Siveco & LLVISION jointly release bluebee® for smart glasses with embedded remote support
In 2017, Siveco started working with smart glasses supplier LLVISION at the bluebee® lab in Shanghai, aiming to develop wearable solutions that would make use of the glasses true ergonomic design and edge computing capability, for Operation & Maintenance purposes. This led in early 2019 to the first release of bluebee® for smart glasses, a standard plug-in for the bluebee® maintenance and inspection app, already widely used among Siveco customers. The functionalities are automatically enabled when the mobile phone detects the presence of the glasses. The phone can then be left in the pocket, while the technician conducts its inspection round hands-free. Remote support functions were separately developed by LLVISION.
The COVID-19 crisis, with its lockdowns and travel constraints, has accelerated the usage of smart glasses for remote support. Most companies however limit themselves to using the “smart” glasses as a head-mounted webcam… For this reason, during the summer, LLVISION & Siveco released a new version of bluebee® for smart glasses featuring embedded remote support functions, allowing onsite technicians to call for expert support, using the smart glass camera and AR-display: both technician and remote expert can view the video feed in context with all the technical data, maintenance records, SOPs etc. In parallel to the new version release, an aggressive joint promotion program was launched to raise awareness of the solution.
Raising awareness
In May, LLVISION & Siveco ran a joint webinar on “AR solutions to drive the O&M upgrade of New Infrastructures”, with in-depth presentations of the glasses, the bluebee® app and its implementation as part of the digital transformation strategy. A case study of a major Asian airport was presented.
In early September, both companies joined the Smart Maintenance Conference 2020 (SMC2020) in Shanghai, with two demo booths and customer testimonials. The new bluebee® for smart glasses solution with embedded remote support was officially released at this event.
In mid-September, LLVISION held a massive booth at the China International Industry Fair (CIIF) in Shanghai, demonstrating the solution and all its latest AR wearable technologies to attendees. The Siveco team visited the event to support LLVISION and meet clients together.
During this period, the solution was also demonstrated to major clients. Overall the response is very encouraging, as visitors have experience the limitations of existing technologies: mostly the lack of practical in-plant experience for most vendors (which often means the glasses cannot be used in a safe manner in the plant, they must remain in the office), the need to develop apps from scratch (and the little-known fact that app development is long and costly) and the difficulty to connect to existing maintenance databases (which are often legacy systems, not open and in which the data might not be structured for usage by technicians). These events also have the joint LLVISION & Siveco team to collect feedback and suggestions from the market, which will further benefit our R&D.
Embedded remote support
With bluebee® for smart glasses, field workers can scan QR-coded equipment tags, view related basic data in the glass and, if more complete information is needed, take a step back to refer to the mobile phone screen.
When facing difficulties that require assistance from off-site colleagues or experts, they can call directly from the bluebee® app to obtain support from the right person.
In the back-office bluebee® cloud, the experts can view the live video feed in context with all technical data, historical records, IoT readings etc. He can talk directly to the onsite-engineer and provide guidance.
Expert can also mark the specific areas on the screen directly, which will also appear in the smart glasses’ AR display, to conveniently guide the onsite technician, while he is performing his tasks.
All the standard functionalities of bluebee® are also available.
Based on the successful value-added and friendly cooperation since 2017, Siveco and LLVISION will continue to jointly promote bluebee® for smart glasses in China and abroad!
