Thorsten Stephan is a Development Manager for SAP and responsible for Mobility. He’s an SAP thought-leader and was wearing the iconic thought-leader jersey when I met him. It seemed like everyone at the convention wanted to talk with him, but I managed to get a few minutes to talk with him about what may just be the future of SAP Mobile, augmented reality.

What does mobility mean to you at SAP?

In that area [mobility] we always look for new technologies and see how we can adopt them as business scenarios and this is what we are doing with augmented reality. So, here we see augmented reality as a new UI technology, basically, which provides us with the ability to aggregate data individualization and data that comes from various data sources and allows the end user to be much more productive in a very consumer-like style.

Please tell me about the projects going on now.

We have one demo set up here [at TechEd] that talks about warehouse management. Within warehouse management, there are various use cases covered. So, one is for the picking process for smaller parts. Basically, it’s where you have the capabilities, by wearing business glasses, to see with the business glasses which pieces you have to pick and the order. That means you have a hands free work environment that allows you to use both hands to do a faster picking process and, with the glasses on, it gives you real-time information, like where to find those things, like what shelves and stuff like that. It gives you navigation tools. So, that is one use case there.

The second use case in there [the presentation booth] is also for work safety. In a warehouse that’s very important. So, here we are showcasing that with the forklift, on the exact map of the warehouse, giving driving instructions and also giving some alerts, like someone is crossing and stuff like that. Also, of course, giving a kind of guidance and, when giving guidance, considering that there are some special goods and areas where you only should drive in when you really have to work there.

Then, another scenario is remote service. If such a forklift is breaking down, then the situation is for frequently that the guys need to call customer service called by phone and then they make an appointment and they have to drive there.  They have to show up. They then need to do the analysis of what really was causing the breakdown of the forklift, do the fix, and then leave. It means that time they have to shut down the forklift is pretty long. Here, we want to connect live to a remote service technician, wire the glasses – the camera in the glasses – to view like the forklift and give instructions to the driver to test this and that. That is one of the scenarios we are looking into.

Of course, we are also looking into wherever customer service is in place, or in need, or there are quality assurance manufacturing processes – so, the kind of scenarios where it’s about how to consume data in a very convenient way, but also be able to create data knowledge that you want to put in the Cloud and make it available for others who might run into the same situation. So, this is what we are kind of looking at too.

How are you making this all work?

In essence, what we are doing on that side is that we have a frontend, meaning a UI, so we have the SDK of the Mobile Platform to build those UIs. Then we have the connection, depending on the use case or the scenario, to the corresponding backend system, to the Business Suite, so to speak, that is using the Cloud Edition of the Mobile Platform as well. Then, when it comes to providing additional information, providing real-time calculations, and predictive analytics, and stuff like that, or creating content you want to share, or looking for an expert and looking for knowledge, this is all based on the Cloud in HANA. This is kind of our value chain that we are using.

Is augmented reality the future?

I think that, with augmented reality, it’s kind of the next level. So, today, if you just pick that customer service scenario, we have mobile applications that we equip the service technicians with so they have all the orders they need to do on the device so they go out there and do the repair. So now, as a next level of evolution, once they are on-site, they use the same kind of tap device with the camera and get all of the augmented reality information they need in there, which they might have today in some PDFs or manuals somewhere. It’s then augmented and visualized in that application and then, on top of this, they can then use business glasses, in the future, to do hands free repair and fixes and stuff like that.

I definitely see augmented reality as an attractive new technology. I also see many customers are looking into that to see what is feasible today and what needs some more time. I definitely see this as a coming UI technology.

Jessica Sirkin

Jessica Sirkin is the managing editor of the IT and Mobile hubs of SAPexperts.  She comes to SAPexperts after being a reporter on big data and business intelligence.  She received a B.A. in English and writing from Bard College.  Send her an email or follow her on twitter @JessicaSirkin.

If you have comments about this article or publication, or would like to submit an article idea, please contact the editor.