SIEMENS

Think of reality as the dial on an old-fashioned radio. On the left-hand end of the spectrum is the real environment. At the other end is the computer-powered, immersive world of virtual reality. In between, as you adjust the dial, you can tune into "augmented reality" — a part of the spectrum, left of center, where the real world is amplified by additional sources of information. Here, a fuzzy ultrasound image, for instance, may be rendered crystal clear as it is enhanced with anatomical data from a CT scan (see article "The Illusion of Presence"). And right of center on the dial you can tune into "augmented virtuality" — environments that are overwhelmingly virtual, such as a wind turbine in Second Life, but which can be enhanced by real-time images from an on-site technician.
Across this continuum, scientists have been tuning into a steadily-growing spectrum of what they call "mixed realities" in which elements of the real and virtual are combined in varying amounts (see articles "The Illusion of Presence", "Simulating a Monster", "Predictive Vision", and "Small Worlds"). But it is at the far end of the spectrum — in the virtual world — that the potential for revolutionary competitive advantage is taking shape for major industrial companies such as Siemens.
"For us, the virtual world is more than important," says Dr. Reinhold Achatz, who heads Siemens Corporate Research and Technologies, "it is mission critical. The value proposition is that when you can create and test devices before they exist in the physical world, you save time and money, while potentially increasing quality and flexibility." And, as Achatz adds, Siemens is ideally positioned to do exactly that: "There are automation software companies, and companies that understand digital factories. But there is no other company besides Siemens that has the ability to drive both of these areas."

How to Transmit a Product. Just how proficient Siemens is becoming in the virtual world is illustrated by its development of the first virtual, semi-automated digital inner ear hearing aid pre-manufacturing system, which is now being tested in Shanghai, where highly-experienced yet inexpensive labor is available. There, when a worker receives a digital mold of a patient’s inner ear, which is taken by scanning a real mold, programs help the worker to hollow out the mold, while ensuring the smoothness of all inner and outer surfaces. Throughout the process, programs help to ensure that the shell remains of uniform thickness and strength. Precision is crucial since the digital version of the shell will be exactly duplicated when transferred to physical manufacturing.
Once the digital shell is complete, other programs suggest optimized placement of the hearing device’s minuscule components. Workers need only check the system’s suggestions and click "next" to continue. "When performed manually, shell crafting and component placement easily add up to 40 minutes for an experienced worker," reports Siemens Corporate Research (SCR) Program Manager Dr. Tong Fang. "But with the automation steps we have developed, that process is set to be reduced to only one or two minutes, and eventually it will be completely automated." Following quality testing, the virtual devices are electronically transmitted to production centers, most of which are in North America, the largest market for such devices. "Thanks to the new technology, the number of products returned has already been reduced from 20 % to 5 %," says Fang.

Mixed-Reality Buildings. Not only are very small products such as digital hearing aids being developed, personalized and perfected in the virtual world; so are major facilities ranging from skyscrapers to power plants. The U.S. military, for instance, now requires that all its new buildings start out as computer-generated models. "The reason that many organizations are moving in this direction is clear," explains Dr. Mirko Appel, a specialist in industrial augmented reality with Siemens Corporate Technology in Munich. "Facilities that are born in the virtual world can be upgraded there as well. And as technologies evolve, improvements can be planned and tested on a virtual model before being implemented in the real world. It all adds up to potentially huge savings for the customer."
But there’s a catch. Unlike hearing aids, which are assembled by a single manufacturer, it takes dozens of contractors to assemble a complex facility such as a coal-fired power plant, and many of them fail to follow the CAD model to the letter. "Along the way, they produce new technical drawings," says Appel. "And the result is that, although a 3D CAD model can represent hundreds of man-years of work and millions of dollars of investment, the actual plant often diverges significantly from its model."
To pinpoint the salient differences between a real plant and its CAD counterpart — and thus make the digital model useful throughout the facility’s life — a team led by Dr. Appel in cooperation with the Technical University of Munich has developed software (patent pending) that can superimpose digital photographic images of individual rooms on CAD models such that engineers can rapidly identify discrepancies that exceed one centimeter. Performed at regular intervals during construction, the new technique helps to catch potentially expensive errors early and documents the plant’s actual status digitally. "We use anchor plates — massive steel reinforcements that are built into walls to support particularly heavy structures — as geographical reference points," says Appel. As long as some part of an anchor plate is visible in a photo, the program recognizes the room and the angle of view from a combination of geometric features and augments the photo by overlapping the appropriate CAD design — in perfect registration — onto the image. "The software needs a lot of reasoning capabilities to do this," says Appel, who adds that the technology is now being implemented on a pilot basis in a power plant in northern Europe.
Once a building’s CAD design is proven to be accurate, its virtual model can be dynamically mixed with real-time views for any number of purposes. "For instance, evolving fire safety regulations may require updates of evacuation routes," says Yakup Genc, PhD, program manager for the 3D Vision and Augmented Reality Program at Siemens Corporate Research in Princeton, New Jersey. "In this case, the building manager would be able to perform a virtual fly-through of an entire building by superimposing real-time camera views of escape routes on CAD diagrams. This would provide up-to-the-minute information about potential obstacles, fire extinguishers, exit signs and lighting — all of which could be — in principle — automatically documented."
Virtual copies of real buildings can also simplify and reduce the cost of maintenance and training services. As SCR President and CEO Paul Camuti points out, "One of the things we are working on is how to bring experts into a building operation system in Second Life (for more, see Conferencing) to shorten the time it takes to resolve a problem." The concept, which is particularly valuable for complex, out-of-the-way facilities such as wind parks and off-shore drilling platforms, works as follows: At such locations, an on-site technician may tap a world-class expert to resolve a problem with, say, a wind turbine generator. "In this case, the expert — if authorized — can log into the wind park’s web site and enter the virtual world copy of the problem tower — no climbing skills required," says SCR’s Genc. "That’s full VR. But if the expert wants to see and hear exactly what the local technician is looking at, that can be provided by a head-mounted mini cam, the images from which can be superimposed on the virtual view — which might be called augmented virtuality." The result, say Genc, is a great system for troubleshooting and training. "For instance," he adds, "the off-site person can point to an item with a cursor that the on-site person sees in exactly the same spot through augmented reality glasses. The 3D environment makes distance collaboration possible by combining physical and virtual realities."