| IItaldesign Giugiaro foresaw the significant role virtual reality would have in the design process and early on equipped its site with a Virtual Reality Center; thanks to the Virtual Reality Center all aesthetic research can be completed in a time span of only a few weeks and the results shown to the Client thus providing evaluation criteria similar to (and in certain ways more ample than) the criteria offered by the viewing of a three-dimensional model.
The Italdesign Virtual Reality Center is equipped with a rear screen projection room with a 6.2 by 2.6 meters “CAD wall” and three, 12 inch projectors of the last generation. Thanks to the simplified system management, each member of the work party – either designer or technologist – supported by specialized computerized proficiency, is able to operate on the projected object, to make comments, to manipulate the image, to enlarge it, to reduce it, to rotate it, to modify it and change the colors of the surfaces, of the setting and of the finish details. By using special polarized eye-wear, the resulting stereoscopic vision produces an effective three dimensional impression which helps in the assessment of volumes before they are actually implemented.
At the heart of the Virtual Reality Center is a unique design development process: the scanned image of a style sketch on a 1:10 scale is decomposed from the side/front/plan and back views and then mapped on a parallelepiped starting form a common point of origin. The final effect is that of a box with two sides open; the inside contains the overall dimensions of the most important mechanical parts, the dimensional limits and the habitability layout.
From then onwards, the construction of the curves and the surfaces will be the best possible compromise between style and design limitations.
The great advantage provided by the Center lies in the fact that a shared environment has been created where the experts operating on different functions can inspect and approve the development of the project, all at the same time. Technologists can visually assess the results of the engineering developments in parallel to the phase of stylistic development: this means that they work ‘hand on’ in a much earlier planning phase than would normally happen in the traditional construction of real models and prototypes.
The Virtual Reality Center was implemented principally to develop creativity: thanks to the application and development of customized software, it quickly became a basic tool in the everyday design process, seamlessly integrated into the company work-flow.
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