October 15, 2019 – Future Sight AR has today announced that its XR construction app, Katana, has launched on Magic Leap World. Katana leverages spatial computing and mixed reality technology to deliver expert content to workers in construction, manufacturing, aviation, and defence.
In November 2018, Magic Leap launched its Independent Creator Program to help promote cutting edge spatial computing experiences, and later announced in February 2019 the first round of successful applicants, of which Future Sight AR was one.
Future Sight AR’s Katana app is a library of work instructions for 400 of the most common pieces of equipment found on construction sites. These instructions are brought to life using the spatial computing power of a Magic Leap One device. According to the company, the app allows workers to move through workflows and report progress and issues without taking their eyes off the job – helping to increase safety and efficiency, reduce rework and provide workers with greater control over the quality of their work.
Commenting on Katana, Co-Founder of Future Sight AR, Lori-Lee Elliott, said: “Today, its primary use is creating and assigning digital work packages to field engineers, technicians and craft. A work package is like a tutorial or guide that takes a user through all the steps needed to complete a task. Along the way, the user acknowledges or logs their progress, so they don’t have to fill out paperwork when the task is complete.”
Future Sight AR is focusing on industrial use cases first, but according to the company, Katana can be used to create any kind of step-based experience.
Katana pulls all it’s 3D models and content from a remote database, rather than storing it locally on the headset itself. This enables users in an office to author and assign procedures from the web to an engineer in the field with the headset. As an industrial application, the names of the procedures can be very specific, which usually translates into a lot of characters. As a result, Katana uses a rolodex-style menu that lets users see only a few options at a time, however, there are visual cues that indicate more options are available.
Elliott continued: “Safety and safety culture is paramount in construction, so we built that into Katana. When you use the application you’re continually prompted to ensure you are deploying safe working practices, such as permits, personal protective equipment (PPE) and stop work authority.” She added, “with applications like Katana, that are highly visual and easy to translate input into different languages, we can communicate hazards to workers in ways that result in better parity, no matter which language is spoken on-site.”
Looking forward, Future Sight AR has stated that it will be rolling out pilots with EPCs, equipment providers, and energy companies that are exploring XR tech and how it can improve the workplace. The company has capacity for five pilots this year and has filled two already. Furthermore, Katana will be rolled out on Android and iOS, with a ‘Katana Pro’ web-app version of the application also expected to launch, which will allow customers to create their own tutorials, guides and work instructions.
Video credit: Future Sight AR/YouTube
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.