Editor’s note: This story is part of Cleveland Inno’s debut Under 25 program, a platform to recognize rising innovators under the age of 25 who are making big moves with their companies across Northeast Ohio.
As a high school student, Austin Wilson recalls getting interested in augmented reality while watching a demonstration of Microsoft's Hololens technology at Case Western Reserve University.
A radiology professor and a headset-wearing medical student at the university demonstrated how Hololens can aid learning by examining a holographic heart.
Today, as a senior computer science and engineering major at the same Cleveland university, Wilson is involved in several projects both on and off campus that are using augmented and virtual reality, as well as voice development, to test the boundaries of reality.
At his company, Tauon LLC, Wilson, 21, creates software development kits that enable players to control video games with their voices.
At age 16, he was introduced to Amazon Alexa — the voice-enabled assistant — and soon began developing "Alexa skills," which are voice apps that people create to control Alexa-enabled devices.
Less than a year later, Wilson won second place in Hackster’s Internet of Voice Challenge by teaching Amazon's Alexa to drive a motorized car made of K'nex parts, according to an Amazon blog post.
"Then he taught Alexa how to communicate with ships in the video game Elite Dangerous, winning first place in the Amazon Alexa API Mashup Contest," according to the post.
Wilson didn't have $3,000 to buy a Microsoft Hololens headset, so he bought a less-expensive augmented reality headset by Vive with some of his hackathon winnings.
But he found it hard to use his computer keyboard to play games while wearing the headset, so he developed a voice interface that enabled him to use his voice to control the game.
"I have been developing these voice-like (software development kits) for Unity and Unreal Engine," he said. "These are two really popular game engines."
But for Wilson, voice development is less about making computers accessible and "more about new ways to access data and interact with it," he said. "It's using immersive technology to find new ways to gather data and then to adjust it."
Wilson runs his consulting work through Tauon.
For instance, he is a lead software engineer developing VetGuardian, the first true non-contact vital signs monitor for animals at Structured Monitoring Products in Elyria, Ohio.
"On top of that, I've been doing Covid stuff," said Wilson, who also is working toward a concentration in bioinformatics at Case Western Reserve.
He led the development team for Covid-19 Predict, an online tool that aggregates infection and fatality rates worldwide in an easy-to-read map that helps policymakers and medical professionals determine risk and trend levels.
Wilson and his team presented the online tool at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, according to an article in Case Western Reserve's The Daily publication.
Wilson is no less involved in school projects. He is leading a group of 11 students — five at the Cleveland Institute of Art and six at his own university — to make a video game, he said.
Wilson and some of his classmates also are competing in NASA's Spacesuit User Interface Technologies for Students (SUITS) Design Challenge, "which is basically developing AR displays for astronauts on Moon missions," he said.
"We won't find out if we're a team until December," he said.
