Augmented reality in industry

With the rapid development of new technologies we are constantly searching for new methods which would affect our experience of interaction with computer world. Augmented Reality superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite experience of human-computer interaction. Augmented reality techniques are used widely in various spheres of human life, and are especially interesting and attractive to apply in the advertising and interactive entertainment. However, the great potential of augmented reality has not yet been sufficiently exploited in modern production processes, which leads us to the question of how to use this technology in order to facilitate work in industrial plants.

Industrial example of augmented reality application

Collaboration with Austrian company AVL, which is engaged in development, testing and simulation of powertrain systems, has provide us with specific problem that can be solved in augmented reality domain. In order to facilitate the maintenance of special device for continuous measurement of lowest soot concentration in the diluted exhaust from internal combustion engines, we had to develope an interactive virtual service manual.

In February 2012 certain members of the project team began developing application for iPad devices. The application was successfully completed and presented to the AVL representatives. It recognizes the actual device for measuring soot concentration using iPad camera, and then projects a virtual model that can be manipulated with gestures on the device screen. The application also animates steps in regular maintenance.

Microsoft Kinect application

After the successful development of iPad application, virtual service manual was implemented for Microsoft platform, and then adjusted to work with Micosoft Kinect. Kinect is a motion sensing input device by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game console and Windows PCs. It enables users to control and interact with computer world through a natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands. This kind of implementation provides users with a more natural way of interaction, and their perception of augmented reality greatly affects the understanding of the real problem. The implementation uses Kinect device to enable users to manipulate with soot measuring device by reading their gestures.