VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING & AUGMENTED REALITY LAB
Activities
The VIPAR Lab is located at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Politecnico di Milano, at the PPG building.
In this lab, innovative technologies for the development of AR/VR applications to use for the product development are made available to students and demonstrated to visitors. We use advanced systems for the development of 3D digital models, and we also develop applications based on virtual prototypes for the functional and ergonomic simulation of products.
The available technologies include devices for stereo-vision in virtual environments, which are used to represent both immersive and augmented environments. In particular, in this lab there is an area devoted to the immersive interaction and provided with devices to be worn by users. These devices, such as sensorised gloves and Head Mounted Displays, allow the development of applications with user-friendly interfaces. Finally, the lab has been equipped with tools for the acquisition and the analysis of human movements.
The equipments have been used in several European and national research projects, as well as in industrial projects. Furthermore, these resources and equipments are used by the students of Laurea Magistrale and by PhD students, to carry out researches related to the topics of their thesis or of their research.
VICON 460 system
It is an optical tracking system for the motion capturing that uses optical cameras whose resolution is of 1280 X 1024 pixels. In particular, the system is used for the acquisition of human movements. These acquisitions may be used in real-time where the signals are directly used by the virtual reality application, or may be used in subsequent elaborations.
http://www.vicon.com
5DT 3D HMD 800 Series
It is an immersive and stereoscopic head-mounted display (HMD) that reproduces images on 2 LCD displays with a maximum resolution of 800x600 pixels, and a diagonal visual angle of 26°. The HMD is used for the development of virtual immersive applications.
http://www.5DT.com
Nvisor ST HMD
It is a high-resolution see-through head-mounted display designed for augmented reality applications requiring a wide field-of-view format (50°), and with a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels. Nvisor ST is used for the development of Augmented Reality applications, where virtual objects are super-imposed onto the real world.
http://www.nvisinc.com
Eye Tracking Systems
The Nvisor ST HMD has been integrated with the Viewpoint eye tracker system, which is used for users’ ocular tracking. This technology can be used in training and usability tests applications.
http://www.arringtonresearch.com
NOMAD HMD
This is a monocular see-through visualization display system that allows the visualization of information that have been generated from a computer and superimposed on the real environment. The system is particularly suitable to develop applications for product maintenance in Augmented Reality.
http://www.microvision.com
Shape Tape
It is a 6 DOF input device, based on sensors in optical fibres that can detect flexion and/or torsion. The system provides rather precise information on the position and orientation of the tape when it is freely moved in space, or when it is in contact with a surface. It is used for curve and surface modelling, or for detecting complex shapes in real time.
http://www.measurand.com
Shape Hand Plus
This system consists of a sensorized glove that allows the acquisition of the movements of the user’s arm, hands and fingers.
http://www.measurand.com
Haptic devices
The researchers of the KAEMaRT Group have developed some haptic programmable devices that allow the behavioural simulation of interactive control systems (push buttons, knobs and sliders), thanks to the easy interface for the modification of the devices parameters. The devices’ controllers make use of an integrated web server that permits the modification of the behaviours of the devices by means of a simple web browser.
KUKA KR3
The KUKA KR3 industrial robot, provided with 6 DOF, is used for the development of Virtual and Mixed Reality applications, where the robot is used for repositioning physical components that are integrated within a virtual environment.
http://www.kuka-robotics.com/usa/en/
Video See-Through Head Mounted Display
The Video See-Through HMD is a stereoscopic visualization system for Augmented Reality applications. This system is made up of two cameras and two OLED displays. The cameras have been mounted on two servos in order to set automatically the right convergence angle in respect to the position of virtual object. This system has been developed by the researchers of KAEMaRT Group.
Responsible for the lab: Prof. Monica Bordegoni
e-mail: monica.bordegoni@polimi.it