Volvo, Varjo bring mixed reality to automotive development
Volvo Cars and Varjo have made it possible to drive a real car while wearing a mixed reality headset, seamlessly adding virtual elements or complete features that seem real to both the driver and the car’s sensors, for development purposes.
The Varjo XR-1 headset provides photorealistic mixed or virtual reality at a high-definition resolution. As such, the headset can radically reduce development timeframes by creating the new ability to evaluate features and designs almost immediately, Volvo explains.
Compared to its predecessor, the XR-1 adds high-definition cameras to the headset and enables mixed reality. This allows Volvo Cars designers and engineers to ‘drive’ future cars and evaluate all features in a simulation environment many years before they exist, enabling the company to develop the safest cars with the most refined user experience possible.
“With this mixed reality approach, we can start evaluating designs and technologies while they are literally still on the drawing board,” said Henrik Green, chief technology officer at Volvo Cars. “Instead of the usual static way of evaluating new products and ideas, we can test concepts on the road immediately. This approach offers considerable potential cost savings by identifying priorities and clearing bottlenecks much earlier in the design and development process.”
This approach also allows engineers to develop and evaluate active safety solutions easier. Safety experts are able to drive real cars while wearing an AR headset at Volvo’s research facilities, testing virtual active safety systems imposed via augmented reality on the real-life environment.
Highly accurate eye-tracking technology embedded inside headset eases assessing how drivers use a new functionality and whether they are distracted in any way. This technology-based approach to measuring distraction levels ensures that car developers can create new features without causing additional distraction.
Volvo claims that no other car maker has been able to do this. However, this approach is already in use at multiple carmakers. Several years ago, Audi showed a comparable configuration for use in the development of new vehicles. BMW and truck manufacturer MAN also use similar technologies in pre-production training and configuration as well as in design verification.
The headset and Volvo Cars’ application of the technology are demonstrated at the Augmented Reality World Expo in Santa Clara, California. A patent has been filed for the application of the technology.
The collaboration between the carmaker and Varjo is expected to be further strengthened by the Volvo Cars Tech Fund’s decision to invest in Varjo. The Tech Fund is the car maker’s venture capital fund which invests in high-potential technology start-ups.
Related articles:
Augmented Reality: A growth market for automotive electronics
BMW relies on AR and VR in production and training
Holographic head-up display brings augmented reality into the car
BMW develops data goggles for drivers
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