By next year, Orlando-area businesses will be able to use a “digital twin” of the region to visualize development plans and other projects across 800 square miles of Central Florida.
Why it matters: It is a way for economic development organization Orlando Economic Partnership to attract new companies to Central Florida, by using the technology to show off the region and its advantages.
The Orlando Economic Partnership and San Francisco-based Unity Software Inc. (NYSE: U) on Oct. 19 unveiled a Central Florida digital twin, a virtual recreation of hundreds of square miles, including 40 square miles across Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties mapped out in high fidelity.
The technology, which the Orlando Economic Partnership claims is the only large-scale digital twin in use by an economic development organization, presents a new way for real estate developers, local governments, universities and other groups to visualize how master plans, transportation projects and other large-scale projects will look.
That capability will come online by 2023, Orlando Economic Partnership President and CEO Tim Giuliani told Orlando Business Journal.
A digital twin is a virtual copy of a real object. Digital twins can go through multiple simulations and be integrated with different kinds of data to demonstrate quickly and easily how scenarios may play out in real life.
The Orlando Economic Partnership in April announced the digital twin was in the works. Unity, an $8.9 billion software company with its East Coast headquarters in Orlando, built the digital twin in only three months, Giuliani said.
The digital twin already is outfitted with a variety of data sets. The digital version of Central Florida can be used to virtually tour the region, or specific submarkets, and show off median home values, commercial buildings by class, income variation and more.
For now, the digital twin is a way for Orlando Economic Partnership to show off the region and its advantages to prospective business clients. Media assets from videos to audio clips can be tailored to specific clients and embedded in the digital twin.
The Orlando Economic Partnership is open to working with companies on specific projects “as fast they can identify a use case" for the digital twin, Giuliani added.
Of course, the applications of the digital twin extend beyond what it can do in the next couple of years.
Digital twin projects range in sophistication from level one to level five. The OEP’s digital twin is at level 2, but it will be further developed toward level four — which incorporates machine learning — and level five, which uses artificial intelligence, said Unity Vice President of Digital Twin Solutions Callan Carpenter.
Most digital twin projects that exist today are at levels one, two or three, but Unity is working on other projects at levels four and five, Carpenter told Orlando Business Journal. “There’s so much more we can do.”
The digital twin is on display at the OEP’s new downtown Orlando office at 400 S. Orange Ave. However, the digital twin in the future will be accessible from nearly any device, said John Cunningham, the head of Unity’s aerospace and government business. That means businesses will be able to access the digital twin and plug in their own data to visualize scenarios.
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