Towards Industry 5.0:

How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart,
Connected Worker

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

Contents
1

Executive summary 

02

2

Introduction

03

3

What are converged experiences? 044	Elevating your human team through smart, connected work

05

5	See the unseen: our vision for converged experiences

06

6

Future advancements 

09

6.1

09

Key enablers

6.2	Addressing concerns around adoption

127	Getting started: your journey to converged experience development

13

8

14

Conclusion

Author15
Contributors15

References15

01© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

1 Executive summary
Unlocking Industry 5.0 hinges on the orchestration of humans and machines todrive productivity and value. Central to this is the smart, connected worker: aworkforce empowered by immersive digital experiences that will revolutionise theway they perceive and interact with their environment.
Cambridge Consultants’ (CC) vision to achieving thisfuture is through an exciting field we’ve termed“converged experiences.” Converged experiences aim
to align the physical and digital worlds through multiple
sensory techniques, such as 3D vision, voice and haptics,
allowing users to interact with the physical world withvaluable insights displayed through a digital overlay. As
we move towards Industry 5.0, converged experiences
will become the bridge between human potential andtechnological innovation, allowing you to better support
your team’s interactions with your systems, unlock newopportunities and more powerful, streamlined operations
for your business.

In this whitepaper, we will: Explore the value and business opportunities that comefrom using converged experiences to unlock Industry 5.0.
 Reveal how converged experiences can bridge the gap
between the digital and physical worlds in your businessto unlock previously unseen insights and opportunities.
 Discover how to get started on your converged
experiences journey with a review of high value
application areas and enablers.
Ultimately, this paper will act as your essential guide tointegrating converged experiences into your business andelevating your workforce in a way that is only possible whenpeople and machines work harmoniously together.

By investing in converged experiences for an industrial
setting and a smart, connected workforce, you can foster
greater productivity and new business opportunities that
address the fundamental requirements of modern industry,from increased autonomy to achieving net zero emission
targets and modernising national infrastructures.

“As we move towards Industry 5.0, converged
experiences will become the bridge between humanpotential and technological innovation, allowing you
to better support your team’s interactions with yoursystems, unlock new opportunities and more powerful,streamlined operations for your business.”

02© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

2 Introduction
We envision a future where the boundaries between thedigital and the physical worlds are dissolved throughconverged experiences. These converged experiences
will revolutionise how we interact with our surroundings,
replacing traditional screens and paper-based interfaces
with immersive digital systems that reduce the friction
between people and technology and better support yourhuman team.

But achieving Industry 5.0 is not the only reason
this innovation is needed. Across the industrial andmanufacturing sectors, we’re seeing fundamental shiftsthat are prompting profound transformation and strategic
adaptation, including: Sustainability factors: as businesses work to achieve net
zero emissions goals, they require upgrades to equipment
and manufacturing processes to streamline theirperformance for maximum efficiency, prompting radical
changes in the energy industry and beyond to provide
alternative energy sources, re-engineer energy grids andconnect to new sources of renewable energy.

Converged experiences will act as personalised metaverses
to empower users in complex environments, reducing
cognitive load, enabling more intricate procedures andboosting your worker’s wellbeing while offering new market
and revenue opportunities.

 Optimising national infrastructures: national
infrastructure in transport and utilities are becoming
smarter to improve resilience and deal with obsolescenceand pressures from changes in urbanisation. Thesechanges are widespread, ranging from smarter roads
and signalling to counter the effects of rising congestion
to intelligent curb infrastructure to support electricvehicle charging to upgrades and, particularly in the US,
preparing infrastructure for the arrival of Advanced Air
Mobility (AAM) specifically short hop air taxis.

This is central to Industry 5.0, which, as defined by theEuropean Union,1 “places the wellbeing of the worker
at the centre of the production process and uses newtechnologies to provide prosperity beyond jobs and growth”,
complementing the Industry 4.0 approach by “specificallyputting research and innovation at the service of thetransition to a sustainable, human-centric and resilient
European industry.” In other words, Industry 5.0 requires a mixof resilience, sustainability and the orchestration of humans
and machines.

