Virtual environments can provide real benefits

In this exclusive article Doctor Andr?© Stork, Head of Department for Industrial Applications at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research in Darmstadt writes about how the ‚ÄòImprove‚Äô project accelerates the development of display technology for virtual environments.

 In the modern world the margins between business success and failure are miniscule. There is no shortage of choice in the modern marketplace, which means that companies feel an increasing need to canvass a wide range of views and opinions in order to ensure that their products respond to public needs.

We at the Fraunhofer Institute are working with our partners in the ‘Improve’ Project to develop improved lightweight near-to-the-eye displays and tiled stereoscopic large size displays in order to fulfil this growing need for a collaborative design modification platform. For tiled stereoscopic large-screen displays we are developing improved calibration techniques to ease and accelerate the technology’s use, while for the near-to-the-eye displays the main improvements come in the fidelity of the content to be displayed. The two technologies are closely related but nevertheless there are clear differences: with the near-to-the-eye display the user has a pair of glasses and is mobile, with the tiled display the user is sitting in front of it and sees a full 1:1 scale image.

Our research was prompted by a growing desire, particularly among the vehicle and architecture industries, for a virtual-reality tool to aid design. We are now at a stage where we have developed lightweight HMDs that are readily accepted by end users. Our technology has been designed as a design review tool where each user can actively contribute to the model, for this we need advanced tracking technology whereby we can be sure where people are located, what they are looking at and how they want to interact.

It is a long-commented upon trend that in modern business value is added through careful innovation and small-scale changes rather than by revolutionary steps. Change is a constant, ongoing process, and in the relentless search for improvement there is a clear need for interested parties to be able to communicate their opinions and suggested modifications to manufacturers. Our technologies will provide an interactive, efficient platform where innovation and the exchange of ideas is actively encouraged.

Published: Monday, 9th November 2009