AR

Will immersive technology win, place, or show at the track?

A Finnish-based technology firm called Immersal has developed an augmented reality (AR) system compatible with “horse racing tracks anywhere,” according to the company. Revealed at GITEX in Dubai, the app can be accessed via a mobile device or AR headset.

The technology works by layering virtual content over your real-world environment, thereby offering a more interactive and informative racing experience. This includes everything from real-time race statistics and 3D entertainment to important information regarding individual horses and races. The app can even help visitors locate their individual seats.

An image provided by the company shows the system being used to keep track of specific horses mid-race.

“Combining the low latency and high throughput of 5G with our Visual Positioning solution, we can deliver real-time insights to the spectators in high quality,” said Anttoni Vesterinen, CEO of Immersal, in an official release.

“By providing statistics on the horses and the individual races as well as entertainment like 3D animations, the race organizer can offer an enhanced experience simultaneously to thousands of viewers. This is something unseen at the race tracks before.”

The Immersal app launched this past June on iOS and Android devices. Users can scan their physical space and anchor digital content such as photos and videos to specific locations throughout the real world. In addition to horse racing tracks, this same technology can be used at live sports events, theme parks, shopping malls, airports, and other public loctions.

For more information about Immersal visit here.

Remembering: The AR Experience is available now to Disney+ subscribers.

This past Thursday was Disney Plus Day, an annual event designed to promote new films and television series coming to popular streaming services. This year’s celebration featured everything from a sneak peek at Andor, the latest series in the Star Wars franchise, to the surprise premiere of BTS: Permission to Dance On Stage – LA, a feature-length documentary featuring South Korean boy band BTS.

There was also the reveal of Remembering, an AR-powered short film starring and produced by Oscar-winner and Marvel superhero Brie Larson. Directed and written by filmmaker Elijah Allan-Blitz, the eight-minute story follows a struggling writer, played by Larson, as she teams up with her inner child to “recover” her lost idea, which exists as a sort of abstract cloud of light.

In order to access the experience, users can download a dedicated companion app on their iOS device and scan a special QR code on their TV to bring “The World of Imagination,” a whimsical fantasy world where the character’s inner-child resides, to life in the real world.

“Where do ideas come from? And where do they go when they’re forgotten? These central questions are brought to life in “Remembering”, an original short film by Emmy-winning director Elijah Allan-Blitz, starring Academy Award winner Brie Larson,” said Disney. 

“With a first-of-its-kind companion Augmented Reality app, where the AR experience is triggered by the film’s moving image, select Disney+ subscribers in the U.S. can interact with the story by scanning the TV to extend The World of Imagination into their living room.”

Remembering: The AR Experience is available now to Disney+ subscribers. In order to access the aforementioned AR content, you’ll need to download the free companion app on a compatible iOS device.

For more information visit here.

Image Credit: Disney+

The Microsoft HoloLens 2 could make mining safer.

Mining technology and solutions provider National Speleological Society (NSS) Canada has partnered with Cambrian R&D Centre for Smart Mining to develop an augmented reality (AR) helmet that allows miners to plant explosives safely and more efficiently while operating in underground shafts.

A research division working out of Cambria is developing a special bracket that lets them mount a Microsoft HoloLens 2 headset directly to a miner’s hardhat, allowing them instantaneous access to the Miner Operated Survey System (MOSS).

This is a system used by miners to conduct high explosive blasts more efficiently by automatically locating the optimal drill holes on a mine face. This not only reduces the time required to set up blasts but the chance of overbreak by 10-15% as well. According to the Cambria research team, when combined with the Microsoft HoloLens 2, efficiency improves even further.

AR technology allows miners to access vital drill information and other important updates in real time. The HoloLens 2 displays digital information over the wearer’s real-world environment. They can even use specific hand gestures to interact with virtual elements without the need for an external controller. This same information can also be sent to the surface, allowing seamless video and audio communications between miners and those working above ground.

This AR system can also be used to improve the safety of workers. Normally, miners would mark drill holes using spray paint, which meant operating dangerously close to the mine face. Using the HoloLens 2, workers can measure where they should drill from a safe distance. What used to take an hour can now be done in 10 minutes and with significantly less risk of injury.

“In the underground mining environment, the face is most often the most dangerous place to be, because it is normally unbolted and unscreened until the very end of the workflow,” said Matthew Brown, NSS Canada’s General Manager during an August product launch. “Because of that, there’s a higher chance of rockburst and other accidents by being susceptible to falling rock or any other kind of movement.”

“So by developing this augmented reality technology, we’re able to bring the miner back away from the face to roughly (20 feet) and this allows the miners to be more efficient and safer, while still completing that workflow,” he added.

Image Credit: NSS Canada

The IVAS system offers 360-degree situational awareness on the battlefield.

Last month the United States Army conducted a two-day demonstration of its Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) being used in tandem with its Stryker armored vehicles, offering everyone from the drivers to the passengers 360-degree situational awareness on the battlefield.

Powered by Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 mixed reality headset, the IVAS system is designed to improve a soldier’s situational awareness by displaying key information such as the locations of enemy and friendly forces as well as GPS directions over the real-world environment.

Cameras mounted on the outside of the Stryker Armored Vehicle connect to each soldier’s HoloLens 2 headsets, offering passengers a full understanding of their environment while remaining safely inside the vehicle.

“The major new technologies we’re experimenting with today are the Tactical Scalable MANET waveform, which is bringing data down to the forward tactical edge to the dismounted Soldiers and to the vehicles, and connecting those systems together so that everybody has awareness of where the others are,” said David Morris, Ph.D. and lead network engineer for MITRE Corporation’s Army Platforms Division in an official release.

“You can send messages, lay down graphic overlays, mission data, et cetera, so that you’ve got better capability that previously was only available up at the command post.”

During the event, a platoon task force accompanied by five Stryker armored vehicles conducted a simulated urban raid mission that involved the transportation of infantry soldiers. Normally, an operation of this scale would require a company-sized force. Thanks to the IVAS system, however, smaller groups can perform more complex operations without skipping a beat.

“The other piece we’re adding is 360-degree situational awareness,” added Morris. “We’ve added a variety of cameras to supplement the existing vehicle cameras. So instead of just having the gun camera and the relatively small forward and reverse cameras, now we’ve got high-end cameras all the way around the vehicle with both day and night vision.”

“The Soldiers wearing the new IVAS technology are able to use those cameras and access them while they’re en route to mission. Instead of staring at a blank steel wall, they can keep up with what’s going on around the vehicle. They can also switch to a tactical map mode so they can see what’s going on around their broader mission area.”

For more information on the IVAS system and its use with Stryker armored vehicles visit here.

Image Credit: U.S. Army photo by Spc. Chandler Coats, 5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment