Augmented Reality projects have most recently focused on war games, but a new lab at the Mawson Institute for Advanced Manufacturing will bring this tech closer to home. More specifically, it should jump to the car showrooms of America within years, ultimately leading AR systems to become compelling presentation programs.
The University of South Australia's Wearable Computer Lab is building the 100-sq.meter AR visualization center to improve AR quality and serve as a 'magic box' for related visual technologies. It will include forty projector systems, two wearable VR-style systems, and a control room that will track the movements of multiple users.
The space is built large enough to fit large artifacts (like cars), so that visual cues can be projected onto a physical item or realized in virtuality through embedded-display glasses.
Augmented Reality is a CG-based technology that is evolving from a static visual representation of data in virtual reality to one that responds to a user in real time. Much of the work of movie special effects can be considered a form of Augmented Reality.
AR is already being used by a few automakers to preview virtual depictions of engineering schematics. A designer can create an aerodynamic hatchback design and set up a 3D preview in real space.
This should definitely be a more realistic, and impressive, demonstration than a PowerPoint.
An example that illustrates the usefulness of this lab is the idea that a company will be able to roll in a car with body dents, and then superimpose the correct car schematics from the manufacturer to assess the total damage.
Photo: leonardlow/flickr
