With its “Thales Eye“ Thales is exploring new approaches in remote maintenance and in dealing with technical problems. The image as seen by the on-site technician is streamed live by means of data glasses or a mobile phone over a network, via 3G, WiFi, LIFI and similar systems and can be shown directly on a screen to a support team that can be at another location altogether.
The simple principles of this technology are explained by the Thales Product Manager Dr.
Amine Arezki: “The advantage is that the problem can be solved by a maintenance engineer who is not in the vicinity, because he can see what the production engineer is doing, and can therefore give him direct instructions“. The support technician can use augmented reality to provide the on-site technician with active, visual instructions as well as spoken instructions.
Images, objects and texts can be combined to create a realistic picture. “Because the problem can be solved directly, substantial cost and time savings can be achieved. The technician’s hands are free and he also receives only the information that he needs. This reduces downtimes and improves safety“, as Dr. Arezki points out.
