Brainwaive and the Open AR Cloud

Brainwaive is proud to announce that it is a Founding Sponsor of the Open AR Cloud Association (OARC). OARC’s vision is to create a single, shared cloud where all items that exist in any AR application and are associated with a geographical location can be experienced and accessed. With its mission to drive the development of open and interoperable AR Cloud technology, data and standards to connect the physical and digital worlds for the benefit of all, OARC is working to bring AR to the mainstream.

Brainwaive is also chairing OARC’s Privacy, Security and Data Rights Working Group, which is addressing ways to ensure the Open AR Cloud ecosystem, and spatial computing technology in general, is not misused. In short, to ensure security, privacy and data rights are addressed and incorporated from the onset when building an AR Cloud ecosystem.

“We are excited to be a collaborator in OARC,” said Tony Hodgson, Founder and CEO of Brainwaive. “By working with like-minded organizations from diverse industries our collective efforts to advance AR and its use can be realized.”

AR holds great promise in the enterprise and is taking root in the market. There is concern that its growth and adoption can be slowed if AR apps, services and experiences are siloed. To help with the proliferation of AR, the ecosystem needs a structure that allows AR to evolve so that its various elements are interconnected and interconnected with meaning. Ori Inbar, AR entrepreneur and founded of AWE, describes the AR Cloud a persistent 3D digital copy of the real world to enable sharing of AR experiences across multiple users and devices. For any such cloud, there would need to be a way to protect intellectual property and privacy while also finding ways to encourage openness, collaboration and sharing.

As OARC works towards its mission, Brainwaive is pleased to join the journey and to contribute its expertise and insights about AR security and privacy in the enterprise.

Brainwaive Makes Contribution to the NIST RFI on its Privacy Framework

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing a voluntary privacy framework, in collaboration with private and public sector stakeholders, to help organizations: better identify, assess, manage, and communicate privacy risks; foster the development of innovative approaches to protecting individuals’ privacy; and increase trust in products and services. It recently had an open Request for Information (RFI) to gain information regarding organizational considerations for privacy risk management, the structure of the Privacy Framework, and specific privacy practices to be included. The RFI responses will inform the development of an outline of the framework that is anticipated to be issued in early 2019.
Brainwaive submitted a contribution to bring into the framework’s development and discussion the inclusion of immersive technologies, such as augmented reality.
Immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality are gaining significant popularity. Over the past two years, there has been a strong interest in immersive
technologies from the likes of advertising agencies, game developers, manufacturing companies and more, as it has the potential to transform how we interact with information and our world Immersive technology is not a new concept, but it does bring to the forefront and put into new contexts concerns and issues regarding security and privacy as these
technologies enable users to interact with virtual content in
fundamentally new ways.

Overcoming barriers to AR adoption – A Security Perspective

As the AREA Security Committee chair, Brainwaive was honored to moderate the AREA public webinar on Overcoming Barriers to AR Adoption: A Security Perspective

Fractured, underfunded, unknown, immature, reactive and uncertain are some keywords often associated with describing the current state of AR in the enterprise. This webinar discussed ‘Overcoming Barriers to AR Adoption – A Security Perspective’ with Brainwave CEO, Tony Hodgson, Stan Hanks from Realwear, Ben Cale from Welsh Water, Vladimir Beliavski from Bosch and Bob Labelle, also from Brainwave.

The AREA is the only global, membership-funded non-profit alliance dedicated to helping accelerate the adoption of Enterprise Augmented Reality (AR) by supporting the growth of a comprehensive ecosystem. We support innovative companies, investing in AR technology who need a better understanding of the tools available, use cases, methods of implementation and return on investment.

 

Wearable Enterprise Reports Now Available

As a member of the Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) and chair of the AREA’s Security Committee, we are pleased to announce that two reports that Brainwaive was commissioned to develop for the AREA, are now publicly available.

