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Hands-free\nAR devices like those made by Kognitiv Spark are changing the way we\nwork by helping us all work smarter, not harder. CEO Yan Simard drops\nin to remind enterprises shy to get started enhancing the workplace\nwith XR technologies will \u2014 should they wait too long \u2014 be left in\nthe dust.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAlan: Welcome to the XR for\nBusiness Podcast with your host, Alan Smithson. Today\u2019s guest is Yan\nSimard, the CEO of Kognitiv Spark. He\u2019s designed and led many\ninnovative business ventures through his own startups. He also has\nextensive professional experience with companies such as CGI, Zaptap,\nVision Coaching, AIS, Incite Wellness, Bell Canada, Industrial\nAlliance, and more. I\u2019m just going to read this quick quote from Yan.\n\u201cWe believe that mixed and augmented reality, if used right, can\nnot only allow frontline and field workers to stay relevant, but make\nthem more crucial than ever before.\u201d With that, I\u2019d like to\nwelcome Yan and it\u2019s kognitivspark.com.\n\n\n\n\nYan, welcome to the show, my friend.\n\n\n\nYan: Thanks, Alan. It\u2019s a\npleasure to be here.\n\n\n\nAlan: It\u2019s my absolute pleasure to have you. And I can\u2019t wait to dive in here. Maybe just give us a 10,000-foot view of Kognitiv Spark and the great work you guys are doing there.\n\n\n\nYan: So Kognitiv Spark, we do mixed reality communication technology to better provide support to our remote field workers. Our product is called RemoteSpark. It\u2019s an application that has been optimized for the Microsoft Hololens platform. In a nutshell, what it does if you have a field worker that is facing a piece of equipment that stopped working and that worker doesn\u2019t know what to do, that worker can put on the Hololens, start RemoteSpark, and communicate with \u2014 let\u2019s say \u2014 an engineer at the head office that can help out. The engineer, through a computer, is able to see in real-time what the worker is seeing. They can talk to the person, but they can also provide 3D holographic guidance on top of things. So as an example, if they have a 3D CAD file, that could help the worker figure out what are the steps that need to be done to perform a repair, the expert can drag and drop that on the computer side of things, and the CAD file is going to show up as a 3D hologram in the field of view of the worker, so that the worker can perform the repair.\n\n\n\nAlan: So if a field worker\u2019s\neither in a factory or a warehouse and they\u2019re looking at a machine,\nthe machine breaks, why don\u2019t they just pick up the phone?\n\n\n\nYan: Yeah. And while most of the time that\u2019s what they do right now, the problem with phones \u2014 or even tablet-based chat systems, or phone-based ones \u2014 is that you have to hold something in your hand, so you can do the repair or do the process or the task that you have to do, at the same time as you\u2019re getting the information and the knowledge. So it\u2019s always a two-step process. With mixed reality, you can just do it all together at the same time. So they\u2019re doing the work, they have their hands greasy and dirty, and they getting the knowledge at the same time. So it\u2019s much more efficient. And also, there are many studies that show that in terms of knowledge retention, it\u2019s about 80, 85 percent higher when you learn about a given task at the same time as you\u2019re doing it with your hands.\n\n\n\nAlan: If you look at this from\nan ROI standpoint, what is the investment to get started with\nKognitiv Spark? Obviously you need a Hololens. So that\u2019s, call it\n$3,500. And then what else do you need after that?\n\n\n\nYan: Yeah. So our software is a service one, and we have two offerings. One is