While the narrator voice harkens back to old 50s ‘Technologies of the Future’ videos, the actual content IS actually from the future. As much as I’d love to have this technology in my Toyota plant, I just can’t see making the ‘how-to’ videos for simple tasks as they suggest. This kind of augmented efficiency improvement activity is only suited for highly complex tasks that are performed regularly by amateurs.
So I think the Maker culture would find better use of the technology when it actually becomes available to the masses. Or it could work as a maintenance guide for short-run products that don’t have a large repair station base. This summer I had to replace a pulley belt on a 70 inch zero-turn mower and the explanation sheet left a lot of steps out. It took four neighbors to figure it out.
Here’s the description from VVT (Finland):
Customer specific and individualised products, small batch sizes, as well as increasing product complexity set higher demands for assembly work. Augmented Assembly is a research project at VTT, where AR technology is applied to increase assembly efficiency. In augmenting assembly work, the assembly worker is guided by virtual objects of components and assembly tools, and visual assembly instructions. The worker sees the augmented view through light weight head mounted devices (e.g. data glasses),and sensors provide feedback from the performed operations.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: augmented reality, VVT |
Games Alfresco 
Good stuff.
Once again though, I really think an http://www.instructables.com/ like database would be fantastic in AR.
A rather huge user-submitted library of how to do tasks would have profound impact an individuals capabilities.
And for things that need real life feedback vark.com like systems of finding someone to help you out could be used.
You then, effectively, become a pair of surrogate arms.
“As much as I’d love to have this technology in my Toyota plant, I just can’t see making the ‘how-to’ videos for simple tasks as they suggest.”
The idea is not just to produce ‘how-to’ videos. The worker is able to see the instructions interactively on her own desktop.
The project has also developed an authoring system for these interactive instructions with a coupling to the PDM/PLM systems.
For more information, see:
http://www.vtt.fi/proj/augasse/?lang=en
My favorite running items are my lululemon run:inspire tights! I do love my Headsweats hat but I wear it for rowing, not running! So Id happily take another one to be my running hat.