Where could you see & test the latest innovations in VR & AR? The VR Expo on July 5th and 6th in Stuttgart was clearly one of those chances.
Established companies as well as start ups showed their expertise in Stuttgart. The diversity of solutions was excellent. Essentially all of the exhibitors focus on industrial, professional markets. In addition to the exhibit, VR Expo scheduled a full program of conferences and presentations.
Professional VR Solutions
Virtalis is a long-time provider of visualization and VR solutions. The company’s focus on industrial customers has allowed them to develop “VR for Industry 4.0”. Their main solution, Visionary Render, brings together all of the information needed for a complete Industry 4.0 virtual reality environment.
The company refers to Visionary Render as an “integrated decision-making platform”. Several points are critical here. First, the VR environment contains much more than geometry. It integrates relevant data from your enterprise processes, for example, data coming from your IoT systems. Second, it is a live, interactive environment. As your data changes, you experience that in the VR environment. Third, it is a cloud-based, enterprise solution.
VR-ON, a young start-up, has a different focus. Their solution, Stage, is an efficient, cost-effective, and secure VR collaboration solution. The benefits for their clients include both improved decision-making using VR collaboration technology and immediate cost-savings through remote project collaboration.
Since VR-ON is easy to deploy and uses a subscription model, a company can reap immediate cost-savings through travel cost reductions. The gains in productivity and improved projects results then come as teams coordinate more deeply and leverage VR to make better decisions.
How good is your HMD?
When most people think of high-performance HMDs, they would not imagine a Head-Mounted Display with a 5K resolution, a 170° field of view, spatial 3D sound, automatic IPD adjustment, voice control, and integrated hand-motion sensors. Yet that is exactly the kind of high-end HMD built by VRgineers.
Their XTAL high-resolution VR headset is built on impressive technology which delivers key advantages for any serious, professional VR project. The 5K resolution is an important first step. The image quality is clear and clean due to using high-density OLED displays. The wide field of view makes the VR experience more immersive and more comfortable. VRgineers support many tracking systems and controllers with the XTAL. The hand-motion tracking is thanks to their integration of LEAP Motion’s hand-tracking technology. At the VR Expo, they were able to show a major advance in software support through XTAL’s integration into Autodesk’ VRED product.
Mobile VR workstations and mobile VR headsets
German computer maker, Schenker, was showing a range of VR systems. The expertise on display at the VR Expo included 15” & 17” mobile VR workstations. These feature 4K displays, high-performance GPUs, 8 TB of SSD storage, and processors with 6 cores.
Co-located in the Schenker booth, TPCAST demonstrated their wireless adapter for virtual reality headsets. By removing the “VR tail”, the VR user has a more immersive VR environment.
It also expands size of the VR environment which is possible. This is an obvious advantage for VR training environments. With a larger environment, you can imagine more people participating. TPCAST can support 16 users in a single virtual world.
Industrial AR capabilities
A/R solutions were also on display. CDMtech showed an A/R air traffic system. The system showed real-time results from airport traffic. A simple click on a plane would show flight and aircraft details.
The VR Expo had dozens of other exhibitors in software, hardware, and consulting. While the event had a distinctly German flare, it also appeared to have a good set of industrial visitors in automotive, manufacturing.
The PW Perspective
VR Expo is currently a German-centric virtual reality event. Yet Germany is an important market for many of the exhibitors, and worthwhile to attend. For the attendees, they were able to discover new VR and AR technologies in a friendly and comfortable environment.
