Engineering news
Six budding small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been awarded up to £35,000 each to solve commercial problems using virtual and augmented reality.
Neurodigital Technologies, Reflex Arc, Soluis Group, Mbryonic, Arc Realities and Future Visual were all selected by a panel of judges at a recent competitive pitch event as winners of IC tomorrow’s Virtual and Augmented Reality Innovation contest.
As well as receiving funding from Innovate UK, each of the companies will work in partnership with leading industry and research bodies including Crossrail, John Lewis, Pearson plc, Columbia Records, Queen Mary University of London, Enteric HTC and Royal London Hospital, and King’s College London. The winning entrepreneurs will retain 100% of their IP.
Forecast to hit $150bn revenue by 2020, the AR/VR market is one of the most talked-about sectors in technology. With companies such as Facebook, Google and Samsung all investing in this area, the potential for it to radically change industries such as retail, education and healthcare has never been greater.
Matt Sansam, Programme Manager for IC tomorrow, said: “Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are two of the most eagerly anticipated technologies in the world at the moment. This contest looked for applications outside of the games sector, where there is already a strong momentum, and the response from the UK’s entrepreneur community has been fantastic. Many of these winners are pioneers in their field, bringing together the physical, digital and virtual in completely new ways to tackle real world challenges.
“Innovate UK is committed to building relationships between the biggest industry players and talented entrepreneurs. We look forward to supporting these exciting businesses in their trial partnerships.”
Included in the winners are In-Site by Soluis Group, which was awarded £35,000 for its augmented reality goggles that effectively help construction workers see through walls.
The company is bringing functional augmented reality to the construction sector to deliver improvements in efficiency and safety. In-Site pulls information about part of a structure from the cloud, overlays it on workers’ visors and enables them to transmit further data about the object back to the cloud.
The technology is similar to Airbus' 'connected' glasses tool launched earlier on this year which aims to save time and enable precise positioning on the A330 airliner final assembly line.
Similar in appearance to Google glass, the tool is worn by final assembly line technicians to enable precise positioning – down to the millimetre – during the cabin installation marking process, when operators designate the exact location where seats and cabin furnishings should be affixed inside the aircraft.