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L.N. Revathy

Want to visualise how the car you plan to buy would look parked in your portico? Virtual reality is waiting to help.

IF you are thinking of buying a car, (budget apart), what are the things that you would take into consideration before taking the plunge? You would obviously think about the colour, shape and size of the vehicle, leg space, boot size, etc, all of which you can see at the showroom. But have you ever stopped to think how the vehicle would look when parked in your portico or when basking in the rays of the early morning sun or even set against the sunset?

Actually most of us do admire the vehicle we intend to buy, though from a distance and not exactly in the way described above. The car manufacturer, on the other hand, looks into these finer aspects. And if you're wondering how, the answer lies in Virtual Reality (VR), which has made it possible to produce the effect of aesthetics in a simulated environment. The technology helps engineers build, test and verify design and prototype designs for maintenance and assembly in factory planning and concurrent engineering. These virtual worlds can be animated and shared. With medical simulators, medical professionals can practise difficult procedures in a risk-free virtual environment.

Going back 10 or 15 years, you will recall how computer-assisted instruction research was stimulated by the then new multimedia facilities of PCs. Nowadays every PC has these facilities, which has resulted in the development of electronic learning environments.

With the arrival of VR facilities, computer-assisted instruction is bound to head forward. For, in the virtual world, created with computer simulation, one can teach students certain skills. "Illustrative concepts can be better explained in a computer-assisted simulated environment. Textbooks have only two-dimensional illustrations of 3D objects. You can only show the object and explain it in a laboratory. But in VR, one can go up to the most minute level, which is not possible even with the prototype/model. Students are able to comprehend the concepts very easily," says Dr Prasad, a professor in the mechanical engineering department at the PSG College of Technology. The college has established a VR facility at a cost of Rs 20 crore.Since design evaluation is an important and time-consuming activity in product development, VR has attracted a lot of attention. Using CAD (computer-aided design), the product developer sees to design but not the working, whereas, in virtual prototyping, this is also possible, adds Prasad.

This technology helps in cutting down the number of physical prototypes that are otherwise built in saving time on design schedules and in improving on the design, per se. The hardware requirements could be high, for it would entail investment in massive computing power, huge system bandwidth and industry-leading graphics, all on an affordable desktop.

If the traditional CAD systems optimised the design of individual part or component geometry, virtual prototyping allows engineers to visualise their full-system design ideas with realistic 3D models under any operating condition. This tool helps to check for potential design problems, to look at the system in its entirety and above all in being able to incorporate customer demands before spending any time or money in actual product development.

"Making changes after a product reaches the shelf is no doubt time consuming and costly. In a competitive environment, time is precious. The delay could take a hard bite on the earning potential of the company," says Prasad.

Engineering uses apart, stop for a minute to take a look at the real world. It is precariously uneven in terms of resources. Though many believe that computers would save the world, studies indicate that North American scientists have access to about 40 per cent of the world's R&D investment, while the entire African continent has less than 0.5 per cent access. The study further notes that only about 10 per cent of the children of the world would have access to computers and the Internet by 2010.

The world is also unimaginably rich in terms of culture. VR can be an important communication medium for world culture, but only if those of us who have the tools are sensitive enough to work and learn from local expertise.

lnr@thehindu.co.in

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