Remote Technologies Augment Capabilities

As connectivity at offshore oil and gas facilities improves, one of the major hurdles for augmented reality technology is evaporating.

Connectivity has, for years, been the primary challenge for uptake of certain remote-enabling technologies for use in testing, inspection and repair work, says Jereme Pitts, Librestream COO.

“Connectivity is only going to get better,” he says.

Librestream, which offers the Onsight augmented reality service platform, has designed its technology for use with low bandwidth, so it can operate on satellite, 3G, or 4G and “5G is even better,” Pitts says.

Hand-in-hand with that improvement in connectivity seems to be a willingness of offshore personnel to embrace technologies that provide access to remote experts, he says. When speaking recently with customers on an offshore rig, he says, the workers “weren’t saying, ‘No, I don’t want to use this technology.’ They were saying, ‘I want this to be even easier. I want it to realize when something is wrong.’ They’re not the detractors anymore. It’s not the same pushback you would have gotten in the past,” Pitts says.

Read the full article written by Jennifer Pallanich on OEdigital here.