MRBC4I

Mixed reality (both virtual reality and augmented reality) technologies and applications have gained increasing importance in recent years. Nevertheless, from a technical, organizational, and psychological perspective, several challenges remain for their real-world industrial application – as evidenced by Gartner's well-known Hype Cycle, which currently places the technology in the "Trough of Disillusionment."

Specific problems include the comparatively high barriers to entry for companies, which means that company-driven MR projects rarely progress beyond the prototype stage, as well as the often-lacking economic basis for decision-making and implementation that is accepted by all stakeholders. Furthermore, discussions about preliminary projects with production companies and plant manufacturers in the Vienna, Lower Austria, and Upper Austria regions show that the technologies and the associated operational opportunities are still largely untapped by SMEs.

Specific problems include the comparatively high barriers to entry for companies, which means that company-driven MR projects rarely progress beyond the prototype stage, as well as the often-lacking economic basis for decision-making and implementation that is accepted by all stakeholders.

The "Mixed Reality Based Collaboration for Industry" (MRBC4I) project addresses this challenge and aims to propel Austrian industry forward by achieving the following key objectives:

1) Reducing barriers to entry (technical, organizational, psychological)

2) Reducing costs

3) Conducting impact analyses for business processes and models, stakeholder acceptance analyses, and readiness (maturity) analyses

The project consortium comprises 22 corporate partners and five research institutions. The research partners are St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, FOTEC, Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, and Vienna University of Technology. The collaborative project focuses on implementing use cases related to production support, remote support, training, and product presentation. FOTEC is contributing its expertise in the areas of the Internet of Things, backend development, cloud services, machine learning, and apps for all platforms. The St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences is working on the areas of usability, storytelling, and interaction. The Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) is addressing the impact on work processes, changes in job profiles, and employee qualifications. The Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences (FH Oberösterreich) is focusing on the research topics of remote collaboration, data reduction, and visualization. The Krems University of Applied Sciences (IMC FH Krems) is researching the impact on business processes/models, stakeholder acceptance, and readiness checks.

You can find the project results here:

• Projects from the "Remote Support" topic stream (you can find the video here)
• Lenze (Training & Education - you can find the video here)
• ÖBB (Training & Education - you can find the video here)
• Red Cross (Training & Education - you can find the video here)
• Bene (Product Presentation - you can find the video here)
• MBIT (Product Presentation - you can find the video here)
• Semperit (Product Presentation - you can find the video here)
• Umdasch Group Ventures (Product Presentation - you can find the video here)
• Kotanyi (Production Support - you can find the video here)
• MAN (Production Support - you can find the video here)
• Wittmann Battenfeld (Production Support - you can find the video here)

Here you can find the final report for the MRBC4I project.