Virtual Reality and Automation
Virtual reality of human activities (e.g., in design, manufacturing, medical care, exploration or military operations) often concentrates on an automated interface between virtual reality (VR) technology and the theory and practice of these activities. In
- PDF / 695,008 Bytes
- 10 Pages / 547.087 x 685.984 pts Page_size
- 71 Downloads / 195 Views
Virtual Realit 15. Virtual Reality and Automation
P. Pat Banerjee
Virtual reality of human activities (e.g., in design, manufacturing, medical care, exploration or military operations) often concentrates on an automated interface between virtual reality (VR) technology and the theory and practice of these activities. In this chapter we focus mainly on the role of VR technology in developing this interface. Although the scope and range of applications is large, two illustrative areas (production/service applications and medical applications) are explained in some detail to offer some insight into the magnitude of the benefits and existing challenges.
15.1 Overview of Virtual Reality and Automation Technologies ............... 269 15.2 Production/ Service Applications .............................. 271 15.2.1 Design ........................................ 271 15.2.2 Material Handling and Manufacturing Systems........... 271 15.3 Medical Applications ............................. 15.3.1 Neurosurgical Virtual Automation ... 15.3.2 Ophthalmic Virtual Automation ...... 15.3.3 Dental Virtual Automation .............
273 274 275 275
15.4 Conclusions and Emerging Trends .......... 276 References .................................................. 277
15.1 Overview of Virtual Reality and Automation Technologies conducted a survey [15.1] that provided the following details:
• • • • • • • • •
Industry growth remains strong: 9.8% in 2003 Industry value: US$ 42.6 billion worldwide Five-year forecast: industry value reaches US$ 78 billion in 2008 Average system cost: US$ 356 310 Number of systems sold in 2003: 338 000 Companies involved in visual simulation worldwide: 17 334 Most common visual display system: monoscopic desktop monitor Least common visual display system: autostereoscopic display Most common operating system: Microsoft Windows XP.
The survey [15.1] further comments on the top 17 applications of visual simulation systems from 1999–2003 as follows:
Part B 15
Virtual manufacturing and automation first came into prominence in the early 1990s, in part as a result of the US Department of Defense Virtual Manufacturing Initiative. The topic broadly refers to the modeling of manufacturing systems and components with effective use of audio-visual and/or other sensory features to simulate or design alternatives for an actual manufacturing environment mainly through effective use of high-performance computers. To understand the area, first we introduce a broader area of virtual reality (VR) and visual simulation systems. VR brings in a few exciting new developments. Firstly it provides a major redefinition of perspective projection, by introducing the concept of user-centered perspective. Traditional perspective projection is fixed, whereas in virtual reality one has the option to vary the perspective in real time, thus closely mimicking our natural experience of a three-dimensional (3-D) world. In the past few years, VR and visual simulation systems have made a huge impact in terms of industrial adoption; for exam
Data Loading...
