Making professional grade AR a reality

Augmented reality has grabbed plenty of headlines for its impact on mobile games and entertainment, allowing digital experiences in games such as Pokémon Go to blend with real life. But AR has plenty of applications outside of gaming. Now, a Los Angeles-based tech company is partnering with Flex to deliver serious, professional-grade AR.

DAQRI has designed its smart glasses headset for manufacturing, construction, maintenance, and inspections operations, industries were seeing beyond the real world is critical to success. Engineers outfitted with DAQRI headsets can look deep into machinery to quickly repair problems that might otherwise stop a line, while trainees can swiftly advance their skills with AR assistance.

AR can deliver a transformative experience for both the consumer and enterprise markets. As the market gains momentum, we’re very excited to be partnered with DAQRI to help this leader in AR innovation redefine what is humanly possible.

AR is also becoming a necessity in both building construction and management. Royal BAM Group, a Netherlands-based construction services company, has partnered with DAQRI to implement lean operating methodologies at a new hospital north of Amsterdam. “Recognizing AR as the quintessential technology for improving productivity and minimizing failure in facility management, BAM’s partnership with DAQRI represents taking important steps toward implementing AR on a large scale,” a Royal BAM executive says.

The DAQRI Smart Glasses have been designed for ergonomics and safety. Their modular design employs both a lightweight set of glasses and a small computer pack that users wear, allowing for hands-free operation. Its powerful mobile processor can handle large amounts of data and complex workloads and the glasses can use both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to become a full partner in an intelligent, Internet of Things (IoT) environment. The HD color camera embedded into the glasses can take both photos and videos and their advanced mapping technology assures that when users “pin” an AR model to a point, it will remain in the correct position over large distances, whether that is inside a manufacturing facility or outside on a construction site.

While Flex is employing its signature approach to manufacture the DAQRI system, the AR device counts Oracle, IBM, Autodesk, Emerson, and Siemens among its compatible software vendors and has distribution side support from Dell. DAQRI, a specialist in the data visualization of IoT and sensor data, has offices in Dublin, the U.K., and Austria in addition to California.

The German industrial giant Siemens has issued DAQRI glasses to trainees in its gas burner assembly operations, slashing both the time they needed to learn their job and the time needed to assemble the burner itself.

“It’s clear to us,” a Siemens R&D executive tells DAQRI, “that integrating AR into work training, manufacturing, inspections, and maintenance results in major increases in speed, efficiency, and quality of work.” 

Learn how Flex is advancing in manufacturing for Augmented Reality devices and how you can get involved today.