 Increased autonomy: global competition and thecontinuing drive for increased productivity demands
improved industrial autonomy. This puts pressure on
smart factories, smart construction and development
processes and the need for smart, connected workers– a new generation of human workers who will need tointeract more closely and easily with machines thanever before.
 Divide between human and machine workforces:
increasing industrial and factory autonomy will produce
human-free dark factories that increase efficiency andremove humans from dangerous or unsavoury work.
However, this creates a divide between your human teamand machines, meaning we lose the crucial elements
only a human team can offer, including decision making,empathy and creativity – all of which are vital to support
the industrial transformation.
What’s clear to us is that the orchestration of human andmachine can be best achieved through the development of
converged experiences. These immersive digital experiences
can support, enhance and revolutionise human work to
curate more efficient, differentiated and valuable operations
that are ready to tackle what lies ahead for your business.
Let’s start by exploring further the opportunity converged
experiences offer for your business.

03© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

3 What are converged experiences?
The phrase “converged experiences” refers to both themultiple sensory techniques of new digital interactions,such as 3D vision, voice, haptics, alongside the direct
integration of the physical world with a digital overlay –enabling new personal metaverses which will occur firstin industrial settings.

Take the example of a factory worker who, with appropriate
converged experience devices, can see an electrical
motor which visually declares it has an IoT interface. The
worker can then make a natural gesture to easily connect
to the motor and view status information, such as signsof intermittent operation suggesting that maintenance isrequired. This would make their work more reliable, efficientand conducive to your business’ larger goals.

Simply put, converged experiences act as a bridge between
the physical and digital worlds. Our exploration of Extended
Reality (XR) digital technologies is allowing for new levels ofinteraction with physical objects enabled through humangestures within a shared 3D experience.

While in principle the technical components to achieve
this are attainable now, the challenge is to make theseexperiences seamless enough to be used as part ofeveryday industrial work – much like smartphones andtablets are today.

This vision for converged experiences encapsulates CC’s
deep tech approach, harnessing radical science andengineering to drive service and product transformation.
This is based on improving the situational awareness ofusers over two key dimensions:

Making converged experiences a common place tool
requires a combination of the necessary underpinningtechnology, including XR devices, IoT systems, low latency
wireless networks and more. Here, CC’s deep tech approach
becomes key to advancing converged experiences into
the future, with our scientific and engineering expertise
expanding across multiple technological areas in needof innovation.

1. Augmenting a range of human senses with digital
experiences conveyed in 3D vision, gestures, haptics, andspatial sound.
2. Allowing seamless connection between physical anddigital assets to ensure the data and control of physicalsystems can be easily accessible and rendered indigital forms.

“Converged experiences act as abridge between the physical anddigital worlds.”

04© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

4	Elevating your human team through smart,connected work
Central to the need for converged experiences is thegrowing cognitive load for workers within this new andfuture industrial context. These increasing demands on yourworkers stems chiefly from:

We can also supplement these digital experiences withspatial sound and digitally created aromas to further guide,
educate and even warn users. These additions are not justuseful but what is expected – after all, in gaming and virtualworlds, digital entities already provide audio support andindeed a quiet immersive world would feel strangely out ofplace – things that move and appear are expected to havea sound.

 The increasing inclusion of AI powered systems provide
new information sources to augment the human worker.
As the machines and systems improve around theworkers, there is growing demand for precision andadaptability – for example, working alongside cobots(collaborative robots) which might be undertaking thegraft and drudgery of machine loading.

There is huge value to be unlocked from these fully digitalvirtual realities and the industrial metaverse2 to conduct
predictions from models. One such opportunity lies in the
exploration of how the laws of physics can be manipulated
by virtually accelerating time or changing environmental
conditions within an immersive environment. But once thesepredictions and scenarios have been explored, the realvalue comes from how these new understandings are used
to change our physical world and how these insights can bemade accessible to the smart connected worker throughconverged experiences.

