“IT’S BEST IF I explain with another example,” Mullins continues. “Take wind turbines. They’re often located in remote, tough to reach places — like the side of a steep hill, or in the middle of an ocean.”

It can takes hours, even days, for an engineer to reach (and then climb) one of these bad boys.

“Once they’re there, an engineer might have 600 things they’re responsible for checking and fixing. Maybe 50 of them are routine tasks, but the rest are issues they’ve never seen before — issues only faced once or twice in a career. You’ve traveled all this way, and now you can’t finish the job.”

In this instance, DAQRI’s Smart Helmet can provide three things: one, prerecorded, step by step 4D instructions; two, access to a remote expert who can jump in and circle the exact piece that needs fixing; three, the ability to visualize data in real time (ex: a thermal sensor that says, “Yo bro, that lever’s really hot. Don’t touch it.”)

“Augmented reality inoculates workers against the idea of limits,” Mullins says. “The concept of not knowing how to do something just vanishes. It drastically lowers human error while skyrocketing productivity — and that can change the way we work forever.”

The applications for DAQRI’s technology are seemingly limitless: Just imagine medical students being shown complex procedures — without the use of a cadaver. Or a welder bestowing their craft in a less dangerous (and less visually bright) environment. Even you, the consumer, can see a potential purchase’s carbon footprint without touching your cell phone.