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• Chrysler Group to Broaden Minivan Appeal and Introduce Four New Models in 2002
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• Zafira Goes On Sale In Japan As Subaru Traviq
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• Jaguar Plays 'Wicked Games' To Launch The New Jag Generation
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• All-New Fifth-Generation Toyota Camry Sedan Moves From Sensible -- To Sensual
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• New Spectrum of Applications for Virtual Reality at DaimlerChrysler
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• 100,000th BMW X5 Sports Activity Vehicle Rolls Off the Line at BMW Manufacturing Corp.
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• Richard Conrad Returns To General Motors' Arlington Plant, Jamie Hresko Promoted To Orion Township Assembly Plant Manager
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• The BMW Technology Office in Palo Alto
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News of  August 29, 2001

New Spectrum of Applications for Virtual Reality at DaimlerChrysler

• Virtual world and reality merge
• Better use made of the economic potential of virtual reality

Engineering

Photo: DaimlerChrysler

Stuttgart - By completely refitting its Virtual Reality Competence Center in Ulm, DaimlerChrysler Research has paved the way for the use and further development of new virtual reality technologies. The engineers no longer use their computers solely to create virtual worlds, but also to enrich the natural environment with computer-generated additional information. In addition to this augmented reality, researchers are blurring the borderlines between the virtual world and the real world (mixed reality) and are integrating virtual reality techniques into the computer workstation.

“In future, newly-developed applications will permeate, connect and simplify all complex processes, including services, at DaimlerChrysler. What’s more, thanks to increased hardware and software performance, technology will be available on both a decentralized and a mobile basis. Depending on the task at hand, employees will be able to select the degree of virtual reality they require,” explains Professor Wolfgang Merker, head of Research and Technology 3 (Information technology).

Equipping the Ulm Research Center with a so-called CAVE — a cube-like room comprising projection surfaces and various mainframe projections —has led to the successful implementation of the results throughout the company. In many centers, the number of which is set to increase in the future, these technologies make a significant contribution to the reduction of development times, as well as giving researchers in Ulm valuable information regarding user experience.

The engineers’ extended objective is clearly demonstrated by a meeting about a component and involving several locations. Participants equipped with video glasses are seated around a conference table. In the middle of the table is a rotating platform with a symbol which can be read by a computer, a so-called marker. Every user sees the virtual component displayed in the perspective which they would see it in reality. This makes the 3-D model interactively visible, so that the people at the table can discuss the current status of the project. The participants do not have to be in the same place to use this virtual reality situation. The meeting can take place at several different locations simultaneously in the form of a teleconference.

In addition to the further reduction of development times, the researchers are developing special applications of virtual reality technology for production. For example, the co-ordinates needed to determine the movements of a robot’s arm no longer have to be entered one by one, a highly time-consuming process. Instead, the engineer grasps the virtual robot arm in a semi-circular projection with a data glove and manually leads it through the movement. The movement co-ordinates are then calculated automatically.

Adapting virtual reality technologies to suit the automotive industry not only makes it easier to control robots, it also enables completely new training methods at DaimlerChrysler. By merging the real world with virtual images, members of staff will be able to practice the processes needed for the production of a new series long before production gets underway. This will help reduce the amount of time needed to get a new model off the drawing board and onto the streets.

“DaimlerChrysler not only combines existing technologies but also conducts research into and develops applications for the company that are not available elsewhere on the market,” says Alfred Katzenbach, head of IT for Engineering in the Ulm Research Center, explaining what the researchers at the center are doing. An example of this is the further development of the so-called holobench, a virtual workbench. A holobench comprises a vertical and a horizontal surface onto which projectors project images from behind and from below. The virtual workbench in Ulm is the first of its kind in the world to be operated using Infitec technology and DLP projectors. The advantage of DLP projectors is that their luminous intensity is much greater than that of tube projectors. Infitec technology enables stereo vision through the separate control of the left and right-hand eye using interference filter technology. The result is a bright, brilliant, three-dimensional image. The ambient light in the room is then filtered out by the computer so that the user can work on the holobench in daylight rather than in darkness.

(August 22, 2001)

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