What is Wearable Health Technology?

Any portable devices such as smartwatches, body patches, ear wearables, headbands, smart clothes, or smart glasses — are wearable devices.

These devices are devised to track, gather, and monitor users’ health data from step counts and calories burned to heart rate, glucose level, stress, sweat levels, and even oxygen saturation level, aiming to provide continuous and accurate health results to boost patients treatment.

What Was The First Wearable Technology in Healthcare?

The first device being implanted and worn by patients was a pacemaker for people struggling with arrhythmia in 1958. Since then, technological advances lead to the development of smart devices operating as “minicomputers” and enabling long-term and remote monitoring of patients in any place and any time.

Wearable Fitness Trackers

The first mass portable device conquering the market of sport-oriented and health conscious audiences. Fitness trackers were formerly designed to help monitor step counts, calories burned, and heart rate, followed by fitness recommendations.

Smart Health Watches

This device took wristbands that could only count steps to a new level. Today, smartphones are considered a practical medical tool, offering a varied number of functions, including heart rhythms measurements.

Wearable ECG Monitors

Specifically designed healthcare IT solutions for users with heart conditions, these devices can measure electrocardiograms and instantly send the accurate results to the user’s doctor.

Wearable Blood Pressure Monitors

An oscillometric BP smart monitor that can examine blood pressure as well as everyday body activity. This enables the devices to track and examine the correlation between daily activity and blood pressure measurements.

Biosensors

An amazing device improving preventive health care, as a self-adhesive patch, can track and store data continuously and alert about the possible cardiac or respiratory arrests.

Wearable Sweat-Sensors

By examining sweat levels, such devices can alert about possible seizures and send notifications to a person’s device as well as their doctor.

Why Wearable Technology in Healthcare is Important?

Facing the consequences of the 2020 pandemic of COVID-19, medical researchers are working towards boosting remote patient care as never before.

Portable technology enables practitioners to receive relevant and accurate data instantly and take action quicker. The smart devices help with early detection of health problems that, in turn, results in better patient treatment.

Significant Impact of Wearable Technology in Healthcare

The population is aging. This is our reality. Wearables are better at predicting death risks when dealing with older adults — and this is our hope. One of the most common issues older adults have to face regularly is health problems due to falling.

Luckily, portable devices can help examine body activity and offer effective fall prevention suggestions. Detection of heat strokes, mental status monitoring, prevention of sudden arrhythmic death with wearable cardioverter defibrillator — it’s already happening.

All the innovative portable devices provide easier monitoring of risks that can possibly threaten the lives of patients, as with the help of the technology, various parameters can be quickly and flawlessly examined (heart rate, oxygen saturation, body temperature, blood pressure, etc.)

Examples of Healthcare Interoperability Challenges That Can Be Solved with the Wearable Technology

One of the key benefits of portable devices is to ensure continuous patient care instead of an episodic one.

All the data that can be stored and examined via wristbands, headbands, patches, and other smart wear can help overcome many virtual and physical challenges medical care faces daily.

Here are just a few examples of how innovative tech solutions can deal with the most common obstacles. One of the challenges includes patient identification that is undoubtedly crucial when it comes to treatment. In the USA alone, 10 out of 17 medical error deaths occur due to the patient’s inability to identify correctly. However, as suggested by Heartlands Hospital in the UK, this issue can be easily solved if all the patients had Radio Frequency Identification wristbands.

Another vital challenge novice doctors have always faced is the lack of practical knowledge instead of theoretical. Though, with the help of Google Augmented Reality Glass, a student from any part of the world can be present at real operations streamed online and learn from the best doctors.

Finally, portable devices like smart glasses, wristbands, and other tiny devices connected to a huge database will enable effective collaboration between medical institutions. This, in turn, will significantly boost patient care, as doctors will have access to patient’s records at any place and at any time.

Benefits of Wearable Technology in Healthcare

• Significant cost reduction per patient

With the latest technology, patients won’t have to visit doctors as much as before, as lots of diagnoses can be made online, and the data from wearables will be enough.

• Alleviating staff workload

Instant access to patient’s data, the ability to collaborate with patient’s doctors from various institutions, and no need to insert data manually can be possible, all thanks to portable technology.

• Improved diagnosis

A tiny device attached to a person tracking, collecting, and monitoring the results continuously, can provide doctors with more accurate info rather than patients’ guesswork. In turn, this will help to make a better diagnosis.

• Prevention of diseases

Imagine a flu season when tons of citizens are rushing to hospitals, suspecting they have the flu. A portable device connected to a personal device can alert an individual about unwanted body activity and prevent epidemics by sending data to a united city/country database.

• Faster clinical decision making

With smart sensors, any emergency can be detected as soon as it occurred, saving time to save a life.

• Overall boost of patient care

The benefits of portable devices are all aimed at improving patient care. With the abundance of functions emerging daily, the opportunities are endless.

• Keeping patients engaged

Patients can be continuously informed and alerted about their health conditions. This, in turn, will help individuals to monitor their health regularly and motivate them to take action.

The Future of Wearable Technology in Healthcare

A recent study predicted that portable technology global sales would reach approximately $62,82 billion by 2050.

Consumers are believed to be more and more comfortable with wearing devices to track their body activities.

The quickest regions to adapt to changes and employ portable devices’ tech solutions will include North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific region.

Wearable Health Tracking Technology Issues Still to Overcome

Undoubtedly, the major tech companies’ two main issues are data protection and measurement accuracy. Patients are concerned about their personal data being securely collected and stored.

Plus, despite the accuracy of most devices being 80% and higher, it’s still not enough to convince all the people to rely on technology completely.

What Are the Key Wearable Technology Trends in Healthcare?

Needless to say that the aging population is one of the crucial factors influencing the latest tech solutions. While smartwatches were first designed as a fun and futuristic devices, the tech moguls are thinking about entering the health space by offering disease-specific features to detect a problem with the utmost accuracy. For instance, a smartwatch designed by Empatica, Embrace 2, can detect an epileptic seizure by examining the sweat level.

What is more, while fitness trackers were on fleek for quite a long period, their popularity is declining, as smartwatches are booming thanks to making common features like step counts and calories burn more accurate and offer innovative functions like non-invasive glucose monitoring and fall detection.

Eyewear technology continues to pave its way into the latest trends by broadening medical training and assistance horizons, all thanks to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Surprisingly, the competition is getting pretty rough with newcomers entering the field, such as Epson, Magical Leap, and Medical Realities.

A dark horse of wearable health technology is hearables. Formerly designed to enhance hearing, now the ear-worn devices offer a considerably huge number of functions: heart rate monitoring, sleep examination, steps count, calories burn count, and even brain wave analysis – this is all just a tip of the iceberg.

Finally, smart clothing and skin patches are starting to prosper in the field of healthcare. It’s not surprising, as 10% of people will already be wearing smart garments by 2025. It’s the new fashion and the revolutionizing way to boost patient care when constant monitoring is required.

Wearable Technology Health and Fitness: Apps and Devices That Are Already Booming

The portable technology has already weaved itself into people’s lives, changing the way we see health care and keeping fit regularly. Below you’ll find just a few technologies that are currently booming, and their number will only be rising.

1. AVA

Uncannily accurate portable helping to track women’s health, including fertility, pregnancy, weight and sleep monitoring, as well as stress examination. The recent studies confirmed its accuracy of fertility prediction to be 89%.

2. KardioMobile

An electrocardiogram (ECG) designed by AliveCor to track and diagnose heart issues. It can be attached to the back of the iPhone and Android mobile devices to monitor heart activity through chest and finger sensors to the mobile itself. Keeping an eye on heart conditions has become a manageable daily routine.

3. PIP

A lifesaver for the population being under stress all the time. A teeny device is designed to monitor your level of stress and help you calm down when needed. The device is doing so by examining the changes in your electrodermal activity and then sends the signals to your mobile app.

4. Withings Blood Pressure

Checking your heart and examining your blood pressure as accurately as your doctor will do. The secret is that the blood pressure monitor performs three measurements to provide the average and the most accurate results. Plus, the monitor sends the info via Bluetooth to the app on your phone.

5. TempTraq

A revolutionizing digital thermometer. It has a form of a soft and comfortable patch that can be adjusted to the body up to 48 hours to continuously monitor the temperature. What is more, it’s connected to your mobile device to send alerts and notifications. It’s gaining its massive popularity among parents, as it’s easy to measure a child’s temperature without disrupting a kid while manually and stressfully taking it several times.

6. BioScarf

As relevant as never before – the first scarf to protect from pollution, allergy, cold, and flu. This Bioscarf has an air filter incorporated in it. The filter will protect the wearer from the majority of airborne contaminants having a bad effect on their health.

7. Philips SmartSleep

Philips has designed a Headband to boost the quality of deep sleep. It was developed by doctors and researchers to help people struggling with sleep problems. Thanks to the sensors, the headband monitors the body activity during different sleep stages and then sends this info to a mobile app. The app will then show you the metrics and provide suggestions to make your sleep better.

The future is truly exciting — wearable technology in healthcare is just another evidence that IT solutions are shaping our world already to make it a better place to live.

We empower companies and their workforce with cutting-edge transformative solutions and data-driven insights. Are you and your organization ready to shift the mindsets and get the most out of innovations?

Talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business or project can start benefiting from it today!

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These figures are the embodiment of limitless emerging technologies potential. Following all the latest innovations, the majority of businesses have already embraced the inevitability of digital transformation. Having this in mind, ventures of all sizes are keeping an eye on prevalent software development outsourcing trends.

Outsourcing is shaping the global market, revolutionizing the way companies perceive their development, and bringing unrivaled opportunities to seize. That is why we have singled out ten trends in outsourcing software development in the unprecedented times of 2020. So get ready for all the hype your company can benefit from.

