Remote collaboration is a big thing in enterprise AR. It’s great for boardroom meetings, but for construction meetings, everyone has to be on site. Right? Maybe not with IMAJION.
What Is IMAJION?
IMAJION is an augmented reality remote collaboration solution purpose-built to replace construction site meetings. The interaction comes with the ability of the desktop viewer to place annotations in the physical environment as seen by the on-site user.
The software allows an on-site user with a LiDAR-enabled smart device and a remote user on a standard computer to have a real-time interactive video call. That includes newer-model Apple products, and the HoloLens line of MR glasses.
“You’re not drawing something that floats on my video, you’re reaching into my video,” CEO Adrian Hatch said in a recent interview and product demo. Hatch played the part of the on-site builder, while I played the part of the remote consultant.
Using IMAJION for Remote Collaboration
From my desk, I can do all kinds of things with Hatch’s live video feed. The simplest action is simply placing markers anchored to his space.
He and I can both see these markers when they’re in his line of sight, but the anchors don’t get in the way because they stay where I place them and other objects occlude the anchors when the perspective changes. I can drop one of these markers just to draw his attention to an area, or I can label the points and leave AR notes.
These notes are persistent for the length of the call, but when an IMAJION call is recorded, all of the annotations and effects are recorded too, along with live chat. All of the information is timestamped so the video is easy to search for people reviewing the meeting or people that missed the meeting and are watching a shared recording.
With just another action or two, I can also measure lengths and distances in his environment by clicking on my screen. That sure beats taking time out of the call for an off-site evaluator to ask on-site workers to measure things themselves.
“As far as we know, we’re the only ones offering this high-precision AR collaboration,” said Hatch.
Cloud assets and files can also be viewed in or uploaded through an IMAJION call. That includes documents, images, video, emails and calendar info, as well as 3D scans and models.
“Our customers usually join off of a 5G or 4G hotspot, but our platform is designed to run in the field with limited connectivity,” said Hatch.
How to Learn More
IMAJION offers three main subscription tiers based on whether the standard call needs to support three, five, or eight users. There’s also a more flexible “Enterprise” price tier for clients that have more than nine users on the standard meeting. The website also has a “savings calculator” that adds up the price of expenses live rental cars and airline travel replaced by AR collaboration.
Before signing up, you can also request a free live demo of the remote collaboration software. There’s no guarantee that you’ll get your demo from Adrian Hatch, but the software speaks for itself.