 Connected IoT systems mean that there is now anabundance of data. The workers need support in how
to digest the insight that comes from this data to makesense of it and make decisions based on it.
 The new digital pace also means that the workers need
to be conducting continuous education in the workplace.
Moreover, the workers that achieve the highest
operational performance can share their best practices
with others as their actions can be captured and sharedas new digital workflows with others, leading to theoverall workforce improving.

For progressive business leaders with the vision to see
the power of technology, the promise of converged
experiences presents a prime opportunity to transformyour business operation. You may already be looking toinvest in new machines and digital systems to maintainyour competitiveness and rise to the new challenges
we’ve explored above. But we argue that your human
workers must be seen as an integral part of these newtechnology systems, making converged experiencedevelopment essential.

This increasing cognitive load can only be effectively
managed if your team is given the right tools to manage
it, requiring a continuing digital enablement of the smart
connected worker.
Depending upon a worker to refer to a smart tablet or return
to a workstation won’t cut it, not least because it would
mean interrupting important and often intricate work. This is
why a new form of digital in-context engagement is needed– one with situational awareness that is provided within theirgaze and uses all their senses.

Improving this orchestration between humans andmachines through converged experiences is more thanjust a strategy – it’s a necessity to creating sustainablegrowth as the landscape shifts towards Industry 5.0.
Without it, your business cannot operate in a way that issafe, ethical, responsible or beneficial to your worker’s
wellbeing and productivity.

Our digital services team at CC have always looked to assist
human users by connecting with human senses from images,
sound, voice and haptic feedback. We are now moving into
a new wave of 3D engagement enabled by Virtual Reality(VR)/Augmented Reality (AR) devices, such as goggles andheadsets, along with gesture detection to provide more
immersive experiences that engage your full 3D view rather
than confining it to the 2D world of screens.

“Improving this orchestration between
humans and machines throughconverged experiences is more thanjust a strategy – it’s a necessity tocreating sustainable growth as thelandscape shifts towards Industry 5.0.”

05© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

5	See the unseen: our vision for converged
experiences
As we actively conduct experimental research into thefield, our vision for converged experiences, as illustrated in
Figure 1, focuses on bridging the gap between the digitaland physical worlds to combine the best of technologicalinnovation with the best of your human workforce.

Central to this converged experience concept is theexperience flow of discover: see: select: bind: interact.
This is the pursuit of the of the concept of “zero UI”- a term
originally coined by Andy Goodman of Fjord3 which centreson moving away from digital experiences being limited toclicking on items on a screen. Instead, users can explore thenatural world and control the digital experience throughnatural gestures.

Our development so far harnesses many of the newtechnological building blocks available today, such as
VR glasses and gaming engines. But to achieve new levelsof experience, the applications and solutions require
first principle thinking alongside new scientific andengineering approaches.

The basic requirement for this is to have an Augmented
Reality (AR) device that features forward-looking cameras
and is connected to the network, allowing for augmented
digital overlays to be added into and over the viewed image.

discover : see : select : bind : interact

Immersive
experiences

DigitalPhysical

Digital andphysical bridging

Spatial design

Metaverse

Figure 1: Concepts of converged experience06© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Connecting

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

Below is an example of CC’s research on converged experiences showing a user viewing their environment through a digital
overlay that offers insights into the world of connected devices around them, such as the plant needing to be watered, theroom’s temperature, and the ability to adjust the light source through a natural gesture from a distance.

Converged
Experiences

While this research explores how converged experiences
could be used in a domestic setting to improve homeownerconvenience and accessibility, the ultimate aim is todeploy this technology across a range of scenarios, fromenterprises to industrial applications.

This exploration of XR digital technologies is enabling ourclients to deliver new levels of interaction with physicalobjects, all enabled through human gestures within ashared 3D experience. Our development presents exciting
new market and revenue opportunities to offer hands-free
support for users in a range of complex environments – fromindustrial to military operations – to reduce cognitive loadand enable more intricate procedures through immersive
digital services.

Our converged experience research provides a system
to enable “pairing” with digital connected devices basedon eye tracking and gestures. As part of this work, we aredeveloping the design and development experience torecognise what is pairable with and then how to render (e.g.
using NERFs) and place in the user’s vision. NeRFs, or Neural
Radiance Fields, is a machine-learning technique used in
the creation of 3D digital assets representing 3D scenes andobjects as continuous functions.

