KIT724 Assignment4 -Report-Group16
A Report on the “Industry Star” AR Application
1. Introduction
“Industry Star” is an AR application designed for large manufacturing enterprises for exhibitions and marketing purposes. Through multiple interactions and 3D models, customers and investors could get more information about the manufacturing processes in an attractive and clear way, then leads to business growth.
2. Application description
At the Hannover Messe 2013, the concept of the fourth Industrial Revolution was first proposed, and the industrial development of humanity has been greatly affected as a result (Rauschnabel et al. 2022). The world's industrial development is gradually shifting to production methods based on intelligent manufacturing, such as smart factories, smart production and smart logistics. Although the manufacturing industry is undergoing digital reform, people have neglected to establish corresponding marketing methods (Lin, Kollipara & Zheng 2019). Failure to present digital data in the physical world in a better form can lead to a disconnect between the digital world and the physical world and reduce investors' interest. So, smart marketing solutions should be developed to keep up with the manufacturing industry evolution.
“Industry Star” is a manufacturing presentation application based on AR technology, which uses 3D models to demonstrate manufacturing assembly lines and related processes. The main design of “Industry Star” is industrial exhibitions through highly visual information displays, it aims to improve customers’ understanding of the production methods and procedures and attract more investors and orders. In most situations, like exhibitions, trade shows or sales conferences, manufacturing companies only have limited space and methodologies to present their products and production process. And it is difficult, especially for enterprises to show large equipment and assembly lines. These problems could lead to market failures, loss of profits and investment. Adopting the “Industry Star”, which is an AR technology-based marketing application is a way to solve these barriers.
Only with a mobile phone, users could get information and models of different production workshops through “Industry Star”. It provides a visual information presentation. Users could click on multiple models to get more about the details of intelligent production processes, such as videos and animations. Alternatively, users can scan physical models to trigger digital product introductions for individual products. These interactions could improve investors' and customers’ understanding of the products and manufacturing process in an interesting and efficient way.
In the future development of “Industry Star”, the application will not only be limited to exhibition and marketing purposes. More functions could be added for employee training. Employees can scan the device with the application and get instructions and tutorial videos about the device, and simulate the operation process through virtual keystrokes to obtain an immersive learning experience. Moreover, the application could connect with intelligent production systems. Users can scan the physical equipment in the factory and get real-time data on them. Technicians could analyse the running status of the device based on the data feedback, and discover device faults in a timely manner. In addition, “Industry Star” can connect with other smart devices, such as 3D printers, logistics robots and smart sensors, which can be directly managed and controlled by employees through AR devices to improve work efficiency in smart factories.
3. Interface solutions
Recent studies have found that AR applications are widely used in marketing, and companies such as Amazon and Ikea have begun using AR applications for product promotion. AR marketing is not only to use digital technology to promote products but also to improve user engagement, consumer interest and shopping experience through immersive user experience (Johnson & Barlow 2021). A more vivid 3D model is beneficial to increase consumer acceptance of AR applications and improve consumers' overall knowledge and understanding of the product (Malik et al. 2019). More interaction is conducive to gaining more consumers' attention and improving brand influence. On the other hand, AR marketing programs do not need heavy equipment as a carrier, and a mobile phone can activate the application, which lowers the threshold of AR application use, and is conducive to the popularization and promotion of the application.
Compared with the retail market, the manufacturing industry needs more marketing to improve enterprises' competitiveness and attractiveness to investors. However, the large production equipment and product assembly lines are difficult for enterprises to present complete factory information to clients. It is hard to show the automatic smart factory production mode using traditional marketing methods, so the use of AR technology will be a great method to solve this problem. The 3D visualization model can simulate any desired scene, show the production line's production process and improve the product's appeal to investors. At the same time, creative product displays are also helpful to improve the competitive advantage of enterprises and enhance the influence of the brand.
In addition, using AR marketing technology is beneficial to save marketing costs for enterprises. Enterprises no longer need to spend a lot of resources to display large equipment. And they can maximize the display of factory information in a limited time and space through low-cost 3D models, which is conducive to improving the attractiveness of enterprises to investors. Investors would like more 3D and visual displays rather than traditional images and video materials. So, AR technology is suitable for “Industry Star” and can solve these problems properly.
