insist that the whole thing is doomed to fail, take your pick. What I’m interested in, however, is what this means for the broader immersive tech ecosystem.

The HoloLens and I go way back. Ever since I demoed the device in London for the first time back in 2016 I was convinced this was going to be something truly transformational. I went on to report on many different use cases that demonstrated just how much value the Mixed Reality proposition could bring to all sorts of industries.

The HoloLens and I go way back
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While others griped endlessly about the field of view and somewhat stilted gestural interface, I always preferred to focus on the bigger picture. The HoloLens was essentially an excellent proof of concept, and much of its technology was still amazingly ahead of its time even four years after launching. I had the opportunity to deep-dive into how the Microsoft team painstakingly developed the awesome spatial audio feature to heighten immersion, and interview its creator Alex Kipman on his vision for the future of both the device and the tech.

So after hearing all about it at the launch in Barcelona, I was keen to see it with my own eyes. Would it actually deliver on the promises Kipman had made on stage the night before?

While others griped endlessly about the HoloLens field of view and somewhat stilted gestural interface, I'd rather focus on the big picture
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When I first put the headset on, we were off to a good start: Promise number was kept right off the bat. This was vastly more comfortable (I’m not sure if it was exactly “three times more comfortable” like Kipman claimed but it was, well, comfortable!). Whereas I usually came away from HoloLens demos with big red marks on the bridge of my nose, the weight of this new device was elegantly distributed and the center of gravity much further towards the back. Combined with lighter carbon fiber construction, this is something I could happily wear for a while without thinking anything of it.

The second big promise Kipman had made was that this device was much more immersive. The fact the Field of View (FOV) is twice the size of the old HoloLens certainly helps towards that. Although I maintain that even with the original FOV your brain adjusted pretty quickly to it so that you still got an immersive experience, it was nice not to have to adjust. The FOV on the HoloLens 2 does not quite cover your entire line of sight, but it really does come close enough so that it doesn’t interfere with the experience. I spoke to Mark Christian, Global Director of Immersive Learning at Pearson – one of Microsoft’s HoloLens Partners – who told me that after delivering over 200 demos on the first day at MWC (conference attendees were waiting over 3 hours in line for the chance to try the device) not one of them mentioned feeling limited by the FOV.

So now that we got that out of the way, here’s what got me most excited about my own demos: The first couple of minutes in each one, where you’re essentially calibrating the device.

The second big promise Alex Kipman had made was that the HoloLens 2 was much more immersive
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By the third and fourth time I was doing that, I knew what to expect, but it was still magic, and to me it really sums up why this is an awesome leap forward for Microsoft and for Mixed Reality. It works very nicely across the board, but where it comes to eye tracking and voice recognition (and the combination of the two) it delivers in spades. And then some.

The first calibration exercise (after you do the familiar lining up of a holographic box onto the middle of your display so you can see all four edges) has a series of bright spinning jewels pop up in different places in your field of view. I’m instructed to just look at them, without moving my head. As my eyes rest briefly on each jewel, it disappears in turn. The HoloLens 2 knows exactly where I’m looking. After that’s done, a colorful hummingbird materializes in front of me. The device scans my hands (automatically adjusting to their shape and size) and when I move them the tiny bird flies over to hover above it. I change hands and move them around, feeling like Snow White in a Disney film as I make friends with this little guy, who I really feel like naming. By the time we finish calibrating the device, I regretfully watch him disappear.

But the idea behind having me play with this hummingbird is, of course, for the HoloLens to be able to scan your hands and their movement patterns to allow you to interact with the holograms. And that interaction happens in a much more intuitive flow now. Gone are the “pinch” and “bloom” gestures you had to learn and instead you can pretty much grab, stretch, toss and turn your holograms any way you please. You can push buttons, slide sliders, and tell stuff to do things. And because the device always knows where I’m looking, I can often do what I want just by directing my gaze somewhere. The prime use case of that is incredibly simple, and beautiful in its simplicity – reading. Text information was set next to a Hologram, and as my eyes finished reading the last line, that text automatically scrolled up. Not only that, but it did so faster or more slowly depending on my reading speed. It was absolutely seamless, and one example of what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella referred to in his speech on Sunday at MWC, that the best technology eventually becomes invisible.

The idea behind having me play with this holographic hummingbird was to have the HoLens 2 scan my hands
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And as for value, the price of the HoloLens 2 is actually incredibly cheap for most the large enterprises that have been using it so far. The cost and efficiency savings that introducing Mixed Reality have already brought to companies like Thyssenkrupp and Trimble are nothing short of remarkable, and the possibilities for increasing those returns even further are practically endless. That’s the low-hanging fruit as far as Microsoft is concerned. I have a feeling the only question those companies will be asking themselves is “how many of these will we be allowed to order, and how quickly can you deliver?”

But Microsoft also wants to create this “open ecosystem” around Mixed Reality and expand its appeal to small and medium-sized businesses. And for SMEs, the fact that the HoloLens 2 will also be offered on a lease basis for a few hundred dollars a month is a big attraction. The key, however, is going to be the out-of-the-box content that they will be able to offer those companies. And this is again where Microsoft’s strategy really comes together. For the past four years they have worked with these big corporations and their R&D departments to create valuable use cases, platforms and applications for Mixed Reality. If they’re now able to package that as part of a subscription offering for SMEs it could prompt a lot of smaller business owners to try it out.

Microsoft wants to create an open ecosystem around Mixed Reality
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So from a business perspective, there were very few surprises to come out of these announcements and the launch at MWC. Microsoft has proven itself to be steadfast and consistent in its strategy for the HoloLens and Mixed Reality, sticking to its original pivot towards enterprise.

But at the same time, there is no doubt that this technology will not be pigeonholed in such a way forever. It will evolve, become lighter, cheaper, and ever more intuitive and transparent. And when the time, price, and most importantly, the content ecosystem is right, it will reach that sweet spot where consumers will also embrace it. The HoloLens 2 brings us a big step closer to that, but there’s no rush as far as Microsoft is concerned. They’re in it for the long haul, and in the meantime I have a feeling they will start cashing in just fine without even touching the consumer market, thank you very much.

This article was originally published on VRScout

Hands-On With The HoloLens 2 via @alicebonasio https://t.co/GuvVS1iTvG pic.twitter.com/xpqRWxo6TF

— VRScout (@VRScout) March 3, 2019

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. You can follow @alicebonasio on Twitter, connect with her on LinkedIn or subscribe to her Inside VR/AR Newletter for all the latest curated immersive news.  

The post Getting Hands-On with the New HoloLens appeared first on Tech Trends.

In many high-pressure situations such as emergency medicine, law enforcement, firefighting, air traffic control and the military the litmus test for success is behavioral performance.

It is one thing to know “what” to do, and to have the ability to verbalize the appropriate steps to achieve some aim, but it is another to know “how” to do it, and to generate the appropriate behaviors in the correct sequence quickly and accurately. The ability to verbalize is important for communication, but the ability to behave appropriately is often the difference between life and death.

With experience-based learning, broad-based brain activation occurs in synchrony, and results in multiple, interconnected memory traces that are less susceptible to forgetting
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Not only does one want to master the appropriate behavioral repertoire, but one must be able to generate these behaviors under time or social pressure, when all the necessary senses are unavailable (e.g., when in a smoke-filled room), or when some of the optimal tools are unavailable (e.g., when some medicine or medical tools are absent). In other words, one wants to obtain behavioral situational awareness.

The ability to verbalize is important for communication, but the ability to behave appropriately is often the difference between life and death
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Traditional approaches to emergency medical, law enforcement, firefighting, air traffic control and military training start with textbook and classroom study, then later introduce real-world practice, often through simulation. From a learning science perspective—the marriage of psychology and brain science—this means that you begin by training a cognitive understanding of the problem before training a behavioral understanding. This sequential approach to training, where you become proficient with the cognitive (textbooks and classroom) then become proficient with behavioral (real world or simulation) is suboptimal.