“For the smart connected worker, being able tosee the unseen through a converged experience
allows them to make decisions quickly and respondto industry challenges more effectively...”07© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

This research illustrates the central experience flow of discover: see: select: bind: interact in action,
following five distinct steps:

1

Discover4

Through ubiquitous private wireless networks,
Industry 4.0 strategies and the availability of APIs forcomponents, the interfaces needed to allow digitalconnections are now available, allowing us to explore
readily discoverable interfaces that allow digitallyenabled objects to be found and connected in real-time.

Following selection, bind then connects the digitallyenabled object with the digital asset associated withthe object, displaying it clearly in the viewed scene. Thisconnection can appear in multiple ways, with object
anchored in the user’s vision or located next to theviewed item. There is a range of digital assets that can beused, such as displaying information or providing active
controllers. For example, a speed controller for a surgeon’s
drill to sophisticated dashboard panels for maintenancerecords or even 3D objects that guide a repair procedure.
The displayed items might be permanently displayed or
activated so that they display only when triggered.

A first step towards this is for digital interfaces to naturally
support automated discovery. We’re actively developing
technology that addresses the challenge of dynamic
discovery and automated ontology integration which
involves seamlessly combining independently developed
ontologies into a unified framework. Our work will createa streamlined discovery process as a first action, withearly process shown in our video demo when the user’s
display “discovers” connected devices. In our example
we’ve used a smart lamp as part of our early research, but
in an industrial section this could apply to the inspectionof a step down transformer in the local grid to find realtime insights on voltage range, efficiency and coil coolant
temperature.

2

5Interact

As well as providing a visualisation of a digitallyenabled object, the bind allows interaction. This completes
the bridge from the digital to physical worlds in that thephysical object can be controlled by the interaction andmanipulation of the associated digital asset.
Beyond these five steps, a final important concept tosupport this process is multi-user collaboration. In
many industrial use cases, more than one person will beworking together to complete a task through a converged
experience, either locally or remotely. Each worker may
have a slightly different viewpoint on the same physicalscene and may be sharing the same digital assets. For
example, in a chemical lab, a team of industrial chemists
involved in the same experiment can share views of thetemperature of the chemical and pH, all while each worker
controls different instruments within the experiment.
Incorporating multi-user collaboration will be the final step
to completing the converged experience flow, allowing for
streamlined and cooperative teamwork.

See

Once a connection has been discovered andestablished, it’s time to engage with the object.
Converged experiences primarily do this through eye
tracking. Focusing visually on the object can provide avery accurate target, while gesturing can help reaffirm
engagement if needed.
The other aspect of seeing is recognition. Once an item istargeted, objection recognition is used to determine what
the object is. The recognition of a discoverable item in theviewed scene activates an affordance indicator: a digital
overlay shown against the viewed item. The indicator
provides a visual clue that a discoverable element is in theviewed vicinity and can then change state, such as colour
or motion, when the object is seen.

3

Bind

Overall, this experience paradigm of discover:see:select:engage:interact can be captured in the phrase “see theunseen.” In other words, converged experiences allow us
to render previously unseen digital information connectedto physical systems and overlay it on a real-time view ofthe physical system. For instance, it could allow a user
to see the reach of an electromagnetic spectrum from a
Wi-Fi router, or to see the maintenance status of a device
component hidden inside a physical casing.

SelectTo initiate the connection to a discoverable itemthe selection is activated by some form of gesture orverbal utterance. This achieves the same result as amouse click. Gestures have become more common place
thanks to recent gaming engines and augmentations todevices, such as with the Apple Watch, but we see a huge
opportunity for even more subtle and sophisticated ways
to gesture and select. This will become incredibly useful for
workers who are using their hands to do intricate work to
avoid interruption.

For the smart connected worker, being able to see theunseen through a converged experience allows themto make decisions quickly and respond to industry
challenges more effectively, all leading to a morestreamlined and elegant result for your business.

08© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

6 Future advancements
6.1 Key enablers

We’ve established that converged experience development
begins with achieving the fundamental activities of
discover:see:select:engage:interact. This must be delivered
seamlessly to be integrated naturally into a worker’s actions,while also being compatible with new product development
to give your business a competitive advantage.

Meanwhile, the opportunity to develop sophisticatedconverged experiences depends on several key enablers,with their advancement being key to what makes ourapproach possible now for the early adopters. Before wecan move further towards Industry 5.0, development isneeded around the following technologies:

Naturally, this is still an emerging technology, so it would
be remiss for us to not touch on the wider picture aroundenablers for converged experiences to be integrated into
industry, further technological developments that provide
opportunities for converged experiences to continue toadvance, and the remaining barriers to adoption that we
can work together to address.

XR devices
AR and VR devices are crucial to delivering converged
experiences. Competitive headset offerings from Meta,
Microsoft and Apple have already propelled the industry
forward, but have been targeted very much at the consumer
market. Meanwhile, we are seeing progressively more
lightweight AR glass vendors such as Magic Leap and Vuzix
which provide more wearable solutions. Worn AR glasses
are the reality for the immediate future, while smart contactlenses have been presented by companies such as Mojo
Vision, although they remain a proof of concept.

As development continues, CC’s exploration is extending to
the following areas to further support our clients on theirjourney to converged experiences: 3D asset capture: capturing and integrating objects as a
3D asset to be used within mixed realities will provide evenmore immersive experiences. For new physical objects
there is often a digital design, but for existing objects –particularly from “brownfield” sites – there is unlikely to bedigital source. This is why we have been investigating theuse of AI techniques such as NeRFs and Gaussian Splats
to create a three-dimensional scene from basic twodimensional images, meaning we can use limited imagery
or from photogrammetry techniques to create higher
fidelity 3D models.

To develop solutions that can meet the demands of the
future, there is an undeniable dependency on front facing
cameras and access to the connected video feed. Currently,
not all the devices are providing this vital access, either for
privacy reasons or to lockdown the applications to their own
network. Meanwhile, a widefield of view will be essential toprovide sufficient vision to work effectively with the viewed
physical environment to locate digital assets.

 Manual vs automated taxonomy integration: with theengage and interact modes, we will likely be using manual
integrations as opposed to automated integrations,requiring developer intervention. But with the expansionof more smart devices and with mixed industry sources,
the challenge will be how to dynamically build automatedintegrations for objects that have not been previously
seen so no developer intervention is required. We haveresearch underway looking at the use of Generative AI
and Large Language Models (LLMs) to comprehend theAPIs coded into the programme and dynamically create
these integrations.
 Human Machine Understanding (HMU): we believe there
are still exciting opportunities to extend the integration
with human sensors by examining how we include
the emotional state of the users into the converged
experience and adapt in real time. Find out more about
CC’s approach to Human Machine Understanding. 4

09© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

XR platforms

Connectivity and edge compute

The details of developing for XR vary by headset, with eachheadset vendor making their own software developmentkit (SDK) for their devices. Some are designed to run
applications on the device itself, while others can betethered to a high-powered PC, or both. But for either
option, latency is a key issue, making running immersive
XR applications in remote cloud data centres unfeasible
at present. The workaround has been adding supporting
functions into edge cloud, but this is a very nascenttechnology, with the major players already showing signs ofbuilding out the platform ecosystem to support developers.

Wireless connectivity is also essential to realising converged
experiences, and given the industrial and manufacturingcontext, private wireless networks will be instrumental. These
video and real-time applications must have very low latency
requirements for at least three reasons:
1. Low refresh rate and lack of synchronisation between
the digital asset movement and the viewed reality has
been flagged as a major contribution to motion sickness
in users.
2. Ensures there is a high fidelity and fine motor gesture
within the seeing and selection phases to support
accurate and detailed work.

In addition to native SDKs, many vendors provide
integrations with popular 3D engines such as Unity andUnreal. There are also standards like SteamVR or OpenXR
that allow developers to build applications in a hardware
agnostic way, though typically these standards will not
expose all the features that a particular headset’s native
SDK can provide, such as eye tracking. This situation is
improving all the time, and there is even an early standard
proposal for building immersive experiences that run in a
web browser called WebXR.

