Technology solutions available on the market today truly have the capability to empower you and your organization; especially during times like these where communication and collaboration are vital to your success.

Today, a high-performance workforce requires expensive training programs, equipment maintenance, travel budgets, and support systems. Yet, many are facing problems due to limited travel, social distancing, and enforced remote working policies.

Vuforia Chalk creates a new way to tackle these business requirements, and even better yet, we are offering free access to Vuforia Chalk for a limited time to help Manufacturing and Service organizations cope with the COVID-19 Crisis.

Vuforia Chalk Free Access Program

The Vuforia Chalk Free Access Program is available right now through August 31st, 2020. Fill out the form at the top of our Vuforia Chalk webpage.

Once you’ve filled out the form you’ll be auto-enrolled in our Vuforia Chalk Quick Start Program – a free consultative guide to get you started with the software on the right foot.

Get Vuforia Chalk for free

What is Vuforia Chalk?

Vuforia Chalk is an easy-to-use, powerful remote assistance support application that allows your workforce to collaborate in real-time, from anywhere. This application combines real-time video with advanced AR technology to create a simple and intuitive user-experience that anybody can use.

Why Vuforia Chalk?

The Vuforia chalk app is a great entry point for Augmented reality, especially when it comes to existing and long-standing workforces.

Why? Because it is simple and intuitive to use. This application requires a minimal amount of training, and doesn’t involve the use of specialized equipment, like many other Augmented Reality applications on the market today.

With Vuforia Chalk users are able to use mobile devices they already own today, meaning your most experienced minds are accessible anytime, anywhere.

How Vuforia Chalk enhances remote collaboration

Vuforia Chalk lets your employees share a live view of their workspace with an expert, or co-worker, allowing your workforce to easily connect for support or training.

With Chalk, simple instructions can help your team solve complex problems quickly and effectively while reducing costs and increasing technician efficiency.

Vuforia Chalk Webinar Replay

The AR application also allows both users with the ability to draw on the screen directly from their mobile device to provide instructions as if they were right there face-to-face.

With Vuforia augmented reality, your annotations stick exactly where they are drawn, even when you move around as you work. In fact, you can even pause the live view to draw easy to follow, multi-step instructions.

Chalk is ideal for service and training, as well as other forms of collaboration too.

It makes it easy for your team to work together or give feedback from almost any place in the world – saving you time and money.

Having your best minds on a job remotely allows your organization to:

  • Solve the problems right the first time
  • Reduce equipment downtime
  • Improve your bottom-line

With Chalk’s simple learning curve, organizations are now able to implement an AR strategy into their business quickly and effectively, allowing even the aging workforce to be able to learn to use the tool efficiently.

Start using Vuforia Chalk for Free

Get enrolled in PTC’s Vuforia Chalk Free Access Program by filling out the form on our Vuforia Chalk webpage – which will auto-enroll you in our Vuforia Chalk Quick Start Program. Here’s the guide for reference to see what to expect.

In light of recent developments – Our top priority is to protect the safety and health of our employees, customers and community and to help prevent the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

We are continuing business as we have for the last 24 years to serve our customer needs while also taking all the necessary precautions to keep our employees and customers safe.

However, we are minimizing larger gatherings, such as conferences, trade shows, workshops, and on-site meetings and training. We are offering customers the option of live video conferences and webcasts conducted online in a safe virtual space – we have found this to be very effective in most circumstances.

We want to help you overcome remote challenges

Productivity improvement, process optimization, and maximum return on investment have become the watchwords of industrial production worldwide, especially at a time like today.

Our organization has grown over the years by helping companies leverage remote access and monitoring connectivity solutions. In fact, almost everything we do helps enable remote access to data.

We invite you to explore options that may help your team overcome any remote challenges you may be experiencing. As we know it is critical to continue conducting business as usual during this time.

