AR, VR Capabilities From McKinstry And Visual Vocal

These two companies have partnered to capture 3D images of buildings and hardware for use in design, engineering, construction, and facility operations.

McKinstry and Visual Vocal have partnered to explore potential applications for the Visual Vocal augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) platform within the construction and facility service markets. McKinstry is a national full-service, design-build-operate-and-maintain (DBOM) firm headquartered in the Seattle area.

The Visual Vocal platform utilizes the AR and VR capabilities of smartphones to enable increased efficiencies for facilities communication. Teams can capture 3D environments using their phone or other 3D hardware, then mark-up and vocally annotate work performed across building design, engineering, construction, and operations. Visual Vocal AR/VR environments can also be integrated within training, workforce development, and job site safety programs.virtual reality

“Immersive computing technologies like AR and VR are dramatically transforming the ways that building professionals communicate with owners, stakeholders, and the community. Visual Vocal leverages these emerging technologies to give users new superpowers, such as the ability to teleport to a job site or peer behind the walls using a previous 3D capture,” said John SanGiovanni, CEO and cofounder of Visual Vocal. “McKinstry’s strong track record with deploying new technologies, along with their depth and fluency across every stage of the built environment make the company an ideal partner as we seek out real use cases and customers to test and deploy real-world applications for AR and VR.”

Since Visual Vocal works on iOS and Android mobile devices, the platform can be deployed across project teams using existing equipment. Real-world 3D imagery is brought into the system using any mainstream smartphone. Higher-quality capture devices such as Google’s VR180 hardware, are also supported. Project teams can create and share AR/VR presentations while in the field, on the job site or meeting with clients and partners.

“Strategic partnerships allow McKinstry to evolve and innovate for the benefit of our clients, our industry and our planet,” said Ash Awad, chief market officer at McKinstry. “The Visual Vocal platform is one potential avenue for our industry to embrace new technology and move past two-dimensional construction and engineering documents in favor of three-dimensional and interactive AR/VR environments.”

In other news, McKinstry recently also partnered with Optio3 to unlock building system data to serve building owners, managers and occupants through artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics, and automation.