Augmented reality – industrial applications

Present situation worldwide and in Switzerland

Augmented reality – or rather “mixed reality” – combines the visual perception of real and virtual objects. It enables an enhancement of perceived reality by means of technical devices. The aim is to represent additional information. This technology is gaining increasing ground owing in particular to its inclusion of the real world. Mixed reality ties virtual information to ongoing production processes, e.g. in maintenance, order processing or process monitoring. Virtual and real objects are increasingly “merged”, giving rise to the new term “XR” (cross reality). Typical applications can be found in education and teaching, in product development and production (industry 4.0), and in the medical field.

Implications for Switzerland

Making information available in users’ visual field creates many possibilities, be it in distribution (visualisation of product variants) or in service (data provision for technical staff). Switzerland is well positioned, as large and medium- sized companies are already successfully using XR in their development and production activities. The growing availability of technical systems is making XR increasingly interesting also for small companies, a trend that is likely to accelerate over the next five years. Swiss companies conducting research and development activities in the field of XR are globally well positioned and supply highly specific solutions in their respective areas of expertise.