MA Hanna Heinonen examines the opportunities of technical communication and extended reality for industrial companies in the context of industrial maintenance. Technical communication aims to design and produce easy-to-use and relevant information for the users of technical devices and applications. In her research, she explores extended reality from both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) points of view.
“Over 150 people from the global KONE organization participated in the user tests. Domain experts expressed enthusiasm toward adopting these technologies in their daily work and evaluated them to enhance the work processes”, Heinonen says.
The adoption of the industrial metaverse creates new opportunities
Collaborative virtual reality blurs geographical barriers and immerses people from diverse locations into shared working spaces, enhancing the work of global and remotely working teams. It offers new possibilities to improve the sense of togetherness and working as a team and facilitates communication in cases where traditional means of communication such as email or video conferencing are not enough.
The research shows that virtual reality streamlines many phases of the technical documentation creation and checking process, reducing misinterpretations and iteration rounds.
Smart glasses are a new delivery channel for maintenance instructions that leave the user’s hands-free to perform the tasks. With augmented reality, the user can follow instructions simultaneously when performing a task which results in faster and more accurate task completion.
In multichannel delivery, the same information can easily be targeted to different delivery channels, enhancing the publishing process for technical information, and the R&D process in companies.
“The adoption of augmented reality is a part of the bigger move into the adoption of the industrial metaverse in industrial companies. My research shows that these technologies offer many opportunities to strengthen maintenance services”, Heinonen describes.
Heinonen is based in Hyvinkää, Finland and is a graduate of Tampere University, Finland. She is currently working in R&D at KONE Corporation.
Public defense on Saturday 19 August
The doctoral dissertation of MA Hanna Heinonen The Benefits of Extended Reality for Technical Communication: Utilizing XR for Maintenance Documentation Creation and Delivery in the field of human-technology interaction will be publicly examined at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences at Tampere University at 12 o’clock noon, Saturday 19 August 2023 at the main campus, in the auditorium D11 of the Main Building. The Opponent will be Assistant Professor Michele Gattullo, Politecnico di Bari, Italy. The Custos will be Professor Markku Turunen from Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University.
The dissertation is available online.
The public defence can be followed via remote connection.
Photograph: Maarit Lahikainen/Maarimanna