The Orlando Economic Partnership (OEP) has selected Unity to create a digital twin of the entire region, which will be on display at OEPs’ new headquarters in downtown Orlando, Florida later this year.
The effort will help solve regional challenges such as transportation, climate change, or utility mapping.
The OEP also plans to use the platform to show open land and office space to company leaders considering relocation to the area and spark innovation for regional digital twins.
The OEP is a public-private economic and community development organisation that helps the Orlando region grow through business expansions and relocations.
Tim Giuliani, CEO at OEP, said: “A big part of our job is to connect people and resources, whether through the expansion of transportation to more jobs or nonprofits to people who need workforce training.
“When people can visualise a scenario and see it play out versus read about one, they’re more apt to take it seriously.”
The early phases of the project will be presented at the OEP offices for access by Orlando businesses. Future phases will expand the digital twin into VR, AR, and mobile devices to support live sensor feeds such as traffic patterns and weather.
Unity collaborates with partners to gather real-time data and integrate it into one view. Anything that happens in the Orlando area, such as public engagement, scenario planning and zoning or development, will be mirrored in real-time by the Orlando Digital Twin.
Dave Rhodes, general manager and senior vice-president of digital twins for Unity, said his team is working on the digital infrastructure to combine AI, machine learning, simulating and analytics to improve digital twin workflows.
“Unity’s digital technology brings unlocks the data from its proprietary formats and makes it easy to bring anything together in one virtual experience, enabling stakeholders to collaborate, simulate and make better decisions,” he added.
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