Kinetic Vision Accelerates Innovation with Advanced Technology

When you think of virtual and augmented reality, your first thought might be of interactive video games and entertainment. But virtual reality is not limited to the entertainment industry. It can also be used to provide insight on product development and design across a variety of industries. Cincinnati-based Kinetic Vision does just that, by bringing product solutions to life through virtual reality and digital twin technology.

“We empower Fortune 500 companies to innovate using advanced technology through digital twins,” said President Jeremy Jarrett. “We build validated digital counterparts that can be anything from AI algorithms to simulation models. We take these technologies, validate them with the physical world and show companies how to speed up their production processes. You can imagine that making, testing and breaking things digitally is a lot less time consuming and expensive than doing it in the physical world.”

Digital twins are virtual models that are designed to reflect a physical object, like a piece of technology or a machine part. With the help of these virtual models, Kinetic Vision can advise their clients on necessary improvements or identify potential performance issues. Similar to product-focused virtual models, the company’s virtual reality technology can help their customers train their employees for real-life scenarios on the job.

“We started doing a lot of work with surgical suites to help surgeons understand how to use equipment or robots to treat a patient,” Jarrett said. “We have a really great program with VTR, a partner that just landed a contract with JetBlue in training pilots in ground-based operations. I think sometimes we are hampered in our innovation by the challenges of the physical world and in the length of time it can take to do things. The costliness of mistakes in the physical world are also drastic. These digital technologies can speed up everything to create better products and we are turbo-charging creativity through that technology.”

Jarrett knows a key part of driving their business forward is cultivating talent. Kinetic Vision works with students and young minds through their college partnerships, internships and co-op programs at the University of Cincinnati to mentor the next generation of innovators.

“This field is like a rat race of staying on the cutting edge,” he said. “And we have this huge talent pool of young people in our environment who are bringing in these wild and crazy technologies, so there’s a lot of learning going on. There’s no boredom around here because you’re always figuring out the next greatest thing. And one of the things that’s most important to us is that 80 percent of our employees were students through our internship and college programs and were then hired on and stayed here at Kinetic Vision.”

Through their impressive talent, the company is making a big impact on product development and manufacturing in the state. As they look forward, their sights are set on scaling their business nationally, to help customers from all over the country accelerate and engage their own technologies, all while giving back to their own community here in Ohio.

“We love working with local high schools and their STEM programs to start making that impact early on,” Jarrett said. “We had a great project where we worked with Lakota East High School and Butler Tech to build a 3D printed prosthetic hand for a young girl who was missing a limb. We also have a current project with an organization called Starfire to look at how VR can be useful for kids who are nonverbal or have autism. I think the impact these technologies can have outside of the commercial world is sometimes underestimated and that’s something we want to see a bigger focus on in Ohio and beyond.”