irtual reality (VR) was supposed to be the next big thing in the early ‘90s. Then the World Wide Web happened, and VR was sidelined for almost thirty years. Now, the technology to immerse users in a simulated setting is the next, next big thing, rebranded in some quarters as the “metaverse,” which blends innovations in hardware, networking, and artificial intelligence (AI).
VR’s sleeker and more pragmatic sister technology, augmented reality (AR), blends digital elements into the real world; it projects information on top of what the user is already seeing. The most familiar example is the 2016 game Pokémon Go, which superimposed imaginary creatures onto the environment viewed through a smartphone screen. AR, VR, and AI have since graduated beyond their initial uses in gaming and entertainment to much broader business applications.
For example, AR is being combined with excavator systems that use cameras mounted on heavy equipment to visually drape what is being built on top of what is there at the job site. This enables the operator to work more accurately, efficiently, quickly—and safely.
By 2024, more than 50 percent of user interface interactions will use AI-enabled computer vision, speech, and natural language processing, as well as AR and VR, according to market researcher International Data Corporation (IDC). And IDC predicts that at least 90 percent of new enterprise apps will embed AI by 2025.
AI, VR, and AR can be particularly useful in Alaska. “A key benefit for any technology relevant to Alaska is in removing the need to travel—or if travel is needed, to know exactly why and what is needed to reduce the possibility of multiple trips—and to reduce the time onsite and maximize the value of the time spent,” says Daniel Sawyer, a principal consultant at Computer Task Group (CTG). “Advancements in technology such as AI and visualization through VR and AR can help meet the challenge in efficiency of identification, diagnosis, planning, and execution of work.”
There’s an obvious benefit to using VR for employee training. Sawyer, who specializes in deploying cost-efficient technology with a focus on user workflow to increase business productivity, says, “An immersive environment can be desirable to place the user in various scenarios and significantly improves knowledge retention over simple computer-based training.”
Kartorium
Kartorium
The use of VR headsets does not replace traditional training; it’s a supplemental study aid. “I’ve been a pilot for over thirty years, and had this been available when I was flying, it would have greatly reduced the time for learning,” Saleh says. “I expect great benefits.”
Alaska Airlines
Kartorium, an Alaskan-owned software startup founded in 2019, is developing VR in the form of 3D digital twins. A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical environment, asset, or process. Anyone looking at the digital twin can see information about how the physical thing is doing in the real world.
Kartorium
Alaska Airlines | Airspace Intelligence
Alaska Airlines | Airspace Intelligence
VR, AR, and AI have potential benefits for any facility or equipment control scenario. That’s the case at GPS Alaska, which provides machine control solutions in the construction, surveying, engineering, and natural resource development industries. “We take different positioning technology and we automate heavy equipment with that technology,” says Vice President Michael Williams. “We take paper plans and have them digitized… and put them into a computer.”
Machine control software can automate graders, dozers, excavators, and other heavy equipment. For example, 3D machine control combines inputs from lasers, slope sensors, or sonic trackers, along with mounted sensors and satellite receivers. “The operator still has to drive the machine and understand how to move dirt around, but the blade is still controlled by that system,” Williams says.
However, with fewer details drawing their attention, operators make fewer mistakes and are less fatigued at the end of the day, according to Williams. They can improve their material placement speed and quality by 50 percent or more—and create a safer work environment and cost savings in the process.
Alaska Developers Alliance
Such automation might threaten to take away a construction worker’s job, if not for the persistent shortage of skilled labor. “There’s simply not enough people out there to get the work done that needs to be done,” Williams says. Adding AI, AR, and VR to the crew multiplies the productivity of human workers.
McKinley Management
McKinley Management
Number crunching is still the most natural task for computers. McKinley Management, an investment, research, and consulting firm, employs AI for analytics services from its offices in Anchorage, Juneau, and Chicago. Financial services face a problem of managing massive amounts of data. “There are subsets of tools that help us deal with that problem,” says McKinley Management CEO Robert Gillam. “Tools like machine learning and natural language processing can read through all that data.”
McKinley partnered in 2019 with UAA’s Alaska Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (ADSAIL) to focus on the use of data science and AI in finance. Under the academic partnership, student researchers earn college credits by exploring the application of AI and machine-learning skills to solve real-world problems in global financial markets.
Student researchers work under the supervision of McKinley’s manager of data science in the firm’s Anchorage headquarters. Space for ADSAIL is currently designated at UAA on the third floor of the College of Business and Public Policy. As part of its contribution, McKinley is outfitting the space with technology to assist students in their data science and AI projects.
McKinley Management
AI is the tool of the future for financial services, Gillam says. Perhaps the most compelling insight he has gained from McKinley’s partnership with UAA is how important that tool is to workforce development. “We need young people who are well-trained,” he says, “and the tools for the future are not the tools of the past.”
Saleh says Flyways originated as a project by a few Google employees trying to solve problems around self-driving cars. Alaska Airlines felt their application would be ideal for the aviation industry. “The primary reason behind that is there’s nothing random that happens in the sky; the airline has to file a flight plan,” he explains.
Alaska Airlines has always been one of the most technologically advanced airlines in the world, Saleh says. It was the first airline to use GPS and to sell tickets on the internet.
CTG
Companies should be wary of choosing a technology solution before evaluating alternatives, though. “Implementation of systems should be grounded in the size of the opportunity for business improvement, following a solid process of gathering requirements, solution selection, implementation, integration, and ongoing support and benefits realization,” says CTG’s Sawyer.
Streamlining tasks with VR, AR, and AI enables humans to focus on higher-order thinking that these technologies are not ready for. “These technologies are currently providing real value to businesses and have not yet peaked,” Andrews says. “There is still much to learn about this new frontier.”