3. Supports the collaborative work of two of more workers
operating on the same activity.
These are important requirements to achieve thehighest level of acceptance for converged experiencesin meaningful commercial applications. Low latency
wireless communications and the location of ancillaryedge compute can help achieve this. For telecoms vendors,
this offers a great opportunity to provide the higher value
capability offerings and the services from 5G and 6G
networks to support these applications alongside edge
cloud computing offerings.

But to provide a more complete connected solution andto support the spatial design experience, there needs
to be supporting platforms. These will host the 3D digitalassets and provide the intelligence behind the 3D assets.
As the demands of applications become greater, the CPUcomputing within the devices will limit applications, creating
the need for supportive processing in the backend platform
e.g. object image recognition and algorithms providing thedigital simulations.

Industrial IoT adoption
The converged experience concept depends on theavailability of the digitally enabled systems within industrial
settings. We look to the initiatives of Industry 4.0 to drive thesmart factory and provide the interfaces that allow the AR
enabled control. Currently, general adoption levels of IoT arereported to be within around 25% of businesses, 5 with thisnumber only set to grow.
Many new industrial machines and systems will have an API
and a digital control option by default. The challenge is thatmuch of the industrial landscape is brownfield, comprisingof older systems that do not have the digital interfaces
to control the system. These older brownfield systems will
require the most maintenance. Meanwhile, to have a holistic
understanding of a complete system, the older systems must
be controlled alongside newer digitally enabled systems.
One option for older systems is to retrofit with externalsensors that can be then connected into the Industrial IoT.
Other techniques include to manually locate a machineor system or use image recognition to enable the systemand then to associate a simulated model of that system
to have a predicted view of its operation. On this topic, CC
has been experimenting with photogrammetry and Neural
Radiance Fields (NeRFs) technology to capture models of
existing systems.

10© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

Digital twins and industrial metaverse

Spatial design

The intelligence that converged experience brings tophysical assets vary from simple data visualisation toremote digital asset control. But increasingly the digitalaugmentation will come from far more sophisticated modelsof the industrial systems, such as digital twins.

Another vital area to the adoption of converged
experiences on an industrial, and indeed commercial
level, is the refinement of the spatial design. Designers ofdigital experiences face numerous challenges in crafting
3D environments that engage multiple senses, including
hearing, touch, and smell, to create more interactive andintuitive user experiences. While User Experience (UX)
methodologies have evolved sophisticated techniques for
2D environments, navigating the realm of 3D introduces anadditional layer of complexity, requiring consideration ofdifferent zones of vision.

Digital twins are models or simulations of physical systems
which are based and informed from real data sensed
from the physical system. They provide the basis forunderstanding the operation of the internal mechanismsof the system, allowing for simulations of future potential
behaviour to be conducted. The converged experience
concept allows these digital twins to be made more relevant
and viewed in context of the physical system.

In this intricate design process, several factors comeinto play. Designers must determine whether digital assets
should be transparent or solid and strategically position
them within the various zones of vision. Placing a digitalasset too close to the eye may enhance readability but
could obscure the view of physical objects. Meanwhile,
peripheral vision presents unique opportunities for utilising
digital elements, such as notifications or alerts, which
elicit different reactions from users. Spatial sound adds
another dimension, capable of complementing visualcues or simulating directional audio feedback for a more
immersive experience

For example, if we have a digital twin of an air taxi’s
quadcopter blade, a maintenance engineer can view
insights from a digital twin to understand the status of theblade, potentially identifying a blade to be replaced before
failure for predictive maintenance.