Software Development Outsourcing Trends: What to Expect in 2020

• The Rise of Narrowly Specialized Boutique Software Companies 

The opinions may differ: some say they’d prefer dealing with one outsourcing company. Others claim they enjoy the advantages of multiple vendors. Still, the facts show that more and more businesses find themselves in need of narrow specialization companies. The reason behind this trend is the fast-evolving tech area. It is impossible to have an in-house team able to keep up with all the innovation appearing every day and thus possessing all the needed skills. Companies are looking for outsourcing providers skilled to bring the maximum quality, and the necessity to collaborate with more than just one vendor isn’t a problem, as long as the desired results will be achieved. However, if a large outsourcing company offers a full-cycle software development with a diverse team of skilled professionals, it will as well have a severe advantage being a great vendor to create strong transparent relationships.

• Customers Will Crave Enhanced Experience with AI and IoT

Online shopping has long penetrated our daily lives. In addition to that, with the COVID-19 outbreak, it has become the new normal according to Forbes, and even the age category of 65+ are saying they are likely to buy more online than offline. The rising demand for online buying experience causes companies to invest more in enhanced User Experience (UX). Customers are likely to spend 140% more having a positive experience. The solutions with AI and IoT capabilities will enhance e-commerce by offering a more personalized customer journey. AI-Powered Chatbots are already substituting human interactions when providing clients with needed guidance and advice. The recent Gartner report claims that 85% of clients will be ordering items or services with no human contact. 80% of customers prefer companies with personalized client experience to those that don’t offer it. IoT will be one of the means of improving customer satisfaction by providing real-time data, gathering statistics to personalize communication, and detecting problems with equipment.

Image courtesy of Google

• High Demand for Blockchain Services

Global Blockchain spendings are predicted to reach $16 billion annually by 2023. They were thus making it one of the leading IT outsourcing trends. From developing smart contracts to immediate microtransactions – distributed ledger technology has proven to enhance security, transparency, and offer innovative money-raising solutions for startups. Since the demand for knowledgeable and capable blockchain service is increasing, so is the need for well-seasoned specialists. These days there is still a shortage of blockchain professionals. That is why a wide range of industries, from financial institutions to private ventures, are seeking to outsource companies with a well-experienced team of blockchain experts. Facing an increased need for blockchain talent as well as its scarcity, companies are competing to hire the best among equals.

• A Growing Need for Increased Cybersecurity

Data has long become the most valuable resource. It’s no news. However, this is the reason why its protection has never been as crucial as it is today. While cybercrime is rising, more and more companies will be investing their money to become compliant by GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). The demand now is to have all the data well-secured. Especially when governmental institutions become the victims of cyberattacks. Whether it’s an IT company or a small-sized family business with a website, owners will be reached outsourced cybersecurity services to eliminate any security concerns, guard their business data, and meet compliance standards of GDPR.

Source: Deloitte

• Booming Global Cloud Computing Market

Another prediction by many sources, as well as Gartner, reports, says that the demand for cloud computing will only be rising. The forecasts predict global cloud shift spending to be near $1 trillion. With the increasing number of data that needs to be stored, companies will turn to outsource for effective cloud platforms. The need for cloud outsourcing services will come along with the need for security services. Public cloud platforms for data storage are already increasing in their number.

Source: Deloitte

• Fintech, Healthcare and Telecom Industries to Be Significantly Digitized

Trends in outsource come along with trending technologies affecting specific industries. In particular, Fintech, Healthcare, and Telecom will be in high demand for outsourcing services needed for their digital transformation. AI, Blockchain, and Peer-to-Peer transactions will become the new normal in the Fintech industry. At the same time, Healthcare institutions, both public and private, will be seeking outsourcing services in VR aided by AI to broaden the horizons of diagnostics. Not to mention, the impact of the 5G network on the Telecom industry opening the doors to unprecedented opportunities of massive connection to IoT networks.

Source: Deloitte

• Expanding IT Outsourcing Hub in Eastern and Central Europe 

While a few years ago, the demand for outsourcing services was greatly influenced by the need to cut costs, in 2020, companies will keep on focusing on quality rather than lower prices. This will lead to exploring the favorable environment of outsourcing destinations in Eastern and Central Europe rather than China and India. Ukraine, Poland, and Belarus are already becoming the appealing hubs of experienced offshore development teams to cooperate with. The expanding development market in Eastern and Central Europe is caused by high-quality services, well-trained teams, and still moderate prices.

Source: DOU

• Explosive Growth of AR and VR Markets

By 2021, the AR market is believed to increase to $133.78. Smartphones entering the worldwide market, in turn, increase the demand for AR and VR solutions. Shopping experiences are expected to be boosted with AR techniques. The recent launch of Pokemon Go is a vivid example of the interactive character AR will bring. These technologies will continue entering the markets of tourism, e-learning, manufacturing, etc. While the market of AR and VR is still a bit uncertain, companies are looking for outsourcing services to implement interactive elements to boost their sales. Large companies like Mercedes or Apple have already been employing these technologies.

Source

• The Hype Around Robotic Process Automation

Reducing operation costs, improved work coordination, less manual mistakes – these are just a few advantages of RPA technology that is trending. Business automation is the #1 priority in the ever-evolving digital environment. Logistics management, payment processing, the better-personalized experience will all benefit from RPA tech. Virtual assistants and bots are just the tip of the iceberg to share the burden of menial and repetitive actions from humans. That is why IT outsource companies are significantly investing their time in business automation and augmented analytics.

Source

•  An Increasing Interest for Progressive Web Apps

With an increased demand for better user experience, there’s an increasing need for PWA. They are designed to create an application-like experience at websites. The first wave was the unfriendliness from Google to the website with no mobile version. The second wave is the customers themselves who will not welcome a website with a negative UX. That is why businesses will be seeking outsourcing companies to employ PWA and satisfy the rising demands of their clients.

Summary: Why IT Outsourcing Trends Are Rapidly Growing?

These days we’re facing the fast-growing tech environment. Companies who don’t want to fall behind are already investing their time and money into digital transformation. Still, there are several challenges. One of which is the speed of innovation. While even huge companies having well-equipped teams cannot keep up with the pace and are in dire need of outsourcing specialists, companies of smaller size neither can embrace all the digital changes without a supporting outsourcing team.

We didn’t use the words ‘teams’ by mistake. One of the critical software development outsourcing trends is indeed a strategic partnership with more than one vendor. Companies are facing a shortage of talent pool and have to contract out specialists.

However, despite building relationships with more than one outsource company, there is and will be a significant shift like these relationships. The high demand for outsourcing help will make such collaborations more transparent and interpersonal. Furthermore, companies are focusing on value rather than lower costs. For this reason, it will be a common practice to collaborate with multiple vendors, each specializing in particular services.

Summing up, to keep up with the times, and to meet quality standards 2020 will dictate, businesses will be looking for outsource partners to share risks and together create better value. We, at Intellectsoft, empower companies and their workforce with cutting-edge transformative solutions and data-driven insights. Are you and your organization ready to shift the mindsets and get the most out of innovations?

Talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business or project can start benefiting from it today!

The post Top 10 Software Development Outsourcing Trends in 2020: All You Need to Know appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

Worldwide pandemic has shown us that countries and their authorities around the globe have to pay more attention and invest more in healthcare IT solutions, the development and enhancement of the medical field.

Top 10 Technology Trends in Healthcare

Nowadays, we experience digital transformation in numerous industries, and healthcare is not an exception to this process. The implementation of available tools and solutions has given rise for several healthcare technology trends among which the following ones:

1. Telemedicine
2. Internet of Medical Things
3. Cloud computing
4. AI/ML
5. AR
6. VR
7. Chatbots
8. Blockchain
9. Data science
10. EHR

Although the process of transformation has only started, the number of benefits they have will change the future of the healthcare field by reducing the costs, giving better diagnosis results, making it easier to get treatment in remote areas, saving time, etc.

Emerging Healthcare Technology Trends and Their Deployment

 Worldwide pandemic has shown us that countries all around the world should pay more attention and invest more in the development and enhancement of the healthcare environment. Making it better means the prevention of severe problems and situations like this one.

Deployment of all the latest technology trends in the healthcare industry can significantly change the image of the field we know today. The enhancement will lead to thousands of saved lives in emergencies.

Intellectsoft helps organizations and companies across various industries, including healthcare, to implement and use technologies for the sake of human life. If you have a revolutionary idea in mind that can help people fight diseases, talk to our experts, and learn more about the topic. Our team of professionals can turn your idea into reality, and together we can make this world a better place.

Telemedicine Trends: Remote Treatment

Telemedicine is a remote diagnosis and treatment of patients using telecommunication technologies as given by the World Health Organization (the WHO) in the 2010 report on eHealth. The use of cutting edge telemedicine trends is especially useful in areas that have limited or no developed infrastructure.

For instance, locals in Alaska recognized two decades ago that some villages do not have proper access to healthcare services, and there are no doctors or practicing nurses. Thus, they tried to bring telemedicine trends into practice and bridged patients with doctors or practicing nurses with specialists who can help locals get high-quality treatment.

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium has successfully used this technology since 2001, and now there is no need to go on a long journey when it is unnecessary. Trends in telemedicine that have already been applied have given a chance for ship crews to get on-board treatment. Maritime doctors in Alaska are already treating sailors using telehealth platforms and show excellent results.

Trends in telemedicine also show high potential for education and sharing knowledge between developed and developing countries, as they bring together specialists from different countries.

Internet of Medical Things Trends: Connected Wearables

The Internet of Medical Things is another trend in healthcare. It is the collection of medical and wearable devices that connect to healthcare IT systems through online computer networks.

The Internet of things in medical devices gives a chance to take a number of common medical measurements like temperature, blood pressure, glucose level, heart rate, etc. Internet of Medical Things includes such wearables and devices as

• ECG,
• EKG monitors,
• smart beds,
• glucose monitors,
• connected inhalers, etc.

Companies like Philips offer systems like Patient Monitoring to help specialists stay connected with their patients and provide on-time treatment or assign the right practitioner to take care of a particular case. Another example is Dexcom G5 that provides real-time glucose readings for patients with 1 and 2 types of diabetes every five minutes.

This technology helps doctors be aware of the current state of the patients, analyze collected data better, keep all the records, and stay connected 24/7.

How Is Cloud Computing Used in Healthcare?

