Ford designers can now see an entire car in the middle of the office by simply putting on a pair of 3D goggles. It's a technology that makes it easier to involve designers on a global scale and promises to speed up the car design process.
Created specifically for the task of designing -- and altering the designs of – automobiles, the designers are working with Microsoft's Hololens goggles running on such software. designers in different offices can see and work on the same virtual car at the same time with the help of the goggles.
While usually being confined to screens where they can be rotated using a mouse, car designers already work with 3D computer models but this one allows greater freedom of designing. Or otherwise, it usually a stepping into a special room designed just for that purpose is required if designers want to see a life-sized computer model they can walk around like a real car.
But with the Hololens, the designers get the impression of a car being parked right in front of them as they can just put on a headset and the virtual vehicle appears wherever the designer is standing. Additionally, designers can move around and converse as they would looking at a real car as the goggles don't obscure the view of the room or the other people in it.
The goggles can also be used to overlay new designs onto a real car or physical model because it mixes computer models and the real environment.
Many lessons for other countries seeking to go down the same path can be learned from Japan’s modern economic development.
In the past, designers would print it out on paper and tape it down over a full-sized model of the existing car if they wanted to see how a new grill or taillight design would look on a car. New virtual front or back ends can be laid on right over a real world model with the goggles, said Craig Wetzel, a design manager at Ford.
Designers working in different locations can work on the same car because the devices can be networked. What’s more, designers can leave virtual notes attached to the model if they can't all work at the same time, which can be difficult when people are in different parts of the globe.
A headlight that designer thinks should be a different shape could have an attachment note for instance. The message could be played back later by another designer. And when the other person was making the comment, the angle from which the other person was viewing the model is also shown by the virtual head as the comment is played. That way designers can literally understand the other person's perspective.
Wetzel said that at Ford, the Hololens is still in the experimental stage for now. And the technology is now being introduced globally after designers in Dearborn have worked with it, he said.
However, designers say that the full-size clay models that, designers say, remain the best tool for seeing what a car will look like in the natural world and the Hololens is not expected to replace such other design tools, even though it might be very useful.
(Source:www.money.cnn.com)
Created specifically for the task of designing -- and altering the designs of – automobiles, the designers are working with Microsoft's Hololens goggles running on such software. designers in different offices can see and work on the same virtual car at the same time with the help of the goggles.
While usually being confined to screens where they can be rotated using a mouse, car designers already work with 3D computer models but this one allows greater freedom of designing. Or otherwise, it usually a stepping into a special room designed just for that purpose is required if designers want to see a life-sized computer model they can walk around like a real car.
But with the Hololens, the designers get the impression of a car being parked right in front of them as they can just put on a headset and the virtual vehicle appears wherever the designer is standing. Additionally, designers can move around and converse as they would looking at a real car as the goggles don't obscure the view of the room or the other people in it.
The goggles can also be used to overlay new designs onto a real car or physical model because it mixes computer models and the real environment.
Many lessons for other countries seeking to go down the same path can be learned from Japan’s modern economic development.
In the past, designers would print it out on paper and tape it down over a full-sized model of the existing car if they wanted to see how a new grill or taillight design would look on a car. New virtual front or back ends can be laid on right over a real world model with the goggles, said Craig Wetzel, a design manager at Ford.
Designers working in different locations can work on the same car because the devices can be networked. What’s more, designers can leave virtual notes attached to the model if they can't all work at the same time, which can be difficult when people are in different parts of the globe.
A headlight that designer thinks should be a different shape could have an attachment note for instance. The message could be played back later by another designer. And when the other person was making the comment, the angle from which the other person was viewing the model is also shown by the virtual head as the comment is played. That way designers can literally understand the other person's perspective.
Wetzel said that at Ford, the Hololens is still in the experimental stage for now. And the technology is now being introduced globally after designers in Dearborn have worked with it, he said.
However, designers say that the full-size clay models that, designers say, remain the best tool for seeing what a car will look like in the natural world and the Hololens is not expected to replace such other design tools, even though it might be very useful.
(Source:www.money.cnn.com)
