Are you Ready for the Next Step?
Once a futuristic dream, it has long since become part of everyday life in innovative industrial companies: Augmented Reality.
Inspect AR streamlines your inspection and maintenance processes. Whether for digital instruction or remote support, your employees have direct access to expertise at all times. Inspect AR runs on a smartphone, tablet, or data glasses and brings more efficiency to your business.
Automatically log and document completed tasks and adjust processes at any time based on those logs and reports.
Improve Production Efficiency with AR
Maintenance, Inspection & Training for Industry 4.0
32%
Fewer Errors*
15%
Faster Reporting*
28%
Less Downtime*
Inspect AR
Augmented Reality for Maintenance and Inspection
No More Pen, Paper And Clipboard
The Inspect AR app makes your inspection and maintenance processes completely digital. Paper checklists are a thing of the past.
This offers many advantages: Inspections are faster and more efficient, quality is always consistent, and errors are minimized. All tasks are automatically documented in an interactive dashboard with a handy export function.
Ideal For Getting Started With AR
Workers receive virtual, step-by-step instructions displayed directly in their field of view, for example via a hands-free AR headset. Digital markers show the exact location and checkpoints are no longer missed.
Augment IT developed Inspect AR specifically for use in the manufacturing industry. All compliance requirements, such as technical or privacy policies, are exactly met.
AR in the enterprise: Industry Benefits
Simple Optimization of Maintenance Processes
Create and customize digital checklists
No programming skills required: Inspect AR lets you create step-by-step instructions with animated AR overlays and checklists through an intuitive interface in the web browser or directly in the app.
Update your inspections with just a few clicks: Employee feedback can be added directly to keep knowledge up to date.
Adapt the system to your new processes, not the other way around. Changeover is quick and easy: Run the next inspection according to the new process with no downtime.
Clear instructions for each step of the process
Step-by-step instructions: Complete inspections and maintenance easier, faster and error-free with Inspect AR. Inspections are completed completely and no checkpoints are forgotten.
Remote support: Experts can help remotely when needed, using Microsoft Teams or xmReality.
Full documentation: As each inspection is confirmed, all results are digitally documented in real time. This means that defects can be recorded directly and rectified in a controlled manner via a simple workflow.
You are automatically notified when all work is done.
Overview of all maintenance – in real time
Perfect overview: View all work reports and data analysis in a single dashboard. This is especially helpful when you have many complex inspection operations running simultaneously, such as plant, incoming and outgoing inspections, final assembly inspections, safety and compliance checks, or periodic plant inspections.
Inspect AR scales across multiple applications, giving you an up-to-the-minute view of all operations with a single click.
Correct issues immediately: Errors are reported and documented in real time with the click of a button – including description, image, video, and prioritization.
More flexibility in personnel planning
Improve productivity: Inspect AR delivers technical knowledge “on the job” directly at the plant or machine, more efficiently than other learning methods.
Increase flexibility: With visual, step-by-step instructions, an inspection is no longer tied to inspection experts, and you can assign your entire team. For complex troubleshooting, experts can support remotely on the fly.
Build knowledge repositories: Seamless documentation allows you to capture and store employee knowledge. When specialists retire, their experience stays in the business!
The Features of Inspect AR at a Glance
Use Augmented Reality easily, flexibly, and profitably
100% Hardware
Independent
Inspect AR is cross-platform capable: There is a suitable end device for every area of application. A smartphone or tablet is sufficient for daily routine inspections.
When working directly with an object or in challenging environments, augmented reality headsets provide the perfect support.
Investment-Proof
Software
If you want to start using Inspect AR on your smartphone, you can rest assured that the app will run on all future generations of devices as well as high-end data glasses.
Cloud Service Or
On-Premise
With hosting on Azure Cloud, Inspect AR is ready to use immediately – without infrastructure or installation.
To meet increased security requirements, an on-premise installation is of course also possible at any time.
The App Includes
Offline Function
With Inspect AR, inspections are possible even with a poor or blocked Internet connection.
If the connection is interrupted, the inspector simply continues working offline. As soon as the Internet connection is available again, the data is loaded into the system.
Out-Of-The-Box
Integration
Use our out-of-the-box interfaces or enterprise connectors to your IT landscape, e.g. the SAP integration and the interface to the Microsoft Power Platform.
This allows you to trigger jobs automatically and return the results for further processing.
Multiple Languages
To Choose From
Do you have employees in multiple countries? Thanks to the multilingual user interface, you can translate the instructions per language, but you can still evaluate them in a superordinate and language-independent way.
Your employees can use their preferred languages.
Schedule A Call Now!
Let’s talk about how you can use AR in your business. Or let’s schedule a product demonstration right now.
References
See how Augmented Reality helps Businesses Improve
Frequently Asked Questions
Need Answers fast? Find our FAQ and Answers below.
What is the difference between AR, or augmented reality, VR, or virtual reality, mixed reality, Microsoft HoloLens, and smart glass?
There are many terms associated with augmented reality, but not everyone needs to be able to distinguish between them. With augmented reality (AR), you see the world around you as it is. Additional interactive information is placed in the real environment. It is also called “mixed reality” because the real world and virtual information are visible at the same time. Virtual reality (VR) is a different concept. In VR, the user wears a pair of glasses that is completely closed on all sides. All he or she sees is a virtual environment or a digital world.