Cloud computing in healthcare offers different public, private and hybrid platforms that allow easy file-sharing of any size. It also gives an opportunity for hospitals or healthcare organizations to build a secure infrastructure for keeping records. The technology also helps to make consultations easier and more convenient as they can be video- or text-based.

Five Benefits of Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Cloud computing in the healthcare industry brings several benefits that enhance the medical sphere. We have distinguished the top five ones:

• easy and quick accessibility as the data is stored in the cloud and can be reached anytime from any device;
• cost-effective (requires fewer investments than the development of hardware);
• makes data analyzes more efficient;
• facilitates tracking of patient’s state and recovery process;
• scalable — makes it easier for healthcare providers to increase or decrease the space for data storage, depending on the patient’s flow.

Cloud Computing in Healthcare: Examples

Due to its benefits and advantages, cloud computing in healthcare started to be widely used and implemented into IT systems of hospitals and health organizations. For example, IBM has created a cloud-based application, “Collaborative Care Solution,” that helps to accelerate healthcare management.

Companies like Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Dell offer cloud computing platforms that have a high level of security and keep critical data protected. GE Healthcare that runs on Amazon EC2, provides medical imaging tools and diagnostic imaging agents. It transforms collected information from medical devices into valuable patient data and makes it easy to view, process, and share images and patient cases.

What are Cloud Computing Risks in Healthcare?

 Among the top concerns of cloud computing in the healthcare industry are security, privacy, and system downtimes.

Personal patient’s data is tentative and requires a high level of security of a cloud-based platform that will help to protect it from external threats. For example, blockchain technology can be used to ensure security measures and keep stored data protected.

System downtimes can be prevented at the initial stage of app development, knowing possible failures, and having back-up plans on resolving the issues will help organizations to overcome downtimes of the system.

As for privacy matters, healthcare businesses should choose a reliable cloud provider who acts according to the rules and regulations stated by HIPAA of 1996.

How Is AR Being Used in Healthcare?

AR in healthcare becomes more and more applied across the industry. The technology can be used for educational purposes as it allows to have a visual presentation of human body organs.

AR in healthcare makes it possible for doctors to diagnose symptoms more precisely when patients cannot provide detailed information. It also allows doctors to be more illustrative when explaining new treatment or to show patients how drugs will influence their body in an interactive way.

For instance, AccuVein is a vein visualization device that helps professionals find the patient’s veins for blood draws easier. Another example of AR in healthcare is EchoPixel is a medical visualization software platform that depicts human organs in open space. It can be used as a pre-surgery software to simulate and evaluate surgical treatment options.

Innovative Ways to Use VR in Healthcare

Simulated environments have proven to be very helpful both for patients and healthcare professionals. For this reason, VR in healthcare is becoming widely used as it gives access to visual experiences and activities that are impossible in reality, thus helping doctors to provide better treatment to their patients.

VR in healthcare helps with the planning of complicated surgeries, improves doctor skills during professional training, motivates users to exercise, and helps with emotional health treatment.

For example, Neuro Rehab VR develops VR training exercises that suit the individual needs of the patient and make the recovery process more enjoyable and engaging. Another case of VR usage in healthcare is a project by the students of the University of New England. The project aims to show young medical students what it is like to be an older person and help them develop empathy.

AI in Healthcare: Its Benefits

AI in healthcare has great potential in reshaping and enhancing the industry and bringing to the next level. Empowered with human-like processing and analytical abilities, AI  in healthcare can improve the speed of decision-making and make the diagnosis process more accurate, as well as limit the number of mistakes. Benefits of AI in healthcare include task automation, big data analysis, delivery of better healthcare faster.

The future of AI in healthcare means better medical outcomes, advanced treatment, and more patient engagement in the process. For example, PathAI technology helps doctors to reduce errors in cancer diagnoses and develops methods for individualized medical treatment. Enlitic develops tools based on AI to advance medical diagnostics by analyzing unstructured medical records and giving doctors better insights on the patient’s current state and needs.

Chatbots in Healthcare: Alternative to Human Workforce

Chatbots in healthcare are alternatives to hospital administrators, as they can easily collect appointment requests and schedule them. This technology can also be used as a medical consultant and answer questions regarding health conditions.

This is very useful as nowadays, we can find numerous unreliable resources on the Internet and come up with the wrong conclusions, so it’s better to have trustful support that can help patients instantly.

OneRemission is one of the examples of chatbots in the healthcare industry. Its chatbot helps those who fight against cancer by providing the list of diets, exercises, and post-cancer practices. Florence is another great example of chatbots in the healthcare industry or better to say “a personal nurse” who reminds its patients to take pills, helps to find the nearest doctor’s office, and tracks the user’s health state (like body weight, mood, period, etc.).

Data Science in Healthcare: Taking Analysis to the Next Level

Healthcare data science can revolutionize the industry together with the other available tools and solutions. Data science and healthcare are inseparable as medical records contain useful information that can be analyzed and used to prevent diseases, create a better treatment, and help discover new drugs.

Healthcare data science solutions gather information through wearables, monitor, and help to prevent health problems. One of the healthcare data science projects is OASIS that aims to give the scientific community free access to neuroimaging data sets of the brain. One more example is BERG Health; the company analyzes biological samples to reshape the cancer medical market.

Blockchain in Healthcare: Security and Accessibility

Blockchain in healthcare is another trend that helps to enforce the industry with secure platforms and facilitate data access. Blockchain in healthcare today allows patients to use a public-private key and decide who will be able to view their personal medical records or invite a specialist via a system to give consultation regarding health issues.

Blockchain Healthcare Use Cases

Blockchain technology in healthcare has been incorporated into different applications and systems like BurstIQ that help companies to improve the sharing and usage of medical data. Another example of the utilization of blockchain in healthcare is Factom that aims to store digital health records securely.

Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) in the Healthcare Industry

Medical records of the patients are usually stored in forms like paper, audio, or video and contain information like patient ID, diagnoses, treatment, laboratory results, surgeries, etc. Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) software helps to store this data electronically and is superior to paper records as they do not deteriorate, could not be lost, and do not require physical space.

For example, Amrita Medical Solutions serves critical access and rural hospitals. The company’s web-based system provides customized billing and 24/7 EHR tech support. CGI is another of the kind and offers health systems with EHR solutions designed to enable more accurate and faster diagnoses.

In a Nutshell

Healthcare technology trends help to reshape and enhance the industry, and what is more, they bring several advantages both for medical professionals and patients. Although the process is rather slow, still more and more hospitals and health organizations acquire cutting edge technologies and solutions to make their services better.

Combined, the healthcare field and IT industry are showing astonishing results and help thousands of people cope with diseases faster, more comfortably, and more effectively. We experience a significant change that once was only possible in Sci-Fi fiction.

This pandemic shapes new social norms and drives new social rules that humanity should get prepared for starting today. We, at Intellectsoft, empower companies and their workforces with innovation services and approaches to help them survive during these times. Are you and your organization looking for some?

Talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business can start benefiting from it today!

The post 10 Healthcare Technology Trends to Watch in 2020 appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

Summary:

1. Healthcare
2. E-commerce and Online Shopping
3. Entertainment
4. Restaurants and Food delivery
5. IT & Tech Industry
6. Construction
7. Hospitality
8. FinTech
9. Sensing and Shaping the Post-COVID Era

Today, for the global sectors, COVID-19 presents two challenges: largely idled sectors disrupting trade and reduced demand from consumers. A few examples to consider, Chile is reeling from reduced copper demand. Germany — from auto parts shortage.

In this article, we examine how different industries react to business and economic turbulence caused by the novel pandemic through innovation and digital capabilities. We discover this through the example of 8 industries that try to win over the battle using digital and innovation capabilities.

Healthcare

As each industry emerges from its acute response phase, many will find that they are entering a “new normal.” Expect the way healthcare is practiced and marketed to be no different.

Beyond the negative impact of a traditional economic downturn, COVID-19 presents additional challenges — fear from the virus itself, collective grief, prolonged physical distancing, and associated social isolation — that will compound the impact on our collective health.

Reported signs of distress related to COVID-19 in the US.

As the way healthcare is practiced evolves, so too will the environment and platforms through which that care is delivered. There will be new needs that emerge; new content will be needed, in new formats, manifesting in new marketing assets.

Digital Transformation in Healthcare and Other Solutions

There are three areas that healthcare marketing leaders should focus on, as the impact on their business and the subsequent need to adapt will be significant:

• Telehealth

The acceptance and utilization of telehealth services within the US were already on a sharp incline before the COVID-19 crisis erupted globally.  Since then, medical and municipal leaders are leveraging the platform as a tool in combating the spread of COVID-19, accelerating adoption in the process.

From a Payer perspective, CVS Health, Aetna, Cigna, and United Health are just a few of the payer organizations recommending patients move to virtual care – going so far as to waive copays for utilizing the service.

Consumers are showing increased interest as well, with SEMRush reporting a 146.15% increase in searches for “in-home doctor visits” and a 53.97% increase in “in-home medical care” searches.

• Urgent care

Urgent Care Centers are quickly becoming the front door in a person’s treatment journey.  A study from the Urgent Care Association found that a median of 35% of patients utilizing UCCs do not have primary care physicians, reflecting the fact that Healthcare is shifting to much more of an on-demand service. Medicare and Medicaid patients made up almost 27% of UCC patients in 2018, confirming that the shift is not driven only by the young or affluent.

The organization is flanking the physical services with digital efforts, with  almost 30% of the landing pages on CVS.com Minute Clinic specific. Not to be outdone, Walmart launched the first of its augmented health facilities in September 2019.

• Almost everything goes online

Medical conferences and congresses are a huge priority for companies in the Health sector. These events are valued by commercial organizations, advocacy groups, and healthcare professionals as key opportunities for medical education, peer-to-peer engagement, and the release of official study data.

While some of those activities have been digitally distributed in parallel, a vast majority of that activity is face-to-face. The COVID-19 crisis is forcing digital transformation in IT solutions for healthcare industry to take new turns.

Intellectsoft Healthcare Solutions

Since healthcare and economic environments force medical experts to take extra shifts, this greatly affects their own quality and safety of life.