Learning science suggests that a better approach is to engage cognitive learning systems in the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobes, simultaneously with behavioral learning system in the brain such as the basal ganglia. Taken a step further, the optimal approach is to engage these cognitive and behavioral systems in the brain within an experience. To quote Albert Einstein, “Learning is an experience. Everything else is just information.” By engaging cognitive and behavioral systems within an experience, one broadly recruits the prefrontal cortex/medial temporal lobes (cognitive), basal ganglia (behavioral), and sensory experiential regions such as the occipital, temporal and parietal lobes. Critically, this broad-based brain activation occurs in synchrony, and results in multiple, interconnected memory traces that are less susceptible to forgetting.

A sequential approach to training, where you first become proficient with the cognitive, then with behavioral, is suboptimal
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One reason for traditional, sequential approaches to training is that real-world and simulation training is expensive, time-consuming and not scalable. Thus, the reasoning is that an initial focus on cognitive training will “bootstrap” the learner and require less real-world and simulation training to achieve behavioral mastery. The problem with this reasoning is that behavioral learning systems are distinct from cognitive learning systems in the brain and they have very different processing characteristics. Cognitive learning systems in the brain are ineffective at “bootstrapping” behavioral learning systems in the brain, which explains why learners often feel like they are “starting from scratch” when they begin real-world or simulation-based behavioral training.

By training on a broad-range of situations under different levels of emotional stress, the learner can develop the situational awareness needed to read the current situation and to anticipate future
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This is where virtual reality (VR) offers an ideal solution. With VR you can train the cognitive and behavioral learning systems in the brain within a context-rich experience. This broadly engages cognitive, behavioral and experiential learning systems in the brain in synchrony resulting in faster and more stable learning. Relative to real-world or simulation training, VR training is cost-effective, time-effective, and scalable. This allows the learner to obtain essentially limitless training on a broad array of situations. This is necessary to obtain mastery and expertise.

A better approach is to engage cognitive learning systems in the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobes, simultaneously with behavioral learning system in the brain such as the basal ganglia
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The range of situations that can be trained is essentially infinite. One can train on routine situations such as patrolling a peaceful demonstration or takeoff and landing under ideal weather conditions and non-routine situations such as crowd control during an escalating riot or takeoff and landing during a fast-moving weather pattern. One can train safely on dangerous situations such as an emergency C-section or infiltrating an insurgent hideout. Finally, one can train in situations that would be too expensive to train extensively with simulation such as a large war exercise or a massive viral outbreak. All of these situations can be trained under time pressure or under no time pressure, in loud and chaotic environments versus those free of distraction, or with adequate or inadequate preparation and equipment.

With VR you can train the cognitive and behavioral learning systems in the brain within a context-rich experience
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By training on a broad-range of situations under different levels of emotional stress, the learner can develop the situational awareness needed to “read” the current situation and to anticipate future, choosing the right course of action now and being prepared to change course in an instant if need be.

The range of situations that can be trained with immersive technologies is essentially infinite
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These high-pressure situations are ones that require preparedness before entering the workforce. One cannot afford to rely on on-the-job training in emergency medicine, law enforcement, firefighting, air traffic control, the military or any number of other jobs. They are too important for society and one wrong move can be the difference between life and death. When done right, VR offers the promise of effective training that will leave the learner job-ready from day one. The professional willing to undertake these high-stakes jobs deserves this level of preparedness and so does the public that they serve.

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Todd Maddox is Science, Sports and Training Correspondent at Tech Trends, and the CEO of Cognitive Design and Statistical Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @wtoddmaddox

The post The Brain Science of Simulation Training with Virtual Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

Object Theory are pretty much the oldest Mixed Reality company around, having launched in June 2015, before the HoloLens had even started shipping. In many ways they’re your typical tech company – my demos are delivered in the familiar blueprint of a trendy open-plan office with exposed brick walls, which sits above a sushi restaurant – but it’s got a different vibe from a lot of similar start-ups.

It was really interesting to see Microsoft pivot towards enterprise with the HoloLens and I think it was absolutely the right move for them to make
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For starters, they’re based in Oregon as opposed to Silicon Valley. And while Portland is by no means a backwater, it’s still not a major tech or immersive content hub like LA or San Francisco either. For another, its founders Raven Zachary and Michael Hoffman (who left Microsoft to start the company) operate a very profitable business (employing about a dozen people between full timers and contractors) with no investment capital. In spite of the fact we’re joking around and playing Angry Birds on Magic Leap, the whole thing feels very grown up, in the sense that these guys are in this for the long haul, and so, they reckon, is the business of making Mixed Reality.

You haven’t really experienced how much fun @AngryBirds is until you tried it in #mixedreality. Thanks @ObjectTheory for letting me play with your @magicleap! pic.twitter.com/UMhQbxgH1g

— Alice Bonasio (@alicebonasio) February 2, 2019

A key enabler for Object Theory’s success has been Microsoft’s strategy for marketing, supporting, and developing Mixed Reality content for the HoloLens, which is why Zachary and Hoffman are enthusiastic in their praise for the company, and in particular of the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella. By pivoting towards the enterprise market early on, Microsoft managed to create strong and sustained demand for Mixed Reality tools among companies looking to solve real business needs. That, in turn, allowed their partner developers to secure key contracts as they figured their way around the new technology.

“It’s curious how the HoloLens originated with the Xbox team (its inventor Alex Kipman was also responsible for the Kinect) so there was this idea that it would be mainly a consumer product,” recalls Hoffman. “It was really interesting to see them pivot in that way and go mainstream towards enterprise and I think it was absolutely the right move for them to make.”

The other significant pivot Microsoft made in recent years, adds Zachary, was to move away from being hardware-centered to focusing on the cloud, marketing Azure’s ability to enable what they call ‘The Intelligent Edge’: “Microsoft is the only one of the large players that has actively decided to be a multi-platform company. They are actively embracing everything that’s relevant out there, and that makes sense, because they’re making cloud consumption more valuable if it works with everything that’s out there. Because of that we hope – and it would make sense – if they adopt an OEM for their Mixed Reality technology. Microsoft has this great patent portfolio and it would be great to take that amazing secret sauce of the HoloLens and license it out to their existing OEM partners like Dell or Samsung.”

Object Theory are the oldest Mixed Reality company around, having launched in June 2015, before the HoloLens had even started shipping
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Since the launch of Magic Leap One earlier this year, Object Theory has also started exploring the possibilities that the other platform brings, such as better eye tracking and support for finer and more nuanced gestural controls as well as the much-talked-about additional field of view:

“People tend to focus on the extra field of view, but part of it is just an illusion, because they just don’t let you see what is not there, it’s really a trick because the edges of your vision are restricted by the design of the Magic Leap One HMD,” explains Hoffman. “With that restriction, you never get that cognitive dissonance of having an open FOV and a restrained one at the same time, which is what you get with the HoloLens. But that said, everyone says that after a day or so of using the HoloLens your brain adapts to it and you just don’t notice it any more, so for me this is really not a major issue.”

They muse that Magic Leap probably waited too long to launch, so that by the time they did, people were both less awed by the technology, and had unrealistic expectations fuelled by the company’s infamous cinematic concept videos.

“We in the industry knew that’s what we were going to get, but consumers felt let down because they didn’t realize the whale jumping in the school auditorium was a concept video, so for us the troll throwing a boulder was fine, but consumers – who weren’t going to buy the device anyway – felt let down,” says Zachary.