4. Interaction design
To achieve the objectives, there are various interactions designed in this application. By scanning the target poster, the 3D models will pop up to vividly simulate the overall manufacturing process. It contains four workshops connected by conveyor belts, UI with multiple buttons and animations. To get more detailed information about a certain workshop, process or product, users can click on the buttons, or scan physical objects, more relevant models, animations, text and audio descriptions will be displayed.
Figure 1. is a storyboard that illustrates one of the use cases of “Industry Star”.
Figure 1. A storyboard of “Industry Star”.
5. Initial technical development
There are two main displays with 3D models in “Industry Star”: the model display of the whole manufacturing pipeline and the single-device model display.
1) Model display of the whole manufacturing process.
Users can trigger a model display of the whole production line by scanning images (see Figure 2). “Industry Star” will show the whole production line to users through the model of four workshops, which include a product installation shop, material handling shed, warehouse, and product testing workshop. Each workshop is connected by running conveyor belts, so users can clearly understand the production process cycle.
Figure 2. Display of the whole manufacturing process.
2) Single equipment model display.
If users want to know the details of a certain production shop, they can trigger more interactions by touching a 3D model (see Figure 3). Each model contains three interactive buttons: a description popover, a model rotation display, and animation. Users can choose different audio introductions based on the selected model. Visual, tactile, and auditory interactions are introduced to increase user engagement and attention.
Figure 3. Display of the whole manufacturing process.
- The specific initial interactions are:
Information popover button: By triggering the button, the user can obtain information about the target workshop, including workflow, work tasks and employee information.
Text description button: Users can touch the button to get a text introduction interface. The text introduction contains more details about the product, such as product specifications and materials.
Animation: Users can catch more animations by triggering different models, helping users to understand more detailed information.
Image trigger UI: Users can trigger more 3D models with more images and interact through UIs. Users can enter the UI device introduction interface by clicking the production workshop model which includes intelligent devices and equipment data used in each production workshop. More running animations will be applied to the 3D models to concretely display how smart devices work.
- Planned interactions in the next stage:
Model rotation display: Users can get the display function of the target model by triggering the button and observing the model in 360 degrees.
Physical object trigger: Users can scan physical objects to trigger the augmented reality effect. The application provides three interactive buttons: an animated button, a text description button, and a sound button.
Animation button: The animation button will trigger different animation displays according to the chosen physical targets, which makes it convenient for customers and investors to understand the product information.
Sound button: Users can listen to audio instructions or descriptions of the workshop, processes and products.
6. Initial 3D models
Figure 4. is a small thumbnail image of the 3D models applied in this application. The first one contains four different factory models which are very alike the factories in real life. The conveyor belts are used to connect these factories to transfer products between them. These two models fit the demo projects very well.
Figure 4. A thumbnail image of the 3D models.
7. Conclusion
In conclusion, “Industry Star” is an application that optimizes Investment promotion in manufacturing. Compared with traditional image and video data presentation methods, this application is more attractive to customers and investors and could empower enterprises' competitiveness and brand expansion. In addition, the application visualizes product information and manufacturing processes with 3D models. It could reduce marketing costs and increase profits. In future development, “Industry Star” can connect with other systems, which could help employees better manage intelligent factories and improve overall production efficiency.
8. References
Rauschnabel, PA, Babin, BJ, tom Dieck, MC, Krey, N, & Jung, T 2022, ‘What is augmented reality marketing? Its definition, complexity, and future’, Journal of Business Research, vol. 142, pp. 1140-1150.
Lin, L, Kollipara, PS & Zheng, Y 2019, ‘Digital manufacturing of advanced materials: challenges and perspective’, Materials Today, vol. 28, pp. 49-62.
Johnson, M & Barlow, R 2021, ‘Defining the Phygital Marketing Advantage’, Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 2365-2385.
Malik, A, Lhachemi, H, Ploennigs, J, Ba, A & Shorten, R 2019, ‘An application of 3D model reconstruction and augmented reality for real-time monitoring of additive manufacturing’, Procedia Cirp, vol. 81, pp. 346-351.
3D model:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/physics/procedural-conveyor-system-w...
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