The idea behind Intellectsoft’s solution was to empower medical professionals with a simple tool that gives them flexibility, control, and more. We created an on-demand healthcare staffing solution consisting of two parts:

• iOS and Android app with an Uber-like feel (for the Nurse role);
• Web Admin Panel (for Hospital Administrator or Security Supervisor role).

Some of the most significant features included there are a nurse and hospital management, shift management, notification center, data export, etc. Solutions of this kind can be a major stride within the current time frames because they help doctors stay focused on more essential things and certain patients with reaching for treatments.

As consumers and organizations have no other choice, the COVID-19 crisis is accelerating the utilization of digital platforms. While there have been financial, behavioral, and attitudinal roadblocks to adoption in the past, the need to overcome the crisis is superseding those roadblocks and increases the number of first-time users.

E-commerce and Online Shopping

Today, as B2B digital transformation statistics say, online shopping is the fastest-growing slice of the pie, dominating the scene and continuing to invest in digital capabilities.

Traditional, smaller players are also eyeing the online scene. Many traditional small markets have taken to online channels to hawk products, conduct online auctions, and even to carry out customer relation-building, for example, passing tips on how to prepare dishes using their products.

However, most authorities are warning organizations to prepare for the long haul. Virtually every company involved in global trade feels the impact.

Digital Transformation in B2B E-commerce

Digitalization had swiftly come into B2B E-commerce sectors a long time ago. But since recent times the situation has drastically changed, the technologies and trends have changed too. Although some things remain untouchable. Still, most of the E-commerce sales are made through mobile devices (73%). Progressive Web App (PWA), with its native-app-like experience, is also here to stay.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, personalized customer experience, and predefined analytics — all complement an evolution of B2B consumerization. Data remains the primary fuel for accelerating the development of any organization involved in sales. Focusing on eternal questions: what data to collect and how to process it effectively remains unsolved even today. 

In response to social distancing, many businesses will make their E-commerce operations a key priority.

Solutions

Here is what we suggest you can do right now to mitigate the impact of coronavirus on your E-commerce business:

• Even as early digitalization investments are paying off, the current inability to fulfill delivery of online purchases suggests digitization efforts by businesses have only been focused at the customer-facing end. Supermarket chains should consider integrating their online shopping platforms with the stock-holding information of their physical branches.

• COVID-19 may accelerate the growth of the online grocery sector. People did not just flock to physical supermarkets, but also loaded virtual carts with groceries from online platforms. With government directives to allow workers to work-from-home and to avoid non-essential trips to shopping malls, this trend of online shopping is likely to persist.

• Another possibility is for online shopping platforms to partner with businesses that specialize in delivery fulfillment such as UberEats, Grab, Glovo, and Bolt Food. B2B digital transformation trends are another milestone companies should consider today.

Intellectsoft Solutions in E-commerce

Since 2012, we’ve specialized in custom E-commerce application development, building E-commerce platforms dedicated to client’s needs or modify existing solutions to help scale-up businesses. A multi-category E-commerce platform based on digital tokens is one of the most significant solutions we’ve developed before.

The solution includes a number of software systems released atop of the blockchain network to allow for a seamless experience in different stores. Multiple stores built on top of a shared blockchain network. Merchants can open their account without any extra effort and start selling goods or services for internal cryptocurrency. Customers can securely buy, transfer, and exchange online and offline goods while receiving loyalty points for future purchases.

Get in touch with our top minds to find out how your business can start benefiting from our innovative solution today!

Entertainment

Around the world, COVID-19 is having a marked impact on media supply, consumption, and advertising. Demand for content-streamed, live, and multi-layered — is skyrocketing while new content creation has been largely turned off.

Since cinema and amusement parks across the globe are all shut down for uncertain times, thousands of entertainment organizations suffer formidable losses and fail to receive any kind of income. The outbreak triggered online entertainment and how some companies are finding ways to engage differently with consumers and the new reality.

Digital Transformation in Entertainment

• Demand for all forms of media — TV programs, short-form video, music streaming, and online gaming, particularly in geographies currently under stay-home instructions, has surged. Digital transformation in entertainment is expecting more new turns in the foreseen future.
• The supply of new content may be limited to a few weeks for some formats (e.g., daytime dramas). New TV series currently being launched were completed prior to production sets shutting down.
• Network resiliency and capacity continues to be a focus, as the demand for content surges. In the European Union, streaming platforms are reducing video quality to ensure networks are not overwhelmed and that customers can still view content.
• While sports companies come to terms with a wave of cancellations, many are seeking new ways to reach their customers digitally. Many are looking to eSports or online simulated events to provide content to fans, with even professional athletes engaging in eSports competitions.
• Musicians are going online and relying on streaming platforms as live shows are canceled.

Intellectsoft Solutions in Entertainment

Our partnerships with comprehensive streaming TV, film, and sports apps and websites have brought our clients and us valuable experience and knowledge of this industry.

Our solution was a cloud-based, highly scalable elastic platform with advanced search and ingestion layers functionality to support a multi-million users base with a steep growth curve. Among the most significant benefits our client got were:

• Cloud scalability and elasticity;
• Fast users growth potential;
• Streamlined rich client application.

Restaurants and Food delivery

Despite some concerns, food delivery companies gain their momentum and become a popular option as people practice social distancing. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how much growth there has been in this sector, but higher demand has led to higher pricing in some areas. What more to expect?

Digital Transformation in Food Industry

Uber, for example, recently provided Uber-only drivers with information on adding Uber Eats food deliveries to their services. Within the first week, around 15% of Uber drivers had completed their first food delivery.

Fine dining establishments, small-town restaurants, and fast foods are now switching to offer delivery services to their customers. At the same time, restaurants that did not previously offer take-outs are now considering this option as never before. Some restaurants choose a third-party delivery service to partner with, and each offer comes with unique benefits.

Uber Eats and Deliveroo, among others, have launched contactless “leave at your door service” to help drivers and customers follow social distancing and quarantine rules.

In addition to understanding already in place strict food hygiene standards, consumers may also be interested to learn if the businesses have:

• New practices for social distancing in the kitchen or during delivery pickups;
• Policy for staff members who display symptoms of COVID-19;
• Changes in food delivery guidelines, such as containers that allow for easier disinfection or better customer experience.

Though it is uncertain where the digital transformation in food industry and the delivery trend will go in the post-COVID-19 era, many businesses are working as hard as they can to ensure they meet consumers’ expectations and remain relevant by providing an excellent service.

IT & Tech Industry

The effects of COVID-19 and are having a significant impact on the technology sector, too. However, the disruption has caused reevaluation on organizations’ business continuity plans (BCPs) as well as the acceleration of remote operations and online meetings. Let’s dive in to see what has changed more and what solutions organizations appeal to remain afloat.

Digital Transformation in IT and Other Solutions

• Companies with remote-working technologies already see increased demand as organizations accelerate their remote-working capabilities.
• Security software will see third-order benefits from a growing remote workforce. Organizations race to secure endpoints, cloud-based tools, log management, and VPNs. So, IT spending on security software will increase too.

• Due to enhanced remote work scenarios, IT digital transformation will play a larger role in future BCPs. Thus, CIOs and senior management will need to ensure a resilient, secure network, disaster recovery systems, and more devices for the ones working remotely.
• The need for ever-faster access to data and automation will drive the focus on network equipment and communications, speeding up 5G network and equipment introduction.
• An increase in the use of tele- and video-conferencing software as more companies encourage employees to commute.

Intellectsoft Business Continuity As Crisis Response

As a part of our Business Continuity Plan, within a couple of days, the global Intellectsoft team organized the smooth transition to remote operation without affecting any core systems and business processes to operate as usual during this period.

As we are always fully committed to continue providing our customers and partners with the products and services they depend on, our senior leadership team remains vigilant and is monitoring the situation in real-time to respond rapidly to continuous change.

Construction

Today, the most vulnerable industries are those lacking digitalization and tech maturity. The construction industry is one of them.

Creating $1.3 trillion worth of structures each year only in the USA, the construction industry remains one of the most under-digitized industrial sectors. Longer-term construction companies across the globe will have to contend with decreased demand as governments face rising deficits, and residential and commercial projects are dampened by unemployment and low GDP growth.

To stay one step ahead of the crisis, the sector requires a different approach to the overall strategy. Digital transformation in construction industry is a burning topic for both — senior management and government. What are the solutions construction companies have today?

Solutions

Today, key questions executives and boards should be asking are: do we need to rethink our company’s digital strategy to remain financially solvent, and how can we use technology to gain operational leverage. And the digital transformation in the construction industry becomes inevitable.

The importance of transformation in different types of construction departments.

Digital Transformation Construction Industry Solutions

The construction giant’s partnership with Intellectsoft has brought us tremendous experience and practical knowledge of this area. We have witnessed how modern technology could transform and improve further processes. It also carried the customer over to the next business development stage, ensuring the company’s end-to-end digital transformation.

We hope to see more and more construction companies implement innovations and disrupt digital transformation in the future, such as:

• Scheduling and resource management system & real-time reporting platform;
• Asset tracking and management system;
• Vendor ecosystem & compliance solution;
• Decision-making dashboard based on Big Data analytics.

Join us at our upcoming Construction webinar hosted by industry top minds on Thursday, April 23, at 12 p.m. Eastern time. 

Register for Webinar

Hospitality

Hospitality is taking proactive financial steps to mitigate the huge impact. It’s obvious today, both revenue and supply chains will be affected the most. Hotels, restaurants, theme parks, cinemas all went silent. The entire disruptive effect of the hospitality industry will have a significant, tremendous impact on the global hospitality industry and economy. And there is a question hangs heavy in the air — can digital transformation in hospitality industry change the rule of the game?

Solutions

Despite this, hospitality shows its maturity level: in working together, showing their true hospitality commitments in helping out our society where they can. Technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, connected devices, virtual and augmented realities are shaping the hospitality industry as we speak.

