Saturday, September 14, 2013
This is how Elon Musk designs rockets in immersive 3D virtual reality
VentureBeat: How does SpaceX create rockets that blast supplies and soon people into space cheaper and faster than NASA? As Elon Musk revealed yesterday, at least partially with Iron Man-style 3D immersive reality visualizations that designers and engineers can interact with in real time with natural hand gestures.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
For years we have been using a keyboard and mouse as the primary method of interacting with our computers. Even computers with touch screen technology use the same basic principal as mouse input. With the new power and accessibility of 3D CAD software, it is about time that a more efficient and intuitive interface be developed. I predict that one of the big CAD companies will buy up this technology or develop something identical, very soon.
This is incredible! I've used programs such as Inventor, AutoCAD, Revit, Rhino, etc. and I've always felt so disconnected with what's on the screen. It's hard to go into detail with things on a computer when all you have is a mouse and keyboard. I always thought 3D printing was so cool and the way people have used it to create designs but this entire thing is absolutely mind blowing. It is as if you are physically holding something. You can see how it looks when you rotate it, you have the control. Imagine all of the things scientists, engineers, designers, and artists can do with this technology! The possibilities are endless!!!
First of all, what an awesome piece of technology. Second...why? If you are a person working an a super complex 3-d model of a complicated machine, why is it necessary to wear 3-d glasses and manipulate the model with "The Force"? If you are working on a 3-D model, you should be familiar enough with the software to be able to do everything the video showed, but more precisely, and with a mouse. It just doesn't seem necessary. Maybe using 3-d projections is a good idea, because it gives you a spatial relation to put the model in, but I don't think the hand waving thing is anything but cool. The 3-D metal printer, on the other hand, is a super nifty invention, especially because 3-D printing very much lacked the ability to print objects for actual applications because of the lack of structure (especially in ABS printers like Dimensions).
This is a really interesting way to interact with 3D models, especially for people who aren't used to dealing with 3D models on a 2D screen. However, in the video, the people manipulating the models are doing just that- moving them around and looking at them, not actually changing them. In the article, the author implies that this technology was very important to the actual creation of the rockets that the company is building, but we didn't see that in the video at all. I can't help but feel that almost all of that model was built using traditional CAD methods, and the fancy hand-waving comes in mostly at the end. While it's a cool way to present the design, in the video the movements seemed a little clumsy and imprecise, which would make it very difficult for anyone trying to get exact work done on it. I'm sure as this technology improves it could be essential to designers and for communication between engineers and people who are unfamiliar with 3D modeling software, but at the moment it seems as if it's not exactly a threat to the usual methods of creating models.
I have been following the development of the leap motion controller for a while and it seems like this is definitely one of the uses the developers would have had in mind. With more and more things being 3d modeled we need to move beyond 2 dimensional controls and into something new that allows us to manipulate 3d objects in 3d space.
I am really geeking out over this. Since, the beginning of school there have been many discussions of the future of CAD and how to interact with it. This technology seems amazing. Unfortunately I will probably never work with said technology, until maybe the year before I retire (hope I get to retire). I just do not see this coming down the line to a lone TD in a way that I could afford this technology. So we shall see.
Post a Comment