New Ways of Sharing Your Company's Story and Products

Computerworld — The decision to develop a video-based positioning program to study the guts of a Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid was born of a business need. The German car manufacturer was trying to figure out a more effective way to train large groups of service people worldwide on all aspects of the car's interior, as well as teach about technical innovations on other new models. So officials adopted a concept called projective augmented reality (AR) so that service teams worldwide could learn about technical innovations by literally seeing the ins and outs of new models.

Where "traditional" AR uses a camera and add-on graphics to combine the real with the virtual in a live stream shown on a smartphone, tablet or computer, projective AR adds a projector to overlay a 3D visualization onto an exterior surface.

"Three-dimensional design data is projected onto the surfaces of a production vehicle, in the correct position and in perspective even from different viewing angles," explains Jrgen Leohold, head of Volkswagen Group Research. "This creates a kind of 'virtual X-ray vision' for the viewer, which enables them to see otherwise hidden components and structures inside the vehicle." In addition, projective AR makes it possible to superimpose individual components and component designations, or to project prepared animations onto the vehicle.

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