Nokia Shows How Network Field Engineers Can Use Augmented Reality

In the movie The Terminator, the character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger sees a stream of information not unlike what a fighter pilot might see on a heads-up display, as The Economist noted in a story earlier this month. The concept of augmented reality (AR), however, is now moving beyond the sci-fi flick and into the workplace.

Indeed, Nokia (News - Alert) was one of the companies at the giant Mobile World Congress event earlier this year demonstrating augmented reality solutions and showing how they can be put to use in real-life environments. As discussed in a Nokia blog posted earlier this month, the company in Barcelona showed the Nokia OZO virtual reality camera and demonstrated Nokia Augmented Reality for the field force.

That demo showed how companies can reduce their field costs and otherwise be more efficient and improve quality related to managing their networks. An initiative of Nokia’s Care Mobile Networks business, this can reduce human error related to trouble ticket resolution by nearly 20 percent, according to the company.

“With Augmented Reality for the field force, the field engineer receives a view of a physical network element such as a base station or radio network controller using any device with a camera and display, ie. his smartphone or tablet,” the blog explained. “In practice, the field engineer scans the serial code of the network element with his device, which then summons the alarms from Nokia NetAct. He then receives a visual overlay on his device of the alarms and a set of instructions to follow in order to resolve his trouble ticket. The AR glasses come into play when he needs free hands to work on the resolution. This technology will help him resolve the trouble ticket much faster so he can move on to his next field job.”

It also prevents field technicians from having to lug around and page through heavy and cumbersome manuals, the Nokia blog added.