Laboratory for Virtual Reality and Simulation (G006)

Link to a virtual tour of the lab and of THI Campus

In our laboratory we teach the techniques and methods of Virtual Reality (VR). In the future, these will play an increasingly important role in industrial applications such as construction, plant and product planning, simulation and training, but also in entertainment and gaming.

Goals and idea

In the lab, we want to make all levels from low- to high-end VR experienceable. In Augmented Virtuality virtual worlds are extended by real objects / persons. Thus, the hands of a mechanic and a real workpiece can be faded into a complex assembly simulation.

Laboratory G006

Laboratory equipment and activities

The most important device of the lab is a so-called CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment): This is a 3x3x3 m cubic area with stereoscopic projection on four sides (front, bottom, left, right). In this multi-sided projection several users can dive into virtual worlds. Professional software packages allow a quick implementation of application scenarios.
We have Google Cardboards that can turn your smartphone into a VR headset, but also head mounted displays like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive that can display virtual worlds in better quality. We serve high-end VR with a powerwall that provides stereoscopic presentation on a 5.5 m² display.
Head and eye tracking and interactive 6DOF pointing devices allow intuitive and natural interaction with the 3D world.

The following courses take place regularly: Projects (all faculty E and some faculty M courses), Practical Course MMI and Virtual Reality (FFI), Virtual and Augmented Reality (UXD), Practical Courses in technology of human-computer interaction and augmented and virtual reality applications(UXD).

Another research area besides Augmented Reality is Collaborative VR, which aims at enabling the collaboration of several people in VR. Avatars are mostly used for this purpose. Finally, the investigation of interaction metaphors for selection, manipulation and navigation in VR is an active research area.

Laboratory management and team

Programme director and Academic advisor Mechanical Engineering (Bachelor)
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Binder
Phone: +49 841 9348-3070
Room: A218
E-Mail: Thomas.Binder@thi.de