OWL: Supporting Water Health in Canadian Communities using XR

Operators Walkthrough Lab (OWL) Project Goals

Over 500,000 Canadians live in communities with a medium to high risk of disruption to access of safe water. This risk is especially enhanced within rural indigenous communities. With funding support from Canada’s Digital Supercluster for Training and Development, Transform Interactive partnered with Community Circle (formerly RESEAU-CMI), Bi Pure Water, Kama AI, and the University of British Columbia to be a part of the solution.

The Operators Walkthrough Lab (OWL) application leverages Extended Reality (XR) tools developed by Transform Interactive and conversational AI provided by Kama AI to provide access to education in rural communities for better public works training on small water systems, operations, and reducing water health risks. Through the OWL app, public works educators are able to streamline educational development and offer a more immersive training delivery of essential information.

Transform Interactive’s Technology

XR tools integrated into the OWL App, developed by Transform Interactive, makes learning modules more interesting, immersive, and impactful. The application’s technology was developed with its users in mind, so is accessible on any handheld device and operates during periods of little to no internet connection. Simulated water plant walkthroughs with pop up annotations provide additional information about plant and equipment features, allowing users to learn in depth and at their own pace.

Transform Interactive’s technology supports plant operators as they learn to set up, maintain, troubleshoot, and serve their water treatment systems. The application is also designed to prepare students entering the public works industry for their certification exams and on the job problems.

Access a full video demo of the OWL App here.

Performance Update

Within the first few months of the application’s launch, it had over 200 downloads and over 50 active users. The application has both opened doors for Canadian communities and streamlined their educational development. The ongoing use of the application is aimed to keep pace with emerging threats to rural water health, and support Indigenous communities workforce development and economic participation.

Explore the full free OWL Application here!