Finnish IoT firm Haltian has added new features to its Empathic Building digital twin platform that are designed to improve workplace safety in the COVID-19 era.
Haltian acquired Empathic Building from TietoEVRY last year.
At the time of the acquisition, Empathic Building Head and Founder Tomi Teikko said: “Haltian’s IoT and data collection solutions will bring new unmatched opportunities for the further enrichment of Empathic Building’s offering and its international growth. We will continue to accelerate office digitalisation of Empathic Building customers.”
Almost a year on, we’re seeing the first major step in the aforementioned acceleration of office digitalisation.
COVID-19 has caused lasting changes in the way many of us work. As some workers return to physical offices and other shared spaces, many remain anxious about the impact on their health and those around them.
With the spread of the Delta variant and others causing concern, some businesses like Apple have delayed the return to corporate offices from October until January at the earliest due to the surge in cases and new variants. Other companies – including Facebook and Google – have remained flexible, but are mandating vaccinations for people working in their US offices.
Empathic Building has added a feature that enables users to add a mask on their avatar to show their vaccination status, helping to provide some peace of mind to colleagues.
“This feature is a voluntary sharing tool that can help people feel safer at the office,” explains Pasi Leipälä, CEO of Haltian.
“Of course, every organisation creates their own COVID guidelines, and what’s great about Empathic Building is that it can transform according to customer needs and different situations.”
Another feature aims to counter office overcrowding by enabling the booking of desks.
“The desk booking feature has also become popular during COVID even in offices that haven’t needed the feature before,” says Leipälä. “Some customers have required their workers to book a desk before visiting the office to avoid crowding.
“Also, many of our customers have created more space between desks by only making every other table available in their digital twin. “
Further parameters can be set to accommodate each workplace’s guidelines. Adequate ventilation is seen as critical to combating the spread of COVID-19 (and indeed many airborne viruses) so a specific time can be set between the booking of meeting rooms.
“There can be, for example, a 15-minute period between bookings so that the air in the room has time to change before the next people go in,” Leipälä explains.
COVID-19 continues to change many aspects of our lives in both personal and working capacities. The flexibility that digital twins provide is proving indispensable in helping to quickly adapt to rapidly-changing situations.
(Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash)
Want to find out about digital twins from executives and thought leaders in this space? Find out more about the Digital Twin World event, taking place on 9 November 2021, which will explore augmenting business outcomes in more depth and the industries that will benefit.
