Mixed Reality in industry: what benefits does It provide?

You are constantly hearing about new technologies arriving in the industry.

And you know that mixed reality is no longer just the future, nor a science fiction idea, but a solution with concrete advantages to improve your business.

But what is mixed reality and how can it help improve performance indicators in your industry? Can technology itself help you improve production speed, make your human team more productive, or avoid errors in the most complex supervisory tasks?

You would be surprised to learn about the benefits that Mixed Reality can bring to your industry.

Let's take a look!

What is Mixed Reality?

We will explain it simply. It is about combining the virtual world with the real world so that you can get the best of both worlds.

This is possible thanks to mixed reality glasses, such as Microsoft’s Hololens 2 and Apple Vision Pro, although there are many more models on the market.

Let’s take a practical case: you are performing a maintenance task in a machine tool manufacturing company, but the operator requires real-time assistance to know the actions to be carried out.

Mixed reality glasses allow the operator to see the components of the machine being reviewed or repaired and provide real-time data on the different elements of the machine. So, while seeing the instructions, the operator can work on their tasks.

In other words, through mixed reality glasses, real and virtual elements are combined in a single tool, which can help you work more efficiently with real-time assistance.

Differences between Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality

Mixed reality combines the best of virtual reality and augmented reality in one device.

• Virtual Reality is limited solely to virtual elements; it is an artificial digital environment, isolated from the real world.
• Augmented Reality is a real environment overlaid with virtual objects with limited interaction with what you are doing.

In Mixed Reality, there is not just an overlay, as in the case of Augmented Reality, but it also allows anchoring virtual objects to the real world so that it is possible to interact with them. It works like a hologram, an infinite virtual world on top of the real world where you can interact.

What benefits does Mixed Reality provide to industry?

Mixed reality is a technology that is helping to transform factories.

Now that maximum digitalization and automation are sought, the use of such solutions allows for evolving towards more efficient management.

Industries are adopting a new approach; adapting to Industry 4.0 means developing smart factories, where maximum integration and interconnection between all parts involved in production, industrial design, or industrial maintenance are essential.

Ultimately, you can take advantage of the benefits of mixed reality tools to visualize data, facilitate collaboration among operators, and improve real-time decision-making!

Some of the benefits it brings to industries are:

1. Improved productivity

‍How can Mixed Reality glasses with an industrial assistant help your team improve productivity?

Operators, supervisors, designers, or maintenance professionals can perform complex tasks more quickly, safely, and efficiently by visualizing overlaid data in real-time or receiving real-time instructions via voice or graphics and videos, based on the company's accumulated knowledge.

2. Capitalization of company knowledge

‍Industries store knowledge over time about processes, incident resolution methods, risk prevention, technical maintenance tasks…

This accumulated knowledge should not remain merely in the minds of the operators but should be centralized in a mixed reality tool that allows you to distribute that knowledge to anyone in the workforce who needs to perform those tasks.

3. Remote team training

‍Technical staff training is one of the critical aspects in many industries, as the most experienced and capable people have advanced knowledge in their tasks, which is not always common to the rest of the professionals.

Transmitting this knowledge and supervising new technicians and industrial operators, who must adapt to the unique characteristics of an industrial process, requires providing specific training.

Mixed reality allows the transmission of this knowledge to be done intuitively, simply, and digitally, which will also help you adapt to the young talent in your company, who will surely appreciate this type of training!

4. Data visualization

‍Mixed reality helps companies achieve better data visualization.

Through mixed reality glasses, variables and performance indicators that require adjustment or maintenance tasks can be monitored to maintain control over the various phases of each process, as is the case in integral water cycle management industries.

5. Improvement in industrial prototype design

‍For example, think about how the ceramic industry can use this technology to perfect prototype design processes.

This can have a significant impact on cost optimization and the improvement of product quality launched on the market.

6. Improvement in maintenance task precision

‍Finally, it should be mentioned that the use of mixed reality helps in production processes that require a high degree of control and safety, such as the most complex maintenance tasks.

In many cases, these tasks are being automated thanks to the use of drones and industrial robotics, especially for maintenance tasks in hard-to-reach or highly dangerous places.

However, the supervision and control of maintenance tasks can be carried out through mixed reality glasses solutions, which allow data and graphics to be visualized in real-time while operations are being performed.

Did you know these benefits of applying Mixed Reality in the industry?

We invite you to continue with the technological change to help adapt your company to Industry 4.0.