Jim Heppelmann at LiveWorx 2020: "Let me show you some simple examples using Vuforia Spatial Toolbox to help bring this big idea to life.

This video, which was created by Anna, one of our engineers, shows the use of Vuforia Spatial Toolbox as a way for her to program a robot in the space of her apartment. Vuforia Spatial Toolbox understands the space of the apartment and is talking to Anna with AR and to the robot with IoT. Being human, Anna must get data through her senses, so as I like to say AR converts bits and bytes to sounds and sights so that Anna can understand and process the data in her human way.

But a robot, in this case a Lego robot, can neither see nor hear but we can talk to it wirelessly through an IOT connection using a protocol essentially made of X,Y and Z coordinates. Vuforia Spatial Toolbox is the bridge between these two worlds of man and machine and the space that they share.

After mapping out the desired path on the floor, Anna places a virtual on/off switch in space and connects it to the start point on the path. When she hits the on button the robot proceeds to the start point and follows the path that Anna requested. This is a great example of reducing cognitive distance as compared to the traditional programming model. Anna and the robot both have a shared understanding of the physical space and what is supposed to happen there.

Naturally the same concept applies to programming an industrial robot in three dimensions."