Leveraging Augmented Reality for safer, more efficient marine navigation Announcement video here – https://youtu.be/PEY5Ej4wX5g
Today, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster and Engage Creative Technologies announced the BridgeVUE Project. This Newfoundland and Labrador-led project will bring together industry and academia to leverage emerging technologies for safer and more efficient marine navigation.
BridgeVUE is a made-in-Canada solution that leverages emerging technology to enhance marine navigation by contextualizing radar data over an individual’s field of vision, in real time, regardless of visibility. By using an augmented reality (AR) headset and combining it with navigational data, vessel crew will have the capability to overlay mission critical information over their field of vision even when visibility is near zero, increasing their situational awareness and improving safety.
As an example, ice and other hazards can be difficult – and dangerous – to navigate at night, in fog, or in any low-visibility situation. Using the BridgeVUE application, someone on the bridge of a vessel would be able to know exactly where any hazards are, and react accordingly.
This project, supported by partners Mitacs, the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Petroleum Research Newfoundland and Labrador, Rutter, and Robot Interactive + Marketing, will deliver a commercially viable and revolutionary product in BridgeVUE. The collaboration this project creates will ensure that BridgeVUE is a technically-sound system that can be integrated onto the bridge of existing vessels.
With a total project value of more than $420,000, the Ocean Supercluster will provide close to $170,000 thousand in funding, with the balance of funding coming from project partners.
This project will place Canada at the forefront of bringing an emerging technology to market while simultaneously building and growing Atlantic Region expertise in Canada and creating employment in the local workforce.
About Engage Creative Technologies:
Engage Creative Technologies is a cutting-edge digital technology firm focused on creating value-added digital solutions that reshape reality and allow humans to harness the power of technology. We use our suite of proprietary solutions, together with leading-edge user experience and design principles, to develop visualization and augmented reality / mixed reality technologies for a broad range of applications.
About OSC:
Canada’s Ocean Supercluster is an industry-led transformative cluster focused on tackling the shared challenges across ocean sectors through a collaborative program designed to accelerate the development and commercialization of globally relevant solutions, while also building a highly-capable, inclusive workforce. To encourage innovation and trigger new industry investment during these challenging times, the Ocean Supercluster supplemented its core programs with an additional project stream called Accelerated Ocean Solutions Program (AOSP). This enables the development of smaller projects on a shorter timeline that deliver tangible outcomes, while continuing to build resiliency in our ocean sectors.
Quotes:
“Our world is on the verge of a digital revolution as emerging technologies become a more significant part of everyday life. At Engage, we want to be a first mover in adopting these emerging technologies to solve real-world problems. By blending mixed-reality technology with marine navigation systems, we believe our BridgeVUE application will enhance situational awareness in harsh marine environments, and ultimately allow for faster, better, and safer decision-making.” – Aaron Dawe, President, Engage Creative Technologies
“Canada’s oceans, the bounty in their waters and the riches within them have created prosperity for generations of Canadians. Our people have expertise now that can take on the world. So, let’s take it on.” – The Honourable Seamus O’Regan Jr., Minister of Natural Resources
“Three years ago, the government selected Canada’s five superclusters to accelerate innovation in areas of competitive advantage for Canada, including the ocean economy. We have seen unprecedented momentum from the superclusters, with hundreds of projects approved and thousands of jobs created. As Canada looks to grow its sustainable blue economy, the work the Ocean Supercluster is doing to advance our ocean industries is more valuable than ever.” – The Honourable Bernadette Jordan, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard
“The BridgeVUE Project delivers an exciting augmented reality solution that provides real-time radar data to inform decision making and enable safer navigation of vessels at sea, even in the most challenging conditions. This is an Atlantic Canadian solution with global potential and we are excited to see its development and deployment into the market.” – Kendra MacDonald, CEO, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster
“Deploying digital technologies in the offshore is a huge opportunity to continuously improve the safety and efficiency of operations. Using augmented reality can enhance situational awareness and decision- making in mission-critical situations and we’re excited to see the BridgeVUE project succeed.” – Dave Finn, CEO, Petroleum Research Newfoundland and Labrador
“The Marine Institute’s Centre for Marine Simulation is a global leader in specialized maritime training and the use of simulation technology. We’re excited to work with Engage Creative Technologies to improve the level of training available at our facilities, and the reality of some of the scenarios that we can present to students and clients who use our facilities.” – Captain Christopher Hearn, Director, Centre for Marine Simulation
“Engage’s BridgeVUE product is a terrific add-on to our existing sigma S6 systems to provide augmented reality visualization of what’s happening on the ocean surface. This provides a new level of safety to our customers in low-lighting and low-visibility scenarios, and blends very well with our vision to be a leading integrator and manufacturer of ocean technology.” – Stephen Hale, Vice President, Rutter
Media Contacts:
Aaron Dawe
President, Engage Creative Technologies
709.765.1045
Nancy Andrews
Canada’s Ocean Supercluster
709.725.7070