The Virtual Reality Competence Centre (VRCC) makes VR tools available to developers at their workstations. Depending on the task at hand, employees can select the required degree of immersion in the visual world they wish to enter.

Not only that, they can mix "real" and "virtual" worlds!

State-of-the-art facilities at Ulm include:

• a PC-operated holobench;
• a holostage, a new semi-circular projection which has recently been successfully patented;
• a fully-equipped mixed and augmented reality laboratory.

Holobench – the technology

The holobench, a virtual workbench, comprises a vertical and a horizontal surface onto which projectors display images from behind and from below.

The holobench in Ulm is the first of its kind in the world to be operated using "Infitec technology", which enables stereo-vision through the separate control of the left and right eyes using interference filter technology. The result is a bright, three-dimensional image.

It also uses DLP projectors, which give much greater luminous intensity than do tube projectors.

The computer filters out the ambient light in the room so that the user can work on the holobench in daylight rather than in a dimmed setting.

The VRCC holobench is operated by four PCs, with two more functioning as servers. The latter also carry out collision calculations and determining the position of the user.