  • Wearable Enterprise AR Security – Risks and Management
  • Wearable Enterprise AR Security – Framework and Test Protocol

These reports were developed in response to the growing concerns regarding the cyber security risks of deploying wearable AR solutions in enterprise environments, and recognizing that little thought leadership had been provided on this mission-critical topic. These insightful and detailed reports help guide discussions of how to ensure that security concerns are not a barrier to AR enterprise adoption.

To access the reports, please visit the AREA website.

Why Open Standards for Open AR

Although around for a couple decades, Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that is receiving a great deal of attention through growing implementations, fueled by developments in supporting technologies, improved network speeds and increasing user interest and industry experimentation. As these developments continue to evolve, there will be technological challenges caused by the variety of different devices, software and platforms, coupled with the overall multi-dimensionality of AR and its associated requirements and goals that are highly dependent on the AR offered service or experience.

Even though many major companies are trying to make AR mainstream and start-ups are forming around its various aspects and uses, the adoption and use of this technology face many issues including interoperability. Many of these challenges can be addressed through open standards (open in development process through consensus and voluntary use).

AR standardization as a whole can, in principle, provide a schematic or framework on which parties involved can build services and applications, while encouraging innovation through clearly defined practices, maintaining interoperability, generating market trust and allowing collaborations and efficient information exchange.

When we look at AR today, its development and application can benefit from being grounded in open standards and universally adopted standard interfaces that lead to interoperability of hardware and software, which is necessary to grow market opportunities for the industry and benefit users. Open standards reduce the need for companies to reinvent the wheel, allowing for solutions to be more cost-effectively developed and move to market faster. All involved in the open standards development benefit from cooperation in building a foundation for the industry to compete upon—as a fragmented technology landscape benefits few. Further, the current “infrastructure” upon which AR functions—and its main access tool or vehicle of mobile devices—relies on open standards. When we look at standards for AR, these standards need to align with and innovate upon this foundation.

As the current popularity (and market) trends on AR continue with AR experiences maturing, with more AR content being created, and as new services and business models emerge—not to mention as more and more people use the “well- marketed” AR paradigms of today, it is time to reinforce support for the development and application of open standards to ensure open AR for all.

Open Standards. Open AR. Open Innovation.

Global standards help the world achieve essential goals, including enhanced public health and safety, increased education, technology innovation and market expansion. In short, global standards—those developed in an open, bottom-up and market driven paradigm—are the underpinnings of innovation and their value and necessity are coming into even sharper focus with the Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality.

Standards open new markets and applications and make broadly available proprietary knowledge for current and future innovative technologies. Globally open standards development forums help promote solutions and provide networking opportunities with and among cross national communities, creating vibrant, open ecosystems that provide multiple sources of readily available information and expertise.

The open standards produced are beneficial on many fronts, including for industry there is less chance of being locked in by a specific technology and/or vendor. Since the specifications are known and open. And it is easier for systems from different parties or using different technologies to interoperate and communicate with one another. As a result, there is improved data exchange. Open standards help facilitate cross-platform functionality and speed development toward universal mapping and localization, among many things.

As digital technologies become increasingly more ingrained in our daily lives and as technologies such as AI and AR intersect more with industry verticals and commercial applications, innovation is boundless especially if grounded in open standards and specifications.

AI and AR in particular are at a pivotal moment in time. Decades of visions regarding AI and AR are coming of age and viable—beyond technologically to industry and consumer adoption and use. AR and the broader set of industries are converging the physical and digital worlds, with a tremendous amount of talent and creativity envisioning the future of the human experience.  For industry to realize this promise, open standards are needed. Further, how these standards are created and who they are designed to benefit will have an impact on how the AI and AR space evolves.

For AI and AR to evolve, open solutions and standards will be critical to unleashing cross-platform support and accelerating development in what promises to be one of the most exciting times for creativity.

At Brainwaive we support open standards for open innovation to advance AR for industry and consumer use that is easy to access and use and that is trusted, safe and secure.