Impact sXR Project

Issue

How can prototypes for specific industrial applications be developed on the basis of XR technologies (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality) and how can their long-term acceptance in companies be increased? Can something also be said about their contribution to reducing the environmental footprint of companies?

Approach

In the “Impact-sXR” project (an acronym for “Industrial Manufacturing Process and Collaboration Tools for Sustainable XR”), companies and scientific partners joined forces to investigate these questions. Two specific fields of application were selected as focal points: novel forms of distance collaboration as well as XR-supported training and learning methods. Special research tasks were to be solved for both fields of application: In order to merge the 3D depth information of real industrial environments with the spatial relationships of the people acting in them in real time, it was necessary to resort to new forms of “spatial computing”. In order to adequately tailor training scenarios to different types of users, new XR-supported didactic formats were developed that bring an appropriate degree of “gamification” to an industrial environment. A certain percentage of the project budget was used to purchase a hardware pool that was available to all project partners and could be tested in the respective company environment.

The technical focus was supplemented by accompanying social and economic research. This made it possible to assess how business processes changed through the use of “augmented reality” and to determine the cost-benefit ratio of such measures. Measures were also developed to increase long-term acceptance of the technologies used. Particular attention was paid to the contributions that XR solutions can make to environmental sustainability.

Result

At the end of the project period, the participating industrial companies, with the support of the research partners, will have worked on the company-specific issues that they brought to the project and gained experience with the prototypes developed. Based on this, the companies will have developed a suitable vision for the use of XR technologies, from which short and medium-term steps can be derived.

Contact

Plastics Cluster
Thomas Gröger
+43 664 848 26 97