Siemens and Sony Collaborate to Revolutionize Industrial Development with Mixed Reality at CES 2024

Siemens and Sony have joined forces to introduce an innovative mixed-reality headset designed to revolutionize the industrial metaverse. Unveiled at CES 2024, the NX Immersive Designer headset is specifically crafted for designers and engineers, allowing them to conceptualize ideas within dynamic mixed-reality environments. This cutting-edge device features OLED microdisplays and ergonomic controllers that facilitate seamless interaction with 3D objects, enhancing the creative process.

The headset integrates Siemens' Xcelerator portfolio of industry-centric software with Sony’s advanced spatial content creation system, forming a powerful tool for content development tailored to industrial applications. This groundbreaking headset is expected to hit the market later in 2024.

"We envision the industrial metaverse as a virtual realm that closely mirrors reality, enabling people to collaborate in real time alongside AI to tackle real-world challenges," stated Roland Busch, CEO of Siemens. “This innovation will empower our customers to accelerate their innovation processes, promote sustainability, and adopt transformative technologies on a larger scale, catalyzing a significant shift in entire industries and reshaping our daily lives.”

Yoshinori Matsumoto, executive deputy president and head of technology and incubation at Sony, remarked, "By merging our technologies with Siemens’ extensive engineering expertise, we’re excited to redefine the daily workflows of designers and engineers through immersive engineering. The headset’s high-quality, realistic rendering and intuitive interface will provide creators with enhanced tools, fostering a more engaging creative process and driving further innovation within the industrial metaverse."

In addition to the mixed-reality headset, Siemens announced a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to enhance its Mendix low-code platform through the integration of AWS's Bedrock platform. This collaboration aims to simplify access to generative AI capabilities, offering industrial developers a range of powerful models through a unified API. Siemens acquired the Mendix platform in 2018.

Previously, developers faced challenges when integrating generative AI models, often requiring them to secure access credentials and write specialized code. However, the new Mendix-Amazon Bedrock integration will streamline this process, enabling developers to create robust, industry-specific applications with just a few clicks. Users can now interact with information effortlessly through a graphical interface, utilizing the convenience of drag-and-drop commands.

This partnership marks a significant advancement in leveraging generative AI within industrial applications, ultimately enhancing productivity and fostering innovation in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.