AI can do incredible things with spatial data. But it's also limited in ways you'd never predict. 

Baptiste Tripard, CMO of French startup Alteia, is here to explain how AI can extract value from your lidar, satellite, nerf, and other kinds of spatial data. Bonus: The best advice you'll ever hear about setting yourself up for success with AI.

Will lidar remain the go-to method for pro-grade 3D models? Or will the iPhone eat its lunch? What will the next five years look like for 3D capture? NavVis senior customer success manager Noah Eckhous weighs in -- and the answers may surprise you.

Spatial computing is already doing big things for leading commercial enterprises, so what's holding back the next wave of adoption? Business consultant Bill Emison offers an overview of the challenges (and potential technical solutions) defining this moment in spatial tech for commercial users.

A laundry list of today's most innovative spatial computing companies have joined the ranks of the 30-year-old Open Geospatial Consortium. Get an inside perspective from OGC's CEO Nadine Alameh on why big tech is buying in -- and how it could affect you.

Today, our guest is Andy Evans of Digital Construction Works. We met at a 3D tech conference back in 2011 and spent most of our time talking about the music piped into the conference hall. Andy is a professional land surveyor all about fast, productive, scanning tools and techniques for the digital documentation of construction sites and survey work. He's worked with it all, from full tripod-based lidar scanning, through mobile mapping systems, and now a full catalog of 3D capture solutions. But his goal is much bigger than that: a utopian construction metaverse.

Notes:

• Polycam - Phone-based 3D capture
• Construction Verification Initiative - An industry group working to integrate advanced 3D tech into construction
• Unity - Game engine used broadly in industrial applications
• Bentley Synchro - Infraconstruction management software
• NUAR - British national underground asset registry
• Digital Construction Works - Group specializing in custom digital solutions for construction
• Construction Metaverse Discord - Contact Andy for more info!

Today, our guest is Ash Richter — an internet friend who I've been meaning to interview for years. Ash currently works for BHP, a multinational Australian mining company, where she focuses on the application of innovative and emerging technologies. But this is just her latest gig: she also has half a dozen advanced degrees and deep experience as a technologist, VC, anthropologist, engineer, and business analyst. She's worked with AECOM, the CIA, CyArk, and a lot more.

Today she stops by to explain why spatial computing won't work unless stakeholders, companies, and even industries start cross-pollinating ideas and tech. There are little pockets of excellence spread around the tech landscape she says, but no one industry has every piece of the puzzle.

Joe Morrison is perhaps best known for his Substack, where he covers the world of satellite imagery and mapping with a thoughtful and fact-based — but altogether surprising — point of view. He’s the kind of commentator that once argued (convincingly) that Google Maps’ advantage was fading. And that’s not the only insight he’s offered that flew in the face of common wisdom.

When I caught up with Morrison earlier this month, he brought his critical eye to our discussion of spatial computing. Among other topics, we talked about why you need satellite imagery to build virtual worlds, how video games are way ahead of the curve on 3D tech, and why taking it slow is the right way to go when you jump into a new technology like spatial computing. After all, says Morrison, there’s no gold medal for being first.

Links:

• Google Maps' Moat is Evaporating - Joe Morrison
• Avazea - Geospatial software
• Geotrellis - Geographical data processing engine
• Mapping's Future Looks like Gaming's Past - Joe Morrison
• Snap acquires Pixel8earth
• Airbus WorldDEM
• Tandem X - Earth capture mission

The Immersive Wire is an essential read, a twice-weekly analysis of the latest news in AR/VR and the metaverse. For those of you who don’t know the newsletter, here’s an elevator pitch: If you’re struggling to keep up with developments in the AR/VR space, or you’re feeling tired of the same old venture-backed marketing hype, The Immersive Wire is your solution.

The man behind the newsletter, Tom Ffiske, is a thought leader with a uniquely high-level view of the industry. When we caught up with him recently, we discussed common misconceptions about AR/VR, why most of us are wrong about the metaverse, and how an interview with Carol Baskin helped highlight a necessary truth — and a big problem — with the state of AR/VR technology today.

Links:

• The Metaverse: A Professional Guide - Tom Ffiske
• The Exponential Age: How Accelerating Technology is Transforming Business, Politics and Society - Azeem Azhar

  
  

Tilt Five founder Jeri Ellsworth stops by to explain how her AR game table succeeded where many XR products have failed—and at a cost of only $359. She also explained what you can learn about the future spatial computing from the early days of the mouse and the iPhone, the first spreadsheet software, and the Silicon Valley Homebrew Computer Club that birthed era-defining companies like Apple and Osborne Computer.

Links:

• Al Alcorn on early days of Pong
• Arcturus - volumetric capture solution
• Nucleus VR - Digital twins, working with European Space Agency
• Silicon Valley Homebrew Computer Club