If we do get a sneak peek at the HoloLens 2.0 in Barcelona on the 24^th, it will be over three years after it was first launched, so developers like Object Theory are keen to see an acceleration of that innovation cycle. Zachary and Hoffman believe that bringing competition is one way to achieve this, and that, in a way is where the real value of having Magic Leap enter the arena lies.

People tend to focus on the extra field of view for Magic Leap, but part of it is an illusion, because they just don’t let you see what is not there, it’s restricted by the design of the HMD
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Although they haven’t deployed on Magic Leap yet, they’re hopeful that because every platform out there is investing in enabling Unity compatibility which enables them to develop cross-platform more easily. The challenge going forward, they anticipate, is that major tech companies are very used to owning their developer ecosystems outright,

“The challenge for Microsoft, Apple and Google is that they’re used to owning their developer ecosystems outright,” says Zachary, “so this is the sort of abstraction that I’m not particularly sure Apple and Google will buy into – but Microsoft might because they care about the cloud more than control over the developer ecosystem. I think ultimately for us, when an enterprise customer asks us if we can deploy on Magic Leap – which hasn’t happened so far – we’re ready and open to having that conversation. We’ve been saying all along we want more players, more competition. The more success we have in making this solve real challenges or even desires such as entertainment, the more it becomes meaningful, the pie gets bigger and there’s more opportunities for companies like us.”

The main question they’re asking themselves now is whether CIOs at Fortune 100 companies will want to invest in a start-up’s hardware solution or whether they’re by default going to go with a major player such as Apple or Microsoft.

“I don’t know the answer to that, we’re still leading with the HoloLens, it’s still our platform of choice, but we don’t know where that market is, Zachary says, but Hoffman goes a bit further, outlining how Microsoft’s targeting of enterprise proved to be a genius move in rallying developers like them to the platform in spite of its relatively small install base.”

The main question they’re asking themselves now is whether CIOs at Fortune 100 companies will want to invest in a start-up’s hardware solution
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“No matter how much money the investment in Magic Leap sounds, it’s still small compared to a company like Microsoft. They are a start-up,” says Hoffman, “And if I’m an enterprise I definitely want to take the Microsoft solution because even if they’re not perfect, they’ve been solving my business needs for a very long time,” he says, adding that while Microsoft might not be perfect, they’ve become very good at providing the services their enterprise customers want, and it was unlikely those customers would look elsewhere for them. In other words, Microsoft really isn’t going anywhere, where even a very well-funded start-up like Magic Leap could eventually run out of money and disappear without a trace. Given how risk-adverse large corporations tend to be, it’s clear what an advantage Microsoft has here in continuing to develop that market.

Even after three years, a lot of the R&D behind the HoloLens still stands up well, such as the fact that the HMD allows users to wear their prescription glasses is a huge plus (Magic Leap’s design requires you to order and purchase a special insert for around $200) as is heat dissipation; “Magic Leap makes me sweat within minutes of putting it on,” Zachary says. Another feature where the HoloLens technology scores highly with the developer community is spatial audio, which is something that Microsoft invested heavily in getting just right.

“What I love about the spatial audio feature as a developer is that you literally just have to push a button and it works. The Algorithms fill in all the blanks for you,” Zachary enthuses. “The sense of presence with Prism (the Mixed Reality collaboration and productivity platform that Object Theory developed for the HoloLens) because of the spatial audio is amazing. I want to talk to the silly cartoon avatar because the sound makes it really feel like that person is in the room with me, it’s unbelievable.”

“So overall – and we asked a lot of other people about this too – the sense is that Magic Leap outperforms the HoloLens in a couple of areas, and does worse in others, but there isn’t this sense that the needle has been moved dramatically,” Hoffman adds. “We’re very curious to see how they position Mixed Reality in 2019 and to what extent HoloLens will be a core or ancillary part of that story, and whether we’re going to see OEM devices. The more partners out there building devices, the more this market is going to move forward. We were a bit early, but we’re true believers.”

This article was originally published on UploadVR

Between Magic Leap and HoloLens, which is going to win over developers?https://t.co/X6QOjv8BGe pic.twitter.com/R5EyHZQLby

— UploadVR (@UploadVR) February 20, 2019

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Developing the Future of Mixed Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

As early as 2016, former Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima had already hinted that the company was “looking into” VR. In a later interview in 2017, that interest had been somewhat upgraded to say they were “studying” the possibility of perhaps adding a HMD accessory to the Nintendo Switch once they were convinced users could play for longer durations without experiencing issues. Yet it’s safe to say that overall Nintendo has been quite noncommittal about dipping their toes into immersive tech – at least in public.

Former Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima had already hinted that the company was looking into VR
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So the recent news that the videogame giant is to join a newly formed “VRM Consortium” is likely to get some fans excited. The consortium brings together several Japanese companies, which – from February this year – will coordinate activities with the aim to develop the Virtual Reality business.

Members of the consortium, which will officially launch in February 2019, include Unity Technologies Japan, several VR development companies as well as livestreaming and distribution platforms.More specifically, however, the consortium (as the name suggests) is actually championing the VRM file format and hopes to make it an industry-wide standard for 3D avatars (or 3D Humanoid Characters to be precise).

Nintendo has so far been quite noncommittal about dipping their toes into immersive tech
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Why is that a big deal? Because up until now, when creating such 3D models, the output depended on the modelling tools used, and varied greatly in terms of scale, expression, initial pose, and a range of other factors. For instance, when in first-person view, how do you obtain the coordinates for correct positioning of the body, which parts of the body should be excluded from view at which points, the list goes on. This makes it very labour-intensive for developers, limits user choice, and generally makes for poorer experiences.

The enduring popularity of platforms such as @SecondLife has taught us that people can become incredibly invested in their virtual personas
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Members of the VRM consortium, which will officially launch in February 2019, include Unity Technologies Japan
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Each company’s datasets are different and have often-complex specifications. It is also not uncommon for the full information about file formats not to be provided with the avatar, so importing and exporting can be pretty much impossible outside of a very limited ecosystem, and therein lies the problem.

Up until now, when creating 3D models the output depended on the modelling tools used, and varied in terms of scale, expression, and a range of other factors
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One of the main barriers to the mass consumer adoption of social VR is the fact that at the moment, each platform pretty much requires you to start from scratch. You have to create an avatar (often with limited options for customization) and can generally only use it within the confines of that specific world.

With VRM, however, the same data can be used across any application that supports the format, meaning that users can easily create and personalize them with a broad range of tools. They can then use that same avatar across different applications and platforms, moving seamleassly from one to the other.

This is possible because the format is platform agnostic and open source, allowing developers to integrate it in whatever product or platform they like. VRM is based on the 3D standard format glTF2.0, All data including textures and materials is compacted as one file. To import a VRM model, only one single file needs to be handled, an it carries not only metadata such as the title and the author name, but also the thumbnail and the license information, making each avatar traceable and unique, so it would be possible, for example, to send your avatar data to your friends so they can see your appearance in a shared virtual space just as you intended.

One of the main barriers to the mass consumer adoption of social VR is the fact that each platform requires you to start from scratch
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If the enduring popularity of platforms such as Second Life has taught us anything, is that people can become incredibly invested in their virtual personas, and see them as a true extension of themselves, a key part of their identity.

So the idea that your avatar would be truly “yours” to take anywhere in the virtual multiverse is a really powerful one, and something that might eventually tempt doubters into not only trying VR, but coming back repeatedly and sticking around for longer when they do.

The idea that your avatar would be truly yours to take anywhere in the virtual multiverse is a really powerful one
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For now, however, Nintendo remains ever cautious – they are joining the consortium in an “observer” capacity only – and there are no hints of an actual VR product from the company coming out in the near future, but then, you never know with these things…

This article was first published on VRScout

Nintendo Joins VRM Consortium As ‘Observer’ via @alicebonasio https://t.co/9mqNbnoHgW pic.twitter.com/SYRfpXJ7te

— VRScout (@VRScout) January 16, 2019

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Will Nintendo Make a Play for VR? appeared first on Tech Trends.