Only during the last two decades dozens of industry disruptors, such as Airbnb, Skyscanner, and TripAdvisor, have appeared on the market. Companies and organizations are expected to get out of the crisis more digitally mature, and those ones who find enough strength to focus on digitalization — are going to win the race. Here are some of the steps to consider today:

• “We may be apart, but we’ll get through this together,” says Airbnb experts introducing 50 new online experiences with unique activities for their customers. The home-sharing platform curates free online experiences to inspire people and stay afloat.

• Digital transformation in the hospitality industry should now be focused on those that we know are available to travel. The dramatic rise in online gambling during COVID-19 lockdowns is one of the results of current circumstances. The online gambling industry is one of the winners of the current shutdown, and some offline casinos and other organizations can consider this as a potential opportunity for future growth.

• Smart automation confidently moved into the industry through the Internet of Things technology. It has improved not only the convenience and comfort standards for clients but also reduced costs for businesses and organizations.

• Robots that handle food preparation and delivery, predictive analytics, and cloud storage — are the next big moves for automation in the industry.

While the COVID-19 shutdown has brought the industry to a standstill, it is also an opportunity for the companies to reevaluate their digital strategies and map out the right path ahead.

Intellectsoft Digital Transformation in Hospitality

From ordering concierge services in one tap to booking golf courses in less than a minute, our expertise in the Hospitality industry has an extensive history. Despite COVID-19, consumers continue to demand improved solutions and unique experiences. However, today the lockdown hit a stop button for most of the industry players.

During our long-term partnership with some of the key market players, we’ve witnessed that digital transformation remains one of the key drivers of industry growth today. Here are some of the solutions we’re proud to design for our clients:

• Turnkey solutions for the entire hotel;
• Internet of Things ecosystem that connects all amenities and guest services;
• Created an app that adapts to suit type;
• Comprehensive IT audit for software systems;
• Streamlined system, eliminating bugs, and making necessary improvements.

FinTech

Digital-only becomes the new industry norm in financial services, greatly accelerating a trend that started in the last decade. Digital transformation in FinTech triggers a “Big Pocket” battle between incumbents and challengers to win the (newly) online customer. Financial Institutions turn to Tech companies rather than in-house solutions to accelerate digital transformation.

Digital Transformation in FinTech

FinTech sector winners:

• Consumer and SME lending platforms: best-adapting mechanism to swiftly and efficiently deliver capital to key segments of the economy;
• Mortgage and life insurance digitalization: leaping forward with technology to disrupt the role of intermediaries, whose role was often face-to-face.

FinTech’ enablers’ around AI, IoT, and software solutions are in high demand:

• AI: bots for call-centers; account-opening procedures; loan automation;
• KYC: increased need for safe digital ID given volume of digital business transacted and robust solutions required for the protection of client assets.

Sensing and Shaping the Post-COVID Era

Crisis often leads to changes. This time is no exception. The shifts in social attitudes and behaviors we see today pave the broad path to new opportunities and ways of living and working. Some of which is here to stay with us in the long run. Some of which disappear right after the crisis is gone.

Crisis often leads to long-lasting changes. Source: BCG Henderson Institute.

Nevertheless, some changes show a positive dynamic. For example, we see a greater focus on crisis preparedness, system resilience, social inequality, social solidarity, and access to health care. These attitudinal shifts could, in turn, be reflected in significant policy shifts in many areas, including trade, border controls, health care, crisis preparedness, foreign affairs, employment, and social welfare.

This pandemic shapes new social norms and drives new social rules that humanity should get prepared for starting today. We, at Intellectsoft, empower companies and their workforces with innovation services and approaches to help them survive during these times. Are you and your organization looking for some? Talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business can start benefiting from it today!

The post Digital Disruption: The Industries’ Way of Survival During the COVID-19 Crisis appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

Digital transformation is, no doubt, one of the key drivers of industry growth today. But since the sudden COVID-19 pandemic outbreak hit the “pause button” hard-full stop, the hospitality industry especially is losing its positions day after day.

Nevertheless, consumers always continue to demand improved solutions and unique experiences. The industry is rapidly adopting new technologies to exceed their expectations and digitize the customer journey with one-tap check-ins, digital concierge services, voice-activated devices, chatbots, smart in-room technologies, advanced analytics, virtual-assistant platforms, enhanced direct bookings, and more to come.

Travel. Transformed.

Many companies from the hospitality industry are still only entering the new exciting world of digitalization. To create a more seamless guest experience, more hotels automate and streamline the travel processes, developing the advanced tools necessary to capture the full potential of data.

Moreover, considering that millennials are increasingly dominating the travel sector, hospitality companies should be prepared to curate and personalized travel offerings and to make a data-enabled transformation work. This generation of tech-savvy travelers prefers using apps for bookings and getting more personalized interactions. The cultural change, as well as the long-term impact of automation, machine learning, and even robotics, are here to stay.

Intellectsoft’s experts have developed an in-depth overview of digital transformation trends in hospitality and what to expect from hotels of the future presented in this infographics:

View full size

What’s next

Some things never change. Companies powered by data and advanced technologies will always be driven by people. Hospitality organizations are no different. They have to keep pace and grow into agile, reinvent themselves to become more relevant, and deliver engaging customer experiences.

Leaders have to bring to the fore some fundamental questions about values, cultural changes, privacy, and cybersecurity if they want to keep up with automation and machine learning solutions.

We empower companies and their hospitality workforce with tools like travel AI and chatbots, and data-driven insights to transform into intelligent operations. Are you and your organization ready to shift the mindsets and get the most out of innovations?

Talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business or project can start benefiting from it today!

The post Hotels of the Future: Digital Transformation in Hospitality [Infographic]  appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

In this article, we will make projections across 5 technology areas:

• AI algorithms in fake news and the future of media
• The not-so-comfortable truth about the state of AR & VR adoption 
• Endpoint growth, edge computing, and other IoT industry trends
• Financial organizations embracing a shared ecosystem
• First steps of face recognition technology in financial services

There are many interesting developments to talk about. Let’s start.

AI Trends: Algorithms in Media & Fake News

The media industry has already seen AI-driven virtual TV presenters in action. The technology paves the way for a potential revolution in the industry, allowing media companies to produce a lot of content on-the-fly.

Still, over the last two years, the public, the media, governmental organizations, and prominent artists have grown increasingly alarmed about how deepfakes can sway opinions online, influencing political events. In 2017, the University of Washington created the notorious deepfake video of President Barack Obama, there was a doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a deepfake video of Mark Zuckerberg, and other examples. The resemblance between the real and fake political figures proved almost uncanny, prompting discussions about the big perils of deepfake technology and other AI uses. 

Today, doctored videos can be spotted upon closer examination, but the technology keeps evolving, while easy-to-use deepfake creation tools are available online. Although current countermeasures can detect deepfakes and their creators quickly and easily, this may change soon: the technology is evolving, so the countermeasures will need to evolve as well. 

Fighting fake articles online will be more challenging, though. MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has been going to great lengths to showcase the scale of the problem. CSAIL has conducted two scientific investigations (publishing a paper for each in the August of 2019), and both showed that current AI-driven fake news detecting systems, no matter how sophisticated, are not effective enough and face many nuanced challenges.

With other companies joining the battle, (including Facebook), this means that we will definitely see more sophisticated AI tools aimed at reducing the quantity and impact of fake news in 2020 and beyond, across the board. 

The laws will follow suit as well. In 2020, we may expect new deepfake and fake news scandals, hearings on that cases, as well as first instances of comprehensive regulation in the most progressive countries. All popular platforms would use AI algorithms to automatically detect and block deepfakes and fake news, as well as trace their creators.

All in all, trends in AI will be a hot topic in 2020.

Augmented & Virtual Reality Trends Slow Down

Although established companies use AR in manufacturing, building construction, retail, and other industries, the general adoption progresses slowly. Games and gamified customer experiences continue to be the main driver for both AR and VR. 

According to a survey by XRDC, fifty-nine percent of AR and VR projects are game-related. This won’t change anytime soon, at least for VR. Steam will be pushing its SteamVR platform with the recently announced Half-Life: Alyx, driving the competition on the VR market. Still, the adoption of both technologies continues to grow steadily in other industries, like education and training. 

As AR has been growing slowly in the last two years, there is no indication this will change in 2020, despite the release of HoloLens 2 in November 2019. There is the usual back-and-forth in the rumours about Apple’s AR headset, but hard evidence on whatever the company is developing will are non-existent. 

Still, we can expect AR to continue breathing new life into familiar experiences. Readers tired of consuming content the old way will definitely enjoy immersive experiences and new story angles enabled by the technology, like those seen in The New York Times AR/VR section and by TIME’s new AR/VR app. 

As for other augmented reality trends, the technology will also help ecommerce drive sales in 2020 and beyond. As customers are tired of the same types of ads and their ubiquity, brands will follow into the steps of Instagram (who released its Spark AR Studio to public this year), building AR catalogues of their goods and creating digital experiences with AR lenses in mind. 

AR lenses and filters are booming, but they should be approached carefully by development teams in the future. For example, Instagram removed filters that depict or promote cosmetic surgery amid concerns they harm mental health.

AR try-in on web pages and in mobile apps would also gain more traction. This option is more cost-effective compared to other AR solutions as well as convenient for users, who would only need to open the camera on their smartphone to try a T-shirt or sunglasses on. 

According to a study published by four UK universities, AR improves decision comfort, prompts users to give positive word-of-mouth recommendations, and drives sales of more expensive products.  

The big-scale adoption of AR will continue in 2020 with products like Adobe’s Aero, which allows designers to create AR experience without coding easily. The iPad app gives users a step-by-step guide on how to build AR scenes, allowing them to use their existing assets from the Adobe Creative Cloud. The app allows to create basic AR experiences, with the full-fledged version coming to desktop in 2020. 

Internet of Things — Adoption Continues  

Most of the IoT industry trends are connected to streamlining existing IoT-driven operations further, sustating IoT device growth, and building massive ecosystems.

Tapping into IoT Metadata

For the last decade, enterprises have been gathering and using data from smart endpoint devices in their IoT ecosystems to a great extent. The next step will be using that data’s metadata to drive intelligence systems, increasing the level of personalization further, and giving context to otherwise incomprehensive scenarios in data sets. As a result, the companies will be able to structure unstructured data and improve the process of developing their cognitive systems.

