Happy New 3D 2017

In my 19 years in the 3D CAD/CAM industry, I have always been fascinated by the amazing 3D models our customers produce to engineer and design amazing ships, maglev trains, cars, aircraft, hydro electric dams, oil platforms etc. Seeing those wire frame models on a screen for the first time in 1997 at my initial interview for Tribon Solutions cemented my decision to work in the software side of the engineering industry, as even back then I knew that I was looking at a key enabler to all of the amazing physical constructions around me in the real world. 

Little did I know that 19 years later I would be able to put a mobile headset on and virtually experience those 3D models at real scale as if I were walking around them right here in my office. 

Technology has advanced in many ways since 1997 but our customers have interacted with 3D models in more or less the same way as they did back then, via a screen with a mouse and keyboard.

However recent developments in immersive technologies look set to change this paradigm, offering up new ways to view and interact with 3D content, be that with hand controllers, tracked hands or even via eye tracking.

2016 was the year when VR and AR went mainstream - again, where despite much hyping in social media, developers had their hands on the hardware to really play and try out new things and develop these new ways of interacting with 3D, something that has not happened at such scale ever before.

Like many of you, I experienced the new breed of VR headsets for the first time in the last 20 months. While the sense of immersion I got with Oculus Rift and an Xbox controller was impressive, I quickly got motion sickness. So it wasn't until early 2016 when i tried the HTC Vive for the first time that I got hooked. For the first time since I tried Rockstar's amazing GTA3 on the PlayStation2 I was blown away by technology.

I could move around in a virtual world with no latency and had hands to pick things up and interact with my world in a natural way. I was truly surprised at how well it worked, and immediately saw the potential of it in industry, so much so that I immediately bit the bullet and jumped on the early (consumer) adopter train, which is some feat considering this involved getting a Scotsman to part with 900 euros.

Since then I've been exposing it to as many friends and family as possible. While the majority of available applications are game-like it has always been those applications that are truly unique to VR/AR that proved most popular, my game time stats on steam showing Tilt Brush , SculprVR and Google Earth VR being the clear winners, with the social VR apps like AltSpace VR and Rec Room following up close behind.

I'm personally really stoked at the possibility of cooperatively modelling 3D content 'natively' in 3D VR with hand controllers. And love Tilt Brush and SculprVR for that reason.

As I said on my Twitter feed , VR (and now adding AR) is going to be social - not down the pub having a catch up social but 'lets meet up in the virtual engine room of this ship to solve that foundation fit problem' social.

Of course some of this technology is still to be proven and we all need to work out how exactly it could and should be used in industrial applications where safety and comfort play larger roles than in home entertainment.

However what we do have today with the currently available head mounted displays is a new way to experience 3D models and appreciate their size and complexity in a way that, until recently, simply wasn't possible. This alone has many applications from design, and operational reviews to simply engaging with customers and stake holders on major projects. The educational potential alone is huge.

This is why my newly formed Innovations Projects team at AVEVA will be looking at how immersive technologies can be used, beginning with our various HoloLens experiences and in parallel looking at how we can enhance the digital asset experience of AVEVA ENGAGE with Virtual Reality modes.