Sopra Steria has for many years been working on the beneficial impacts of new digital interactions on society, aiming to eliminate the boundaries between virtual worlds and the real world, and to transform its customers’ businesses. As a result, Sopra Steria is now an official Microsoft partner for mixed reality in Europe. Together they offer a new approach which makes it possible to enhance user environment customisation. Sopra Steria thereby confirms its leadership in the creation of new digital experiences.Mixed reality in support of businesses’ digital transformation
Already recognised as a major player in the management of mixed reality-related projects, especially in sectors such as aerospace, transport, energy, industry and health, Sopra Steria joined Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Partner Program in early 2018. The group becomes one of the first large European integrators to join this program and at the same time reasserts its commitment to mixed reality.
“Today Sopra Steria can offer not only business and technology expertise, but also the more specific skills and techniques required in new digital landscapes, such as design, 3D industrial and artistic creation, and even serious gaming”, explains Yoann Yvon, head of mixed reality at Sopra Steria. “Thanks to Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Partner Program, we can go further still and create new interactions as we optimise processes or design new services for our customers and make mixed reality and 3D technologies accessible to firms that want to improve their productivity and working methods”, he adds.
“We’re delighted to welcome Sopra Steria, a long-standing Microsoft partner, to our “Mixed Reality Partner Program”. As a company it has demonstrated its great ability to develop mixed reality projects integrating technologies such as artificial intelligence, the cloud and IoT, and is consolidating its position as one of Microsoft's major integrators in Europe”, explains Florent Pelissier, HoloLens & Mixed Reality product manager at Microsoft France.
The case of Tecnatom: a fully industrialised approach
In order to obtain Microsoft certification, Sopra Steria conducted an evaluation lasting several months during which it assessed the contribution made by mixed reality, the quality of the design and interaction experience, and Sopra Steria's industrialised approach to AR/VR projects.
This is what the project undertaken in partnership with Tecnatom, a leader in training for staff working in nuclear power stations, demonstrated. The solution entails using mixed reality techniques with HoloLens as a training tool to pass on knowledge as part of an off-the-shelf training package. The way that Tecnatom’s in-depth knowledge of the training sector dovetailed with Sopra Steria’s technological capabilities was a critical factor in the project’s success.
PROOF OF CONCEPT & CUSTOMER CASE STUDIES (examples)
HoloGRAM, the application for measuring stealth (POC)
HoloGRAM is a proof of concept in which Sopra Steria designed and developed a mixed reality application which allows you to view a military aircraft’s level of stealth, known as “Surface Equivalent Radar” (SER), directly on the aircraft. This solution makes it possible to wrap the SER (recorded in the form of a virtual 3D hologram) onto the actual simulated or measured aircraft, thus enabling the user:
- To quickly locate the bright spots (which indicate where energy is highest) directly on the target, without having to browse through all the recorded data;
- To communicate with other experts on the basis of a shared visual;
- To explain and present visually the results of their work to decision-makers and clients.HoloGRAM uses Microsoft HoloLens technology and is designed with Unity 2017.3 and the augmented reality library Vuforia 7.
Equinor: Mixed reality in support of the oil and gas industry (customer case study)
Sopra Steria is engaged with Equinor, the leading Norwegian energy firm, and their efforts to use Mixed Reality as a tool to construct and maintain the oil platforms.
By synchronising 3D models with the physical reality of the platforms, it is now possible to check that the platforms are correctly assembled, and to have an X-ray view in order to find components such as pipes or smoke detectors through walls.