Confident Endpoint Growth

Staying on the subject of endpoints, their number will grow in 2020, as devices like smart meters, smart lighting, and smart air conditioning are becoming increasingly common in commercial and residential markets. According to Gartner, the utilities industry, who is the leader in endpoint usage, was operating 1.17 billion endpoints in 2019, and the firm projects the number will grow by 14.6 percent in 2020, reaching 1.37 billion. 

Still, the governmental sector will see a more dramatic spike: from 0.53 billion to 0.70 billion (24.3 percent). The quantity of endpoints will also grow substantially in the building automation and physical security industries. 

Other Internet of Things Trends: Edge Computing, Digital Twins

What else can be expected in the IoT area in 2020? According to IDC, enterprises will begin transitioning from cloud-based IoT deployments to edge computing to further streamline IoT deployments and application performance in their ecosystems. 

As for big trends in IoT, the Port of Rotterdam, the largest in Europe, has started a massive project of digitizing its every operation, which will continue in 2020. Some parts of the harbor are already automated, but the ports leadership and partners plan to use the digital twin technology and IoT for a complete digital transformation. The end goal is to entirely rid the port of time loss, cargo loss, spills of CO2, and safety incidents. The harbor also wants to berth crewless automated ships somewhere around 2030. 

Learn more about the port’s plans and progress in detail in the video:

Open & Decentralized Finance

In all likelihood, 2020 will be a watermark year for banks and financial institutions, as they face the inevitability of a large-scale transformation. The concept of open finance — an ecosystem of shared services that converges users and companies in one place to enable better efficiency and experiences — will be the overarching trend. 

This means that financial organizations will have shared transaction data, IT infrastructure, and cross-compatible systems, while the ecosystem itself will be enabled by distributed technologies and more sophisticated and accessible APIs. 

Distributed technology will play a key role in the evolution of the entire industry, giving way to decentralized financial services: lending, borrowing, and other financial operations will be provided on decentralized distributed platforms. Banks will use distributed ledgers to issue bonds (like Societe Generale and Santander did), as digital markets with tokenized financial instruments will emerge. Payments, meanwhile, will be transferred to permission-based distributed networks to enable high security and speed.  

Face Recognition in Financial Services

As facial recognition is available in more and more smartphones and can help financial organizations cut costs and simplify operations and customer experiences, we can expect more financial services that use face recognition at different customer touchpoints. 

Users will be able to verify different actions related to their accounts in seconds by letting smartphones scan their faces. Still, this will require a high level of security from both the financial institutions, smartphone designers, and software teams behind mobile operating systems.

The concept of a federated identity — using your face to manage all of your financial operations — is also on the table, but it will take time to evolve. Mexico has already adopted a biometric security mandate to bring this idea to life, so we can probably expect other countries to follow suit in 2020.

Summing Up Technology Trends for 2020

Although major breakthroughs are not in the cards, 2020 will be yet another eventful year for the tech industry and the world. AI will play the most important role at the both sides of the fake news war in 2020, prompting governments to come up with never-before-seen laws. AR adoption has slowed down significantly, and this may continue until Apple releases its first AR device. IoT adoption continues, as companies across industries tap into new types of data, use more endpoints, and find ways to streamline deployments; massive IoT projects like digitization of the Port of Rotterdam are also underway. With no time left to postpone transformation, financial organizations embrace modern times with big plans for setting up shared systems to deliver next-gen user experiences. Finally, face recognition is slowly coming to financial operations. 

It’s still going to be exciting. Stay tuned.

The post 5 Tech Trends of 2020 Every CIO Needs to Know appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

In our previous article, we have elaborately explored IFC file formats and other open BIM standards which one can use in enterprise systems in the AEC industry. In this article, we are moving further into the subject and will be looking into open source BIM software and components that you can use to build a BIM infrastructure.

Without further ado, let’s explore BIM servers, 3D model viewers, validators, and a range of other useful tools for building such an infrastructure.

BIM Repositories

Central BIM model storage is the cornerstone of a robust information system. BIM models used to be stored as files in cloud services like Dropbox, SharePoint, and shared FTP servers for a long time. Users had to keep track of versions manually and change filenames with every next version of a BIM model to distinguish one iteration from another.

BIMserver — From Many Files to a Single Database

BIMServer is an enterprise-grade open-source software that was developed to support the transition of file-based BIM storage to the realm of online databases. The stability of BIMserver is proven in the enterprise, as many commercial applications are built with it. The upcoming release of Version 1.5 will add full support for IFC4 and IFC4 Add 2 specifications.

BIMserver operates on the object model that evolved from IFC specifications into Entity Modeling Framework entities, which in turn are stored in a persistent key-value database. The latter uses embedded Berkeley DB Java Edition — one of the best libraries on the market.

Simplified BIMserver architecture. Image credit: Article “Bimserver.org – an Open Source IFC model server” (2010)

This library is the most suitable option for an internal BIM repository that needs to manage models amounting to many gigabytes. Plus, BerkleyDB’s modular architecture and broad set of supported plugins will help you further extend the functionality if your project requires it.

BIM Components & Viewers

Now, let’s look at a set of BIM components that you might need for viewing, editing, and modifying BIM models online and on a desktop. Some of them are building blocks that can be re-used in different scenarios, while other are fully functioning, standalone software solutions.

IfcOpenShell — Helpful Library with Geometry Conversion

IFC file format requires the support of many internal objects descriptions by class that you can process and analyse later.

In visualization, you need to to convert the IFC parametric representation to triangles that can be understood by GPU rendering software. This is were IfcOpenShell shines, helping you with object descriptions, file parsing, and conversion into triangles for 3D visualizations.

IfcOpenShell was written in C++ and has Python bindings as well as an interactive mode. There is also a set of derivative BIM open source software products available from the IfcOpenShell community —  IfcMax, IfcBlender, IfcConvert, IfcOpenShell-python, and BIMserver plug-in.

Example of IfcBlender rendering using IfcOpenShell internal representation based on material properties from an IFC model file.

BIMsurfer — WebGL Viewer for IFC Models

BIMsurfer is one more tool that works well with BIMserver and relies on IfcOpenShell. It is a customizable WebGL viewer with different view controls, cameras, objects selection/manipulation, and other tools. It is based on xeogl WebGL engine and looks great in modern browsers.

BIMSurfer example of BIM visualization

bimvie.ws — BIMSie API Client

With BIMserver repository, you still need a way to work with your projects and data objects. Here, bimvie.ws is the linking tool. The component is available separately and in a JAR package that you can deploy together with BIMserver.

bimvie.ws example as part of BIMServer

Dynamo BIM — Parametric Graphics Programming Tool

Dynamo BIM is a tool for computational design and model parametrization. Open-source and based on a graphical algorithm editor, Dynamo BIM provides flexibility and features that can be easily integrated into your custom in-house environments.

Parametric design example in Dynamo BIM

OpenBIM — Open Toolbox for BIM

At the core of OpenBIM is xBIM (eXtensible Building Information Modeling) Toolkit— a .NET Core open-source software development BIM toolkit that supports the IFC data model.

xBIM Xplorer example in action

The toolbox includes many different parts that an openBIM architect can re-purpose in custom apps:

• xBIM Xplorer — open and render 3D IFC models
• xBIM WebUI — web application that can open and render IFC models
• xBIM Utilities — bulk utilities for IFC files processing
• xBIM Exchange — support COBie and other mechanisms for data exchange

OpenBIM is your best BIM open source software if you need to build a Windows-based app.

The Free BIM Vision Viewer for IFC Models

BIM Vision is a lightweight IFC model viewer that doesn’t need a lot of disk space while providing you with a range of useful tools. It supports a plugin system that can be extended by way of other plugins, if you need to develop your own viewing or data processing extension. Among standard 3D navigation features, the BIM Vision viewer also supports collision verification, find/group objects functionality, revision changes checking, 2D projection in space, various measurements, and cooperation features.

The BIM Vision viewer with timber works plugin

Open C/C++/C# SDK and the plugin store allows you to develop and distribute your own custom extensions. The only drawback with this open BIM software is that it only works on Windows.

DDS-CAD Viewer — Free IFC Model Viewer

The free viewer is another solid option that allows you to check models, detect clashes, and many more. Visualization filters that provide an ability to analyze model objects in more detail is a standout feature of DDS-CAD Viewer.

DDS-CAD Viewer IFC example

Solibri Model Viewer

Last but not least, Solibri is another free and effortless tool to view BIM models. The main advantage is that the tool works well both on Mac and Windows desktops.

Solibri Model Viewer for Mac OS

BIM Components & Software — Conclusion

Open BIM software and components can help you re-purpose in and build as many complex internal enterprise systems as you need. There is BIMServer, functioning as a model repository, storage, and online database. There are many BIM components and viewers, to parse and process IFC files in. Thus, from validation and clash detection to geometry optimization and algorithmic parametric design workflows, there is an abundance of tools to help you create a reliable BIM architecture.

If you need help in building your BIM architecture, start by scheduling a consultation with experts of our AEC-focused unit.

The post Your Guide to Free Open BIM Software & Components appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

Enterprise software integration is always complicated by different closed-source and proprietary systems that often do not communicate with each other well. Such difficulties are common to companies where digitization level is not high, the ones that outsource critical development projects to multiple vendors, and that only have a CIO and several system administrators in their IT department.

The more different software systems the company uses, the more file formats and process variations it has. Therefore, looking into a common denominator via open standards and file formats is reasonable.

In this article, we will briefly review open BIM standards and file formats for the construction industry commonly used today, especially when it comes to Building Information Modeling (BIM) representation.

Collaboration at the Core of Bim

Building Information Modeling started emerging in the 1970s. The concept is aimed at streamlining collaboration between parties engaged in design, estimation, simulation, construction, maintenance, as well as support of complex structures, for example a residential building, an airport, or a bridge.

