14 maart 2019
Industrial Reality Hub receives official Fieldlab status
On Thursday 14 March 2019 the first edition of the event ‘Industrial Reality’ took place in The Gallery in Enschede. Under the supervision of 150 participants, the Fieldlab status was awarded to the IR Hub by Smart Industry. The handover of the Fieldlab plate took place in an interactive VR session. The aim of the event was to generate more awareness in the Dutch industry about the competences of AR/VR companies with a critical mass in the East of the Netherlands. In ten demo stands the audience could experience the possibilities that come with these techniques.
Over Industrial Reality Hub
Industrial Reality Hub is a partnership between the companies Controllab, OVSoftware, SeriousVR, Recreate, Twinsense360, Xsens, The Virtual Dutch Men, Benchmark Electronics, Demcon-Nymus3D and the VR Lab of the University of Twente, led by development company Oost NL. Together these partners offer all technological competencies in the field of Augmented and Virtual Reality that are necessary to implement business process innovations.
Augmented and Virtual Reality is a new way to discover the world, says Christian Kleijn, who acts on behalf of Controllab as chairman of the Industrial Reality Hub. With several specialist companies, we have deliberately joined forces to effectively apply Augmented and Virtual Reality in industry, construction and healthcare. As a Hub, we want to challenge the business community to come to us with issues and dilemmas, for which we can offer appropriate solutions with our expertise and research the possibilities of today’.
Granting of Fieldlab status in VR
Fully in line with the competences of the Hub, the Fieldlab status was awarded in a Virtual Reality session by Willem Offerhaus, member of the Smart Industry steering committee. “We want to put the Netherlands on the international map as an innovation country. Clustering of knowledge and expertise in the field of Augmented and Virtual Reality by a broad consortium consisting of specialist companies and knowledge institutions contributes to accelerating technological developments. We have to be aware that the competition is enormous, both in Europe and globally. Collaborations such as the Industrial Reality Hub ensure that innovations are implemented faster, increasing the chance of international recognition as an AR/VR hotspot. This makes the IR Hub unique in the Netherlands and distinctive in Europe. The East Netherlands forms the link from the Netherlands to Germany”.
Sander Karnebeek of the Province of Overijssel also points out the importance of the Industrial Reality Hub. “As a province, we are responsible for the future sustainability of the regional economy. The Industrial Reality Hub is a good example of how forces are combined in Overijssel and certainly contributes to strengthening the innovation potential in the region”. Robbert Jan Kooij, project manager Tech at Oost NL and developer of the IR Hub, points out that it is a business and business case driven initiative. “We as the Netherlands are known for AR/VR in the entertainment sector, but not yet in the field of industrial applications. The Industrial Reality Hub focuses primarily on the development of large complex projects”.
After the energetic panel discussion between the attendees, they were allowed to set up a VR headset and the conversation continued in a virtual session. Via a 360-degree tour of the Hub members and their physical field lab locations, four puzzle pieces containing the colours of the Smart Industry programme floated above the hands of the avatars of the four participants. Eventually the pieces of the puzzle came together in a virtual way; Fieldlab Industrial Reality is now a reality in 2019.
Guest speaker Microsoft
Guest speaker at the launch event was Martin Tirion of Microsoft. He presented the Hololens 2 and indicated that the worldwide market for AR/VR business usage is estimated at 64 billion euros. “Mixed Reality is the key to digitalisation, where the enterprise market is the most interesting. Augmented and Virtual Reality as a technology play an important role in unlocking enormous amounts of data and gaining more insight into the information flows. The Industrial Reality Hub fits in perfectly with its competencies”.
Interactive parallel sessions
An important part of the program were the parallel sessions. The visitors of the launch event could register for three different sessions. During the parallel session ‘New Business Models’ SeriousVR and The Virtual Dutchmen showed how AR/VR makes new business models possible. During the ‘Virtual Industry’ session, Controllab, Twinsense360, Nymus360 and the UTwente showed the various possibilities of AR/VR during the development and use of industrial products. During the meeting on ‘Future Skills’ various applications were discussed during the education, training and support of people by Xsens, Recreate and OVsoftware.
The successful launch event ended with a call by coordinator Robbert Jan Kooij. “The members of the Industrial Reality Hub would like to receive concrete cases and issues, to be picked up by an experiment in the Fieldlab. The members collectively offer a quick scan for this purpose”.
The IR Hub then takes the international step through the presence of the business partners at the Hannover Messe at the Holland High Tech stand in Hall 8. Soon there will be two more theme days from the Fieldlab IRHub:
- AR/VR Hardware: Developments with focus on different AR/VR headsets. Trying out these headsets yourself.
- From CAD/BIM to AR/VR: 3D-processing from CAD images/ BIM models for AR/VR applications.