TechViz - Blog - AR / VR for engineering

Virtual reality (VR) has come a long way since it was invented by Ivan Sutherland in the late '60s. This industry, which has a market size of over $15 billion, has now expanded beyond consumer use to make waves in everything from research and education to manufacturing and even aerospace applications. In particular, it's transforming manufacturing by streamlining the industrial design process.

A few years ago, there was a lot of hype around Virtual Reality. 2016 was supposed to be the big breakthrough year, then 2017, then 2018… There were talk about VR being the next entertainment/work platform, just like Radio, TV, Computers, Phone were. But it never actually materialized. Hyperbolic growth numbers did not happen as promised. Many VR companies have come and gone and a lot of projects, including from Silicon Valley big names, have been scaled down. Companies promising massive customer deployment have pivoted into niche professional use cases.

Industry 4.0 and digital revolution brought many innovations, new methodologies and tools to the manufacturing industry. Virtual Reality technologies enable businesses to design products and better their production process by simulating 3D prototypes in a virtual environment. Besides saving time and resources, this new approach also enables to optimize the manufacturing lines and improve the workplace ergonomics.

Why is it so important to keep your VR hardware clean? Even if you’re not taking the COVID-19 situation into account, keeping your equipment free of dirt and germs is essential, especially if you share the same HMD or VR goggles with your colleagues. Would you like to get dry sweat, sebum, and bacteria every time you get into a VR session? No, thank you!