Vuforia Chalk: Quickly solve technical challenges via remote transactional AR app

Vuforia Instruct: Create powerful step-by-step instructions

Vuforia Studio: Create AR experiences to enhance sales efforts with virtual product demonstrations

EAC Productivity Apps: Avoid disrupting engineers with role-based access to product data

Design & Engineering Services: Overcome backlog of engineering projects

Remote Software Training: Help your team stay sharp during this transition with PTC certified training courses. We deliver everything from Windchill Administrator courses to training classes for specific PTC Creo tools and functionality.

Although our variety of solutions expands much wider than what we have highlighted in this article, we would love to help you navigate affordable solutions that could easily integrate with your business environment and help you work better remotely.  

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us directly. We appreciate your ongoing support and look forward to assisting you in anyway we possibly can. 

Warmest Regards,

The EAC Product Development Solutions Team

AR and IoT are beginning to transform the way organizations are interacting in their industrial environments.

With the ability to integrate technology everywhere, products, processes, and people now have the ability to be connected like never before, allowing enterprises to drive product and service differentiation and promote operational effectiveness, workforce productivity, and unmatched quality.

Some might refer to this concept as the idea of digital transformation…but what does that really even mean? This article breaks it all down for you.

Digital Transformation with IoT and AR.

Today, innovative Augmented Reality tools have the ability to connect with powerful IoT data while working seamlessly in a service and training environment. With a mobile device or AR headset, technicians can easily learn to work in tandem drastically reducing training time and downtime simultaneously.

To better understand a concept of ‘digital transformation’, I’ll walk you through a real-life scenario involving one of our customers.

For this specific customer, the combination of AR and IoT has drastically improved the efficiency of their operations.  

With the use of an AR application, our customer is able to provide their off-site workers with a digital model of one of their products immediately.  

The Top Proven Industrial AR Solutions on the Market

Placed alongside the digital model of their product, they are also able to see real-time data from the physical product that is off-site or working in the field.

This is possible because their AR experience also leverages a connection with their IoT platform, known as ThingWorx.

Their ThingWorx IoT platform connects to their disparate data systems, such as their ERP and CRM systems. It also connects to their PLM software, which provides them with the ability to pull a configuration from their PLM software, known as Windchill. This allows them to showcase unique product information, such as the VIN, model, customer and purchase information.

By having this data available and in context, remote technicians are better informed and empowered to make the best decisions possible.

As technicians launch their AR experience, they are able to see step by step instructions on how to repair or service the specific product.

They are also able to see warnings and replay steps that are integrated into the AR experience so they can be assured they are working in a safe environment without missing any procedures.

With the additional use of Vuforia Chalk, a remote video assistance app, employees are also able to instantly access remote subject matter experts or SMEs who can answer questions related to the experience and interact with the experience directly by drawing on the screen.

Vuforia Chalk Webinar Replay

 

Finally, with time tracked throughout the experience, this service data can then be sent back to their ThingWorx IoT platform to assess performance, training, and to improve the CAD design leader.

By combining the use of AR and IoT, training and servicing is no longer hindered by traditional learning for our customer. Instead, their technicians are able learn from an experience that is enriched with data and context.

By leveraging ThingWorx, our customer is able to merge the digital and physical worlds of service providing their organization with an efficient and productive work environment.

This is the idea of digital transformation.

Curious how digital transformation might apply to your organization? We would love to have a conversation. Click the banner below to learn more.

Learn About Easy IoT and AR Solutions That Can Digitally Transform Your Business

Evaluating potential Augmented Reality (AR) solutions for manufacturing can quickly become overwhelming when you consider testing out product trials and going over pricing details.

A new IDC Report, How AR Drives Real-World Gains in Service, Training, Sales & Marketing, and Manufacturing, states, “AR technology is here and now, and companies of all shapes and sizes are utilizing it to change the way work gets done and to drive better outcomes.”

This article talks about the top proven industrial Augmented Reality Solutions and exactly what they can do for your industry.

The most widely used platform for AR development: Vuforia Engine

Today, over half a million developers have chosen the advanced performance and cross-platform reach of Vuforia Engine, making it the most widely used platform for AR development on the planet.

Why is this considered to be the most flexible tool for AR development? Because it delivers robust and precise AR experiences in a variety of environments. This AR Engine is a powerful cross-platform software enabling branded AR experiences for both new and existing applications to be deployed in leading app stores.

