Use of Mixed Reality in product presentations at Umdasch Group Ventures - MRBC4I

Umdasch Group Ventures offers NEULANDT 3P, a mobile precast concrete plant. The precast elements produced in this plant are wall panels for the rapid and affordable construction of living spaces. These elements are manufactured in foldable, customizable molds and, thanks to the plant's simple assembly and disassembly, can be produced directly at or near the project site. This makes production more cost-effective and environmentally friendly due to shorter transport routes and promotes local value creation.

Even though this plant is mobile, it occupies 1,000 m² of space. This raised the question of how to effectively demonstrate the building and the actual production technology to potential customers and interested parties on-site or at trade fairs.

To realistically represent these dimensions, the plant and the animations of the production process were simplified and recreated in the open-source 3D software Blender 3D. This model was then used in the Unity 3D game engine to develop a virtual reality experience. For the virtual reality display, a first-generation Oculus Quest was used. We chose this headset because it offers complete freedom of movement and interaction in three-dimensional space, but requires no cables or an external PC or laptop. This is possible because the headset already contains the processing unit, and position tracking is handled by four cameras integrated into the headset. However, this mobility isn't without its drawbacks, as the Oculus Quest's processing power is comparable to a high-performance smartphone from 2018. As a result, we simplified the 3D models, textures, animations, and sounds to such an extent that smooth operation at 65-72 frames per second is possible while still conveying the content effectively.

Movement within the virtual production hall is achieved via teleportation using buttons on the controller. The controller can also be used to control the speed and direction of the production process and to hide the hall's exterior walls to gain a complete overview. Furthermore, information points were placed throughout the production area to provide a more detailed description of the current production step. We implemented these audio descriptions using Microsoft Azure Text-to-Speech, which allows for the generation of realistic voice recordings without the need for a recording studio. This method enabled us to evaluate different versions of the text without incurring high costs or time expenditure. With this VR solution, Umdasch can now virtually pack the entire 1000m² production hall into a backpack and present it to a customer at a trade fair or even directly at the customer's premises within just 5 minutes.

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).