A look back at some of the most exciting moments & innovations Tech Trends covered in 2018!

Cryptocurrency

Crypto is crashing – or so the experts say –  but it is not going away, so Tech Trends was excited to welcome on board our very own FinTech wizard Richard Andrews who kicked off his soon to be regular series last month.

Is Cryptocurrency on the verge of going mainstream?

Image by MichaelWuensch from Pixabay

During the bull run of 2017/18, coins could pump 50% on little more than a tweet of a conference announcement or a trivial code release. The principles of decentralisation and innovation were king and governments, financial services and regulation of any kind the public enemy of this bright new decentralised future. But after the parabolic rise of 2017 and the sharp sell-off of 2018 investor sentiment has reversed dramatically in the hope that these same institutions can restore their fortunes.

Hopes of greater institutional participation hinge on the Bitcoin ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) allowing institutional investors to participate in the market without the risks of holding Bitcoin directly
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Hopes of greater institutional participation have largely hinged on the prospect of a Bitcoin ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) which would allow private and institutional investors to participate in the market without the risks of holding Bitcoin directly. A good comparison is the well-established GLD ETF that provides exposure to gold without holding it under the mattress. However, this approach has so far proved disappointing due to rejections and delays by the US Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC). Read his full article here.

Mixed Reality

HoloLens subscription service spurring immersive tech adoption

Since the HoloLens was first released almost three years ago, Microsoft has steadily been building partnerships and demonstrating an array of industry use cases across manufacturing, engineering, healthcare, education and many others.

Rather than place users in a fully computer-generated world, as virtual reality does, HoloLens allows them to put 3D digital models in the room alongside them. As the Windows-10-based product does not have wires or external cameras or require a phone or PC connection, users can walk around the objects they create and interact with them using gestures, gaze and voice. This tends to make it well suited for onsite industrial applications.

While many large companies have adopted mixed reality and HoloLens applications, the $3,000 price tag of the device has been perceived as a barrier for adoption among smaller players
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Yet while many large companies have adopted mixed reality and enthusiastically evangelized about the efficiency gains that they achieved with HoloLens applications, the $3,000 price tag of the device has been perceived as a barrier for adoption among smaller players, who understandably aren’t sure that the ROI would be justified in onboarding the technology at this relatively early stage. Read the full article here.

Health Tech

Epilepsy consortium believes technology could save the NHS £250 million a year

Today, up to one in 100 people in the UK are believed to suffer from epilepsy, leading to three per cent of all Accident and Emergency visits and a total of 1.3 million days in hospital a year. It’s a challenging condition to manage, particularly as existing medication only works for up to 70 per cent of sufferers. Of those who do not respond to medication, most are not suitable for invasive surgery, leaving many to continue to experience unpredictable and potentially life-threatening seizures. New research by Public Health England (PHE) has found a 70% rise in the number of deaths of epilepsy patients between 2001 and 2014. PHE said there was a need to improve the clinical management of patients and make improvements to their wider health by tackling smoking, alcohol intake and poor diet.

The programme provides patients with wearable technology that records vital health data to help clinicians build a tailored record of a patient’s condition and seizure patterns
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This is what myCareCentric Epilepsy consortium – funded by Innovate UK and comprised of Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Kent, System C & Graphnet Care Alliance and Shearwater Systems – is hoping to do by equipping people with the ability to self-manage their condition. Running on Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure, the programme provides patients with wearable technology that records vital health data to help clinicians build a tailored record of a patient’s condition and seizure patterns. It has the potential to learn to classify seizures; to alert clinicians and carers in real-time so they can consult patients remotely, and provide essential lifestyle recommendations and drug prescriptions. Read the full article here.

A Tragic Loss to Science

Stephen Hawking taught us about about life, the universe, and everything

I once met Professor Stephen Hawking as he was coming out of the elevator at the John Lewis store in Cambridge (UK – The original one), where we both lived at the time. And although I’ll admit this might be far from the most interesting Stephen Hawking story out there, it’s still one of my favourites. Being in his presence was an incredible feeling. I felt ridiculously honoured to have bumped into him in this ordinary shop.

Now, after his death, I feel much the same way about having had the honour of sharing the same time-space with him. In an age of fake news, President Trump and imminent Brexit, he was our steadfast voice of reason. Right to the end, he advocated for the things he felt passionate about, such as defending the National Health Service against the likes of Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt who – with a level of misguided arrogance I can’t begin to comprehend – actually chose to argue with him (with entirely predictable results).

In an age of fake news, President Trump and imminent Brexit, Professor Stephen Hawking was our steadfast voice of reason
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And all this he achieved with wit, wisdom, and a wicked sense of humour, which endeared him to millions around the world. When combined with the inspiring way in which he defied an illness that should have killed him and transcended the disability which left him only able to move a few muscles on his face, he is indeed a formidably inspirational figure. Read the full article here.

Virtual Reality

PokerStars brings online poker to a truly immersive social VR experience

Tech Extremes

Ninja tech skills can come in handy even onboard an Antarctic research ship

A research trip around the Antarctic gave a Software Engineer Carles Pina i Estany a new perspective on how the very product he helped build was being used by scientists. Aboard a research vessel thousands of miles from shore and the nearest reliable Internet connection, these modern explorers routinely relied on Mendeley to do their work, even in subzero temperatures.

A research trip around the Antarctic gave a Software Engineer Carles Pina i Estany a new perspective on how the very product he helped build was being used by scientists
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The opportunity to take part in this unique expedition came when Carles’ partner, Jen Thomas, was invited to become Data Manager on a research trip led by the newly created Swiss Polar Institute, which has a mission to connect researchers active in polar or extreme environments, promotes public awareness of these environments, and facilitates access to research facilities in those extreme environments. As they were short of an IT person and Carles was already on a sabbatical from his work at Elsevier – during which he had already planned to travel around the world – he seized the opportunity to fulfil a longstanding ambition to take part in a polar expedition. Read the full article here.

Ted Talks with Zebra

Accessible design in the age of Industry 4.0

Earlier this month Tech Trends attended our first TEDSalon in New York! Presented by Zebra Technologies and TED the session theme was ‘The Next Wave’ and focused on the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is bringing a tsunami of change that will dramatically affect how we interact with and adapt to technology. The ways we choose to ride this wave will determine the shape of our future. Will we use this as an opportunity to solve our most pressing issues, or allow it to become a calamity that divides us? Hosted by TED’s Bryn Freedman, five speakers and one performer explored the tools and expertise we’ll harness to build the future

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is bringing a tsunami of change that will dramatically affect how we interact with and adapt to technology
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The evening included fascinating presentations from experts on the woeful state of America’s election systems and how technology can help, and how we need to change the way we learn if AI is part of the process. Zebra’s own design technologist James Morley-Smith took inspiration from how his disabled son Fintan learned piano starting with the black keys (the opposite of the traditional method) to guide his designs. In his work at Zebra, Morley-Smith designs for employees who are often in noisy, poorly lit industrial settings and clad in bulky protective gear. By following the black-keys tactic, he’s factoring in users’ limitations from the get-go, much like the idea of accessible product design championed by Microsoft at this year’s Build Conference. Read the full article here.

Sex Tech

Porn legend Ron Jeremy sees VR as the future of the adult industry 

Every 5 minutes, Pornhub transmits more data than the entire contents of the New York Public library’s 50 million books. Pornhub’s yearly review of trends reveals that in 2017 a total of 3,732 Petabytes of porn data was streamed, which makes for 7,101 GB per minutes and 118 GB per second.

