Virtual Insight

What do they all have in common? Each of the above scenarios harnesses powerful Canadian technology created by Vancouver, B.C.-based NGRAIN, a 13-year-old company that has made a real name for itself in the field of 3D visualization and augmented reality development. 

NGRAIN’s success comes from its patented core technology, which essentially renders three-dimensional images from voxels—tiny 3D cubes that are stacked together to create a whole image. According to Carl Byers, the company’s chief strategy officer, the whole concept is best explained using the example of a simple sandcastle. The structure itself is made up of billions of tiny grains of sand, and NGRAIN’s core technology is all about creating a 3D map of each tiny piece. In fact, that sandcastle was the inspiration for the company name—which refers to visualizing each and every grain to the nth degree. 

Byers explained that while most computer games model only the exterior surface of an object, NGRAIN technology produces a complete model that includes not only the outside, but all the interior components, too. With a simple click, users can deconstruct an object to see each of its individual parts, and then re-assemble it piece by piece to understand how they come together to make the whole. 

With about 35 employees spread across its various locations in Vancouver, Ottawa, Orlando, Fla., and Richmond, Va., NGRAIN has been in a constant state of change since it launched its technology in 2001.  

“We were the usual technology company looking for a market,” Byers told Skies during a visit to the company’s head office in Vancouver. “We explored a number of markets at that time—oil and gas, medical, geographic information systems, aerospace and defence, lots of different areas. Through that process, despite good fits in each of those markets, the military community was the best early adopter of the underlying technology.”

In the early days, it was the Canadian military that first saw the value in NGRAIN’s 3D visualization technology, in part due to budget considerations and a “do more with less” philosophy. 

“Where they were most interested in using the technology was in training applications,” explained Byers. “Because we could model each individual piece so accurately, we allowed people to take all of those pieces apart. You could actually disassemble and re-assemble things, which is very different from watching a video or a PowerPoint animation.”

The experience of developing interactive 3D virtual task trainers for the Canadian military proved to be the springboard that launched NGRAIN into the international spotlight. “It allowed us to build some really significant good examples and bring them forward,” said Byers. “We were able to prove how interactive 3D improves training. We have some fantastic stats from our clients’ external studies—improving first-time-right by over 30 per cent; improving training throughput by up to 60 per cent; improving knowledge retention for specific tasks by 20 to 30 per cent; and helping novices work to the level of experts.”

Soon, the U.S. military—and later, the U.K. Ministry of Defence—were NGRAIN customers. Today, NGRAIN-based applications for training and knowledge development are in use across Asia, Europe, and North America, improving the performance of technicians maintaining hundreds of equipment types throughout the aerospace, defence, energy, and healthcare industries.  The company also sold its core technology to users who wished to build their own training programs, as well as to systems integrators who added their own application and then re-sold the package, with royalties going back to NGRAIN. The company also supports what it sells, offering in-house technical troubleshooting and an interactive online self-help community.

Byers further explained the training application: “Our technology allows people to build virtual task trainers, which are interactive 3D desktop or tablet-based training devices. They allow people to take things apart and learn the processes, learn the tasks, and understand the theory of operations within a computer-based training environment. Many of our applications relate to that, and some are built around specific training courses—how we learn about a diesel engine’s operation, for example. Using a virtual engine allows students to take it apart without practicing on the real thing.”

The virtual trainers are also good for maintaining currency. “There are complex operations you don’t do very often, like changing the propeller on a Hercules aircraft, for example,” said Byers. “You do those once every 10 years or so as a maintainer. You learn it once in school, but then you may not see it again for a few years. So, how do you maintain your currency? Classroom-based or virtual task trainers or refreshers allow people to train and maintain their currency out in the field.” 

But the application of NGRAIN 3D technology is not limited to the training sector. The examples at the beginning of this article illustrate how organizations across a variety of industries have harnessed the power of the 3D voxel to meet their visualization needs. And, as Byers said, that’s just the beginning. 

Recently, NGRAIN decided to pull back from its training-related work in order to focus on new opportunities surrounding its core technology. 

“We developed a network of partners and systems integrators to take over the [training] work in the long term,” explained Byers. “And now, we’re focusing on the foundation: tools and products for sharing knowledge over a variety of applications, particularly on seeing beyond reality with 3D visual imaging.”

A key area of focus is the company’s augmented reality technology, which allows users to effectively merge the digital and physical worlds. Existing 3D models are combined with supporting documentation, such as technical manuals, reference materials, illustrations, procedural data, animations, audio, and video. Users can access this additional information through the click of a button. 

One of the most interesting new business opportunities relates to the idea of taming “big data” using 3D visual analytics.  

“Massive amounts of data are being churned out by enterprise planning software, and even aircraft health monitoring systems,” said Byers. “Imagine all the sensors generating data, and organizations are trying to understand it. There is a recognized need for change in making more effective decisions using this data. We see a future where that can be done much more effectively by people immersing themselves in the 3D environment. The possibilities are virtually limitless.”

He cited the example of a factory that continually experiences problems on a particular assembly line. The cause can be identified using 3D visual analytics to find where failures are occurring in the production chain. Or, in the case of aircraft health information systems, the same principles can find relationships between the data from an entire fleet of aircraft.

NGRAIN’s early success with virtual task training in the Canadian military led to a number of technology partnerships with Industry Canada. Last June, the company received a repayable $9.5-million contribution from the federal Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative (SADI), which will be used to fund research and development in advanced 3D technologies.  

“That stimulates our R&D and drives the technology development, much more than we’d ordinarily be able to do as a small company,” said Byers. 

With the applications for its 3D technology limited only by the imagination, Byers concluded by saying that NGRAIN will continue to explore exciting new opportunities in 3D, while at the same time focusing on its core vision, aptly defined as “seeing beyond reality.”