Spatial Audio
Atmospheric soundObject-driven soundMusic
Speech77°

MAIN CONTENT
ZONE

102°

Haptic andGesture interfaces

Background+20m

Midground+15m

PERIPHERAL
ZONE
NO-NO ZONE
-0.5M

Foreground+0.5m

CURIOSITY
ZONE

Figure 2: Example of spatial design

11© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

6.2	Addressing concerns aroundadoption
Our vision for converged experiences signals a progressive,
forward-facing approach to ambitious industrial equipmentvendors and industrial operations, but concerns aroundadoption remain within the wider landscape that we canwork together to solve. These include: Data privacy: many solutions around converged
experiences require cameras, the use of which can raise
concerns around individuals’ data privacy. While thecamera feed will provide highly valuable auditing and
AI training data, users may be reluctant to have theiractivity recorded. Data sovereignty is a complex question,
particularly when users are working in a commercial
capacity, but a first step is to acknowledge the challenge
and work together towards an agreement.
 Motion sickness: converged experiences can initially bedisorientating for some users. This is particularly true ofVR, though less so of AR. But with refined spatial design,
solutions are at hand – plus, with extra training, it will
become easier for individuals to naturally adjust.
 Safeguarding: there is a general case for safeguarding
when using AR and VR in the workplace. One of theobjectives of converged experience is to combat
cognitive overload, but it’s clear with a poorly
implemented system it could also lead to mental overloadof the user. We believe the answer here lies in good
spatial design which can be harnessed to improve user
experience and lessen the cognitive load.
 Resistance to the new: any significant change can bringresistance. Many new autonomy tools are not adopted
by operators purely due to teams being used to theircurrent work environment and reluctance to adopt a new
approach. But we urge you to push past this fear as we
believe converged experiences and the ability to see theunseen will eventually become as universal as the smart
phone app has become to digital adoption. What seems
new now will one day be the standard – the key is toembrace the change early.
Ultimately, while they require consideration, we feel none ofthese concerns are true barriers or deal breakers. We feel all
can be addressed as technology continues to advance. Our
goal is to work with you to accelerate the journey towards
converged experience adoption and integration.

12© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

7	Getting started: your journey to converged
experience development
So how can you begin to invest in converged experiences
and apply them into a practical action plan to improve yourworker’s wellbeing and output?

situational awareness and reactions while actively runningrisk assessments, maintenance and process optimisation.
Converged experiences for industrial scenarios are notcurrently available as off-the-shelf products. There is arange of starting points depending on your appetite forfundamental product development and the degree ofcustomisation that that you want to explore. But at CC,
we have the technical expertise, resources and strategic
capabilities to help guide you on your journey, working withyou to create custom converged experiences that cananswer your business’ needs and elevate your workforce.

The most important aspect is to apply this development
within a commercially viable business plan rather thana pursuit of technology alone. There is a wide range ofapplication areas, but our research points to the mostpressing and transformational being around the “Guide” and“Plan” areas that are outlined in Figure 3 below.
Both areas keep your workers safer and more productive,
offering insights and information that improve their

Converged Experiences

VirtualSetting, Scene, Scenario

Situation

Use cases categories

Real

Mixed

Virtual

Real

Guide

InformRemoteProcedure
overlay

Visualisation

SupportHazardavoidance

Data overlay

Operations

Spatial/environmental
awareness

Monitoring

RemotesupportNavigation

Investigation
Sense
enhancement

Use cases(collated from secondary research)
Asset tracking

Train

Hazardawareness

Emergency
response drills

Operational
scenario

Procedurefamiliarisation

Fault finding
and repair

Quality control
Orientation
Regulatorycompliance

Product/
serviceclient demos

Figure 3: Analysis of use case areas for converged experiences13© Cambridge Consultants 2024

