Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 15

CASE STUDIES 43 BRIAN JUDD Design Engineer Marketing Options, LLC ARTICLE TAKEAWAYS: • Types of Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality technology • How AR/VR can reduce the costs to redesign your foundry or a process • Using AR/VR for ongoing safety and equipment training FROM VIRTUAL TO REALITY: RESHAPING THE WAY WE BUILD FOUNDRIES AR/VR: THEN AND NOW The advent of new technology can revolutionize an industry. Computer Aided Design (CAD) has already revolutionized engineering and design, and the effects of 3D printing are rippling through the manufacturing world. Now Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies are emerging as the next major change- agent in many sectors. Industry analysts are predicting that the AR/ VR market will be huge; $8.8 billion since 2012, with $2.2 billion in 2016 alone. It’s expected that by 2020, AR and VR combined will be a $120 billion industry. Heads-Up Displays (HUDs), forerunners of modern augmented reality systems, were developed for use in military aircraft as early as 1942. Since the introduction of smartphones, basic forms of AR have become widely available in the form of apps like Google Translate, Layar or Yelp’s Monocle feature. New applications for AR and VR are emerging almost daily. The US Navy is using AR to enhance the safety and mission effectiveness of deep sea diving operations. The US Air Force has gone even further; the F-35 uses an AR system instead of a conventional HUD. Jurors are now able to virtually experience crime scenes and doctors can use VR to guide remotely controlled robotic surgeons. THE SPECTRUM: FROM FLAT SCREENS TO AUGMENTED REALITY TO IMMERSIVE VR The essential concept behind ‘mixed reality’ is displaying computer generated virtual content combined with or seamlessly replacing reality. Powerful extensions to this core concept allow users to interact with the virtual, to share a virtual space with other users, and/or to move around in a virtual space freely. The simplest implementation of AR, widely available currently, is to display virtual content overlaid on a camera feed from a smartphone or tablet. Flat-screen AR is low-cost, but also low-immersion. It allows a limited field of view into the virtual world, and the restricted computing capabilities of mobile devices limit detail and fidelity. This type of AR is useful as a visualization aid or training tool. An intermediate level of mixed reality is the AR head-mounted display (HMD), with motion and hand tracking. This type of system consists of a helmet or goggle-like device with clear lenses or a visor, on which can be displayed virtual content. Users can also share a virtual space with each other, facilitating ‘virtual conferencing’ and collaboration. This level of AR is still in the early phases, but companies like Microsoft ®, MagicLeap ®, and Meta ® are developing products that will allow full implementation of HMD-based AR. At the top of the spectrum is the fully immersive VR headset connected to a powerful computer system or workstation. This is a goggle-like display that completely covers users’ field of view with virtual imagery, and optionally includes audio. Some systems allow ‘room-scale’ VR, which allows users to move freely within a delineated real space as they explore their virtual environment. These systems have the same basic capabilities as HMD AR, but they replace perception of reality rather than combine with it. MOVING FROM VIRTUAL TO REAL Foundries are one of the many industries set to derive benefits from the mixed reality revolution. Continued on next page