Enabling Digital Twins in the Field
Augmented Reality in the field might be as simple as Apple's App Clips
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Digital Twins are where I spend most of my time thinking these days, and one of the more interesting places has been on Augmented Reality. Looking at a Digital Twin on a smartphone and trying to navigate that 3D space is very difficult. But that’s why I think one of the best use cases for AR is Digital Twins. Seeing an overlay of a 3D model in the real world opens up so many possibilities for maintenance, management, and discovery on Digital Twins.
I wrote about how the new iPhone 12 Pro brings LiDAR into the picture on my blog, and the end came is clear for using smartphones and tablets to view and interrogate Digital Twins accurately. To do this, of course, requires an app on your iPhone or iPad (or Android, of course), so everyone will need to download and install your app before using it for AR. BUT, Apple with iOS 14, came out with a pretty interesting concept called App Clips.
Now Apple presents this as an opportunity to rent a scooter or order food without downloading an app. These app clips appear quickly, and you can start using them without having to sign up or sign in. Brilliant actually, get the power of the app to the user when they most need it. How do you get these? Here are a couple of ways:
The one that I think is most interesting in the Digital Twins space is NFC Tags. Imagine a tag attached to a building, room, environmental controls, water pump, or other objects, and then the user only has to tap their Phone to launch the App Clip. In our case, they would be launching an AR app that would allow connectivity to the Digital Twin on their iPhone or iPad. Combined with the LiDAR on iOS devices and ARKit in the app, you’ll have access to a high-quality AR environment in a consumer priced device. Not only this, but Apple has its own Digital Twin platform that can be used with these devices as well. I expect to see a ton of examples using App Clips and AR for Digital Twins in 2021.
Links
Should underground infrastructure location data be included in digital twins? - Geoff Zeiss looks at what happens in the Digital Twin space under the ground. I’ve always thought that Digital Twins should go below ground, and how they are created and managed will be a big opportunity for companies in the next few years. I was lucky enough to work on a great project in Chicago that tried to jump start this. Unfortunately, stakeholders weren’t ready just yet, but I think we’re close.
Robots Invade the Construction Site - An interesting Wired article on how robots are being used in construction with all the IoT sensors and 3D models to replace human workers.