PTC CEO: Augmented Reality Is Key IoT Tool To Create Value For Enterprise

While sensors and analytics are critical for the Internet of Things, PTC CEO Jim Heppelmann Tuesday outlined one more key ingredient that will help solution builders architect a successful IoT deployment for the enterprise –augmented reality.

’It’s not about apps anymore, it’s about the experience,’ he said during a keynote at Liveworx, a Boston-based IoT event. ’With augmented reality, before we show digital data to the end user, we’re going to augment that video for the full experience to show digital content.’

PTC during the event Tuesday unveiled the availability of Vuforia Studio Enterprise, which promotes augmented experiences for businesses, as part of an expansion of PTC’s IoT technology platform – a pre-integrated edge ’solution stack’ that collects and aggregates data from sensors, performs predictive analytics for enterprises, and supports augmented reality experiences.

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Vuforia Studio is seamlessly integrated into PTC’s CEO 3-D CAD visualization and illustration software, as well as its ThingWorx IoT platform to enable an augmented reality component to the connected devices, such as manufacturing equipment or medical devices.

While most partners may be familiar with the value of sensors and predictive analytic tools in an IoT platform, Heppelmann stressed that PTC is pushing a new area as part of its all-inclusive solution stack – augmented reality and virtual reality, which helps companies focus less on data communication and more on visual communication.

’So much value can now be created for businesses,’ he said. ’PTC is enabling IoT solution builders with incredible flexibility in architecting IoT deployments. In turn, solution builders bring efficiency, speed, cost control, and security to the IoT solutions that they develop for their customers.’

For instance, businesses can utilize augmented reality as part of their IoT platforms to transform their sales and marketing experience by showing clients virtual visions of physical inventory when making sales.

Dominic D'Souza, senior director at ITC Infotech, a Paramus, N.J.-based PTC partner that provides Internet of Things services for businesses - including enterprise systems integration, connectivity services and analytics tools, applauded the company's new Vuforia Studio products. "This enables an amazing capability," he said. "It will help extend the Internet of Things ... into new verticals, including manufacturing or health care."

PTC’s Internet of Things platform is built on PTC technologies including Kepware, which collects primary sensor data from control systems, and ThingWorx Analytics, which enables real-time anomaly detection and failure prediction.

"IoT is a space where, until recently, security was nearly an afterthought at best," said Douglas Grosfield, founder and CEO of Five Nines IT Solutions, Kitchener, Ontario. "From the perspective of a strategic service provider, this presents significant opportunity to bridge those gaps. Data leakage protection, secure communications and controlled access are a few areas where we can make a huge difference in how IoT technologies are designed, adopted and used. A visual component piques not only my curiosity, but my imagination, too. Engineering , design, manufacturing and entertainment represent some key areas in the enterprise and consumer spaces where augmented reality and the IoT can converge with impact full results."

General availability for Vuforia Studio will be disclosed later this year, according to PTC.