AR and VR in the food industry
Following the release of Microsoft’s HoloLens 2, it’s not surprising that various industries are testing the waters at incorporating this new technology in their day to day tasks. The introduction of the HoloLens 2 combines an untethered device with apps and solutions that help people across your business learn, communicate, and collaborate more effectively. It’s the culmination of breakthroughs in hardware design, artificial intelligence (AI), and mixed reality development. In this post, we will be looking at how Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are influencing the food processing and manufacturing industry.
How AR and VR will reshape the food industry
As AR and VR are still costly solutions to implement in most businesses, the uptake is on a slow incline. But more and more food and beverage businesses are seeing the value in investing time and resources into this addition. According to Techcrunch there are three focus areas that have seen the best results when adopting AR and VR development – human resources, customer experiences, and food products.
Methodize employee training
We all know the cost, time and energy that goes into training employees. Developing training materials can be a mammoth task, and they are needed for various levels of training, area, store, etc which can be a nightmare for human resources and training managers. Virtual reality allows employees to interact with their work environments safely and provides a detailed visual representation for them to physically and mentally learn the tasks required of them. With AR and VR employees can learn at their own pace, upskill themselves remotely, and have side-by-side training and execution by layering additional learning materials on top of an employee’s direct view. Imagine being able to disassemble and reassemble a machine without being on-site? Maintenance and repair just became a whole lot easier.
Enhancing customer experience
“Experiential marketing” has changed the purpose and construction of food and hospitality driven events. With consumers always wanting more, businesses need to make sure to stay on top of the experiences they provide to customers. Customers want to immerse themselves in their eating and drinking experience and with AR and VR they can do that. Imagine having a meal and learning about the best combinations of beverages to compliment the food by visual means?
Immerse yourself in products
AR and VR can help bridge the gap between consumer, product and product content. Some companies have begun to use AR to provide additional information, visual stimulus, and interaction on top of specific items, allowing them to combine the digital world with the physical one. Businesses can educate consumers about nutritional information and product composition or even help bland healthy food seem more appealing.
Foodware 365 tests out the HoloLens in the food industry
As AR and VR are still being tested on where the technology can assist the food industry, Foodware 365 decided to put the HoloLens to the test and see what the outcome would be. Dennis van Leeuwen decided to run a hygiene inspection test.
“During the inspection, the HoloLens can guide the task performer through the task by showing the points of interest of the hygiene inspections in their field view,” he said. “The Hololens can then indicate where to look and point out the critical points of the inspection. While looking at an inspection point, the HoloLens is able to automatically make videos or photos and store them directly in a back-end database. This will increase the traceability of the hygiene inspection – which is an important factor in the food industry,” Leeuwen wrote.
With the costs of AR and VR devices on the decrease, soon more businesses will be able to tap into their business intelligence solutions more effectively, ultimately saving them time and money. If you are looking for a business intelligence solution for your food and beverage business contact us to find out more about how it can assist your current and future business needs. Email us on info@allonline365.com or call +27 (21) 205 3650 to speak to a consultant.
Resource Credit | Techcrunch, Foodware 365, Microsoft
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