When a piece of complicated mechanical equipment breaks, the expert needed
to fix it isn’t always located locally.

ScopeAR is a startup in our Summer 2015 batch that uses augmented reality (AR) to dispatch remote experts to consult with field technicians on how best to solve a mechanical issue. Using AR features such as telestration, annotation and 3D models that can
overlay and lock directly on to a piece of equipment, RemoteAR provides field technicians with an expert that’s essentially looking over their shoulder, giving them guidance each step of the
way.

TechCrunch’s Greg Kumparak wrote about ScopeAR in an article published today:

“Maybe you’re working on an oil rig, and one of the panels is throwing
out errors. ‘REPLACE VALVE 6B’, reads the screen. You know how to
replace a valve! You… just don’t know where said valve is. Your company
has experts for this, but they’ve all been called off to other rigs.

…ScopeAR, a company from YC’s Summer 2015 class, wants to help experts be anywhere they need to be via the magic of augmented reality.

The idea behind ScopeAR, over simplified: take a video call, and add
the ability to draw on and annotate anything the person on the other end
is looking at. As they move their camera, anything you’ve added —
arrows, text, custom-made 3D models, etc. — stays locked onto the right
place.

Need to know which valve is ‘Valve 6B’? Point your camera at that array of valves, and the expert can point right to it.”

Read the complete article on TechCrunch here, and participate in the Hacker News discussion here.