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Ask HN: Anyone using augmented reality, VR, glasses, helmets etc. in industry?

81 points NewUser76312 | 2 comments | 25 Jun 25 15:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.003s | source

Since Google Glass made its debut in 2012, there's been a fair amount of hype around augmented reality and related tech coming into its own in industry, presumably enhancing worker productivity and capabilities.

But I've heard and seen so little use in any industries. I would have thought at a minimum that having access to hands-free information retrieval (e.g. blueprints, instructions, notes, etc), video chat and calls for point-of-view sharing, etc would be quite useful for a number of industries. There do seem to be interesting pilot trials involving Hololens in US defense (IVAS) as well as healthcare telemonitoring in Serbia.

Do you know of any relevant examples or use cases, or are you a user yourself? What do you think are the hurdles - actual usefulness, display quality, cost, something else?

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isk517 ◴[25 Jun 25 17:28 UTC] No.44379796[source]▶
Yes, the company I work for has started using Hololens 2. We have a program that can overlay the 3D models from our CAD program onto the physical steel assemblies for QC. When it works, it works well and enables our quality checkers to perform checks faster and more accurately than using tape measures while going back and forth looking at a 2D drawing printed on 11 x 17 paper.

The biggest hurdles is that none of the large companies think there is enough profit to be made from AR. The Hololens 2 is the only headset on the market both capable of running the program required while also being safe to use in a active shop enviroment (VR with passthrough is not suitable). Unfortunately the Hololens 2 is almost 6 years old as is being stretched to the absolute limits of its hardware capabilities. The technology is good but feels like it is only 90% of the way to where it needs to be. Even a simple revision with double the RAM and faster more power efficient processor would alleviate many of the issues we've experienced.

Ultimately from what I've seen, AR is about making the human user better at their job and there are tons of industries where it could have many applications, but tech companies don't actually want to make things that could be directly useful to people that work with their hands, so instead we will just continue to toss more money at AI hoping to make ourselves obsolete.

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softfalcon ◴[25 Jun 25 17:54 UTC] No.44380041[source]▶
Very interesting, and I agree with your assessment of the difficulties using the aging HoloLens.

I am curious, what size of clients are you working with and how many contracts has it realistically turned into?

I also believe proper AR hardware/software can revolutionize the QA and inspections industry.

What I am noticing is a chicken/egg problem where companies want proof it works, while also reluctant to put their money where their mouth is and invest in the R&D. Which then leads to Microsoft and similar refusing to fully invest in new AR tech.

As such, it all stays mostly in experimental and drawing board land, never quite fully reaching the market.

Thoughts?

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1. isk517 ◴[25 Jun 25 19:23 UTC] No.44380981[source]▶
We work with all of the large general contractors in the steel construction industry. Right now, it's turned into one contract, but we are the second company the client has employed since the first company they hired failed to produce a single assembly that met their requirements. The client was the one that originally was using this tech since they wanted a way to do their own QC after the first experience, and we decided it was worth while pursuing ourselves since successfully pulling this project off while be a HUGE boost to our reputation. The construction industry is all about your portfolio of past projects.

QA is the big sales point of the software we are using, but there are many other potential applications for the same product. It should be possible to overlay the model on the main assembly prefab then use that to quickly mark where holes should be drilled and additional pieces attached. The other potential application that is being explored is using the holographic overlays to construct things out of the usual order, instead of building part 1 then starting part 2 since it needs to be built to conform to the first part you can instead build around the hologram so that your not relying on the previously built parts to ensure your angles are correct.

I agree about the chicken/egg problem. Its an emerging technology where the payoff might be a decade away, customers need software that will actually benefit them, developers need reliable hardware capable of running software that has practical uses, and hardware companies want to know there is a customer base. The issue is AR falls under the category of product that the customer does not know they actually want, so the only way it is going to be developed is if one of the hardware manufactures takes a leap of faith and makes the long term investment. Sadly, I feel like AR is a million dollar idea with practical uses that has to contend with a business climate where you can make billions making some doodad that collects private data then displays ads to the masses.

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2. isk517 ◴[25 Jun 25 19:50 UTC] No.44381222[source]▶
An additional layer of insight to the chicken/egg problem: the developer of the software we are using was founded by someone in the construction industry, not software. I think one of the issue with the adoption of AR is that there is currently a disconnect between the people who have a problem and the people who could produce a solution. Compared to 'a solution in search of a problem', AR seems to be 'a solution that is failing to introduce itself to the problems it can solve'