BIM system should be capable of representing the physical and intrinsic properties of a building/structure as an object-oriented model connected to a database. In a BIM system, object definitions are mostly described parametrically: the objects itself and their relationships with each other are described with a set of interlinked parameters. These parameters can be easily modified, leading to recalculations in the final design forms and structure.

Thus the current trend is to move the collaboration from bid construction schemes to integrated project delivery systems, which allow everyone involved in the project access the same BIM models.

IFC & buildingSMART

Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is an object-based data model and format that describes building and construction industry data. It was developed in 1995 by buildingSMART alliance, an international organization that focuses on improving data exchange between software solutions used in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry.

Industry Foundation Classes is registered as an official International Standard ISO. Governmental clients that contract with construction companies often require a BIM system and BIM processes based on IFC open standards.

Thus, the buildingSMART model is a solid starting point for an internal digitization project that leverages BIM open standards and makes a company fitting for a big government project. Notably, UK, Singapore, Japan, the U.S., and the Nordic Region are the countries that lead in BIM adoption.

IFC File Formats

IFC files come in three major formats:

• (.ifc) STEP physical file — described in EXPRESS data definition language; text-based and compact
• (.ifcXML) XML-based file format — described in XML Schema 1.0, as defined by W3C; human-readable, but larger by ~300-400% compared to .ifc.
• (.ifcZIP) — compressed format consisting of either .ifc or .ifcXML files.

IFC BIM model is an object-based representation of physical objects. In case of a door, this would its constitutional material, geometry, various layers with different characteristics, including weight, light reflection, and others — all of which can be used later for cost estimation, simulation, and physical events modeling.

Layered Architecture

IFC format describes objects and interaction concepts in four different layers:

• Resource layer: the lowest level that consists of resource definitions that are used by definitions on a higher level
• Core layer: all definitions of entities here are basic and can be referred to independently or as a part of an object defined on higher layers.
• Interoperability layer: definitions of entities that are specific to a particular product and often used by multiple parties on a construction project within one domain.
• Domain layer: the highest level of entities, products, processes, and resources specific to a certain discipline. This objects are used in information exchange between domains with different specialization.

Image 1 — IFC4 layers visualization

Industry Foundation Classes model is highly complex and covers a vast concept space; a single architect or software package does not leverage all available parameters and classes. A given process is usually restricted to a subset of specific classes with a limited number of parameters and resources needed for a specific job at a given stage of interest.

In the same way, export and import capabilities can also be restricted (or defined) by a subset of objects needed, for example, for traffic simulation or estimation of building a steel structural building facade.

Model View Definition (MVD)

A Model View Definition (MVD) describes a subset of IFC schema while also limiting file size and model complexity to facilitate data exchange between parties. MVDs identify what should be expected for an exchange to be effective. It helps systems on both ends; the exporter knows what is required and what is not required. There are a couple of standard MVDs.

Image 2 — BIM general visualization

The Coordination View (CV) is the most commonly implemented definition of the IFC schema. It targets the coordination between the architectural, mechanical, and structural engineering tasks during the design phase. This was the first definition developed by buildingSMART tech team.

The main purpose of CV is to allow for BIM model sharing between major disciplines of architecture, structural engineering, and mechanical building services. CV includes elements for spatial structuring, building, and building services needed to coordinate design in these areas.

Image 3: MVD — Coordination View Version 2.0

Coordination view can be re-editable by the receiving app; however, round-trip scenario for exchange is not defined.

IFC4 Design Transfer View

The IFC4 Design Transfer View targets all workflows based on models that are handed over to be performed in next workflows, also allowing for modifications of its content.

In addition to the exchange needs, the IFC4 Design Transfer View supports editing of interconnected elements. With IFC4, one can insert, delete, move, and modify building elements and spaces across different tools from different disciplines. An architect can send the initial design to an engineer who in turn can make structural changes and then return the model for further processing.

Internally, design parameters of higher levels must be preserved for those elements that span multiple disciplines, while applications must generate downstream geometry consistently in accordance with the parameters.

According to buildingSMART, here are the common characteristics of the workflow design transfer models:

1. Source of the BIM information can be shared
2. Basic parametric behavior, and thereby the intellectual engineering property, can be transferred
3. Model ownership and responsibility for its correctness can be transferred
4. Original model published as IFC4 Design Transfer model reflects the as-is status
5. Receiver of the IFC4 Design Transfer View does not need to have access to all the pieces of the model
6. Receiver of the IFC4 Design Transfer View can analyze and extract the information contained in a model
7. Receiver of the IFC4 Design Transfer View can modify the model
8. If the receiver suggests or demands a change, it can be made to the model directly

The characteristics indicate that such a system is ready for centralized BIM repository storage and multi-agent interaction based on a central database of building information.

IFC4 vs. IFC2x3

When you compare IFC2x3 with IFC4, one of the most important things to remember is that they are not directly compatible. The buildingSMART tech team removed a number of elements from IFC4, while several other elements were extended and improved upon. Therefore, one should use IFC2x3 Coordination View 2.0 (illustrated above on Image 3) to exchange data with old software solutions.

BIMSie: BIM in the Cloud

BIM Service interface exchange (BIMSie) its the standard API for BIM Web Services that enables BIM in the cloud and provides a way for communication between systems. It is a data-driven concept with a well-defined API structure. Having a standard API like BIMSie for BIM servers opens the possibility to develop software solutions that automatically work with every BIM server that supports the standard. As a result, BIMSie reduces software development cost, adoption, and interoperability within the industry.

LandXML: Land Development Industry Format

Infrastructure projects like roads, bridges, and railways demand slightly different types of data and parameters.

XML-based file covers the needs of such projects:

Transfers engineering design data between producers and consumers

• Provides a data format suitable for long-term data archiving.
• Provides a standard format for an electronic design submission.

Image 4 — example from LandXML definition

IFC for Infrastructure

IFC-Alignment is the first extension project aimed at providing a standardized way of communication between engineering teams in infrastructure projects. Standard BIM models were not good enough for 2D spatial alignment, while IFC-Alignment serves as a solid baseline for IFC-Road and IFC-Bridge specifications.

Image 5 — IFC-Alignment

With IFC-Alignment, the AEC industry achieved the following goals:

• Ability to exchange alignment information from planning and design to construction and asset management
• Ability to link alignment information to other project information, like cross-sections and full 3D geometry of construction elements (realized by upcoming IFC-Bridge and IFC-Road projects)
• Ability to query alignment information providing data like linear referencing for positioning
• Ability to access open data on alignment information in asset management databases
• Ability to map IFC alignment models to InfraGML (developed by OGC), and LandXML (latest InfraBIM version from buildingSMART Finland)

Importantly, IFC4, IFC-Alignment, and LandXML interoperate well. See the picture below as an example of their interoperability.

Image 6: IFC-Alignment interoperability

Conclusion

BIM open standards and file formats cover everything modern companies, architects, and engineers needed to design, collaborate, build, and maintain the majority of new buildings and infrastructure projects. Thus, more and more governments agencies are requiring BIM Level 3 support from the construction companies, as well as fully digitized processes based on open industry formats to develop their projects.

If you need help with your enterprise digitization strategy, we can help you unpack definitions, organize information workflow, and design systems that will support modern open formats in AEC industry.

Start by scheduling a consultation with experts of our AEC-focused unit.

About the Author

Pavlo Bashmakov is the Research & Development Lead @ Intellectsoft AR Lab.

The post BIM Open Standards for AEC Digitization Projects appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

Year after year, augmented reality gradually becomes a part of our lives. Whether it is entertainment, sales, or even the military, AR solutions get increasingly versatile and effective. As technology evolves, so does the quality of these solutions. AR apps with gimmicky features that could be barely passed off as augmented reality are a thing of the past now.

Today, AR apps transform how we solve daily issues, AR mirrors and displays serve as impactful marketing tools, and augmented reality eyewear is bound to save soldiers’ lives.

See the technologic wonders of modern AR in our selection.  

Timberland’s AR Mirror & Application Tandem

Not everybody likes dressing rooms, but most people will play a game or try something exciting and new. Timberland knew this well. The company put an AR mirror on selected storefronts to drive foot traffic. A Timberland employee would use an accompanying AR application to create a virtual copy of a customer, which they can dress up using gestures (enabled by Kinect technology) to see how items fit — without entering the store.

The combination of AR mirror and application sounds overly complex as something you would casually stop by at the mall. Still, the people liked it: they engagingly dressed their virtual copies and enjoyed it as a game, prompting other people to join.

See the video below.

Streem AR App for Remote Maintenance

Streem shows how effective even the simplest AR apps can be in solving critical issues. In this case, fixing home appliances. For example, your dishwasher stopped working in the middle of the workweek. You contact a repair services provider, and they establish a video chat in Streem with a repair expert. As you show your appliance, the repair professional uses the AR app to pre-evaluate the problem with a range of tools: arrows, annotations, and laser pointer. They can also use Streem to record the video, take pictures, communicate with you directly, and give a quote. As a result, the service expert will arrive prepared and with the right set of tools, saving them a lot of time and effort. For the customer, Streem removes a lot stress or allows to fix the problem remotely with the expert in short notice, if possible.

Streem partners with HomeAdvisor and works with a great many professional companies in the US. The creators claim the potential of their AR app is limitless and goes beyond fixing home appliances, mentioning chefs training home cooks as an example. The application uses both Apple ARKit and Google ARCore.

AR Eyepiece for the US Army Soldiers

The United States Army is developing an equipment suite for soldiers with an AR eyepiece at its core. Called Tactical Augmented Reality (TAR), the device helps soldiers locate the positions of foes and squadmates, significantly improving situational awareness and thus safety.

The eyepiece is paired with a soldier’s waist tablet and connected to thermal site on their weapon. When a soldier points the weapon, they can see the image of the target and details like distance to it with the AR eyepiece.

The AR-driven equipment suite is bound to become a universal tool for soldiers, replacing night-vision goggles, as well as the handheld GPS system American soldiers use to approximate their positions. Other possibilities would follow suite. For example, the waist tablets could monitor healthcare conditions of squadmates and then display it on a soldier’s eyepiece when any squadmate is in sight. Or, the device could simply provide navigational tips in unknown terrain right before soldiers’ eyes.

