Schenk, Michael (Ed.): 14. IFF-Wissenschaftstage 2011. Tagungsband : Digitales Engineering und virtuelle Techniken zum Planen, Testen und Betreiben technischer Systeme. Stuttgart: Fraunhofer Verlag, 2011, pp. 191-196

Verteilte Mixed Reality Systeme, d.h. VR/AR-Installationen, die sich an unterschiedlichen Standorten befinden und via Internet vernetzt sind, wurden bislang nur in akademischen Testszenarien eingesetzt. Sie konnten den Sprung in industrielle Nutzung jedoch nicht vollziehen. Im Szenario "VR-Meeting" des BMBF-Projektes AVILUS wurde auf Grundlage des Virtual und Augmented Reality Systems "instantreality" (www.instantreality.de) ein kollaboratives VR-System entwickelt, mit dem Entwicklungsteams an verteilten Standorten in einer virtuellen Konstruktionssitzung zusammenarbeiten. Dabei wurden zum einen Verfahren für eine sichere Datenverteilung realisiert, zum anderen wurden Methoden zur effizienten Protokollierung von verteilten immersiven Konstruktionssitzungen erforscht.

ACM SIGGRAPH: Proceedings Web3D 2011 : 16th International Conference on 3D Web Technology. New York: ACM Press, 2011, pp. 71-80

Until recently, depth sensing cameras have been used almost exclusively in research due to the high costs of such specialized equipment. With the introduction of the Microsoft Kinect device, real-time depth imaging is now available for the ordinary developer at low expenses and so far it has been received with great interest from both the research and hobby developer community. The underlying OpenNI framework not only allows to extract the depth image from the camera, but also provides tracking information of gestures or user skeletons. In this paper, we present a framework to include depth sensing devices into X3D in order to enhance visual fidelity of X3D Mixed Reality applications by introducing some extensions for advanced rendering techniques. We furthermore outline how to calibrate depth and image data in a meaningful way through calibration for devices that do not already come with precalibrated sensors, as well as a discussion of some of the OpenNI functionality that X3D can benefit from in the future.

Wiedmer, Martin (Ed.) et al.: 10th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality 2011. [USB Stick] : ISMAR. Science & Technology Proceedings, pp. 269-270

As large ships are never produced in masses, it often occurs that the construction process and production process overlap in time. Many shipbuilding companies have problems with discrepancies between the construction data and the real built ship. The assembly department often has to modify CAD data for a successful installation. We present an augmented reality system, where a user can visualize the construction data of pipes and modify these in the case of misalignment, collisions or any other conflicts. The modified pipe geometry can be stored and further used as input for CNC pipe bending machines. To guarantee an exactly orthogonal passage of the pipes through aligning bolt holes, we integrated an optical measurement tool into the pipe alignment process.

BIO Web of Conferences, Vol.1 (2011), 4 p.

Augmented Reality (AR) points out to be a good technology for training in the field of maintenance and assembly, as instructions or rather location-dependent information can be directly linked and/or attached to physical objects. Since objects to maintain usually contain a large number of similar components (e.g. screws, plugs, etc.) the provision of location-dependent information is vitally important. Another advantage is that AR-based training takes place with the real physical devices of the training scenario. Thus, the trainee also practices the real use of the tools whereby the corresponding sensorimotor skills are trained.

ACM SIGGRAPH: Proceedings Web3D 2010 : 15th International Conference on 3D Web Technology. New York: ACM Press, 2010, pp. 147-150

3D applications, e.g. in the context of visualization or interactive design review, can require complex user interaction to manipulate certain elements, a typical task which requires standard user interface elements. However, there are still no generalized methods for selecting and manipulating objects in 3D scenes and 3D GUI elements often fail to gather support for reasons of simplicity, leaving developers encumbered to replicate interactive elements themselves. Therefore, we present a set of nodes that introduce different kinds of 2D user interfaces to X3D. We define a base type for these user interfaces called "InteractiveTexture", which is a 2D texture node implementing slots for input forwarding. From this node we derive several user interface representations to enable complex user interaction suitable for both, desktop and immersive interaction.

Schenk, Michael (Ed.): 11. IFF-Wissenschaftstage 2008. Tagungsband [CD-ROM]. Magdeburg: Fraunhofer IFF, 2008, pp. 31-37

Virtual-Reality Simulationen konnten sich in der chirurgischen Ausbildung etablieren, wobei die angebotenen Systeme von einfachen Trainingssimulatoren bis hin zu komplexen Chirurgiesimulatoren reichen. Diese Simulationen sind oft sehr überzeugend, häufig steckt allerdings ein großer Aufwand in der Aufbereitung von Trainingsfällen und der Generierung von Falldatenbanken. Die Herausforderung besteht hier also in der Vereinfachung der Generierung der Trainingsdatenbank. Eingangsdaten für die Trainingsdatenbank sind Tomographiedaten der Patienten, die als Volumendaten vorliegen. Mit dieser Motivation werden Volumenrendering-Methoden sowie Simulationsverfahren auf Volumendaten zur Verwendung in chirurgischen Trainingssimulatoren entwickelt und präsentiert. Die entwickelten Renderingverfahren betreffen sowohl visuelles als auch haptisches Rendering, da letzteres in endoskopischen Simulationen zur Vermittlung von chirurgischen Handfertigkeiten besonders wichtig ist. Die Trainingssimulatoren unterscheiden sich hierbei darin von anderen Trainingssystemen, dass die zu untersuchenden anatomischen Strukturen nicht exemplarisch modelliert werden sondern direkt aus Tomographiedaten rekonstruiert sind. Zur Evaluation der entwickelten Verfahren zum visuellen und haptischen Volumenrendering wurden Beispielanwendungen für die HNO-Medizin entwickelt.

Spencer, Stephen N. (Ed.): Proceedings WEB3D 2008 : 13th International Symposium on 3D Web Technology. New York: ACM Press, 2008, pp. 43-51

Nowadays medical training simulators play an important role in education and further training of surgeons. With Virtual Reality based training systems it is possible to simulate a surgery under realistic conditions. Input data for the visualization of anatomic structures is tomographic image data. For the visualization of medical datasets direct volume rendering is the method of choice. In this paper we introduce a system based on the new X3D extension proposal of the Medical Working Group for a volume rendering component, with some extensions for controlling the speed vs. quality trade-off. For a convincing and instructive training simulation, our implementation delivers high performance combined with high quality visualization of medical datasets. Furthermore, it integrates haptic forcefeedback devices to assure realistic interactions.