Issue link: https://geospatial.trimble.com/en/resources/i/1397824
IMAGINATION DRIVES INNOVATION El Abadi contacted XXII, a Paris-based startup focused on augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. The company develops tools for simulation and training. To provide a proof of concept (POC) for el Abadi, XXII created an application for Android™ devices that would supply data on Enedis cables to Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality goggles. An essential part of the solution was knowing the user's position. "In order to depict the underground lines correctly for the field technicians, we needed to accurately geo-locate the user," said XXII Business Development Manager David Saint-Macaire. "The GPS capability of smartphones could not provide suitable accuracy so we looked for a better solution." Underground electric cables are visualized in the HoloLens/Catalyst solution. Precise GNSS positioning enables accurate depiction of the underground lines. A virtual menu enables technicians to control the display of information in the augmented reality environment. After talking with experts at Trimble, XXII selected Trimble Catalyst, a technology that provides precise GNSS positioning on Android smartphones and tablets. The Catalyst solution is designed to enable developers to integrate high-accuracy positions into third-party applications and specialized workflows. For XXII, integrating Catalyst into their application was straightforward. They had developed a companion app for Android that sends information to the HoloLens. That application uses the position from the phone's internal GPS. XXII then integrated Trimble Mobile Manager, which manages the positioning and hands the high-accuracy positions to the Android operating system, effectively overriding the smartphone GPS with high-accuracy positions provided by Catalyst.