Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/14320
■ ■ ■ ■ Augmented Reality Plugging into Mixed M 20 Reality Simulating designs in hybrid digital/physical environments aurizio Morone, formerly a design team coordinator at Pininfarina Extra, remembered the day he presented three alternative cell-phone prototypes to his client through a live Webcam feed. He showed three diff erent versions, all sitting on his desktop. T e prototypes didn’t exist in real life—at least not at the time of the meeting. T ey existed merely as digital mock-ups, surfaced in Robert McNeel & Associates’ Rhino software and detailed in PTC’s Pro/Engineer software. He was able to project these models onto his desk (which does exist in reality) through the use of LinceoVR software from Seac02. T e fancy term for what Morone did is “augmented reality,” sometimes also called “mixed reality” or “virtual reality.” Either way, it is where digital and physical realities merge, morphing into a hybrid environment. It’s diff erent from superimposing a 3D digital model onto a 2D photograph. Placing a 3D object in the foreground with a 2D image in the back (which you can do in many 3D modeling and rendering programs nowadays) gives you a static image, not an interactive scene. In Morone’s setup, he was able to freely move the prototype on his desk by moving a small placard that represented the digital data. On the other end of the Webcam, his clients saw a cell phone on a desk, responding in real time to Morone’s movements and the Webcam’s focus. Forward-thinking automakers, like Ford Motor Company, hope to deploy augmented reality too, as a way to test out its new models’ comfort and ergonomics, as well as simulate manufacturing pro- cesses. Imagine being able to see, feel, and reach for the steering wheel, speedometer, and dashboard as though you were a driver of a certain height and stature before a physical prototype of the car exists. What would be the ideal confi guration for a 6-foot-2-inch male driver? What would it be for a 5-foot-6-inch female driver? And what’s the happy medium between those two? If a mechanic needs to inspect and service the drivetrain, can that person do so without coming in contact with electrical wires or without straining his or her back? T e best way to answer these types of questions is to evaluate the car in mixed reality, using the digital model of the design in progress. Design software maker Autodesk, which has frequently used the tagline “experience it before it’s real,” has prototyped several interactive mixed-reality systems. A number of them are currently installed in its customer briefi ng center in San Francisco, overlooking the Ferry Building and the San Francisco Bay. Here, you’ll fi nd that you can walk into a luxury condo that exists only as an Autodesk Revit 3D model, or drop diff erent 3D buildings into digital landscapes and inspect them as though you were standing before the full-size model. In December 2009, when company CTO Jeff Kowalski addressed the Autodesk faithfuls at the annual Autodesk University conference, he prophesized, “In the future, your real world will be much July 2010 By Kenneth Wong