In this episode, we are featuring remote access developments at the Nanofabrication Facility, where work in the clean room is taking on the challenge of distanced training with guided-tour audio systems and holographic augmented reality.
Transcript:
Shannon Ciston
Welcome to this episode of Foundry from Home, a podcast to highlight new developments in remote virtual and physically distanced user access to the Molecular Foundry. I’m Shannon Ciston the User Program Director at the Molecular Foundry. Today, we’re featuring remote access developments at the nanofabrication facility. The nanofabrication facility strives to gain insight into fundamental nanofabrication processes, the generation of structures that control light, electronic energy flow, and interactions of nanostructures with light on ultra-fast timescales. Our guest today is the nanofabrication facility’s senior scientific engineering associate Dr. Selven Virasawmy. Thanks for being here with us.
Selven Virasawmy
Hi Shannon, thank you for having me here today.
Shannon Ciston
In this episode, Selven will highlight for us some of the innovations in distanced and virtual training in the nanofabrication facility. Selven, I understand the cleanroom has a fair bit of background noise, how are you making sure people can hear one another while properly distanced during in person training in the cleanroom?
Selven Virasawmy
Yes, unfortunately, we do have a fair bit of background noise coming from tool operation or devices such as mechanical pumps inside the cleanroom. So for daily communication, we use intercom devices which are similar to those used on guided tours. And the brand that we use is Williams Sound. So the way this works is that we have a charging station inside the cleanroom with a few of those devices docked inside this charger, and we request users bring in their personal headset or earphones. And if they don’t have one, we provide them with one. And all they have to do is power up the device, plugg in the headset, and we can select a group number and we can start having a conversation. So the devices have excellent range because first of all, they are used in guided tours, and we can even discuss from one end to the other end of the cleanroom and still maintain very clear communication. And the devices have several hours of battery life. So it’s more than enough to last us for a day. But by far the nicest feature is that you can add several users and speak together while being in different sections of a cleanroom, and yet have very clear communication. So for instance, other people can also have their own communication by just picking up two devices and selecting a different group. And it doesn’t even interfere with the main group communication. So this has worked very well for us so far for simple trainings such as cleanroom safety tours, or for daily discussions. And I myself have personally used them to communicate with technicians or service engineers for troubleshooting equipment. So yeah, this has worked very nicely for us.
Shannon Ciston
Yeah, that sounds really useful and even beyond the pandemic for communication in the cleanroom. So what are you doing to approach more complex training?
Selven Virasawmy
Yeah, so that’s a different story. So a lot of equipment in the nano facility require more in depth and personal training and the pandemic has really put us to the test. Unfortunately, one by far critical challenge is to remain socially distant, and yet allow the trainee to observe what you’re doing, which is very likely what most people are facing nowadays in their research institutes. So to that end, we decided to go for the route of using augmented reality goggles, with a third party training platform. We have a few ways you can use these goggles so that it can accommodate a wide variety of users. So for instance, for remote users, we can load a 3d model, which is essentially a digital twin of actual tool itself on a web portal. And we can go through the same procedures and training templates even without being physically in front of a tool. And with 3d models, we can be static or animated. For instance, demonstrating an action or blowing out a piece of equipment to show the parts that aren’t seen from the outside. For users, that are physically in front of a tool, that’s where it gets more exciting. So the trainee can essentially by, based on the way we have made the training, they can visualize holographic markers in 3d space, basically right in front of them, which pinpoint the exact location of a knob or button on the tool. And we can also use pointers that come with device or use hand gestures. If we wish to virtually, we can place a training video or image right in the field of view. So it’s like I’m there, but in the background, and yet, you can still see what I was pointing at with holographic markers. And the nicest thing about this platform is that it offers the capability of calling the trainer on the fly. So it’s like a Skype call, and I pick it up on your web portal. And I can virtually place an arrow or even point to the trainee, in which direction we should be looking at when explain things in more detail. You can even go as far as training, streaming with the trainee’s field of view, for instance, through Zoom or adding other people to the call. And I myself was personally impressed when we did a demo with our vendors, because I had virtual full sized plane landing gear in my living room. And I could just flip around it and look at all the aspects of a tool.
Shannon Ciston
Wow.
Selven Virasawmy
For more complex training, we plan on doing it in two or more sessions. So first, we have the users can go through a step by step functions of a tool, we can do it as many times as we wish until we are more confident. And for instance, for a scanning electron microscope, we plan on doing it this way. And once we are more confident, we can do a second part of a training, where I am essentially on standby. And I can interact more directly with a trainer via zoom or by Skype call.
Shannon Ciston
Yeah, that’s pretty. That’s pretty interesting. So have you used this yet to train any users?
Selven Virasawmy
Yes, so far, we have successfully tested it on a dry etching tool, a reactive ion etcher. And we plan on developing this training for other tools. So the next in line is the scanning electron microscope. And we have tested it with several cooperative users in the early phases. And we got a lot of very constructive feedback so that we could put together a nice training for everyone. And we even trained a few users who have no prior experience to the tool. And so far, we have reached a very good level of independence on the tool. So we are very happy with it.
Shannon Ciston
Yeah, that’s fantastic. What do you say are your next steps for this augmented reality approach.
Selven Virasawmy
So the next step is, of course, to expand the training platform to several more tools in the nano facility. And we plan on getting some 3d models of a tool so that we can allow users who are remote to essentially do the training remotely. And also then goal is to have users to possibly train their collaborator on working on the tool remotely. For instance, through zoom.
Shannon Ciston
exciting. I understand this development. It’s been in partnership with one of the foundries industry users, right.
Selven Virasawmy
Yes, industrial collaborator was Magic Leap for the hardware, and the training platform was Tactile.
Shannon Ciston
Great. All right. That’s all we have time for in this episode. Thanks so much Selven, for sharing with us about these innovations at the nanofabrication facility. It feels really forward thinking and it’s exciting to be a part of it at the Foundry.
Selven Virasawmy
Thank you, Shannon.
Shannon Ciston
Thanks for listening everyone. Please look for more episodes of Foundry from Home as we continue to highlight developments in virtual remote and distance user training and access throughout the Molecular Foundry.
This has been a production of the Molecular Foundry’s User Program Office and communications team. The music used in this production was “Still room on the night train” by Ketsa courtesy of the Free Music Archive. The Molecular Foundry is a US Department of Energy Office of Science user facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
