Intelligent Realities For Workers Using Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Beyond
Figure 6: Smart city emergency response with XR and streaming analytics
a crisis response and be effective after a
quick app download to the phone. That
would be far easier and less costly than
having excess AR HMDs available.
In an instrumented and digital twinned city,
both AR and VR techniques can be useful. At
street level, first responders and other field
workers can use AR to understand the city’s
infrastructure and emerging conditions.
Either smart phone or a HMD could work,
though the heads-up hands-free capabilities
of HMDs would be very appealing in this
case. Imagine a fireman going into a building
that has hazardous chemicals and active gas
lines. Fumbling for a smart phone with heavy
gloves is far from ideal. But having a rugged
HMD as part of the outfit could do much to
keep the fireman safe and effective. Still,
smart phone and even tablet usages of AR
could be useful for those that are not so
directly hands-on and in the literal line of
fire. For example, a city worker who isn’t a
front line professional could be deployed in
IIC Journal of Innovation
Remote analysts can utilize VR techniques
both to understand a city-wide crisis
holistically as well as assist workers on the
ground at a specific site. While a first
responder is always anchored to a physical
location and can only acquire different
perspectives at the speed of available
locomotion, a remote analyst can easily
teleport about a virtualization of the same
scene and see through buildings. They can
also quickly slice their time between
different sites that may be different parts of
the same crisis. A VR HMD is a good option
for this work, but analysts could also use
- 16 -