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ORLANDO, Fla. —Orlando is about to make a name for itself on the world stage with the unveiling of new innovative, immersive, 3D and holographic technology.
It's called a "digital twin" and developers said it will change the way the city does business.
"This is taking the very physical world that we all live in, and digitizing it and putting it into a virtual world," said Tim Giuliani, president and CEO of the Orlando Economic Partnership.
The partnership has been working on the project for years, eventually teaming up with software developer Unity to bring the vision to life.
Orlando's digital twin is being installed at the new Orlando Economic Partnership headquarters in downtown Orlando.
"Not only is it going to be a 180-degree LED wall but in the middle will be a holographic image,” Giuliani said.
The digital twin will map out 800 square miles of Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties with 40 square miles of highly detailed representations down to approximately 15-centimeter resolution, allowing users to zoom in far enough to see the traffic lines on the roads.
"This will be the first-in-the-world digital twin at this scale with this granular detail and resolution, and then all the data sources that we put into it. So it truly is going to be unique," Giuliani said.
The goal is to give an unbelievably real look at the area with data updating in real time.
The software was all built in the City Beautiful.
John Cunningham, head of government aerospace with Unity Technologies expects this project to set the example of what digital twins can do for the rest of the world.
"I thought this would be a really interesting project for us to get involved with,” Cunningham said. “To showcase our technology, how it can be used outside of gaming in real-world applications.”
If you're wondering what those real-world applications are, Giuliani said the possibilities are endless.
In phase one, it will help the Orlando Economic Partnership market Orlando to companies looking to relocate.
"Imagine, you're charged with the responsibility of an expansion of a company, and you bring a group of executives and you're touring three to five cities. That's the normal process. You arrive in Orlando, you've got 24 hours to understand the market, the opportunity, make connections and decide if this is a city that's going to win that sort of competition,” Giuliani said.
He said the digital twin will eliminate time-consuming site visits and provide data on transportation, utilities and even the talent pool of workers in the area.
The Orlando Economic Partnership can bring Orlando's digital twin on the road. Virtual reality headsets can show executives what it would be like to live and work here without ever leaving their office.
“It changes the conversation. You go from all these PowerPoint slides explaining all the data to standing around looking at a virtual representation of the city,” Giuliani said. “And it's just gonna be a wow factor.”
The digital twin can also help utility companies plan for expansion or map out new transit routes.
Giuliani said it could be a vital tool in connecting central Floridians to more job opportunities.
"You can use the digital twin for scenario planning. We're concerned that people aren't connected via transit. And so they're connected to fewer and fewer opportunities and jobs. And companies are looking for people, every company is looking for people,” Giuliani said.
“And we could give them more people to find in our community if we had transit connections. So scenario planning on how you connect the most people to job centers is something we're looking forward to using this technology for,” Giuliani said.
It could even help central Florida leaders prepare for disasters and the potential impacts of climate change.
But to reach its full potential, the twin needs more data, and that's all part of phase two.
"So the idea of the digital twin is that you're combining lots of different data from different organizations,” Cunningham said. “And to be able to create a platform that companies can put their data into kind of makes it more collaborative. Rather than just one company owning all the data and then giving other people access to it. Our vision of this digital twin is that it really is going to involve organizations around the central Florida area to contribute to the digital twin.”
"The more data we get into this digital twin, the richer it becomes, the more usable it becomes. And then it increases in value, as all of these other partners begin to put in their information," Giuliani said.
The Orlando Economic Partnership has already invested $1 million into this project.
Giuliani said they would require monetary investments from companies and organizations looking to add their data to the digital twin moving forward.
While this type of technology has been around for years, Cunningham said Orlando's digital twin is on track to the best in the world.
"Digital twins have been around for many, many years–20 years or so. Most of the time, digital twins have been used for manufacturing facilities or designing buildings or aircrafts and things like that. What's unique about this project is that we're doing it for a geographical region,” Cunningham said.
The fact that Orlando is at the forefront of this kind of technology might come as a surprise but it shouldn't. It's why Cunningham says Unity opened an office in Orlando two years ago.
"The growth of the real-time use of real-time 3D tools, things like games and tools that we use to build the metaverse. A lot of that comes out of Orlando. A lot of people don't know that Orlando is the hub of modeling and simulation. Globally, more than $6 billion are spent here by the U.S. Department of Defense alone. So, this really is an important ecosystem for the development of these types of applications,” Cunningham said.
Orlando's digital twin is part of the metaverse. It will essentially be "living,” constantly updating and growing.
Cunningham says eventually you might be able to access the digital twin.
"In one of the future phases, people will be able to wear either augmented reality glasses or use their phones and go around different areas in central Florida and be able to pull up information in real time and on those devices,” Cunningham said.
To watch a tour of the pre-installation of the Orlando digital twin, view it here.
