Laboratory environment opened for human-centered metaverse

XR technology Laboratory environment opened for human-centered metaverse

2024-10-28 Source: Fraunhofer IAO | Translated by AI 2 min Reading Time

The Fraunhofer IAO has put the new CAVE in the Extended Environments Lab into operation with numerous guests. The lab environment enables an immersive and shared experience of virtual realities on a display area of 47 square meters.

Prof. Katharina Hölzle, Director of the Fraunhofer IAO, cuts the ribbon at the opening of the new CAVE. To her left is Deputy Director Dr. Steffen Braun and to her right is Prof. Dr. Vanessa Borkmann, Head of the Urban System Design research department.(Image: Ludmilla Parsyak - Fraunhofer IAO) — Prof. Katharina Hölzle, Director of the Fraunhofer IAO, cuts the ribbon at the opening of the new CAVE. To her left is Deputy Director Dr. Steffen Braun and to her right is Prof. Dr. Vanessa Borkmann, Head of the Urban System Design research department.
(Image: Ludmilla Parsyak - Fraunhofer IAO)

With a resolution of 45 million pixels in the Fraunhofer IAO's new CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment), virtual models or scenes are calculated in real time and projected onto walls and floors. An outstanding feature of the CAVE is the camera-based large-area tracking throughout the laboratory. This allows real and virtual elements to be precisely combined so that they appear to merge for collaborating teams.

"Our new CAVE opens up completely new possibilities for collaboration and visualization. It enables direct, location-independent interaction in virtual environments and brings spatially distributed players together in real time and at eye level," explains Prof. Dr. Katharina Hölzle, Director of the Fraunhofer IAO. "In this way, companies can optimize their products, services, planning projects or training courses quickly and at an early stage using immersive processes."

Immersive, collaborative research and working environment

The CAVE is a central component of the Instance project, which is dedicated to the research and development of XR technologies for industrial applications. As part of this project, the CAVE serves as a test environment. Users can access the same virtual environment via various XR portals from different locations, act together as avatars and even integrate so-called telepresence robots. Such a remotely controlled robot makes it possible to be physically represented at a distant location. This creates an immersive, collaborative research and working environment across several Fraunhofer IAO locations.

"With the Instance project and the new CAVE, we are creating an open test environment that enables collaborative and interdisciplinary research and offers companies a platform to actively shape the future of XR technologies," continues Prof. Dr. Katharina Hölzle. "Our vision is to develop and implement applications in the human-centered metaverse for small and medium-sized enterprises in all sectors. In doing so, we are empowering companies and organizations for the future."

Versatile application options

The new CAVE provides a range of services:

Experience digital twins: Display digital twins (e.g. products, buildings, cities) in different XR combinations to determine the best solution for the application.
Data preparation for XR: Advice on optimizing 3D data for use in XR applications.
Test environments for multi-local or co-local XR scenarios: Companies can use their own data to test different usage scenarios.
Development of XR use cases: Support in the evaluation and further development of XR use cases.
Neurotechnology as a human-machine interface: In future, XR scenarios will also be expanded to include neurotechnological components.

From spring 2025, the Fraunhofer IAO plans to expand the Instance project by establishing an interdisciplinary innovation network. The aim is to provide an open development platform for selected partners that brings together companies from different industries on a pre-competitive basis in order to jointly develop products, services and business models for the different metaverse or XR worlds of tomorrow.

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