It lets developers freely build branded AR experiences for new or existing applications and supports AR devices such as phones, tablets, headsets, and smart glasses across leading platforms to reach the largest audience.

By using Vuforia Engine, developers can easily add advanced computer vision functionality to Android, iOS, and UWP apps, to create AR experiences that realistically interact with objects and the environment.

The Vuforia Engine Library also contains technical documentation to help developers be successful as they create AR applications.

With Vuforia Engine, AR developers can harness best-in-class computer vision capabilities, to detect and launch a variety of target types. This AR engine also is equipped with broad support for leading modeling platforms and user applications.

Features and capabilities of Vuforia Engine

Vuforia Engine comes with many distinguishing features and capabilities. These include:

  • Robust computer vision that allows experiences from the widest range of target types including objects, models, images, surfaces, multi-targets, cylinders, and VuMarks.
  • Cross-platform development that supports Android and iOS ARkits
  • Vuforia Fusion enables easy optimization of AR experiences across a range of devices
  • Seamless integration with industry-leading complementary design and modelling applications
  • Broad community of developers with deep Vuforia Engine experience

 Discover all of the unique features of Vuforia Engine here.

What are Vuforia Engine applications used for?

Vuforia Engine AR applications are best used for:

  • High-end production of custom AR applications
  • Developing customer facing applications that require superior product values
  • Experiences that require sophisticated and flexible target recognition
  • Elevating brands with complementary apps
  • Integration with industry-leading design and modeling application

The best AR Authoring Solution: Vuforia Studio

Vuforia Studio is an Augmented reality authoring solution that lets you quickly build scalable AR experiences. Vuforia Studio is an augmented reality authoring solution that helps you rapidly build AR experiences.

Vuforia Studio enables efficient, cost-effective authoring of industrial AR without the need for in-depth programming or skilled programmers.

This AR solution helps designers, engineers, and technical publication end users author and publish scalable AR experiences that transform manufacturing, service, and training processes.

You can now experience features from the tool that have a robust and visual interface – easy for design file importing and ubiquitous viewer support.

How does Vuforia Studio work?

Vuforia Studio is a drag-and-drop authoring environment that enables industrial content creators to use existing 3D CAD and animated sequences.

This AR authoring tool leverages real-time IoT and business systems data and allows users to access and view experiences from a single app.

Its simple, easy-to-use drag and drop interface allows content creators with no prior coding knowledge to get up and running quickly.

Vuforia Studio features and capabilities

Distinguishing AR features and capabilities that come with Vuforia Studio include:

  • Visual authoring environment
  • Easily import CAD and animated sequences
  • Native support for IoT data
  • Scales to support global AR deployments
  • Certified support for hosting and on-premise deployments
  • Powerful spatial and model tracking
  • Out-of-the box support for mobile and head worn devices, including Microsoft HoloLens and HoloLens 2

What are Vuforia Studio applications used for?

Vuforia Studio is best used for:

  • 3D digital content overlaid on real-world equipment to provide contextual knowledge
  • Rapid development of immersive training and instruction content
  • Reusing existing CAD models and sequences to create step-by-step work instructions
  • Visualizing real-time IoT data to provide operating conditions and equipment performance
  • Full-scale visualizations that enable walking around and seeing products
  • Accurate identification of spare parts
  • Scaling across products, configurations, devices, and geographies.

The Best AR Remote Assistance Software: Vuforia Chalk

Vuforia Chalk is a powerful AR remote assistance and guidance application that helps experts and technicians solve problems more effectively.

You can think of it as an easy to deploy, mobile-based guidance and collaboration AR tool.

Vuforia Chalk enables pairs of mobile device users to collaborate around a shared view of objects and environments, with smart 3D annotation capabilities.

This allows senior experts to virtually share knowledge with junior colleagues and removes geographical barriers to collaboration. Picture this – if you’re a service technician in Nebraska, you can be helping someone located in Oklahoma just with the power of your fingers on your mobile device using the Vuforia Chalk app.

