SECTION TITLE
AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN
Safety experts are able to drive real cars while wearing the XR-1 headset
DESIGN V
olvo Cars and Varjo, the Finnish maker of high-end augmented- reality headsets, have together created a mixed-reality approach to
evaluating automotive prototypes, designs and active safety technologies. Te collaboration will be further
strengthened by the Volvo Cars Tech Fund’s decision to invest in Varjo. Te Tech Fund is Volvo’s venture capital fund, which invests in high-potential technology start-ups. Volvo and Varjo have made it possible for the first time 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. Until now, no other car-maker has been able to do this. Compared with its predecessor, the XR-1 adds high-definition cameras to the headset and enables mixed reality. Tis allows Volvo Cars’ designers and engineers to ‘drive’ future cars and evaluate all features in a simulation environment many years before they exist. “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. Tis approach offers considerable potential
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MIXED REALITY FOR AUTOMOTIVE
Collaboration creates a world-first approach to evaluating prototypes, designs and active safety technologies
cost savings by identifying priorities and clearing bottlenecks much earlier in the design and development process.”
DESIGNING ACTIVE SAFETY SYSTEMS Te XR-1 also allows Volvo Cars’ engineers to develop and evaluate active safety solutions much easier. Safety experts are able to drive real cars while wearing the XR-1 headset at Volvo’s research facilities in Sweden, testing virtual active safety systems imposed via augmented reality on the real- life environment. Highly accurate eye-tracking technology embedded inside the XR-1 makes it easy to
assess how drivers use a new functionality and whether they are distracted in any way. Tis technology-based approach to measuring distraction levels ensures that Volvo Cars can develop new features without causing additional distraction. “From the very beginning, our vision has been to create a product that can seamlessly merge the real and the virtual together,” said Niko Eiden, founder and CEO of Varjo. “Te incredibly advanced ways in which Volvo Cars uses the XR-1 show that Varjo’s technology enables things that have been previously impossible. Together with Volvo we have started a new era in professional mixed reality.”
Volvo and Varjo have launched a mixed
reality application for automotive design
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