Finger Food organises IoT augmented reality project – in a brewery

The Holobridge framework offers a holographic view of the inner workings of craft beer brewing through IoT data.

Canadian tech developer Finger Food has created a holographic application for a brewery that enables users to see how beer is brewing using IoT sensors within equipment.

The framework, dubbed HoloBridge, was developed in partnership with software companies OSIsoft and Microsoft and allows US craft brewer Deschutes to see data from IoT sensors in an augmented overlay. This enables the brewer to not just see, but also interact with data at scale.

Finger Food’s Mixed Reality (MR) application features life-size holographic brewery equipment with live streaming data, offering context and insights from the PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Cortana Intelligence, ready to be viewed and analysed.

Keeping an eye on beer

The application uses a combination of OSIsoft’s PI System and Cortana Intelligence, which Finger Food then combined with holographic technology. The result is a framework for visualising real-time IoT data. Now, Deschutes employees can see and interact with IoT data overlayed on specific parts of brewing equipment, in order to eliminate production time losses and increase productivity.

“Finger Foods’ holographic application is an incredible example of how, together, we empower our customers and the outcomes they are looking to drive,” said Caglayan Arkan, Microsoft’s general manager of worldwide manufacturing and resources.

Finger Food is the first MR developer to join the Red Carpet Incubation Program (RCIP), a collaboration between Microsoft and OSIsoft designed to advance Industry 4.0 initiatives.

“Mixed reality will significantly impact manufacturing environments over the next decade and we’re very excited to be collaborating with Finger Food as our first Red Carpet Incubation Program MR partner,” said Prabal Acharyya, worldwide director IoT Analytics at OSIsoft.

“Not only can our clients now benefit from accurate advanced analytics to improve their processes, but they can see and interact with data, context and events from the PI System in real time with PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure with MR on HoloLens from Finger Food. This is truly ground-breaking.”