Jul 20, 20222 min read

Data in Space... How to....

Ok, not that space.

I'm already blown by the images from the James Webb Space Telescope, no this is the new capability in Power Bi to connect to data and overlay live scanner images. Last week I posted about how awesome this is, this time I'm posting in hopefully non corporate speak the "how to" make it happen. The inspiration for this post can be found here.

How do you make this work?

A number of stages are required.

You need to have administrator rights or have your admin make the changes as follows -
The admin needs to create an Azure Spatial Anchors resource in their Azure subscription and connect it to their Power BI tenant
Then assign users to roles that will allow them to save and search for Azure spatial anchors.

Depending on the role assigned the user will be able to either -

Pin in space: The ability to create and save anchors with Power BI data in reports.

Scan space: The ability to search and discover anchors around them in reports.

Next up....

Open the app on your phone, remember ios only for now....

Select the report you want to work with in PowerBi App
Click on the three dots in the top right corner
Select Data in Space
Select Open in Camera.

Now depending on the role you have been assigned you will be either be able to pin a report to an image/location in the camera or, be able to use the camera to scan around looking for overlaid reports.

You can pin the same report multiple times, with different filters so that relevant data for each camera image is seen when you point and shoot (ugh). You can pin it next to each panel with a different filter applied. The app will store the filter you used when pinning and will apply the same filter next time you look. Next, when you open the camera, you’ll be able to see your view in the real-world, choose where exactly to place it, and scale it as desired.

How to discover anchors and data around you

All you need to do is open the camera from your app’s homepage. If Data in space is enabled for you, the camera will start scanning for data around you by default. The report locator at the bottom of the screen will indicate when anchors are found, helping you to direct the camera to the right direction. The preview image you see shows the latest Power BI data and also reflects the permission you have on the data, by which Row Level Security does apply.

It's a really nice tool, just need Android and then I will be really happy.