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HoloLens is helping Ford designers prototype cars faster
It's quicker than clay. My first job was during high school at a movie theater. One of the funnest jobs I did there was Projectionist. Ten years ago many theaters were still using 35mm film. It's a lost art, but the movies would come on multiple reels in big metal canisters. We'd splice the film together and then thread it through the projector. Nowadays the movie comes on a USB thumb drive that you insert and download to the projector. That's it! I'm guessing that car clay modeling will also become a lost art at some point soon.
When Google released Glass Enterprise, it took a consumer-oriented product written off as privacy-invading nonsense and made it incredibly useful for businesses. Microsoft is effectively doing the same with its $3,000, not-yet-for-consumers HoloLens by introducing it to designers who find that price a relative bargain. Take Ford, which has been testing HoloLens over the past year to help stylists and engineers visualize and test products, considerably shortening the design phase.
Ford normally builds clay vehicle models at full scale, but has to re-sculpt them if a design doesn't work out. HoloLens can blend 3D holograms with real cars or models, letting designers test numerous designs in near real time. At the same time, engineers can incorporate the physics and check to see how new features perform. Much of this can be done on a computer, of course, but the advantage of HoloLens is seeing the designs in stereoscopic 3D from all angles on a real vehicle.
In one case, Ford said that it used to take weeks to perfect a grille design, but "HoloLens allows designers and engineers to explore a variety of different iterations in a matter of hours." In another, stylists played with external mirror models to get a pleasing design nearly in real time. "At the same time, engineers can see through the headsets what drivers see when they look through the mirrors," said Systems Engineering VP Jim Holland in a Medium post.
Another advantage is collaboration, as multiple HoloLens users can see the same thing and share voice and written notes around the world. "If HoloLens can help us test ideas without worrying about the cost of expensive clay models or prototypes, then we can liberate teams to be as creative as possible," says Holland.
These novel business applications could still end up benefiting gamers, content creators and others. By commercializing it for enterprises first (and making money) Microsoft and Google can develop and perfect the tech.
I believe that clay models will still be used, but only after the 3D design has been completed on the computer, in the final stages of design, to truly visualize how light falls on the model, and to show the concept to senior management and other stakeholders.
09-21-17, 10:32 AM
HoloLens is helping Ford designers prototype cars faster