In 2017 a total of 3,732 Petabytes of porn data was streamed, which makes for 7,101 GB per minutes and 118 GB per second
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And a man who significantly contributed to those gigantic volumes of traffic is Ron Jeremy, an AVN Hall of Famer with over 2,000 films under his belt. Jeremy is the Guinness Book of Records holder for Most Appearances in Adult Films and a big believer in VR Porn. So much so that he’s now put his money where his mouth is and launched RonJeremyVR, a premium service hosting VR films directed by the big man himself.

Every 5 minutes, Pornhub transmits more data than the entire contents of the New York Public library’s 50 million books
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So where are we in this new age of online VR thrills? According to the Pornhub Year in Review 2017 report:

“Virtual Reality Porn continues to gain in popularity, moving up 14 spots on the list from 2016. Cheerleaders came back with a bang, moving up 366 slots and into our top 20 searches of the year. VR devices were a popular holiday gift, and it seems that porn was one of the first things people wanted to try out with their new headsets. After the New Year, average daily views remained much higher than the pre-Christmas levels at around half a million per day.”

With the demand for streaming porn continuing to grow, this data suggests that Ron is indeed on to a real winner
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With the demand for streaming porn continuing to grow, this data suggests that Ron is indeed on to a real winner.  Read the full chat with Ron here.

Internet of Things

IoT and the connected home have yet to fulfil their promise

IFA this year was much like previous years, hundreds of companies screaming from the rooftops about minimally iterative products. A few more pixels, a bit bigger screen, a bit faster processor and everything a bit thinner, oh and crap Robots. I love tech and love my gadgets and can geek out with the best of them but I attended IFA this time looking for more meaningful innovation than a bit better camera on an $800 smartphone. I am happy to report that I found it, but not where you might expect.

A decade ago the invention of the smartphone changed our lives but truly new products like this are few and far between, so every year companies try to reinvent what we already have through minor upgrades and tweaks. We are stuck in a loop where the market is slowly evolving but no real innovation is going on, and the largest companies in the world are all guilty of this lack of effort to progress, so we must start looking off the beaten track for those that are truly working to innovate.

The largest companies in the world are all guilty of this lack of effort to progress so we must start looking off the beaten track for innovation
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Thought sustainably producing high-quality, smart and connected home products @Beko can democratise technology
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IoT and the connected home has been much discussed and I have seen some interesting concepts and even a few eyebrow-raising products but it is not yet in our homes, changing the way we live, and judging from the hundreds of pathetic, unimaginative and almost useless ‘innovative IoT products’ on display at IFA 2018, it’s not going to happen any time soon. But Turkish behemoth Beko, makers of reasonably priced kitchen appliances, held a press conference to announce their technology strategy and issued a white paper on the future of technology in the home and impressed me with their assessment of how new, innovative technologies in our kitchens can improve our lives and can do it affordably and in the not-too-distant future. Read the full article here.

Well, it’s been a very exciting year for technology, and we’re off to play with our gadgets, but be sure to check back with us right after Christmas as we boldly go where no one has gone before in 2019…

Merry Christmas from TECH TRENDS!

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post A Year in Tech: 2018 Recap appeared first on Tech Trends.

The latest forecast from technology analyst firm CCS Insight highlights some of the challenges facing makers of head-worn virtual and augmented reality devices. Despite early enthusiasm and a continued expectation of significant long-term potential for the technology, there is much work yet to be done on improving user experience, developing software platforms and – above all – making attractive content for those platforms available to consumers.

“We continue to believe that content is the key to unlocking adoption of VR. Although some games companies and adult content creators have embraced VR technology, much more needs to happen to persuade consumers that VR devices are a must-have item,” says Ben Wood, CCS Insight’s chief of research.

This sober yet positive message is the main conclusion of the company’s recently published global market report for VR and AR devices. In it, the research firm forecasts 8 million virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets and glasses will be sold in 2018, down from 10 million in 2017, but growing to 14 million in 2019 and eventually to 52 million in 2022.

Smartphone VR headsets sales have collapsed, but standalone devices like the Oculus Go hold great promise
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The market for VR has gone through several phases, according to Wood. “The first wave of consumers used basic cardboard viewers, which helped them understand the potential of the media, but the limited experience meant most people quickly lost interest. We don’t even include such devices in our forecast anymore”. He continues, “Attention then turned to smartphone-based devices such as the Samsung Gear VR and the Zeiss One Plus VR. These have played an important role in raising the awareness of the technology over the past three years, but interest in these devices has now waned”.

Accordingly, the firm’s forecast shows a dramatic drop in sales of smartphone VR devices, from nearly 8 million units in 2017 to fewer than 3 million this year. This decline has occurred despite heavy price cuts and extensive promotions over the past 12 months.

“We believe the device market has now shifted away from the early wave of cheaper, less-functional cardboard and plastic smartphone VR viewers. We expect the next wave of adoption to come from dedicated devices that offer a more compelling, wire-free experience,” Wood concludes.

CCS Insight believes the advent of standalone VR headsets – which overcome the awkwardness of being attached to a PC, smartphone or games console – will help to reinvigorate this product category both for consumers and businesses. Its forecast shows demand in that category growing over 16 times between 2018 and 2022, when 29 million standalone VR headsets are expected to be sold.

CCS Insight expects the market will return to growth in 2019, reaching 14 million devices
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The company believes devices such as Facebook’s Oculus Go and Oculus Quest, which are being offered at retail prices of $200 and $400 respectively, are good examples of the future of VR. Wood also notes that the Chinese market is looking particularly promising and Facebook’s partnership with Xiaomi has helped those headsets make a strong start there.

There is still, however, a role to be played in this market by tethered devices like the Sony PlayStation VR, HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, as currently they still offer a higher quality experience than standalone devices are able to deliver. Accordingly, CCS Insight forecasts that 5 million tethered VR headsets will be sold in 2019, growing to 18 million in 2022.

52 million VR and AR devices will be sold in 2022 with a market value of $8.5 billion
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Sony, which CCS Insight considers as the most successful manufacturer of tethered VR headsets to date, looks set to continue with its strategy of offering its VR headset as an accessory to the large number of PlayStation owners as these devices are best suited to meet the needs of the most dedicated gamers, who want a best-in-class experience.

The report also assesses the market for AR smart glasses, which have so far seen significantly slower adoption compared to VR. The main use for AR devices continues to be in business operations such as customer service, logistics, remote servicing, design and other related applications, and interest remains high in those categories. Although businesses have taken a cautious approach to AR devices, initially focusing on pilot deployments, but CCS Insight believes there are signals of growth as the chart below demonstrates.

The company believes devices such as Facebook's Oculus Go and Oculus Quest, which are being offered at retail prices of $200 and $400 respectively, are good examples of the future of VR
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“We are seeing a rising number of companies committing to deployments of tens or hundreds of augmented reality glasses as they start to see the clear benefits of head-worn technology in the workplace,” explains Wood, although he cautions that this market growth will take time, with cumulative global sales not expected to top 1 million units before 2021.

When thinking about AR glasses for consumers, Wood notes that these devices continue to be “more common in science fiction than in real life” with little evidence of a product with mass-market appeal any time soon. Nevertheless, CCS Insight’s long-range forecast does include a scenario of accelerated adoption if a major consumer brand like Apple decides to enter the market.

Yet in Tech Trends’ humble view, with Magic Leap finally entering the arena this year and a new version of the HoloLens expected to be unveiled by Microsoft next year, it could be that this tipping point might arrive even sooner, and perhaps even driven (perish the thought!) by players other than Apple. Watch this space…

We are seeing a rising number of companies committing to deployments of tens or hundreds of augmented reality glasses as they start to see the clear benefits of head-worn technology in the workplace
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For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our Consultancy service offers support in strategic leveraging VR/AR/MR/XR

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Report: VR Device Market Outlook appeared first on Tech Trends.

