Gaining Impact with Mixed Reality in Industry – A Sustainable Approach

Abstract

Mixed reality (augmented and virtual reality) technology continues to find its way into the industry. Nevertheless, prototypes and island solutions are developed in companies, which are not embedded in the corporate strategy. This paper presents a systematic approach for finding and developing use cases accompanied by a strategic implementation and evaluation process to integrate mixed reality in the industry. Sustainability aspects like energy and resource efficiency, possible reduction of the ecological footprint, and sustainable solutions for lasting and vision-based use in companies are considered. Within several use cases with 20 industry partners in the following areas are developed: 1) novel forms of space-independent collaboration (e.g., collaborative work by integrating real-time 3D depth information of the real environment and visualization of and interaction with real-time production data) and 2) XR-supported training and learning methods (e.g., parameterizable and adaptive training scenarios, roll-out of training content for several participants and integration of gamification mechanisms). Additionally, the methodology for a sustainability assessment, technology acceptance, and a multi-criteria evaluation are shown, and first results are discussed.