How do you transport someone into a virtual reality - and what can you use it for? Thuringia's State Secretary for Media Stephan König and State Secretary for Economic Affairs Mario Suckert learned about this and the social and economic potential of so-called immersive technologies during a visit to the Ilmenau Interactive Immersive Technologies Center (I3TC) at TU Ilmenau on October 23.
One of the most modern and powerful installations for reproducing virtual environments is currently being created in two state-of-the-art, networked experimental laboratories in the Grace-Hopper-Bau. This includes a modern audio laboratory with over 80 precisely tuned loudspeakers and a 5-sided CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) - a room in which several people can simultaneously experience virtual 3D worlds and their movements and reactions can be observed - that is unique in Germany in terms of its possibilities for multi-user visualization and observation of user dynamics.
Whether the buzzing of a bee, the spatial sound of a concert hall or the audiovisual reconstruction of the deep-sea salvage tug SEEFALKE, a museum ship of the German Maritime Museum DSM Bremerhaven: Stephan König was able to see for himself how amazingly realistic previously measured acoustic and visual environments can be reproduced here when he went on board himself with VR glasses - and experienced and interactively influenced the SEEFALKE up close with creaking doors, cracking switches and a ringing machine telegraph.
The subsequent discussions with Prof. Jens Müller, Vice President for International Relations and Transfer, Prof. Wolfgang Broll, Director of the I3TC, and Thomas Helbig, Head of Technology and Research at the I3TC, focused on innovative research projects with partners such as Bauhaus University Weimar, Erfurt University of Applied Sciences, the Klassikstiftung Weimar and industry, in which VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality) and MR (Mixed Reality) technologies are used to reduce social distancing, preserve cultural heritage, design optimal learning environments or support work processes, for example. They also discussed how universities, businesses, and policymakers can work together to harness their potential — as well as the education and promotion of technical expertise — for the audiovisual creative industries or Industry 4.0, and use it as a driver for the regional economy in Thuringia.
Contact
Thomas Helbig
Technology and Research Officer I3TC