JRCS, a Japanese maritime services company, and Microsoft launched an ambitious plan to digitally transform the global shipping industry. JRCS will use Mixed Reality (MR), the Internet of Things (IoT), and AI to train shipping crews, maintain ships, and improve navigational safety standards.
Namely, Microsoft HoloLens combines the real and virtual worlds to create a mixed reality for users . HoloLens is a first-ever self-contained holographic computer that can be used wirelessly without the need to connect external devices, such as mobile phones and personal computers.
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HoloLens allows multiple users in different locations to see the same mixed reality scenarios simultaneously. JRCS hopes to have the new system, called INFINITY Training, operating next year. It will use MR and AI to train seafarers and land-based supervisors. It will also enable seafarers to take part in equipment and systems courses at any time, wherever they are. T
JRCS’s INFINITY Assist program will also use MR, IoT, AI to lighten seafarer workloads, and reduce the risks of injury and human error. By wearing HoloLens headsets, engineers will be able to perform maintenance procedures shown over their visors as they work. JRCS wants to commercialize a maintenance application for its high voltage switchboards by the end of 2019 and will add further services from 2020 onward.
Moreover, JRCS is planning to operate self-navigating vessels by 2030 through its planned INFINITY Command Service that will use the Internet of Things (IoT), AI and big data. This will enable “digital captains” to conduct the duties of ship captains. They will control multiple vessels from land, using HoloLens to share 3D charts with other digital captains in remote locations and check sea routes, weather, submarine topography and other information.
