King County chooses Taqtile and Hololens for employee training

By Elly Yates-Roberts on 18 April 2019

Following a system failure at King County’s West Point Treatment Plant in Washington, US, which saw wastewater flow into Puget Sound, King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division sought help from Microsoft partner Taqtile.

Taqtile provided the firm with its flagship product, Manifest, which uses the Microsoft Azure cloud, internet of things and Microsoft HoloLens to train employees with hands-free mixed reality instructions. Experts can create digital tutorials that can be overlaid on real-world equipment, allowing trainees to access high-quality information when carrying out a range of tasks. The same information can also be displayed on a digital twin, enabling detailed training without employees needing direct access to the physical equipment.

“Training plant operators through the use of mixed reality promises quicker, better and more economical results for the county—and better protection of our environment,” said Tanya Hannah, chief information officer at King County.

Using Taqtile’s Manifest, King County’s longtime employees authored digital instructions for the facility’s equipment, creating supplementary materials in the form of videos, photographs and annotations. King Country also uses Manifest to make maintenance operating procedure updates instantly available to all.

“We’re just starting off in the wastewater area, but I think there’s a lot of ways to use augmented reality, and Manifest software, throughout King County,” said John Klein, manager of Strategic Technology Planning at King County.