With recent improvements in graphic cards and in powerful Linux-based PC clusters, virtual 3D prototypes are rapidly replacing actual physical prototypes in a wide range of industries, including early adopters such as aerospace or car companies. But now, software designers are also incorporating sound and tactile feedbacks to their Virtual Reality (VR) systems for real product development. In this long article, Desktop Engineering gives several examples of these new VR developments. But even if PC clusters and off-the-shelf graphic cards are cheap, a state-of-the-art VR facility such as an immersive CAVE can still cost more than one million dollars, because you need to build the viewing facility and buy expensive projection systems. However, costs are still decreasing and virtual prototyping is reaching the mainstream stage. Read more.
Here is the introduction of the Desktop Engineering article.
Once regarded as a pie-in-the-sky slice of science fiction requiring a full-face helmet-like headset, virtual reality (VR) is now fairly easily available, comfortable to use, and becoming affordable. In fact, it’s frequently used for product development in conjunction with CAD/PLM-based visualization solutions from the usual suspects -- UGS, PTC, and Dassault Systemes.
In VR prototyping, the 3D image is often viewable with a sophisticated set of glasses that imperceptibly shift the wearer’s vision from one eye to the other using a rapid-fire shutter system synchronized to a computer. The technology can be used on platforms ranging from $2,000 PCs to four-, five-, or six-wall CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) systems that can cost $400,000 and more for fully immersive visualization environments.
Here is an example of how virtual engineering fosters real collaboration (Credit: this page at the Virtual Reality Applications Center site from Iowa State University).
But now, new technologies allow engineers to use other senses than vision in their VR environments.
The addition of sound and touch feedback to virtual prototypes has begun to create a sense of realism that blends the virtual with the actual. In some cases -- particularly among automotive users -- actual vehicle seats and steering wheels are used with tracked 3D viewing, the sounds of simulated car radios synchronized with the visualizations. Haptic gloves provide force feedback to simulate the feel of the visualized car interior while the user manipulates controls.
One will meet, for example, the virtual assumption that what is relative to thought cannot be real. But why not, exactly? Red is relative to sight, but the fact that this or that is in that relation to vision that we call being red is not itself relative to sight; it is a real fact.
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
As I mentioned above, immersive VR environments are still costly. Here are some details about state-of-the-art technologies.
In its immersive versions, VR costs a great deal of money -- mostly for the projection system hardware and construction of the viewing enclosure. However, the software is also available for other, more affordable platforms.
"The software largely involves breaking up an image into different angles of viewing for CAVE type viewing," says Stu Johnson, visualization product manager for UGS’s Teamcenter Visualization. "Or, if using a 20-foot by 8-foot wall, it takes a single image and sends different chunks out to each projector. With a power wall, the number of projectors can vary from one to almost any number. It’s possible to create a matrix of 64 projectors, with each one focusing into one small space for ultra high resolution."
And here is the conclusion, from Diane Jurgens, IT manager of Strategic Planning and Benchmarking for General Motors.
"I see a broad extension of the technology for multiple purposes, including data sharing inside companies and with suppliers. Everyone, everywhere will have access to excellent visualization that has ever-better graphics." That, in turn, spells a bright future for VR and virtual prototyping as designers continue to perfect their products before they see the light of day.
[Disclaimer: As a former employee of Silicon Graphics, I have had access to many VR large facilities around the world. And even if these installations can be costly, they're worth every dollar spent on them. I have to add that I'm not involved with this company in any aspect.]
Sources: Louise Elliott, Desktop Engineering, February, 2005; and various websites
Related stories can be found in the following categories.
Aerospace
Engineering
Transportation
Virtual Reality
Vision and Visualization.