Nreal Light Partners with Qualcomm and Deutsche Telekom for First B2B Application for Remote AR Maintenance
Augmented reality manufacturer Nreal’s products have so far been aimed at the consumer market but that is about to change. During the Snapdragon Tech Summit held in Maui, Deutsche Telekom showcased a preview of a prototype field service app which is the first B2B application for remote AR assistance.
Christened AR FieldAdvisor, the application was developed in cooperation with Nreal, Qualcomm Technologies and 6D.ai. The AR FieldAdvisor is a spatial computing system for Nreal glasses that are connected to a Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platform. The application integrates the spatial mapping technology developed by 6D.ai.
The app will enable Nreal Light users to annotate objects that are within their field of view and then stream the images to remote experts. The remote experts are also able to add their diagrams or virtual notes to the scenes and share this data with the remote technician in real time.
The new remote AR assistance app will leverage Deutsche Telekom’s 5G connectivity to connect the remote experts with the field service technicians. The augmented reality experience will be run by the Snapdragon 835 platform for the smartphone-tethered augmented reality wearables.
AR FieldAdvisor makes it possible for experts and technicians to communicate hands-free while working remotely in the field. The technicians wear the Nreal Light glasses and then plug them to a Snapdragon 5G smartphone. Once they wear the glasses, they are able to see a spatial computing interface which enables them to call an expert. The expert can subsequently answer their calls from the desktop app. The expert can view videos from the technicians who are based remotely in the field through a window by using a camera that is positioned on the Nreal Light glasses. The spatial mapping function from 6D.ai maps the objects viewed by the technicians in detail.
With this collaboration, the Nreal Light glasses may be the first to bring together advanced augmented reality technology with the form factor of the Nreal sunglasses and at very affordable pricing.
The demonstration also provided a glimpse into how the hitherto consumer-focused Nreal Light glasses might be applied in enterprise use-cases.
Remote assistance apps are a common use-case for enterprise augmented reality but it is breaking new ground with Nreal Light glasses which have so far been positioned as consumer-grade AR smartglasses. While there have been novel consumer use-cases for AR, the most robust growth and innovation is happening in the enterprise sector where demand for AR has now outpaced that of the consumer market.
Nreal is still a lower-tier augmented reality hardware compared to its competitors. The developer version of Nreal Light, which includes a hand-held controller and tethered computer pack, can be pre-ordered at just a fraction of the cost of the enterprise-grade Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Magic Leap One. However, in spite of its cost, the Nreal Light is still an impressive piece of hardware and might see some traction with enterprise customers looking for a more affordable AR hardware solution. Apart from HD resolution, the glasses also have a 52-degree field of view and spatial motion detection.
It also weighs just 88 grams making it a relatively lightweight piece of AR hardware that is easily deployable to critical fieldwork applications. Nreal has also released a concept image of a modified Nreal Light for use in industrial settings seen below:-
