BMW Bringing Together Reality and the Virtual World

BMW Shaping the Future Part 6

July 30, 2003 2:50 PM
Filed Under: BMW

Press Release

BMW Bringing Together Reality and the Virtual World

Augmented Reality Setting New Horizons

Combining the real and the virtual world.
Virtual animation providing information in a wireless, text-free process.
Creating an entirely new kind of repair manual.

The BMW Group is carefully studying a technology able to extend the "real" world: With the viewer wearing data glasses, Augmented Reality blends virtual objects and images on to the real-life environment we normally see around us. The viewer wearing such glasses therefore receives additional three-dimensional information supplementing what he is currently looking at. One possible application of this technology is engine repair, where the mechanic wearing data glasses sees not only the engine as such, but also a virtual animation of tools, components, markings or operating instructions. Such virtual information blended into the picture then guides the mechanic through the complete repair process, the data as such coming from a computer connected to the data glasses. Currently this connection is still provided by a cable transmitting the data required, but in future wireless technologies will take over.

Augmented Reality - a significant innovation in the workshop

A repair manual upgraded by Augmented Reality makes it much easier to explain and, in particular, understand the work to be done. Recognising the appropriate marks and reference points on real-life components, the data glasses "see" what the viewer is looking at. Then, following each operation, they can feed the virtual information required in each case into the viewer's line of vision. Voice control ensures even greater convenience in interacting with the system, allowing the user to call up the virtual information required on his data glasses with maximum convenience. The transmission of information through Augmented Reality provides crucial benefits in service, particularly in the light of growing complexity and a model range constantly becoming larger:

All information can be called up at any time directly on the car or on the component involved in a mobile, highly flexible process.
Receiving and taking up information during repair with hardly any text helps the mechanic save precious time.
The mechanic keeps his hands free for the work actually to be done.
In all, Augmented Reality ensures a high standard of repair quality.

Field test: from the research lab to the real-life workshop

The BMW Group cooperates closely with partners from research and the world of business in studying various applications of Augmented Reality. And the BMW Group is indeed the leader in applying this technology for automobile service, a field test planned for the near future at various workshops being intended to provide new findings and experience for the practical use and application of Augmented Reality. Such applications extend throughout the entire field of service, covering the diagnosis of defects and the actual process of repair, where the repair manual provides detailed information on the removal of parts and components as well as the installation of disassembled or new parts. The next steps in developing Augmented Reality will seek to identify the surroundings and the area the viewer is looking at even without the use of special markers or reference codes. In that case the data glasses would be able to reliably detect the environment without all the components involved being marked in advance. Photo Caption:
Top: Augmented Reality: Interaction of real world with virtual information.

Source: Text and photos courtesy BMW AG

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