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The augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) market segment has a perception problem … well, 在某些方面. When AR or VR are mentioned, there’s a good chance listeners instantly imagine recreational uses. Think of friends venturing out for a virtual scavenger hunt on their mobile phones or a gamer with a headset virtually conquering a metaverse.
这些用途是真实的，但还有更多. Increasingly, real and productive business use cases are augmented by XR (extended reality). 事实上, our investment in Sphere was driven by real challenges we wanted to tackle on our manufacturing floor.
是什么让我们与Sphere合作?
在大流行之前, 微米’s Smart Manufacturing organization was evaluating labor productivity solutions specifically using AR and mixed-reality approaches. 我们在寻找可能的解决方案, we were also aware of the broad exposure that the 微米 合资企业 team had in this market domain. 在初次通话之后, we joined forces to thoroughly vet companies and innovative solutions that could meet 微米’s needs and set us up for success well into the future.
Choosing Sphere as the ideal partner to address some of the unique challenges presented by a semiconductor manufacturing operation took intensive, 集中的努力. The deep vetting process included evaluating multiple software solutions for best technology, 鲁棒性, 路线图和成本. Sphere has more than a point product and vision for the next five to 10 years: it has a roadmap that evolves to match needs for operations, 规模和安全性.
合作取得了怎样的成效?
在与Sphere就解决方案进行了数月的合作之后, we’ve yielded excellent results — so much so that we’re now looking at expansion plans. 目前运行的初步实施是一个远程专家协助系统. Sphere provides a level of “over the shoulder” virtual support that has dramatically reduced tool downtime. 从项目开始就开始了, 这些团队估计他们已经避免了超过3次,000小时的机器停机时间. This was not only helpful during COVID-19 travel restrictions but will become our first line of defense for complex troubleshooting tools that need external expertise from our equipment partners or internal expertise from sister sites.
We’re now in the pilot phase with AR-assisted operation and maintenance procedures. 早期结果表明维护活动中的错误较少, 让我们从庞大而昂贵的机器中榨取更多的效率. 除此之外, we are also engaged with the construction team to evaluate using this technology to drive cost efficiencies by reducing the number of change orders during fab construction.
Sphere解决方案有什么吸引人的地方?
Sphere解决方案有三点非常具体和吸引人:
- 安全-美光与来自几个尖端供应商的设备一起工作, 我们的流程是高度定制的. Any video streaming out of the fab needs to meet our internal security standards. 例如, Sphere上的特性形成了一个“虚拟幕”,这样就很容易为各方保密. 我们正在将所有Sphere服务迁移到我们的私有云上, 进一步降低这种风险.
- 完整性——Sphere提供的AR解决方案不是“静态”工作流. 它们支持强大的机器视觉, or the possibility of “seeing” the machine in the space and performing anomaly detection to reduce waste.
- 生态系统- Sphere在建立他们的生态系统方面做得很好. 结果是, their solution enables a broader set of capabilities to meet customer needs – for example an auto converter that can convert thousands of standard operating procedures (SOPs) in AR format instead of manual conversion. Sphere给我们留下深刻印象还有其他原因
事实证明，Sphere在另一方面是独一无二的. 作为投资者, 微米 not only looks for robust technology but also for a resounding vote of customer confidence. 在Sphere的例子中, we got that from 微米’s Smart Manufacturing team and from its other customers. Sphere is in a compelling market space that really makes it stand out among peers. For this reason, it was important for 微米 to be a strategic part of the story.
We on the 合资企业 team appreciated that Sphere was focusing on key market segments and offering the strongest and most intuitive software platform in terms of technology, 性能与价格. 在很短的时间内，在有限的资源下, 该公司的沙巴体育结算平台非常适合市场. 拥有多家领先的企业客户, with plentiful opportunities to expand services with existing customers and recruit new customers.
These are some of the attributes that were most appealing to us as an investor and a customer:
- 针对多个用例的单一综合平台, including solutions partners capable of seamlessly switching between functions without changing platforms.
- Forward-looking product roadmap that reflects the spatial computing capabilities of the latest generation of hardware.
- 3D asset pipeline to import customer data (CAD and 3D) to be rendered on mixed-reality devices
- 支持基于混合现实的数字协作和交互
- 用混合现实检查真实尺寸的模型
- Hardware-agnostic solution that can be integrated into common enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
这是AR和VR领域的一个激动人心的时刻. Thinking about all the cool opportunities that will be a part of the buzzy “metaverse” experiences is certainly compelling. But enterprise metaverse is here today, with plenty of real business opportunities, here and now. This interesting collaboration has provided a 清晰的 and meaningful lesson in how a view to the future can influence the present.
