READ
Deus ex Machina
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are unlocking the secrets of Big Data and helping transform maritime.
In the Port of Singapore, a vessel is quarantined at anchorage due to COVID. A ship’s officer is connected to either a class surveyor or an IBM Watson-powered Artificial Intelligence (AI) agent via voice-driven, industrial-grade smart glasses. With smart glasses’ ability to feed audio, video and even interactive 3-D augmented- or mixed-reality (AR/MR) digital images over the natural environment, the surveyor/agent instructs the officer as to where and what to look for to credit survey items.
The evolution of human intelligence and technology has always been driven by data. Our species was only able to transition from hunter-gathering tribes to modern agrarian societies once celestial-derived knowledge was attained and new tools developed. With technology’s exponential integration into everyday life, when will computers’ promise of freeing us instead of further enslaving us begin? How do we make sense of the infinite amount of data currently generated?
As stated by the antagonist, Nathan, in the 2015 film Ex Machina, “Here’s the weird thing about search engines [Big Data] …it’s like, striking oil in a world that hadn’t invented internal combustion. Too much raw material, no one knew what to do with it.” Now, with AI, we have deus ex machina (“god from the machine”), and these companies are making sense of this raw material.
Wearable Tech
Singapore-based Internet of Things (IoT) provider Cerekon is offering intrinsically safe, industrial-grade smart glasses and manufacturing solutions utilizing computer vision (CV) and machine learning (ML) via IBM Watson’s AI architecture.
Founder & CEO Rohit Deshmukh explains how 85 to 90 percent of maritime companies still use paper-based or mobile tablets for inspections. From a safety aspect, hands-free wearable devices allow surveys to continue even while climbing ladders. CV provides guided on- or offline inspection with indoor navigation, virtual checklists, work instructions for maintenance and repair of equipment as well as capturing image and video for objective evidence.
“COVID has placed big pressure on maintenance and upkeep onboard vessels,” Deshmukh says. “Scheduled inspections have been deferred and must now meet requirements – particularly those in restricted areas. Today, an officer can wear their smart glasses and go to the inspection areas with a class surveyor remotely guiding them.”
As of mid-September, Cerekon has been conducting proof-of-concept for inspections and remote support with Thome Group, Teekay, BP and Adriatic Shipping.
For warehouse management and enterprise resource planning systems, real-time object recognition can assist logistics by locating products, reading barcodes, updating inventory, picking validation and determining availability. Once online, this subscription as a service (SaaS) syncs-up with the cloud for analytics and report generation. Deshmukh claims Cerekon’s compressed data allows live video-streaming at 150 kbps (typically requiring 500-600 kbps), which equals wider global coverage for remote assistance.
Digital Class
More
https://maritime-executive.com/magazine/deus-ex-machina