Tetra Pak is one of the largest companies that most people never heard of. Chances are, however, that you’ve used one of their products very recently, as the Swedish company supplies food processing and packaging solutions to manufacturers in more than 175 countries. Last year alone, they sold 188 billion packages, netting $12.2 billion in sales.

The original Tetra Pak carton changed the milk industry back in the 1950s
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Their original carton changed the milk industry back in the 1950s. At a 1961 press conference in Switzerland, the company presented the first machine for aseptically filled bacteria-free milk, but they haven’t stopped innovating in the decades since, and are now at the forefront of implementing technologies that will enable it to continue to scale its global operations in a much smarter way.

“Over the past few years we’ve invested in new technologies such as artificial intelligence, automation and data exchange to enhance traceability, predict potential machine problems and optimise operational performance for our customers,” explains Johan Nilsson VP, Digitalisation and Industry 4.0 at Tetra Pak. ”By embracing everything that the 4^th Industrial Revolution can offer, we can shape the future, and help customers seize the tremendous opportunities in tomorrow’s connected world.”

Industry 4.0 is essentially the idea of smart manufacturing, achieved through the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) which collects and connects data from devices to improve processes and increase efficiency in real-time. Digital technologies such as machine-learning, augmented reality and many others are part of that picture, as they can connect workforces, transform processes, analyse data, and provide greater visibility and flexibility across our supply chains.

By connecting packaging lines to the Microsoft Azure Cloud, Tetra Pak can collect operational data to help predict informed maintenance timing
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Across all sectors, we’ve seen businesses investing in the equipment and software that allows this information to flow between different platforms, people, and business processes to create new data-based revenue streams and systems. One example of how this works in practice is that Tetra Pak have sensors on more than 5,000 filling machines at customers’ sites, all connected to Microsoft Azure, which feed real-time performance data to the company for monitoring and analysis – nearly 700 million data points each year. As a result, maintenance can be scheduled much more precisely and cost-efficiently.

By connecting packaging lines to the Microsoft Azure Cloud, Tetra Pak can collect operational data to help predict informed maintenance timing. This means they can better foresee machine problems and quickly spot breakdowns – reducing plant downtimes

“When you have plants around the world, the service knowledge we gain from one plant comes to benefit another. This prevents issues from happening,” says Nilsson.

Data that’s gleaned from connected machines gives company technicians an operational snapshot across thousands of packaging machines in use. That information helps service engineers swiftly answer critical questions, such as: When did a specific failure happen and how long did it last? What was that machine’s temperature at the time? What was the pressure? The performance data is aggregated and available on technicians’ mobile devices.

Like many enterprises in various industrial sectors, Tetra Pak is using Mixed Reality technology to optimize its processes and increase efficiency
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When equipment does break down, however, the company has streamlined machine diagnostics and repairs for customers using Microsoft HoloLens devices. Like many enterprises in various industrial sectors, Tetra Pak is using Mixed Reality technology to optimize its processes and increase efficiency.

Back in 2017, Tetra Pak began selling service agreements that incorporated HoloLens to enable the company’s local service representatives to triage diagnoses and repairs in real time with heads-up, hands-free calling. By integrating those capabilities with Microsoft Azure, system specialists were empowered to remotely guide a HoloLens-wearing service engineer – via Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist – through the steps to fix the machine thousands of miles away.

“This is how we take the global expertise that we have available somewhere in Tetra Pak and bring it to the fingertips of the engineer in the countryside in Chile or Pakistan,” explains Nilsson, adding that this significantly cuts repair time and saves huge amounts of money in reduced downtime, not to mention travel costs.

“Our partnership with Tetra Pak and their investment in the technology is further evidence of the potential of Mixed Reality within automation and manufacturing,” says Lorraine Bardeen, general manager, Mixed Reality Business Applications, Microsoft.

Industry 4.0 has the potential to not only save manufacturers vast amounts of money, but also improve things across the board for businesses, employees and customers
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“In the context of industry 4.0, Mixed Reality is expediting processes such as engineering and maintenance to support the creation of smart factories, and companies like Tetra Pak are reimagining their business by leveraging modern, unified, intelligent and adaptable solutions that bring together the vast amounts of data across their organization to empower their employees with new tools for productivity.

Industry 4.0 has the potential to not only save manufacturers vast amounts of money, but also improve things across the board for businesses, employees and customers through sustainable use of resources, safer maintenance cycles, and empowered employees.

In 2017 Tetra Pak began selling service agreements that incorporated HoloLens to enable the company’s local service representatives to triage diagnoses and repairs in real time
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Industry 4.0 will ultimately enable global industrial operations such as Tetra Pak to function even more efficiently and intuitively
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“A product of mixed reality among other technologies, industry 4.0 will ultimately enable global industrial operations such as Tetra Pak to function even more efficiently and intuitively,” adds Bardeen. “With Mixed Reality, we can understand data in context and simplify workflows to extend human ability. When this happens workers feel more effective, businesses see more progress and everyone has a chance to participate in the modern workplace.”

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Packaging the Future appeared first on Tech Trends.

The healthcare industry is ripe for embracing immersive xR learning technologies in training professionals and informing patients.

After a 25-year career as a learning scientist and the last 3 years “immersed” in the private sector, my  opinion is that xR technologies have the potential to improve the quality and quantity of training, to reduce training costs and to enhance patient satisfaction through better care from healthcare professionals and a deeper understanding for patients.

To support this claim, I outline a framework for understanding how the brain learns. It derives from some of my own research supported by over $10 million in federal grants to support my laboratory, and a huge body of research conducted across the world over the past 100+ years focused on learning.

xR technologies have the potential to improve the quality and quantity of training, to reduce training costs and to enhance patient satisfaction
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This report focuses on a learning science evaluation of xR technology’s potential in the healthcare sector. xR technologies come in two major forms: virtual reality (VR) in which the learner is immersed in a completely new virtual environment and augmented reality (AR) in which the learner is in a combined real and virtual environment where digital information is overlaid onto the learner’s field of view.

Healthcare professionals must be trained on anatomy and physiology and a broad range of physiological systems both healthy and diseased, and learn to perform a wide range of procedures in their speciality. Additionally, they must learn situational awareness which involves the ability to perform effectively under stressful and high-pressure conditions.

Analogously, patients must learn what pills go in their pill box, or a patient or caregiver might need to learn how to care and maintain a central line. Patients must learn about an upcoming medical procedure, how to prepare and what to expect following the procedure. They might also learn about several medical options so that they can choose the one that is right for them, as is the case when a dialysis patient receives training on in-clinic and in-home dialysis so that they can make an informed decision on which suits them best. The more effective the training, the less stress on the patient, the higher likelihood of success.

Learning to perform medical procedures is about acquiring a technical or behavioral skill - this is best done through physical repetitions
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Learning Science of Healthcare Training

Learning science—the marriage of psychology and brain science— teaches us that different types of learning tasks are mediated by distinct brain system and psychological processes and thus are best trained with different training tools. For example, anatomy and physiology is about obtaining knowledge and facts to be remembered and available for recall at a later date. This is learned through mental repetitions and by the cognitive skills learning system in the brain. On the other hand, learning to perform medical procedures is about acquiring a technical or behavioral skill. This is best done through physical repetitions and uses the behavioral skills learning system in the brain. Finally, situational awareness—the ability to perform under a broad range of conditions and to reasonably anticipate the future–involves mental and physical repetitions across a broad range of scenarios and is mediated by the emotional learning system in the brain.

Dissociable Learning Systems in the Brain

The human brain is comprised of at least three distinct learning systems. Gaining a solid knowledge base (e.g., anatomy and physiology or what pills go in your pill box) relies on the cognitive skills learning system in the brain. The cognitive skills learning system in the brain has evolved to obtain knowledge and facts and to tie those to specific situations. I refer to this as the “what” system. Cognitive skill learning is mediated by the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and associated medial temporal lobe structures in the brain and relies heavily on working memory and attention.

