SBIR Phase II: Virtual and Augmented Reality Enabled Personalized Manufacturing Training

这项小企业创新研究SBIR第二阶段项目的广泛影响将通过研究利用扩展现实（XR）在制造业、医疗保健和高等教育领域进行沉浸式、交互式和智能培训的方法来实现，以加速学习、增加参与度，并促进更有效地使用昂贵的设备。2017年，全球培训市场估计为3880亿美元，而美国市场估计为1660亿美元。在行业报告中，培训和设计用例经常跻身前5大XR用例之列，仅企业VR培训市场预计在未来五年将以140%的速度增长，达到每年63亿美元。XR技术具有巨大的潜力，可以为用户提供存在感和沉浸感，这是由于成本、安全、安保、物理、地理或其他限制而无法实现的。该项目将追求这一不断增长的市场机会，其内容有望将教室、实验室、工厂、医院和现场服务环境结合起来，广泛推进学校和工作场所的学习和参与。该SBIR第二阶段项目的智力优势在于开发高保真模块化和可重用的虚拟对象和装配模型，为场景、任务、指令和用户熟练度定制模型，应用自然语言处理技术实现沉浸式多人环境中的会话交互，并使用计算机视觉技术支持虚拟和增强现实设置中内容的有效重用。将针对上述每个功能开发专门的模块，然后集成开发一种创新的、易于使用的产品，使非程序员也可以轻松地编写和发布用于培训、设计、服务和其他用例的XR内容，并收集数据以评估内容和体验。将与高等教育行业的用户进行试点测试，以严格评估和迭代改进技术和最终产品。通过明智地将XR，虚拟对象和模拟与语音，视觉和协作相结合，该项目旨在构建一种创新产品，使任何人都可以构建引人入胜的知识丰富的内容。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research SBIR Phase II project will be achieved through investigating approaches to leverage extended reality (XR) for immersive, interactive and intelligent training in manufacturing, healthcare and higher education, to accelerate learning, increase engagement, and foster more effective use of expensive equipment. In 2017, the global training market was estimated to be $388 B, while the US market was estimated to be $166 B. Training and design use cases frequently rank among the top 5 XR use cases in industry reports, and the enterprise VR training market alone is forecasted to grow at 140% year over year for the next five years to reach $6.3 B per year. XR technologies hold significant potential by providing users with a sense of presence and immersion heretofore not possible due to cost, safety, security, physical, geographical or other limitations. This project will pursue this growing market opportunity with content expected to bring together classrooms, labs, factories, hospitals and field service environments, broadly advancing learning and engagement in both schools and workplaces.The intellectual merit of this SBIR Phase II project lies in the development of high- fidelity modular and reusable virtual object and assembly models, customized models for scenarios, tasks, instructions and user proficiency, application of natural language processing techniques to enable conversational interactions in immersive multiplayer environments and the use of computer vision techniques to support effective reuse of content across both virtual and augmented reality settings. Specialized modules will be developed for each of the above functionalities and then integrated to develop an innovative, easy-to-use product that will make it easy for non-programmers to author and publish XR content for training, design, service and other use cases, as well as collect data to evaluate the content and experiences. Pilot testing will be conducted with users in the higher education industry to rigorously evaluate and iteratively refine the technologies and the final product. By judiciously combining XR, virtual objects, and simulations with voice, vision and collaboration, this project aims to build an innovative product that may enable anyone to build engaging knowledge-rich content.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.