Marcin Szamatowicz

5/5 (12)

Hurricane Irma turned out to be the strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded outside the Gulf of Mexico. Its extreme power caused a colossal devastation in the Caribbean Islands and the Southern US, led to a massive evacuation of Florida, but also pushed again the climate change and global warming topic to the headlines. While I am still very sceptical about human influence as a major cause of the global warming and I believe that there are many other important aspects that are beyond our control to be considered, I am certain that we, as humans, should be united in an effort to keep our planet safe and green for the next generations. CarbonX is another great incentive that can help each of us to work more closely in order to achieve this goal.

The idea behind CarbonX is to engage millions of people by materially rewarding them for a responsible carbon consumption. The company wants to achieve it by investing in carbon reduction projects and transforming the generated offsets into ERC20 tokens, (one of the most popular token standards for Etherum Blockchain) later are allocated through an open-loop rewarding loyalty program. The engaged partners (e.g. big retailers, local governments) will offer CarbonX Tokens to consumers as an incentive for more carbon-wise decisions (e.g. using a public transportation instead of driving a car). These tokens will be tracked via mobile application and will serve as a currency that could be exchanged either for other digital currencies or carbon-friendly rewards. Although CarbonX is currently available in Canada only, it has ambitious plans to expand its operations worldwide in order to achieve substantial network effects and have a real global impact.

What I really love about this idea is the fact that it directly engages individuals to take small actions towards a more sustainable living. How often do you see people behaving irresponsibly just because they think that their impact on the environment is marginal? How often do you actually behave this way? While governments and NGOs can push some incentives on the macro level, we cannot forget that each of us creates this ecosystem as well. These tiny rewards do not only bring its users tangible benefits but more importantly increase awareness of the consequences of their actions. So, tell me now. Would you like to trade some carbon with me?

References:

https://www.carbonx.ca/#ourmission
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/13/could-a-blockchain-based-electricity-network-change-the-energy-market
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths#Bitcoin_mining_is_a_waste_of_energy_and_harmful_for_ecology
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/15/us/climate-change-hurricanes-harvey-and-irma/index.html

5/5 (5)

When the “augmented reality” term was first used by Boeing’s researcher Tom Caudell in ‘90s, it was perceived as another artificial concept. Now, when the technology has become much more mature, it has potential to shift the way we cooperate with each other by enhancing employee training, business processes and workflow.

Augmented reality, unlike its close cousin, virtual reality, which creates fully artificial world, integrates digital information with the real environment. It allows us not only to see virtual objects but also to interact with them. Imagine working on a project where you need to have a quick access to specifications, have an open programming application and want to follow a screen of your colleague sharing with you his ideas via skype at the same time. To really solve this problem you either need multiple screens or the augmented reality glasses. You can wear these glasses at work, at the airport or at your favourite cafeteria, having an immediate access to all relevant information and leaving both hands free. This amazing technology offers endless opportunities to improve your work-life whenever and wherever you want as if it was a Hermione’s bottomless bag.

GE, with its healthcare team in Waukesha, is an example of the company who has recently started experimenting with the use of AR. In this case, technology is used during the manufacturing process to project work instructions as well as to monitor and give immediate feedback to operators. If an error occurs, given augmented guidelines on following procedures, operators can quickly react to an issue. The technology has been created by the Light Guide System and its main goal is not only to improve efficiency but also to prevent from critical mistakes during an assembly process. First results at GE healthcare are inspiring – a warehouse worker supported with the AR technology completed a task, with no harm on accuracy, 46% faster than when following standard procedures and using standard technology. Other similar cases show an average improvement in productivity of 32%. This success has encouraged GE to further develop the programme as well as to expand it to other areas.

GE’s example is not isolated and we can observe other companies equipping workforces with the AR technology (e.g. Volkswagen, Ford, DHL or McKinsey). There are also numerous other cases where AR could have a significant impact. First of all, training platforms with dynamically changing animations. Imagine hiring a new employee to manage complex machine and able to fix it when a problem arises. Instead of sending the employee for a long training, you can equip him with the AR glasses, which will serve as a guide through any process, step by step, assessing his performance in real-time. It is both much faster and cost-efficient solution. Similarly, remote collaboration could be meaningfully enhanced thanks to an ability to visualize work and test solutions in safe augmented environment (e.g. Ford engineers are using Oculus to collaborate on virtual models of cars).

I believe that AR, especially in the form of headsets, could potentially replace computers. There are still, however, some obstacles to overcome. The first major issue is hardware. While there are already some solutions available on the market, similarly to virtual reality, there is still a room for improvement in terms of usability. Another big proble is the AR content, which requires lots of programming effort as well as personalisation in most of the use cases. Finally, people are still not educated about the potential use of AR, which by some is mostly considered to be a gaming solution. Nevertheless, I am excited about the future of this technology and its implications on our work-life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er5amSwm9XQ

Sources:

www.forbes.com/sites/maribellopez/2016/11/11/augmented-and-virtual-reality-fuel-the-future-workplace/#64cb6322185d
hbr.org/2017/03/augmented-reality-is-already-improving-worker-performance
www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/07/18/how-augmented-reality-will-reinvent-product-design/#2164ab282940
www.ge.com/reports/game-augmented-reality-helping-factory-workers-become-productive/
www.tonyrobbins.com/career-business/augmented-reality-at-work/

Would you trade some carbon with me?

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Augmented Reality: The Tool To Empower Your Workforce

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