Obtaining a strong behavioral repertoire (e.g., drawing blood, performing surgery, or caring for your own central line) relies on the behavioral skills learning system in the brain. It is one thing to know what to do, but it is another to know how to do it. I refer to this as the “how” system. Behavioral skill learning is mediated by the basal ganglia and gradual, incremental dopamine-mediated changes in behavior. Interestingly, this system does not rely on working memory and attention. In fact, there is strong scientific evidence that “overthinking it” hinders behavioral skills learning. Processing in this system is optimized when behavior is interactive and is followed in real-time (literally within milliseconds) by corrective feedback. Behaviors that are rewarded will be more likely to occur in the future, and those that are punished less so.

The human brain is comprised of at least three distinct learning systems
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The ability to “read” a situation and to have strong situational awareness (e.g., an ability to perform under non-ideal conditions and to reasonably predict the near-term future) relies on emotional learning. The emotional learning system in the brain has evolved to facilitate the development of a nuanced understanding of situations and people that is critical to success. Whereas one can have all of the facts and figures available, and have a strong behavioral repertoire, in the end one has to extract the appropriate information and engage the appropriate behavior in each distinct situation. I refer to this as the “feel” system. The critical brain regions are the amygdala and other limbic structures. The detailed processing characteristics of this system are less well understood than the cognitive and behavioral skills learning systems, but emotional learning is at the heart of situational awareness. Emotional processing strongly affects both cognitive and behavioral skills learning. An individual with strong situational awareness can accurately read any situation, adapts quickly and knows what to do in each situation, and has the behavioral repertoire to engage each situation with the appropriate set of behaviors.

The ability to read a situation and to have strong situational awareness relies on emotional learning
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Cognitive Skills Learning System

Gaining a solid knowledge base such as understanding the anatomy and physiology of the human body, or knowing what medication to take, how much and when, relies on the cognitive skills learning system in the brain. This system learns the “what,” and is mediated by the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and associated medial temporal lobe structures in the brain and relies heavily on working memory and attention.

The prefrontal cortex is where working memory and attention reside. The goal is to use focused study and mental rehearsal to transfer fleeting and poorly represented knowledge from the prefrontal cortex to long-term memory stores in the hippocampus and associated medial temporal lobe structures.

Suppose you are a medical student faced with the problem of learning the anatomy and physiology of the human body. The human body is a 3-dimensional structure that functions as a dynamic system. The ultimate goal of training is to facilitate the formation of a 3D dynamic mental representation of the human body in the learner’s brain that perfectly mimics the actual form. The best way to achieve this is to present the learner with a 3D dynamic visualization, yet most traditional teaching methods use textbooks or slideshows filled with 2D static images. Thus, the learner must convert a series of 2D static images into a 3D dynamic mental representation in the brain that accurately reflects the human form.

Attempting to construct a 3-dimensional dynamic representation of the human body from a series of 2-dimensional static images requires a huge amount of cognitive effort. First, you have to hold a mental representation of a series of 2-dimensional static images in short-term (working) memory. Second, you have to hold these 2-dimensional static mental representations in your working memory and combine them on the fly to construct an accurate 3-dimensional static representation. Finally, you have to infer and impart the dynamic nature of the human form onto this 3-dimensional static representation. Each of these steps requires an enormous amount of cognitive capacity (in the form of working memory), and an enormous amount of cognitive energy (in the form of executive attention). Any time working memory load and executive attentional demands are taxed, you are more likely to make an error and generate an inferior mental representation.

Now consider an xR solution in which you place a Microsoft HoloLens on your head and a 3-dimensional, dynamic representation of the human body appears in front of you. You can walk around the body and can rotate it so that you can see it from all angles. You can select a skeletal view and when you touch a bone its name appears. In this case, you have a highly accurate 3-dimensional dynamic xR visualization tool that is intuitive and facilitates the development of a highly accurate 3-dimensional dynamic representation in the learner’s brain. A tool like this engages the visual representation learning system in the brain that recruits occipital and temporal lobe structures. By removing the need to construct a 3-dimensional dynamic mental representation from a series of 2-dimensional static images, the working memory and executive attention load on the learner has been slashed. Those resources can be used to learn the names of the bones, muscles, arteries, etc., but with a rich visual mental representation upon which to attach them.

Constructing a 3-D dynamic representation of the human body from a series of 2-D static images requires a huge amount of cognitive effort
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The same logic holds for other cognitive skills learning problems. Suppose you are a patient or caregiver who needs to care for and maintain a central line. The most common approach to central line care and maintenance training is to have learners read documents describing in detail all of the required steps. From a psychological and brain science perspective translating this abstract text-based representation into a rich visual representation that you can use to guide your behavior is challenging. Yet putting on a HMD (Head Mounted Display) and being transported into an immersive setting in which you are watching someone care and maintain a central line in a virtual world in real-time instantly reduces the areas in the brain which are engaged. Learning will be enhanced, quicker and more robust.

Suppose you are a patient with a hefty medication regimen. You have a long list of medications that you take at different times and in different amounts. You have a pill box that facilitates the process but you struggle to use you list of medications when filling the pill box. Now imagine an augmented reality solution where all of your medication information is in the application. It knows what you take, when and how much. It also knows what each pill looks like and monitors the process with a small camera on your mobile device or tablet. Finally, the tool has information about the medication available that can be overlaid on the screen. The AR application prompts you with text, audio and a visual representation of each pill to facilitate loading the pill box. As with the xR solution to anatomy and physiology training and central line care and maintenance, this AR solution significantly reduces the cognitive load on the learner, which is especially critical in older adults.

AR solutions can significantly reduce the cognitive load on the learner, which is especially critical in older adults
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The Behavioral Skills Learning System

The behavioral skills learning system has evolved to learn behaviors. I refer to this as the “how” system because it allows you to learn how to do things. The behavioral skills learning system resides in the basal ganglia of the brain that is a subcortical structure deep in the center of the brain. Behavioral skill learning does not rely on working memory and attention, in fact, there is strong anecdotal evidence, and basic science research to suggest that “overthinking it” hinders behavioral skills learning. Behaviors are learned through gradual, incremental, dopamine-mediated reward/punishment learning in the basal ganglia of the brain. Processing in this system is optimized when behavior is interactive and is followed in real-time by corrective feedback.

Suppose you are a surgeon in training learning how to perform heart surgery. The patient’s vital signs, your hand on the scalpel, the sensation associated with breaking the skin all represent a collection of sensory inputs (e.g., visual, auditory, tactile; red arrow). Collections of neurons that represent the current situation are active and project down into the basal ganglia (in purple). There they connect with neurons that project from the basal ganglia to motor regions (red arrow) that initiate a specific behavior associated with the surgery. If the behavior was successful that behavior is rewarded. In this case, dopamine will be released into the basal ganglia, the neural connections that drove that behavior will be strengthened, and the likelihood that behavior will be elicited again under the same surgical situation will increase. On the other hand, if the behavior was incorrect that behavior is punished. In this case dopamine will not be released, the neural connections that drive that behavior will be weakened, and the likelihood that behavior will be elicited again under the same surgical situation will decrease.

Establishing behavioral skills requires learning a set of motor behaviors to be completed in a specific sequence. Although a common approach is to start by reading textbooks and slideshows or watching someone else complete the task, in the end the only way to learn a behavioral skill is to actually do it.

