Today was light on learning as today was volunteer day, and that was fine. I got to scan people’s badges. They used RFID badges using NFC. Not sure what that means? Your not alone, had to look it up myself. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication Basically the little plastic ID badges each attendee had tethered around their necks has a little RFID tag inside, so that when I touched the back of the NFC tech I had in my hand with the badge a little bit of data transferred from the tag to the hand held device. This is not new technology, but it get me thinking…why are we doing this? I guess those running the show can review live data on who and how many attendees are in the room. It also automatically sent an email to the attendee to fill out a survey. (Although I heard the link in the email did not work to launch the speaker survey) It was a bit awkward touching my hand held to people badges, even more when the went hands free and I had to either grab their badge or just touch the hand held to their mid torso, “tag me!” they would say with a grin. Maybe in the future AR conference they with simple use RFID gates and when attendees walk through the door they get scanned (both when they arrive and leave). I also observed the classes that there were a few classes that could have been in a room twice the size. But, I guess that is what you get when attendees don’t sign up for classes and can easily roam from one session to another. Three really popular classes that had large crowds at the door were on eyewear technology, 3D Mapping the World, and Internet of Things and AR – all in the same tiny room. I will wait to review those when the videos are published.
I did get a session in the morning, How to Choose Enterprise Use Cases for AR. It was interesting to hear to over arching issues that face real enterprise implementation. I heard a reoccurring theme, have a plan and know the end goal. This concept is something I can relate to. Juergen Lumera from Bosch was my favorite speaker of the bunch, mainly because he was entertaining and quotable. He said, “don’t listen to scientists and engineers (like himself) to find use cases” They are not the people who will use this technology, you need to, “get the perspective of technicians and end users” He also stressed to have a test case end solution in mind. Know where you are going, what are you trying to solve? Where are you trying to save effort or money? Know your ROI goal, “otherwise you will never finish and your boss will think you are just playing with cool stuff.”
I liked the example from John Simmins from EPRI on Smart Safety Glasses solutions. In the field they already need eye protection, adding features to support their job as well as functioning another purpose makes for an easier case.
APX shared what they have learned with integration, they are facing the challenge using existing IT Enterprise systems. They suggested designing a clean workflow so as systems change the solution is scalable.
I learned of a new group trying to push AR forward called AREA Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance theAREA.org
And I learned a new word from Jonathan Zufi from SAP when he was talking about OData – CRUD create, read, update, delete.
I am looking forward to the keynote on day 2, panel discussion hosted by Damon Hernedez, and the exhibit floor. I also remembered my boost charger so I can burn up my Twitter feed today. #AWE2015
Check out what sessions you might have missed on YouTube
Carl Callewaert from Unity Unity 3D for AR
Roy Ashok from Qualcomm Vuforia Apps for Toys