Category: Gadgets

New AR systems could potentially make a very big difference in complex emergency response.

A team of British engineers is currently developing a new form of augmented reality technology that could become highly usable for the improvement of military operation emergency responses.

The idea is to design the AR tech into highly mobile devices that can be used while in the field.

Among the various applications for the augmented reality emergency response technology includes a portable command center the size of a briefcase. That would be easy to transport and to use in a broad range of different types of emergency situation. Another type of AR tech under development includes a form of wearable device that pilots could use as a type of portable cockpit in order to enhance their awareness.

The British engineers who are working on this augmented reality technology are from BAE Systems.

They have joined University of Birmingham researchers in order to come up with a number of concepts that involve mixed reality that provide the user with the ability to view their actual surroundings combined with virtual images, objects, video feeds, avatars and other types of usable content.

BAE Systems futurist, Nick Colosimo, explained that both virtual and AR technology are becoming increasingly commonplace in consumer products. This has opened up a broad range of potential for that market, but has also revealed the type of benefits that it could provide to the military and armed forces.

These various types of mobile device use an AR headset that has been compared to the Oculus Rift. The use of that gadget will make it possible for commanders to direct various forms of military operation, regardless of whether they involve the use of drones or troops, by viewing a virtual representation of the real situation. The device can also be implemented as a powerful training solution.

The researchers who are working on this augmented reality technology have stated that the headsets may one day be replaced with alternatives as small as eyeglasses or even contact lenses, as the tech continues to develop. University of Birmingham professor and simulation and human factors specialist, Bob Stone, explained that “Since my first virtual reality experience at NASA nearly 30 years ago, the technology has evolved from the primitive head-mounted displays and computers to today’s world where we can interact with complex virtual objects, integrated in real-time with real-world scenarios.”

Although the South Korean handset manufacturer had previously lost its crown, it appears to have regained it.

By the end of last year, Samsung had managed to make its way back up the list in smartphone trends by shipping about the same number of handsets as Apple, but the news for the South Korean tech giant has continued to improve according to some of the latest stats.

Samsung has now moved its way back to the top spot for the number of smartphones shipped.

These smartphone trends are based on the number of shipments that the company made during the first quarter of this year. During the first three months of 2015, Samsung shipped 83.2 million mobile phones, which represents an increase over the 74.5 million that it shipped during the last quarter of 2014 when it had pretty much matched Apple’s numbers.

At the same time, these smartphone trends weren’t as favorable for Apple, which saw its shipments fall.

From January through March, iPhone shipments dropped to the level of 61.2 million, putting the company in second place behind Samsung. Both of those companies remain well ahead of the third place manufacturers, which are Lenovo/Motorola. Together, they shipped a much lower 18.8 million smartphones during the same period of time. That said, closely behind those two was Huawei, which managed to send 17.3 million devices out the door of its own warehouse during the first quarter of the year.

This data was presented by Strategy Analytics, which assembled the shipment and market share figures for the top players in the mobile technology industry. According to that firm, Samsung took in a 24.1 percent global smartphone market share. It also placed Apple at 17.7 percent of the worldwide share of the market. Lenovo/Motorola held 5.4 percent and Huawei had a firm grip on 5 percent.

Strategy Analytics also went on to release a range of additional feature phone and smartphone trends figures with regards to their shipments around the globe. That helped to show that Microsoft’s performance in this sector is not nearly as good as what that company had likely been hoping to achieve. After all, the figures revealed that Microsoft had seen a 33 percent drop in its mobile phone shipments in the first quarter of 2015, when compared to the same quarter in 2014.