Spatial Computing

Spatial computing is at the heart is the next step in the ongoing convergence of the physical and digital worlds. It does everything virtual reality and augmented reality apps do: digitize objects that connect via the cloud; allow sensors and motors to react to one another; and digitally represent the real world. Then it combines these capabilities with high-fidelity spatial mapping to enable a computer coordinator to track and control the movements and interactions of objects as a person navigates through the digital or physical world. Spatial computing will soon bring human-machine and machine-machine interactions to new levels of efficiency in many walks of life, among them industry, health care, transportation and the home. Major companies, including Microsoft and Amazon, are heavily invested in the technology.

As is true of virtual and augmented reality, spatial computing builds on the digital twin concept familiar from computer-aided design (CAD). In CAD, engineers create a digital representation of an object and this can be used variously to 3D print the object, design new versions of it, provide virtual training on it or join it with other digital objects to create virtual worlds. Spatial computing makes digital twins not just of objects but of people and locations, using GPS, lidar, video and other geolocation technologies to create a digital map of a room, a building or a city. Software algorithms integrate this digital map with sensor data and digital representations of objects and people to create a digital world that can be observed, quantified and manipulated and that can also manipulate the real world.

More information:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spatial-computing-could-be-the-next-big-thing/