Use of Mixed Reality in product presentations at Bene - MRBC4I

Digitally supported space planning has become standard practice over the last two decades. It's not uncommon for planning sessions to take place directly with the customer on a sales representative's screen. The sales representative operates a software tool (usually feature-rich and therefore complex to use) while the customer observes and can provide input. For larger projects, such as those typically handled by Bene, a sales representative visits the customer, inspects the space to be designed, takes measurements, and advises the customer based on their requirements. The planning phase then begins. The customer is visited again, can review the office plans, and make further changes together with the sales representative.

However, this process offers potential for improvement:

Firstly, the customer's involvement in the planning process is rather passive. The software is operated by the planner, and the customer cannot directly intervene. Secondly, while the planning software optimally fulfills its purpose – planning office spaces – it doesn't always provide the necessary input. However, it ultimately doesn't provide an immersive experience for the planned office, but merely displays an abstract view within complex software on a two-dimensional screen.

Furthermore, to see the progress of the planning, the customer is dependent on a visit from the sales representative.

A plugin for the planning software integrates a network component into it. This network component allows the planning software to communicate and exchange data with a custom-developed VR application. Communication takes place either directly between the planning software and the VR app or via a proxy. At the touch of a button, the plugin exports the complete 3D geometry open within the planning software. This is then transmitted to the VR app. The aforementioned proxy enables this to happen not only on local networks (via file shares) but also remotely over the internet. This allows the operator of the planning software to be located in a completely different location than the user of the VR application.

Once the VR application has received all the information about the 3D geometries, it is imported at runtime. The office builds itself up in three dimensions before the user's eyes. The user can then move, rotate, or completely remove furniture within the VR environment. Every change made by the customer is transmitted back to the planning software via the network component and applied there as well. This allows the sales representative to see every change the customer makes. Naturally, the sales representative can also continue to make changes to the plan (such as adding new furniture or reconfiguring existing pieces). At the touch of a button, the current plan in the customer's VR view is then updated in real time.

The overall project, "Mixed Reality Based Collaboration 4 Industry," resulted from the collaboration of 22 companies and five scientific institutions from Lower Austria, Vienna, and Upper Austria (St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences Steyr Campus, FOTEC, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, and Vienna University of Technology).