Vuforia Chalk combines advanced augmented reality with real-time communications to connect a field technician with an expert so that the expert can see and discuss the situation in the field.

With this powerful AR remote assistance application, a technician or an expert can draw digital annotations (using one’s finger on the screen) that accurately anchor to physical objects, allowing the expert to guide the technician through the process, step-by-step.

It allows experts and technicians to accurately markup live views, highlight details, and guide multi-step solutions.

Essentially, this AR tool empowers field technicians with instant “over the shoulder” field support to finish every jobs and tasks without delay.

The software helps organizations increase service quality while reducing repeat maintenance or repair visits – providing frontline workers with access to service information in a completely modern way.

Vuforia Chalk makes it easy to guide service and troubleshoot situations that may not be covered in training or service manuals.

Vuforia Chalk features and capabilities

Vuforia Chalk is paired with many distinguishing features and capacities that include:

  • Zero development requirements- this AR tool can be provisioned in minutes and used immediately
  • Connection links – Chalk users can connect with mobile devices using a video link. This allows the users to share views of the equipment or environment. Each user can draw on their screen to annotate the shared view.
  • Advanced annotation that can be locked onto targets- this allows users to move around objects and annotations with 3D spatial recognition.
  • Chalk views can be paused- this allows user to easily draw multi-step instructions over objects.

What are Vuforia Chalk applications used for?

Vuforia Chalk makes it easy for remote experts to provide remote over-the-sholder guidance to speed troubleshooting. Using either a mobile device or tablet, remote experts can connect to technicians and annotate on their shared view.

Vuforia Chalk is best used for:

  • Enabling remote, virtual assistance between technicians and experts
  • Collaboration between physically dispersed colleagues and teams
  • Building lightweight AR pilots that prove value fast without development resources

Transform work instructions with Vuforia Expert Capture

Vuforia Expert Capture is the fastest and easiest way to create step-by-step instructions that help frontline workers get their job done accurately and efficiently.

Vuforia Expert Capture gives content creators and subject matter experts step-by-step instructions with rich media content, text, and audio to improve workforce productivity, quality, safety, and compliance.

It is an out-of-the-box AR solution that features drag and drop AR content creation for industrial enterprises looking to rapidly document expert knowledge and then easily scale that knowledge to new or redeployed workers as hands-on training or task guidance.

This tool provides an easy way for experts in your organization to record video procedures and instructions to others using augmented and assisted reality.

Features of Vuforia Expert Capture

There are many distinguishing features and capabilities of Vuforia Expert Capture some of which include:

  • The ability to rapidly author AR instructions without CAD data, pre-existing assets or development efforts.
  • Easy to use templates that simplify and accelerate creating and publishing AR content
  • Content editing and publishing is in a secure, web-based environment
  • The ability to automatically deliver optimized content across a variety of supported devices.

What are Vuforia Expert Capture applications used for?

Vuforia Expert Capture is best used for:

  • Capturing procedures and tasks from senior experts
  • Servicing and working with factory floor machines that lack relevant CAD data, or instances where documentation is unavailable or of poor quality
  • Documenting multi-step procedures that take place in multiple locations
  • Ensuring compliance through documentation of standard operating procedures (SOPs)

Why use Vuforia products?

Vuforia makes AR content easy to create and deliver widely to the enterprise to help improve efficiencies, reduce downtime, and enable safer and more productive workers.

With the industrial Vuforia AR platform, organizations can build custom experiences from the ground up, or rapidly create and scale enterprise-ready industrial AR experiences without writing any code using Vuforia Studio.

Whether the requirement is a custom solution or the ability to deliver rapidly, Vuforia delivers powerful, game changing industrial AR technology.

Looking to to get started with AR? Contact us.

If you…

  • Need help evaluating potential manufacturing AR solutions, product trials and pricing details
  • Are ready to learn how to transform your operational efficiencies, output, and quality with AR

… then get in touch with a Vuforia AR Specialist to answer questions and schedule your demonstration. Our AR experts can help you take the next step in your journey.