The potential of Augmented and Virtual Realities for the automotive industry not to stop in times of crisis

image: Forbes.com

Credit: Wanderson Magalhães 08/06/2020  

In the modern automotive industry, providing real-time information for production and management is essential to improving results and business development. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are solutions that bring efficiency and dynamism to manual or analysis processes. Innovation, which is a breakthrough in this sector, may have its use extrapolated when we think about the times we live with the pandemic, closing all factories, and now in the resumption, which requires a safe distance.

Augmented Reality is a technology that allows the virtual world, generated by the computer, to overlap with the real world, using devices such as glasses, tablets and smartphones, making it possible to view and interact with information quickly and naturally.

In this respect, an entire operation can be controlled remotely, as industrial handling is monitored in real time, as well as the production and interaction of users using VR and RA. The return can be surprising, showing a deficiency in which the use of AR can replace direct monitoring in the field with the virtualization of plants. In other words, the industries would avoid their total closure, as occurred at the height of the pandemic.

When we combine Augmented Reality with Business Intelligence, Machine Learning and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, we are able to provide important information and collaborative analysis in real time between the virtual and the real worlds.

AR applications have an enormous breadth. It is possible to analyze CAD models in real time in an interactive and shared way, to replace paper sheets and monitors, to visualize in real time the working equipment and even to detect the need for repair of these machines.

The hands-free modality is one of the positive points and brings increased productivity and reduced costs. The obstacles to this innovation, on the other hand, are in the durability of the batteries and in the heating of AR equipment due to its prolonged use. However, there have been improvements in recent years and this technological evolution has the support of technology giants like Microsoft and Apple to accelerate development.

Just as smartphones have replaced cameras, diaries, calendars and phones, Augmented Reality has the potential to replace TVs, computers, monitors and smartphones in the future with the use of special glasses, making the worlds more and more virtual and a unique environment for visualization and interaction.

For industries, the use of AR technology will positively impact the implementation of more dynamic and collaborative processes, whose information and interactions will be differential for growth and market conquest.