Lockheed Martin to create digital twin of Earth / Vection Tech ventures into space / 'Metaverse Seoul' launches for public service

Plus: Accenture invests in hologram provider 'Forma Vision'

Inside.com Part of   Network January 30, 2023

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Maryland-based Lockheed Martin and the full-stack computing company NVIDIA are together creating an AI-powered digital twin of Earth's atmosphere to monitor current global environmental conditions and predict weather patterns. The Earth Observations Digital Twin project is being created for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency that organizes data for meteorologists. More:   Lockheed Martin and NVIDIA have already worked together on a digital twin that supports the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado Division of Fire Prevention & Control in fighting forest fires. According to Lynn Montgomery, a research scientist at Lockheed Martin, the digital twin is "kind of a Google Earth-looking product, but it's going to have all of these observations coming in at almost a real-time basis." Lockheed Martin and NVIDIA will reportedly demonstrate one of the variable data pipelines of Earth's digital twin by September 2023.

Australian tech company Vection Technologies has reached a deal with space travel leaders to create Lunar City, the first VR metaverse platform to promote space travel. The platform is designed to attract the public to participate in a fully immersive VR space visualization. More:  The platform was developed in response to NASA's Artemis Program.  The company signed a two-year memorandum of understanding with Thales Alenia Space, Next One Film Group, and ALTEC.  "Lunar City" allows access to astronauts' training and other educational applications and aims to broaden public outreach for the Artemis program, moon landing, and space tourism.

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Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is launching a new metaverse to improve its public administration services. Metaverse Seoul, a three-part project featuring a fintech laboratory, corporate support center, and Seoul’s top 10 tourist attractions, is expected to be completed by 2026. More: The Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology is establishing a fund to invest in the metaverse sector. South Korea's new President, Yoon Suk-yeol, has deemed the development of this technology a national priority. According to critics, the government’s engagement in the metaverse is just a waste of public money.

Accenture Ventures has invested in Forma Vision, a provider of video technology to beam 3D holographic images into the metaverse. The partnership followed Forma Vision's joint development with Deutsche Telekom's hubraum, testing DevEdge 5G application programming interfaces on a 5G network. More: Forma Vision's goal is to allow authentic virtual expression for users and enable opportunities beyond avatar interactions for enterprises. Accenture, a professional services company specializing in IT services and consulting, and other companies have already tested the technology to complete "executive town halls, training, and small group meetings." Project Spotlight, launched in 2020 by Accenture Ventures, allows startups to gain a "nuanced understanding of real business problems and industry domains." The fund also supports other VR players, including digital wellness provider BehaVR and Strivr, a virtual training platform.

In collaboration with the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Katariba, the board of education of Hiroshima introduced metaverse-related activities. Metaverse usage is expanding as part of classes and extracurricular activities in response to increased absenteeism in the past few years. More: On campus or at home, students wear virtual-reality goggles and meet in the metaverse.  Students debated metaverse opinions during summer holidays to help reduce student absences.  According to forecasts, 1 billion people worldwide will participate in metaverse-related activities within the next decade.

Virtual employee "Athena," developed by virtual communication company Engage XR, is showing corporations how they can integrate AI into its metaverse platform. Launched by the Ireland-based company, the Engage LINK metaverse platform was previously known as VR Education.  More: Engage XR is collaborating with organizations like Lenovo, HTC, and Stanford University. In 2021, the company raised €9M through a share placement to develop its "metaverse for business." The avatar is an immersive virtual employee who carries out tasks and responds to voice commands and interacts with essential platform features, responds to queries, etc. Engage XR platform is designed for creating, sharing, and delivering VR content for education, training, and online events.

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Vildana is a writer, activist and university lecturer on corporate responsibility.  Besides English, she is also fluent in German and speaks basic Spanish, Italian and Russian. Editor Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords.

360Learning is the LMS for collaborative learning that enables companies to upskill from within.

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