XR for Workplace Safety: Horizon Project Kick-Off

Hololight and its fellow partners recently kicked off the “SUN” project taking place within the Horizon framework of the EU. Named “The Social and hUman ceNtered XR“ (SUN), the project aims to better augment the physical world by researching advancements in XR applications that will help social and human interaction. In three pilots, the various novel SUN technologies will be assessed: ”Extended reality for rehabilitation“, “Extended reality for people with serious mobility and verbal communication diseases”, and “Extended reality for safety and social interaction at work”. Hololight is leading the implementation of the latter pilot, making use of its AR Engineering Space Hololight Space, which allows users to view and work with 3D CAD files in an XR environment.

XR for Safer Work 

The issue in focus is an important one: workplace safety. In potentially dangerous workplaces, a high degree of awareness, involvement, and teamwork is essential for employees to avoid and prevent accidents and mistakes. Extended reality – encompassing Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality – provides an enormous potential in this regard.

Through XR, employees can easily receive information in advance and in real-time, which permits a heightened awareness of potentially hazardous situations while at work. Real-time communication between employees, training through accurate simulations, and real-time updated information on the state of the working environment contribute to a safer industry. Along with other novel technological contributions from the various SUN partners, Hololight´s Hololight Space and XR streaming solutions will be adapted to enhance social interactions between employees.

Through these solutions provided by SUN, workers will, for example, be able to better grasp concepts such as safety and security protocols. In a safe yet realistic environment for practice, they can securely re-enact critical situations like moving around in potentially dangerous environments. Immersive experiences seamlessly integrate several aspects not available in non-immersive settings, such as better contextualization and real-time decision-making feedback.

Overall, XR enables designing, prototyping, quality assurance, as well as technical industrial training and education. These features not only improve and accelerate industrial processes, but also increase safety for workers dealing with complex machines. Hololight Space features utilized in the pilot scenario include:

• High quality 3D Content: Import of design files in XR, visualization and manipulation of data-intensive 3D content. 

• Merging real and virtual: CAD/engineering designs placed in the real world. 

• Working on complex holograms: Placing, rotating, adjusting, resizing, slicing and more. 

• Collaboration with colleagues, partners, or customers in XR – locally and globally.