From The Sunday Herald (Scotland)
(http://www.sundayherald.com/29929)

Digital Design Studio is forging ahead with visualisation systems for the automotive sector, finds Darran Gardner

Virtual reality usually belongs to the realm of science fiction. But, the virtual reality hype began long before the technology to create such realities existed and now most people have stopped dreaming of virtual worlds.

However, Professor Paul Anderson and his team at the Digital Design Studio on the south side of Glasgow are keeping the dream alive. Their aim is simple: to generate a truly immersive virtual reality environment that has a useful commercial function.

The world-class research in real-time visualisation and interaction carried out at the centre, run by the Glasgow School of Art, is powering ahead to bring a range of technology projects into the real world. The studio was recently involved in setting up a new network for the auto motive industry incorporating UK academic and research organisations as well as the Ford Motor Company.

Involving 14 universities, specialist 3D centres and organisations such as QinetiQ (formerly the Defence Research Agency), the Advanced Visualisation Network (Avnet) is designed to access funding for developing technology in an area the UK is already leading the way in. It is also the next evolutionary stage of a relationship between the Digital Design Studio and its key commercial partners Ford and Californian software company Silicon Graphics.

'Imagination is more important than knowledge,' says Anderson, the studio's director since it was established in 1997. 'We now have the technology and the power at our fingertips, so the question is 'what are we going to do with it?'

'It has to be about making technology work for us rather than being a slave to it. Too often technology is designed by techies for techies, but it can be simple, especially given that people respond to information visually.'

This ability of virtual reality to exploit vision -- the one human sense which has the greatest and most immediate effect on perception -- remains central to the work of the Digital Design Studio (DDS). It guides two of the centre's key research projects, one codenamed SCI-FI (supporting customer interaction feedback and information) and the other Autoeval, both of which are backed by Ford.

SCI-FI, which uses 3D real-time images of vehicles projected into space, is being viewed as a car showroom technology which will allow customers to view virtual images of available cars floating in front them. Buyers would be able to change vehicle colour and specifications at the touch of a button. Although new interactive elements are also being designed for SCI-FI, Ford hopes to see it enter showrooms within three years.

'When the DDS was established, we didn't just want to be solving engineering problems. SCI-FI offers companies a new 3D retail footprint and it gives consumers more power to make important decisions.'

However, it is the studio's other 3D project which highlights the technological and commercial possibilities of such systems. Featuring the world's largest virtual reality table, state-of-the-art stereo imaging technology (which removes the need for the cumbersome headsets often associated with virtual reality) and potentially one of the world's most advanced haptic devices (a wired-up glove that provides tactile and kinaethestic feedback) its Autoeval system is the future, today.

It aims to reduce the time taken to bring new vehicles from the design phase to market, and designers can use the system to work directly with images that float in space in front of them and physically manipulate a virtual prototype of a component or vehicle. The use of haptic devices allows users to 'touch' the virtual objects and even move them through gesture interface and 3D sound cues. Ford is already testing the system at its Michigan headquarters, while rivals such as Volkswagen and DaimlerChrylser are working with less advanced 3D systems.

Although built for designers already familiar with more basic 3D modelling systems, the process of manipulating a virtual image is almost intuitive. Real-time rendering of images (changes to the image happen so quickly they are not perceptible) as well as visual and audio cues means that a sense of immersion and control are quickly achieved.

Even the ability to grab a 3D car model, push your head (with special head-tracking 3D glasses on) inside it and then view the full interior of the car, becomes a simple exercise once the ability of visualising impossible spaces is grasped.

'We can generate 3D images you can touch and feel and interfaces you can control with gesture. As well as the auto motive, medical imaging and oil and gas industries, entertainment is another possibility. We are already working with the BBC and looking at 3D programme broadcasting. People could also be educated using this technology in the future,' adds Anderson.

'I think you always have to get the right mix of pure blue sky research and interaction with the real world. You want to be solving problems from the real world, but at the same time you don't want to be influenced by markets or changes in the economy.'

The Glasgow School of Art has already sunk almost £8 million into the DDS, with additional funding from the likes of the DTI, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Unilever. With a core team of 15 researchers, it supports 12 PhD students and 30 students from a range of disciplines undertaking a masters course.

The level of access students have to advanced digital tools is unique and the DDS's teaching role remains an important element of the studio's function. The centre is now set to expand its commercial research efforts in 2003 and plans to sell its real- time 3D graphics rendering tool, Realight XP, online.

'Our focus,' says Anderson, 'is on breaking new ground.'