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Losci eliminates the guesswork of space optimization with digital twins

August 11, 2022 in Industry | 7 min. read
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Winner of the Unity Awards 2021 Best project in Architecture, Engineering, & Construction (AEC), losci is changing the way people analyze and understand spaces. Learn how the company employed Unity to build a digital twin of an arcade in order to streamline the space optimization process.

Losci, an Arizona-based company, has made it its mission to make spaces more human-centric. With over 100 million square feet of space analyzed thus far, losci is making great strides in modernizing the field of strategic space optimization. As the only tool on the market that enables clients to use realistic human behaviors to evaluate scenarios without pricey sensors or studies, it yields critical results in days rather than months. Losci’s analytics suite provides clients with a comprehensive package of simple yet powerful tools to provide a view of their workspace that integrates AI models of how that space will be used – before it is even built. 

Losci’s main objective is to enable clients to bypass the traditional model of spatial analysis, a notoriously costly and time-consuming process, instead encouraging them to deploy digital twins. By using these tools to accurately represent their environment, clients can easily explore multiple scenarios and visualize the impacts of changes across several metrics. This not only saves time and money by side-stepping the inefficient trial-and-error phase, but also solidifies design functionality and stakeholder confidence prior to the build stage. With Unity, losci is able to build powerful digital twin environments with virtual reality (VR) and behavioral analytics.

Digital twins of people and places

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A star element of losci’s reinvented process with numerous benefits is its comprehensive digital twin. “Digital twins” are dynamic virtual replicas of physical assets, processes, systems, or environments that look and behave identically to their physical counterparts. 

Losci has harnessed this technology to revolutionize the way humans and spaces interact. The company employs digital twins of places as well as the people who occupy them, using human behavior models acquired from decades of human movement experience. Analytics then produce insight into utilization, collaboration, information adjacency, traffic flow, and contacts.

The COVID-19 pandemic and an awareness of the need for physical distancing prompted a great demand for digital twin space planning, especially for purposes of safely returning employees to the office. Using behavioral models and basic client data, losci created digital twins for a client seeking to visualize the impacts of bringing back workers with fixed versus flex schedules. By virtually observing utilization and traffic flow through each unique digital twin, the client was able to ensure that employees would be able to safely interact in the workplace. The digital twin also provides a view of where collaboration within work groups, and between work groups, can occur.

Saving coin at the Cobra Arcade

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To create virtual, interactive scenarios with a high level of realism and performance, losci turned to Oneiros, a Milan-based creative technology company that specializes in the production of ultrarealistic, next-gen experiences. Together, losci and Oneiros were tasked with creating a digital twin of the Cobra Arcade – full of vintage video games and pinball machines – in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. 

The arcade was often packed with guests, leading the owner of the establishment to question how efficiently the space was being used. Simulating the environment would allow management to optimize the space, thereby improving traffic flow and increasing total sales. 

The trial and error required to establish the most efficient design were bypassed by an immersive digital twin of the arcade built from 2D black-and-white CAD files and photographs. In only four weeks, losci and Oneiros were able to create a simulated environment to test all of their floor layout ideas. It began as a basic 3D model with 150 photos stitched together and progressed to a VR experience using a PC and the Meta Quest 2. 

True to the nature of a digital twin, the environment was an identical replica of the Cobra Arcade, down to the materials, lighting, and mood. The digital model offered a fully immersive experience of the arcade, along with simulated customers moving realistically throughout the location, as well as an aerial view. The model efficiently gathered metrics on space utilization, traffic flow, total sales, distance of travel for employees, and number of people. Through working with losci to create the model, the Cobra Arcade was able to step outside of the physical constraints of space.

“Honestly, these are problems we wouldn’t have addressed before. Once a concept is open and operating, we tend to accept the limitations of the space as designed. Working with losci forced us to rethink and be open to change,” says Chuckie Duff, developer of the Cobra Arcade.

Shifting to human-centric design

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Losci’s digital twin and AI approach is undoubtedly the future of space optimization. As observed from the success at the Cobra Arcade, having access to a virtual simulation enables clients to efficiently make critical decisions about their spaces without spending excessive amounts of time and money.

“We’re committed to changing the way strategic space planning is done and enabling a major shift from office-centric to human-centric design across all stages of the AEC lifecycle,” says Ryan Parker, CEO and founder of losci. “Unity has made it possible by enabling us to build amazing VR and behavioral and spatial analytics. We continue to enhance our advanced capabilities by implementing Unity Reflect within our Losci product set.”

Learn how you can unlock and unleash the full power of your data for better decision making with Unity digital twins.

August 11, 2022 in Industry | 7 min. read

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