The terms see-through, smart glasses and wearable glasses refer to augmented reality data glasses. Microsoft HoloLens are probably the most popular data glasses on the market and are, of course, also compatible with Inspect AR. As mixed reality glasses, they project virtual images, instructions and data into the room and are completely hands-free, i. e. Employees have both hands free during inspections and maintenance work. Moreover, data glasses can even be used with eye tracking and voice control.
RealWear HMT-1 is a pair of data glasses based on the principle of assisted reality glasses which display instructions in the form of a screen in front of the eye and are also fully voice-controlled.
Important: Hardware is necessary for Inspect AR, but it does not always have to be a take the form of data glasses. Smartphones or tablets can also be used. The latest generations of iPhones and iPads deliver very high precision for AR navigation and are a familiar form factor for your employees.
What does Remote Assistance mean in production and manufacturing?
Remote Assistance means that specialists provide direct support to persons working on the machine from a distance (e.g. via video link). It is a genuine innovation that avoids a lot of commuting and waiting times and, thereby, machine downtimes as well.
What happens when production processes are reorganized?
Then you simply adapt checklists and checkpoints to your changed processes – not the other way around. Our mobile app recorder is the fastest way to create templates for new checklists. Due to the spatial mapping, CAD data is not necessary but can certainly be integrated. Or you can create the checklists via Excel importer, API or web interface.
Who is behind Augment IT?
Augment IT is a business unit of the medium-sized Swiss software company Netcetera AG. With 700+ employees in eight offices worldwide, Netcetera supports medium-sized and large companies in their digital transformation into high-tech enterprises. In addition to its core business as a provider of financial software, Netcetera has developed other key areas.
Augment IT is a full-service provider for virtual reality (VR), augmented reality technology (AR technology), and software services relating to augmented reality apps and data glasses. We also gladly implement individual augmented reality applications, VR projects, and AR solutions for our customers. We help companies realize the full potential of this new technology, optimize processes, create new experiences and innovate together. We follow a best-of-breed approach and operate independent of platform and device.
What technology does Augment IT use?
We rely on Microsoft Azure as well as custom-developed apps for iOS, Android, HoloLens and RealWear. These enable high performance, stability and the best possible user experience for your employees.
Hosting on Azure Cloud allows for immediately operable installation. An on-premise installation is, however, also possible without compromising quality. Since the data is transmitted asynchronously and stored locally, Inspect AR does not require a permanent Internet connection – a necessary advantage for use in manufacturing.
In addition to the option of using different data glasses, their use on iOS and Android smartphones or tablets is also possible. The web-based management software runs in the browser on any computer. Inspect AR can be easily integrated into your IT systems over various connectors and the widely used technology platform.
Which data glasses does Augment IT recommend?
Inspect AR is available for Microsoft HoloLens 2, RealWear HMT-1 as well as Google Glass and Vuzix devices.
HoloLens 2 offers the most capabilities with stable 3D navigation over longer distances and ease of use thanks to hand tracking. Based on Windows 10, it also integrates very well into secure corporate networks. The Industrial Edition is even suitable for clean rooms and can be used for short periods in areas with flammable substances. Voice control and eye tracking enable its use with protective suits as well. HoloLens 2 is suitable for indoor use.
RealWear HMT-1 is the most resilient device, and the HMT-1Z1 version is even certified for ATEX protection zone 1 as it meets safety protocols and standards for oil and gas drilling rigs, pipelines, refineries, petrochemical and pharmaceutical plants, and many more areas, ranging from food processing to food processing plants, construction and textile mills. Thanks to the excellent microphone, the data glasses can be controlled with voice commands even at ambient noise levels of up to 85 decibels. The glasses also have a very good camera with an integrated flashlight. They are therefore particularly well suited for outdoor areas.
Which operational purposes can be realized with the Inspect AR Platform?
Many companies ask themselves how they can work faster, smarter and better in the age of digital transformation. Augmented reality plays a key role in digital disruption. In the multiple use cases that AR has generated – digital checklists, remote assistance from experts, digital training or guides, and more – AR is not only changing processes and the way companies operate but also enabling them to become more agile and responsive to changing market conditions. Numerous companies from a wide range of sectors, such as mechanical engineering, life sciences, logistics, transportation, aerospace and defense, etc., have already recognized this and are using it to gain competitive advantages.
In the future, organizations will want to use a robust and secure AR solution that can be employed across multiple application areas, such as onboarding, training, security checks, compliance requirement fulfilment, custom process improvements, inspections, and maintenance. In addition, new features such as artificial intelligence and machine learning will become available to contribute to better forecasts. In the short term, integration with the Internet of Things (IoT) will become an increased topic, e.g. for the live display of sensor data on machines. However, first and foremost, developments in the AR market will essentially: continue.
Inspect AR is also used in the areas of life science and chemistry for plant control and quality assurance as well as for training. Furthermore, in industries such as transport and logistics, augmented reality is very useful because, by using data goggles, both hands remain free for important tasks. This saves a considerable amount of time and additional work steps that would, for example, in maintenance or approving and accepting, cost a lot of money. Many suppliers, including those in the building technology sector, now seek to increase their efficiency with this new technology. We have numerous examples throughout the entire industrial supply chain where our solutions are successfully being used. Contact us!
