Ford uses the 3D Cave augmented reality program to project its cars

The car manufacturer Ford has begun to make its new car prototypes with the help of the 3D Cave augmented reality program (computer automated virtual enviroment) at its German headquarters in Cologne, just as it already does in the United States.

Although the Detroit automobile firm began a long time ago to use a simulation system to test its new prototypes, has been from its European headquarters in Cologne (Germany) where Ford is innovating in the way of projecting and designing its vehicles with the help of augmented reality technology.

The virtual program used by Ford is 3D Cave (computer automated virtual environment), with which its technicians recreate the dimensions and structure of a new prototype, while they can interact with all the elements, which in addition to a greater guarantee in safety and reliability, represents a significant saving in costs and time.

This 3D simulator is made up of three large panels, in the shape of an open box, all of them in white to project the images of the structure inside the vehicle, that engineers view through stereoscopic 3D glasses, with infrared motion detectors, that are synchronized with the projections to enter the hyper-realistic virtual environment of the car prototype.

Thanks to this immersive virtual reality software, The firm's technicians can test as many times as they wish and modify even the smallest detail of the design and visibility of what will be a new car model before it is manufactured..

As Michael Wolf explains, responsible for this Ford project at the German headquarters in Cologne, “although we fully trust the experience, knowledge and creativity of our engineers, Thanks to this system we have a much more sophisticated tool to analyze even the smallest detail.; "Introduce ourselves to the vehicle and even test it in a very realistic environment to improve the safety and performance of the car.".

3D Cave allows the projection of animated images in a real environment, with pedestrians, cars, cyclists,…so that technicians can evaluate visibility from all angles of the vehicle cabin, the features of its interior, make comparisons with other prototypes, etc.

Despite this important help, Wolf emphasizes that “we are still fundamentally dependent on knowledge, the experience and imagination of our engineers, but 3D Cave is an essential tool in your work”.

The first system was created by the team Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) from the University of Illinois, in chicago, who presented it on the market in 1992 and which has subsequently been improving it.