Lacoste AR App

The legendary apparel retailer was looking for a way to promote their new LCST shoe, created for a younger audience living in urban areas. Augmented reality seemed a fitting option for our tech-savvy times.

Remember Converse’s pioneering Sampler app, which allowed users to try new shoes on by using their smartphone cameras? Lacoste was inspired by the concept, elevating it several steps higher. With their AR app, a user points the smartphone camera to their feet and browses available modifications in the same way, but the space around the shoe is also augmented with crisp and colorful backgrounds that change with the modification. In short, the app is simple but visually stunning.

See the video below.

Aiming to bring more color to the image of their new product, the Lacoste AR app proved to be a success, engaging as much as 30,000 users.

Trying shoes on wasn’t the only feature still. With AR experience involving window displays, in-store signage, and promotional postcards, Lacoste has given a lesson on how to create impactful AR mobile apps.

Pepsi Max and AR Display Stunt

Commute is not the most memorable part of the day. That is until you encounter aliens, tigers, and monstrous tentacles that snatch passerby while you wait for your morning bus. These and other surprises were part of Pepsi’s fresh and exciting marketing stunt in London. The beverage brand installed an AR display in one of the bus stops, which displayed a number of high-quality visuals that gradually caught the attention commuters, taking them by surprise. In a spot-on decision, Pepsi took the premise of simple AR applications and to took it to a bigger scale and screen. The result is a morning to remember for people and a successful marketing move for the company.  

See more examples of versatile AR apps in our list of the best AR apps in the history of mobile, which includes developments by Nike, IBM, and The New York Times.

If you need a consultation about AR applications, get in touch with our experts. Intellectsoft offers comprehensive, industry-specific augmented reality solutions.

The post AR Apps, Eyepieces & Mirrors: How Augmented Reality Changes the World appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.

Tech enthusiasts and people working in the tech industry have waited four long years for Magic Leap glasses and technology to arrive. From the first teaser, the company promised the most immersive AR/VR experience of them all, whether it was for entertainment or business purposes.

The company postponed it multiple times, but the Magic Leap glasses release finally happened on August 8 in selected areas in the US. Intellectsoft was very eager to try and test the device, the experts from the Intellectsoft AR Lab more than anybody else in the company.

Prior to Magic Leap, the Lab closely explored AR use cases in the construction industry, launched MEP Layout demo for Microsoft HoloLens named “KADO,” and now creates and experiments with solutions for manufacturing, construction, and field works operations for the existing customers.

Finally, it was the Lab’s time to try the new, much-anticipated device. When Magic Leap Creator Edition arrived at our San Francisco office, we were enthusiastic to discover what it can bring to our toolset, and what capabilities we could get from it to deliver better solutions to our industrial clients.

Was the device worth the wait? Or are there too many downsides to consider investing in it?

Let’s go through the pros and cons in our Magic Leap review.

1. Two sizes complicate the purchase, development, and testing processes

We got our pair of Magic Leap glasses from Enjoy courier, who informed us we need to select between two sizes, simply called Size 1 and Size 2. What’s the difference? Your choice will depend on your interpupillary distance. We made measurements for the four members of our team: Size 2 suited the majority well (3 vs. 1), so we opted for it. As far as I know, this size should fit 30% of users.

We plan to use the Magic Leap technology to develop AR demos, so choosing between two sizes creates several issues. First, AR Lab’s team is a distributed one, and it will be costly to supply each location we operate at with Magic Leap glasses, more so in two sizes. Consequently, this means we won’t be able to provide the most comfortable demo showcasing experience for each and every one of our clients.

2. Eyes — Magic Leap glasses level should be aligned perfectly

During the fitting process, we also learnt that eyes and the glasses need to be aligned almost perfectly, because otherwise you wouldn’t finish the eye calibration. If you won’t, you get a suboptimal experience. To add to that, Magic Leap glasses come with five different nose pad sizes, and I often find myself jumping between sizes 2, 3, 4 or 5 after I pass them to someone else.

Again, this adds friction to the experience. This is acceptable when you use Magic Leap as a personal device, but not convenient for development and testing purposes while operating in a team. The lack of available apps and experiences shows that Magic Leap glasses and technology need at least one more year in the creator/developer stage before individual consumers start adopting them.

3. Magic Leap glasses have a bigger field of view than Microsoft HoloLens

From the first glance, you can see that Magic Leap has more active area than HoloLens, the only device close to it by capabilities. This is a major benefit. Magic Leap’s higher field of view allows you to observe bigger spaces with less head movements and simplifies the onboarding process for new customers. HoloLens, on the other hand, has a small field of view, which is a concern to many users, as they think it is a critical limitation, and that Microsoft’s technology is not ready for proof of concepts and pilot deployments yet. Magic Leap has addressed this concern and will yield a much better response from early adopters, whether it’s a user or a tech department.

4. Lighter on your head

Another strength of Magic Leap is weight, the glasses are much lighter than HoloLens. This enables companies to prolong processes like collaborative design or 3D modeling — a major advantage in the enterprise.

5. More computing power, RAM, and storage space is a big advantage

Magic Leap glasses are running on NVidia Tegra X2 chip that features an integrated 256-core NVidia Pascal GPU, a hex-core ARMv8 64-bit CPU complex, and 8GB of LPDDR4 memory with a 128-bit interface. Half of the memory (4Gb) will be available for developer applications. Storage capacity is 128GB, with 95GB available for developers.

All of this is encapsulated in a separate device called Lightpack the user should carrier around with the glasses. It’s small and can be easily fastened to a pocket.

Such hardware is another substantial advantage — developers can work with bigger and more complex models.

6. Magic Leap technology: localization, tracking, and scene recognition need to be improved

In the process of our Magic Leap review, I noticed more visual jittering than with HoloLens. Space-matching also doesn’t work properly, and every time I start Magic Leap after a reboot, it can’t match the room. This problem persists with feature-rich surfaces and on bigger spatial distances regardless of the effort you put in. Consequently, SLAM is always challenging. This is a software issue, and I hope the developers are already fixing it.

7. Limited use of mesh of the room

Magic Leap glasses have all capabilities to scan a room, and constantly perform the scanning. However, I found that the device’s Lumin OS doesn’t use it extensively for system interfaces. You can see how a system menu goes through walls, or you can position app screens behind a wall or through the floor. In my opinion, a spatial computer interface should be constantly aware about the user’s surroundings and merge physical and digital worlds in a consistent and valid way. My guess is that this process is just too computationally heavy, and that the developers decided to optimize it and add more space-aware features later.

8. Controller trackpad navigation is odd

I was surprised that Magic Leap’s user experience doesn’t involve gestures or gaze control at all. Instead, the company implemented trackpad-based navigation: you need to swipe the controller’s trackpad with your thumb to move the focus between UI elements. I think that gesture-based navigation that we saw in major VR headsets like Oculus Go and Google Daydream would be more fitting and comfortable in the enterprise and in general. The gaze-based approach in HoloLens is also better for UI navigation and text input. Our Magic Leap review took place in a relatively spacious office, but using the controller in tight spaces, for example on construction sites, will be uncomfortable.

Ultimately, this is also a software issue that can be fixed. Given its importance, I think we might except the fixes soon.

9. Voice interface and guidance are underutilized

In short, voice use is very rudimentary in the native Magic Leap UI. Guidance is mostly given via text and images instead of voice. Again, most VR and AR experiences today rely on voice, and it is naturally more comfortable to have voice guidance rather than read long texts on AR glasses, no matter how well-made they are or how big is the field of view. 

10. Power off complications

Magic Leap glasses don’t have sleep mode — you need to turn it off correctly every time to save battery life. This comes as a very strange technical decision in a time when laptop and smartphone producers have long saved their users from this small chore. Sleep mode has become a must a long time ago, as far as technology goes at least. Although Magic Leap glasses and technology have enough to boast, the developers should definitely include this feature in the nearest future.

11. Magic Leap technology supports Mac development

Developers on Mac will be extremely happy: Magic Leap supports the development toolchain for Mac users, and their AR creative efforts are no longer solely locked in the Windows realm. 

12. No easy way to carry Magic Leap glasses around

Almost any modern gadget would fit into a regular backpack and doesn’t need special protection, but this is not the case with Magic Leap. The device is fragile, and you also cannot disconnect the Lightwear computer from it. Moreover, you need additional space for the nose pads, charger, and controller. It looks like you need a seperate box to carry everything around, if you don’t want to break it on the road to a crucial meeting.

13. Excessive heat on the forehead is a major downside

After about 15-20 minutes of usage, you can feel the heat from the glasses on your forehead.

This negates the positive effect of its lightness, as well as discourages you to use it for a long period of time.

14. Magic Leap AR glasses don’t fit on vision-correction glasses

Most people on our team wear glasses for vision correction. To use Magic Leap comfortably, we need to switch to contact lenses every time. I also tried to use the device while wearing my glasses, but the user experience suffered from it significantly.

Magic Leap Review: Conclusion

Despite the evident downsides, Magic Leap is a step towards true spatial AR glasses. The device is lightweight, offers a big field of view, and has enough processing power to help creators and developers build new and unique experiences. On a bigger scale, Magic Leap AR glasses are more of a step than a leap to creating new, innovative projects that would facilitate mass AR adoption, but a sufficient one nonetheless.

For our enterprise customers, Magic Leap provides an opportunity to effectively experiment with larger BIM models in manufacturing and construction. Entertainment and education are other spaces where I see the opportunity to make proof of concepts and test the device for real world applications.

Overall, this is a solid start for Magic Leap, and Intellectsoft AR Lab is anticipating new updates, fixes, and improvements that would elevate the device further. And after four years of teasers, leaks, and waiting, it’s great we finally can see how Magic Leap works in real life — not on paper.

Find more about Intellectsoft AR Lab.

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About the Author

Pavlo Bashmakov is the Research & Development Lead @ Intellectsoft AR Lab.

The post Magic Leap Glasses Review: Enterprise Usage appeared first on Intellectsoft Blog.