Car makers benefit from virtual reality

Jaguar and Land Rover are investing £2m in a virtual reality ‘cave’ at their Gaydon engineering centre. It will allow engineers and designers to see life-size, three-dimensional models of vehicles and components and reduce the need for physical prototypes – saving both time and money in the process. The user wears 3-D glasses to experience 'ultimate realism', with a resolution that is twice as clear as the latest high definition TV – thanks in part to eight Sony SRX-S105 high-resolution projectors. "This is a key advance in our development toolbox," said Al Kammerer, product development director for Jaguar and Land Rover. "[This] will allow us to produce new vehicles on a much quicker timeline and to be more efficient as well." Midlands-based HoloVis International is bringing together the different components of the project – Sony, Sun Microsystems and Icido – in the facility. The facility should be operational by spring 2008.