It might seem like a small, even

simple fix, to attach an AR device to a hardhat, but according to

Trimble's Mixed Reality expert, Jordan Lawver, such a simple fix

exponentially expands the capabilities of folks working in heavy

industry. He drops by to explain to Alan how that is, and how AR can

take things even further as it goes hands-free.

Alan: Welcome to the XR for

Business Podcast. Today's show, we interview Jordan Lawver, head of

mixed reality at Trimble.

They've got a number of different solutions for the construction

worker that leverage the Microsoft Hololens 2, the XR10, which is

their new wonderful hardhat based augmented reality/mixed reality

headset. So all that coming up. And more on the XR for Business

Podcast.

Hey, everyone. My name's Alan Smithson.

Today, we're speaking with Jordan Lawver. Jordan, welcome to the

show, my friend.

Jordan: Hey, Alan, good morning.

Thanks for having me.

Alan: Oh, it's my absolute

pleasure. I'm really excited. And I wish this was show and tell,

because what do you have sitting right on your desk right now?

Jordan: So you just let the cat

out the bag. We've got an XR10, sitting here right in front of me.

And I promise it's not the only one in the world. We're starting to

ramp these guys up and get them ready to go out onto a job site near

you.

Alan: What is the XR10?

Jordan: So I imagine that most people that listen to your podcast are pretty familiar with the Hololens 2, that Microsoft has announced that they plan to start shipping later this year. So what we did is, is we hopped on board with Microsoft kind of from the start, maybe mid last year. And we wanted to find a way that we could take the Hololens 2, and adapt it for use out in kind of safety controlled environment. Our focus is on construction, but of course, there's many mixed reality customers out there in oil and gas, and manufacturing, and other kinds of heavy industries that require PPE -- Personal Protective Equipment -- when they're out on the site. So whether that's safety glass, or hardhat protection, or chin straps, or earmuffs, we wanted to make an integration that took the Hololens 2 and all of its capabilities, and made it able to work with folks out in those industries. So we essentially OEMed the Hololens 2 components from Microsoft and we bolted it into a new form factor that slides down on top of kind of an industry-standard hardhat, and still enables you to use your over your hearing protection, chin straps, all that other type of gear that people need to keep them safe out on the site.

Alan: We have HL2 + PPE = XR10.

Jordan: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's not our first go at this. We actually made a hardhat attachment for the first Hololens. You know, we weren't there on the ground level from release -- like we are at this time -- but Hololens 1 came out, and a bunch of people ran with it and said "OK, what can actually use this for?" And as you know, most of the use cases that emerged were very enterprise-focused. And in many of those heavy industries that I mentioned, we were creating software from day one, first for architects with our SketchUp viewer app, but then moving out onto onsite construction with our Trimble Connect app. And we realized very quickly that we just weren't going to sell any software, because no one could take a Hololens 1 and fit it under a hardhat out on the site. So at that time, we worked with Microsoft, and we basically built clips that would retrofit an off-the-shelf Hololens 1 up into a hardhat. And it sold like hotcakes, people were all over it. And then when Alex Kipman showed us Hololens 2 sometime last year, we quickly realized that because the new form factor -- with them moving some of the