Dr. Kam Ng is chief executive officer of the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise. The building’s distinctive feature, a giant glass egg, is a virtual-reality cave, where images, projected on its walls, floor and ceiling, can simulate any environment.
Ng joined the LITE staff about a year ago, after 30 years with the U.S. Department of Defense. As a researcher, he specialized in acoustics and developed technology used to produce noise-cancelling headphones.
About 10 years ago, he became deputy director of research at the Office of Naval Research. There, he managed basic and applied research, as well as outreach and education programs across the nation, with a budget and research portfolio of about $900 million.
Ng also completed the Senior Executive Fellow Program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Senior Executive Program at the Federal Executive Institute.
La Louisiane sat with him to learn more about LITE and its mission.
Tell us about your experience with immersive environments.
In the mid-1990s, a California company began manufacturing the six-sided structures, like LITE’s egg, that could project images.
I was working for the Office of Naval Research, which bought the first four virtual caves. They went to universities that were involved in government research. So, I’m very familiar with the technology and its capabilities. I managed those programs.
What differentiates LITE is that its technology is not limited to any single government agency or private company. LITE is the only facility of its kind in North America that’s available to University researchers as well as private businesses. We intend to help create jobs and to support research that can improve the economy.
What are some of the advantages of virtual environments and immersive technology?
There are several. Scale is no longer a problem. We can create an environment on a very small scale, small enough to look at molecular structures, as well as a very big scale. We can simulate a dangerous environment — one you would not want to create in the real world — such as a fire or an explosion. Or you could virtually create an environment that would be very expensive to build from scratch.
Once you simulate that environment, you can put yourself into it. You can do simulations, modeling, or animations of movement.
What are some of LITE’s projects?
Immersive technology lends itself to two important areas: training and sensing.
For example, we’ve created immersive tools — 3-D virtual environments — to train offshore workers and to improve safety on oil platforms.
We’ve developed an app for medical students to better understand the principles of blood flow within blood vessels. There’s a formula that describes what happens when vessels constrict or expand, how that affects blood pressure. Using an app to “see” those changes is a powerful tool.
A very exciting arena is smart sensing. You use sensors to monitor the physical environment, to detect anything abnormal.
But there are other ways to apply the technology, along with visualization. It’s useful when you’re dealing with abstract sets of data or when there is a huge, cumbersome amount of data.
On an oilfield production platform, for instance, you may use sensors to monitor the temperature of a section of pipe or pressure in a valve. It’s easy enough to manage a few components, but when you’re using multiple sensors and collecting data for real-time monitoring of the entire system, it’s difficult to make sense of the data. Visualization of the data lets you see patterns from a network of sensors, so that you can make better decisions.