AWS Spatial Computing Blog
The Best way to Predict the Future is to Simulate it
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay
The most rewarding part of my job as VP of Technology at AWS is talking to customers about their business challenges and potential solutions. What I like to tell people is that, behind the scenes, AWS is powering not only large-scale rendering for blockbuster movies, but also some of the largest online gaming and digital experience platforms. And while the potential of connecting millions, or even billions, of people in persistent virtual social and collaborative experiences is inspiring, I feel that this is just the beginning.
Spatial computing is what powers these collaborative experiences. It is defined as the potential digitization (or virtualization, or digital twin) of all objects, systems, machines, people, their interactions and environments. AWS has spent years making machines smart. Now, focused on spatial computing, we are taking those smart machines, objects, systems and people and allowing them to move seamlessly between the virtual and physical worlds. Today anyone can use their phone to create a 3D model of just about anything. For example, a real-estate agent could create a 3D model of a commercial property for lease, upload those models to the web for marketing; then share them into virtual reality for collaborative design, remodeling and construction; and then 3D print both a diorama of the building for public discourse, and even actually 3D-print an addition to the building with concrete.
The digital twin is a game changer for businesses. In the same way that businesses bought personal computers for the first time in the 1970s and 80s to run spreadsheets, digital twins allow organizations the new ability to analyze and simulate complex operations. Digital twins allow businesses to model and simulate the other 90% of the business that spreadsheets can’t. Digital twins are virtual representations of physical systems that use real-world data to mimic the structure, state, and behavior of the objects they represent and update with new data as conditions change.
I like to say, if you’re not simulating, you’re standing still. If you’re not optimizing, you’re standing still. For businesses that want to move forward, digital twins are the natural progression. There are hundreds of billions of physical world resources such as vehicles, buildings, factories, industrial equipment, and production lines that will benefit from this next chapter in spatial computing powered by AWS.
So why now? Why are we so actively focused on spatial computing now? Two reasons—new challenges and new capabilities.
New Challenges
There is a convergence of key external factors putting pressure on organizations, from the boardroom to the shop floor, including:
- Geopolitical tensions and the focus on optimizing environmental sustainability are putting the acceptance of long and complex supply chains under new scrutiny;
- Elevated buyer expectations are putting pressure on companies to design better products and react to shifting buyer sentiment more rapidly, and to provide high-volume individual customization;
- Rising inflation and tightening monetary policy is bringing the era of cheap capital to an end, forcing companies to optimize for efficiency;
- A tight labor market and changing workforce demographics means millions of skilled workers are retiring each year, and the cost associated with recruiting and training the new workforce is eating away at ROI;
- Post COVID-19, some level of distributed social, commerce, and work are here to stay;
New Capabilities
Driven by complimentary technological developments, new solutions are possible:
- Real-time 3D engines offer a new style of user interface to make sense of vast amounts of complex data, across all industries;
- Augmented reality and virtual reality devices are becoming more accessible and powerful;
- The cloud provides on demand access to more powerful CPU and GPU instances plus improvements in machine learning algorithms are creating a virtuous cycle;
- Combining artificial intelligence (AI) with computer vision and human creativity provides new opportunities for collaborative problem solving;
- Advances in robotics and machine learning paired with global connectivity enable cost-effective automation that can be anywhere and managed from anywhere;
- Generative design plus additive manufacturing results in less waste, smaller batches and production closer to end customers;
- Advanced simulation allows for solving problems before they arise and doing things with minimal risk.
The challenges and capabilities I’ve outlined in this article are broad—so how do we move forward? We’ve found that organizations that embrace a modern cloud approach beyond IT are outpacing their industry rivals in product flow, infrastructure utilization and pace of innovation. While we technically can’t virtualize the physical world in the same way virtualization enables the cloud, we can bring the benefits of the AWS Cloud to the much larger world outside of IT.
What are the elements of a modern cloud approach that all leaders should embrace? There are three: The first is Software Defined. Virtualization made the cloud economically viable, through the virtual representation of the server in a secure control plane with the ability to start, pause, stop, the servers’ operations. The second is Data Driven. Once a resource is software defined, it can send operational data to the cloud where it is collected, analyzed and acted upon. The ability to tap into that data is the difference between resources that are “smart” and benefiting from new technology, like automation, machine learning (ML), and AI, and those that are stagnating or are being held back. And the third is Augmented Decisions. Software defined resources plus bi-directional flow of data means we can make local and holistic optimization decisions. Decisions can be relatively simple and automated such as ‘don’t water if the weather forecast says rain’. Decisions can be as complex as optimizing the flow of a global supply chain, simulating thousands of possibilities, and understood in a VR visualization.
We at AWS have already begun working on numerous spatial computing capabilities. Users can virtually try on shoes, robotic vacuums are virtually tested in digital environments, and Blue Origin has created a three-stage lander powered by an additively manufactured high-performance BE-7 engine, to name a few.
But what will enable all of this? Above all else, open standards are key for protecting your investment by not getting boxed in to specific vendors or solutions. Focus on the data, not on the device. Remember, your data is the valuable part – data is the new oil. Also, critical to all our work, is security, security and security, because connectivity brings new attack vectors.
And what are our constraints? Seamlessly moving data between the cloud and the edge means you’re dealing with what we call “the three laws”. And no matter what we do over the next 10 years, we have to be driving towards these three laws. The first is the law of physics. We can’t move data faster than the speed of light, so latency is a big deal for some applications. How a solution is architected depends on how much, and how fast, data needs to move through the system. For example, some VR solutions require real-time updates from disparate systems with massive amounts of data. The next is the law of economics. Sending all data back over the network can be expensive. You need to consider the total cost of the solution – invention is happening at such a rapid pace that you must account for planned obsolescence. By focusing on data, AWS helps businesses with their spatial investments, the goal is that those investments remain valuable today and into the future. And the last is the law of the land. Regulatory requirements are becoming increasingly complex and difficult to manage. Sometimes there are data residency requirements that must be incorporated to keep data safe and private while maintaining organizational and legal obligations. Security matters.
We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface on the why of spatial. In the future our blog posts will dive into the why and how, as well as the what. Stay tuned for more – and I look forward to seeing what you all build.
-Bill
To hear about this topic more in depth, check out these podcasts:
Building the Open Metaverse: Cloud Infrastructure of the Metaverse.