DesignPlan

Visualisation

Risk
assessment

Verificationand validation

Process
optimisation

Product
prototyping

Construction/
upgradeoperations

Process/
service
Proof ofconcept

Customerproduct/
servicee-testingand feedback

Maintenance/
repairoperations

Scenariorunning

Logistics

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

8 Conclusion
The transformational forces shifting the industrial andmanufacturing sector are immense and vital to managing
the effects of climate change and beyond. Autonomous
connected industrial systems and the development ofsystems such as digital twins are crucial, but it’s vital toremember that our human team remain an indispensable
part of your operation. Ultimately, it will be the orchestrationof machines and people through converged experiencesthat will be key to future success.
At the present, it has become the accepted reality tostare at the screens held in our hands for assistance –but the near future promises a deeper integration ofdigital augmentation and control over our very senses.
This evolution heralds a paradigm shift where digitalinterfaces seamlessly blend with our human experience,
amplifying our capabilities in unprecedented ways.
Only through the elevation of the smart connected worker
using converged experience techniques will help you riseto the challenges that lie ahead. Together, and with a deep
tech approach that can create true synergy between
human and machine, we will unlock Industry 5.0 for a morestreamlined, human-centric and future-ready operation.
We’re excited to discuss how converged experiences could
be integrated into your business and harnessed to support
the development of new services, offerings or your businessgoals. Reach out to continue the conversation and take thenext step towards Industry 5.0.
Martin Cookson, Director for Digital Service Innovation
martin.cookson@cambridgeconsultants.com

14© Cambridge Consultants 2024

Towards Industry 5.0: How Converged Experiences Empower the Smart, Connected Worker

References1

European Commission. (n.d.). Industry 5.0. [online]
Available at: https://research-and-innovation.
ec.europa.eu/research-area/industrial-research-andinnovation/industry-50_en [Accessed 5th June 2024]

2

Cambridge Consultants. (2022). Protecting security andprivacy on the Web3 bridge to the Metaverse. [online]
Available at: https://www.cambridgeconsultants.com/
protecting-security-and-privacy-on-the-web3-bridgeto-the-metaverse/ [Accessed 5th June 2024]

3

4

Cambridge Consultants. (2023). Our interdisciplinary
approach is propelling Human-Machine
Understanding. Available at: https://www.
cambridgeconsultants.com/ai-and-human-machineunderstanding/ [Accessed 5th June 2024]

5

IoT Analytics. (2022). The rise of Industry 4.0 in 5 stats.
[online] Available at: https://iot-analytics.com/wp/wpcontent/uploads/2022/10/Insights-Release-The-rise-ofIndustry-4.0-in-5-stats.pdf [Accessed 5th June 2024]

O’Reilly Media. (2015). Solid Conference, San Francisco
2015: Building the Industrial Internet. [online] Available
at: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/solidconference-san/9781491927984/video216731.html[Accessed 5th June 2024]

Author:Contributors:

Martin Cookson, Director for Digital Service Innovation,
martin.cookson@cambridgeconsultants.com

Chris Bradford, Director of Digital Services,
chris.bradford@cambridgeconsultants.com
Gavin Doyle, Senior Technology Strategy Consultant,gavin.doyle@cambridgeconsultants.com
Jonathan Wilson, Group Lead, Digital Services,
jonathan.wilson@cambridgeconsultants.com
Matt Brown, Technical Lead, Converged Experiences,
matt.brown@cambridgeconsultants.com
Alice McCutcheon, Senior UX Designer,
alice.mccutcheon@cambridgeconsultants.com

15© Cambridge Consultants 2024

About Cambridge Consultants
As the deep tech powerhouse of Capgemini, Cambridge
Consultants (CC), is a global team of 800 bright, talented
people. We are united by the ambition to turn brilliant ideas
into technologies, products and services that have neverbeen seen before. And which will transform business, society
and the planet. Deep tech is a mindset; a bold strategy thatharnesses radical science and engineering to achieve things
no-one else can. It enables our clients to gain unassailable
commercial advantage from defendable technology thatthey own. We are trusted by some of the world’s biggest
brands and most ambitious start-ups to realise their criticaltechnology-based aspirations – and we’ve been doing it for
60 years. Cambridge Consultants is part of Capgemini Invent.

For further information or to discuss your requirements,
please contact:
Martin Cookson, Director for Digital Service Innovation
martin.cookson@cambridgeconsultants.com

UK — USA — SINGAPORE — JAPANwww.cambridgeconsultants.com
Cambridge Consultants is part of Capgemini Invent,the innovation, consulting and transformation brandof the Capgemini Group. www.capgemini.com

Lit-WHI-067 v0.3 '2024_Converged Experiences_Whitepaper'

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