Scranton, is that it allows companies to provide site-specific
training to workers before they ever set foot on a job and
thereby increase worker safety.
“You can put on a headset from the safety of your home
or office, and using our technology, you can essentially walk
through a project site and walk through any kind of sequence
that would have to be done on-site. And by the time someone
who is an operator or in maintenance shows up to the project,
they are much more situated about what they need to do,
how to do it and what the safety requirements are around a
project,” he said.
What a difference
While IrisVR’s core customers are in the AEC and oil and
gas sectors, its system is also in use in several other industries:
defence, aerospace, automotive and manufacturing.
Scranton says what differentiates it from other similar systems
is that it’s enterprise grade thanks to the company’s
early research into the technology, and it supports a broad
range of file formats and headsets. “We talk a lot internally
about being agnostic on the inputs and agnostic on the outputs,”
he said.
The system is also easy to learn.
“We typically see folks getting their ‘VR legs’ and getting
comfortable with the technology literally within a few minutes.
We’ve done a ton of work to basically make it point
and click easy,” Scranton said. “Ultimately, we only succeed
if people are talking about the building rather than
our technology.”
The starting price for IrisVR software is US$225 a month
for individuals while volume discounts are available
for businesses.
Filling a need
California-headquartered Avatar Partners, a pioneer when it
comes to AR, is starting to gain some traction in construction.
It was founded in 2003, and has been providing solutions
to a lengthy list of industry partners since then, including the
U.S. Navy, Northrop Grumman, Mitsubishi, the U.S. Airforce,
BAE Systems and the U.S. Coast Guard. It set its sights on the
commercial construction industry two years ago after realizing
the monumental benefits – such as safety improvement,
expense reduction and elimination of errors – that were being
achieved by agencies using its software would also apply to
commercial construction.
COVER STORY
“VR and AR are really the only
mediums where it’s a literal
representation of what you’re
going to get. You don’t have to
stretch your brain to imagine it. It
feels like you’re physically there.”
– Shane Scranton, IrisVR
PILING CANADA 15
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