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AugmentedReality Getsto WorkThe te chn ology hasn t yet livedup to its promise, but it couldcatc h on in situations where itmakes em ployees m ore efficient.By Rachel Metz

For Thom as Caudell it

started with a desire tomake building airplaneseasier. It was 1990 andCaudell then a scientistat Boeing was trying tofigure out how to help

workers assembling long bundles of wiresfor the new 777 jetliner.

To do the wiring correctly worke rshad to continually glance between aninstruc tion sheet and the assembly whichcomplicated an already tricky job. Caudell

and his colleague David Mizell had an

idea: what if they could give the assemblyworkers a see-through display tha t wouldshow where the wires should go The 777was th e first jetlin er to be digitally mod-eled in full before it was assem bled sothere w ere already computerized imagesof its com ponents.

Caudell and Mizell built a system th atthe workers could wear on their heads.Like other early attempts to overlay thereal world with bits of the virtual it failedto catch on. Caudell says tha t was largely

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because the head tracking wasn't respon-sive enough, and wearahle computerswere nowhere near as powerful as theyare today. However, he did come up witha term for this new kind of digital vision:augmented reality.

In the decades since, augmented real-ity has crept toward acceptance. It's stillfar from commonplace, because handheldgadgets aren't that immersive and smartglasses are still pricey and awkward-looking. But fashion and price don 't mat-ter to companies eager for technologiestha t help their employees work more effi-ciently. The defense contractor Raytheonand the electronics maker MitsubishiElectric, among other large companies,have been trying augmented reality inthe workplace and out in the field. Somecompanies are thinking, 'Look, this isinteresting enoughwe'll take some betson it, we believe there's a good chance,'says Soulaiman I tani , founder andCEO of Atbeer Labs, which makes 3-Dvirtual-reality software and glasses. TheCalifornia-based company is working onpilot tests of augmented reality in hospi-tals, on construction sites, and in factories.

An augm ented - rea l i ty sof twarestartup called Daqri, based in Los Ange-les, is also getting companies to explorethe technology. Like Atheer, Daqri seeshead-worn displays as the way we willeventually use the technology, but for now

much of its focus is on smartphone andtablet displays.Founder and EO Brian Mullins dem-

onstrates his startup's technology with apiece of paper featuring a basic diagramof the hum an heart, an iPad, and a Daqriapp. The app makes the heart seem tolevitate atop the paper, pulsing slightly ascartoon blood pumps through it. Daqri'ssoftware tracks the iPad's movement,making it possible to see the heart fromdifferent angles. It isn't yet something t hatwould be useful on a factory floor, butseveral companies, including the defensecontractor Raytheon, are trying it out.

Mitsubishi s testingwhether techniciansbenefit from a 3-D view ofan air conditioner's parts .

Raytheon has used a 3-D model made

by Daqri to show progress on a cylindricalsignal-jamming device that will fit on th ewings of Navy fighter planes. Modelingthe device with augmented reality allowsviewers to walk around it pop open doors,explore the insides, and highlight varioussubsystems.

Augmented reality might also makethings easier for workers who are awayfrom the office or the factory. MitsubishiElectric is using software from augmented-

This isn't Fitbit forGranny, Satish Movva, CEO of CarePredict. whichsells a band tor sen iors that tracks not just theiractivity levels but also their position,

reality software company Metaio onEpson's Moverio smart glasses to testwhether service technicians benefit froma three-dimensional overlay that identi-fies the components of the company's mostpopular residential air conditioner.

Tobias Hollerer, a professor at the Uni-versity of California, San ta Barbara, whostudies augmented reality, says gettingpeople to accept the technology dependson factors that may not have improved asmuch as display and tracking technologyhavenamely, techniques for controllingthe system, be it with gestures, voice, orsometh ing else entirely.

Obviously there's a lag in deploy-ing these technologies from when they

became possible to when they becamerobust enough to actually be deployed inwork flows, he says. But I think ther e isenough of a benefit in augmented realityto make tha t leap.

Already, the technology is movinginto the industry Caudell was hoping toaugment back in the '90s. Some aircraftworkers are using the Moverio glasses tosimplify the process of mou nting com po-nents vdtbin airplane engines.

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