Because behavioral skills are learned gradually and incrementally via dopamine-mediated, error-correction learning in the basal ganglia of the brain, they require extensive practice, yet traditional real-world approaches are limited due to difficulty and expense.

xR medical training technologies are being developed which bypass these difficulties, however. Some of the more advanced platforms include realistic artificial cadavers that provide the appropriate haptic feedback, for example. When implemented correctly, technologies like this will speed the training of medical procedures and will give learners enough practice that they will be job-ready before entering a medical facility to see patients.

These xR technologies could also be used for patients and their caregivers. Instead of watching someone perform in-home dialysis once, the patient and caregiver could train in xR until they reach some level of proficiency. This would increase their confidence, reduce risk and reduce the likelihood of a hospital visit due to preventable errors.

When implemented correctly, technologies like this will speed the training of medical procedures and will give learners enough practice that they will be job-ready before entering a medical facility to see patients
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The Emotional Learning System

The emotional learning system has evolved to facilitate the development of situational awareness. I refer to this as the “feel” system because it is all about “reading” individuals and groups, and situations, in general. Emotional learning involves the amygdala and associated limbic system structures. This system is critical to situational awareness through its effects on processing in both the cognitive and behavioral skills learning systems in the brain. Emotional learning affects how one processes and links the cognitive and behavioral aspects of a situation. A nurse or doctor with strong situational awareness knows what to say and do when appropriate. They know how to be compassionate or firm – only after years of exposure to multiple situations do medical personnel gain the expertise and situational awareness necessary to respond effectively in all situations. With xR technologies though, the medical practitioner and the patient can receive training in a broad range of routine, but also non-routine situations.

The broad-based training available with an xR medical training platform can increase generalization and transfer of the trained information
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Although the three learning systems in the brain are distinct and involve different cognitive and emotional processes, they ultimately all reside within a single brain with massive interconnections. Thus, the optimal method for training situational awareness is to combine the cognitive skills associated with gaining facts and knowledge with the behavioral skills associated with appropriate action in all situations. xR technologies offer an ideal medium for achieving these goals and engaging all three systems simultaneously.

The broad-based training available with an xR medical training platform can increase generalization and transfer of the trained information, but most importantly can increase preparedness. Imagine, for example, the EMT who must deliver a baby in the back of the ambulance, without some critical piece of equipment and with a mother whose blood pressure is dangerously low.

xR technologies offer an ideal medium for engaging all three systems of the brain simultaneously
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The same goes for medical patients. More and more in-home medical options are available. To be effective though patients need extensive training. Imagine an xR experience that leads a patient through the process of in-home dialysis step by step, tests the patient’s knowledge throughout and is readily available 24/7 for follow-up training. In addition, suppose the xR training tool puts the patient-in-training under time pressure sometimes.

All these examples exist today or the solution is in development, so the future looks bright for xR applications in healthcare-related cognitive skills learning and the healthcare industry is ripe for the introduction of immersive technologies, which have the potential to improve all aspects of healthcare training, reduce costs, increase healthcare professionals’ readiness, and most importantly, instill confidence in patients thus enhancing patient satisfaction.

Todd Maddox is Science, Sports and Training Correspondent at Tech Trends, and the CEO of Cognitive Design and Statistical Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @wtoddmaddox

The post Report: Using Extended Reality in Healthcare appeared first on Tech Trends.

The new HoloLens subscription service could prove a catalyst for SMEs to embrace immersive technology.

Since the HoloLens was first released almost three years ago, Microsoft has steadily been building partnerships and demonstrating an array of industry use cases across manufacturing, engineering, healthcare, education and many others.

The Mixed Reality as a Service packages start at £260 per month and include a device, delivery, swap warranty, collection and recycling
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Rather than place users in a fully computer-generated world, as virtual reality does, HoloLens allows users to put 3D digital models in the room alongside them. As the Windows-10-based product does not have wires or external cameras, or require a phone or PC connection, users can walk around the objects they create and interact with them using gestures, gaze and voice. This tends to make it well suited for onsite industrial applications.

Of the 39 markets where the HoloLens is available 29 are in Europe
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Yet while many large companies have adopted mixed reality and enthusiastically evangelized about the efficiency gains that they achieved with HoloLens applications, the $3,000 price tag of the device has been perceived as a barrier for adoption among smaller players, who understandably aren’t sure that the ROI would be justified in onboarding the technology at this relatively early stage.

This is why it’s significant to see the Microsoft partnering with JTRS and its parent firm Econocom to rollout a new mixed reality as a Service offering which will allow customers to get a HoloLens on a subscription basis across Europe. The packages start at £260 per month and include device, delivery, a swap warranty, and collection and recycling at the end of the term.

“This technology and solutions are now becoming accessible to all companies,” adds Marc Bringuier, Strategic and International Partnership Manager at Econocom. “With the HoloLens partnership, we’ve brought together a community of companies, all of whom are leaders in their markets and are committed to facilitating companies’ access to mixed reality.”

Since the HoloLens was first released almost three years ago, Microsoft and their partners have demonstrated an array of industry use cases across manufacturing, engineering, healthcare and education
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Out of the 39 markets where the HoloLens is available globally, 29 are in Europe, so it makes sense that Microsoft has chosen to pilot this new model in the region. According to Leila Martine, Director of Product Marketing at Microsoft, “Europe is the first market in which we’re working with authorized resellers to offer HoloLens as part of a subscription model to help support the depth of customer and Mixed Reality Partner Program partners’ needs we’ve seen in this market.”

In a world where ownership is outdated and where technology is used over time, it makes more sense for institutions to use an as-a-service subscription to access Microsoft HoloLens
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The VR and AR device global market is predicted to reach circa $1.8 billion this year, and according to market intelligence firm IDC, the sector as a whole will see revenues of more than $162 billion in 2020 – up from $5.2 billion in 2016. Yet within Microsoft’s mixed reality strategy, hardware is only one piece of the puzzle. At last year’s Build conference they outlined their ambition to become the go-to platform for immersive experiences across all devices, and recent moves seem to back this up, opting for an open and collaborative approach rather than the “walled garden” strategy favored by companies such as Apple.

“Since we live in a world where ownership is outdated and where technology is used over time, it makes more sense for institutions to use an as-a-service subscription to access Microsoft HoloLens. Customers can now get up and running much quicker, with HoloLens and apps, whether it be for space planning, industrial or educational training, use within design, maintenance or operations. This time to market advantage can be material to how companies save time and money, today.”

Microsoft has also been developing an array of first party collaborative apps such as Remote Assistance (which enables hands-free video calling, image sharing and mixed reality annotations to share what they see with an expert to solve problems and complete tasks) and Microsoft Layouts (which lets users import 3D models to create and visualize room layouts and edits with multiple stakeholders in real time.

“Working on HoloLens over the past three years, we have learnt just how important it is to increase the number of “out of the box” solutions we have on offer to equip customers with the tools and technology they need to accelerate innovation. In this way, customers can pick up their HoloLens device, install the application they need and begin getting value straight away,” says Martine. “Alongside this, we’ve partnered with a range of software companies from start-ups to large enterprises to create extensible solutions that are easy for our customers to get started with.”

One example that Martine gives of this sort of successful partnership is UK startup Kazendi which allows co-workers to remotely meet, collaborate and connect with 3D models and 2D documents via HoloLens. Meanwhile, PTC’s Vuforia Studio offers business native support for building and rapidly creating scalable experiences without the need for skills programming or designers. This sort of out-of-the-box functionality, together with the support and affordability offered in the subscription model, is likely to entice many SMEs into dipping their toes into the immersive tech market, and that in turn could cement Microsoft’s dominance in that space.

Mixed Reality solutions are now becoming accessible to all companies
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This article was originally published on Forbes

Microsoft introduces mixed reality as a servicehttps://t.co/zKIM5yRWWO

— Forbes Tech News (@ForbesTech) June 16, 2018

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Will Mixed Reality as a Service be a Game Changer for Microsoft? appeared first on Tech Trends.