How virtual and augmented reality are transforming pool projects

by jason_cramp | March 29, 2017 11:50 am

By Noah Nehlich

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When the Irish painter Robert Barker first exhibited his enormous 137-m² (1479-sf) panoramic painting of London[2] in the late 18^th century, he took Londoners entirely by surprise. His painting, which required a custom-built multi-level rotunda to be exhibited, showed viewers a completely new, stunningly immersive way to see and explore their city and landscape. It generated so much attention and enthusiasm that panoramic landscapes quickly became popular across Europe, with some calling his patented technique “the greatest improvement to the art of painting that has yet been discovered[3].”

What made Barker’s work so compelling was the same thing that draws homeowners to immersive designs today: he offered an incredible new way to see familiar ground. So popular were those 360-degree views that his panoramas also helped lead the way to today’s most immersive technology: 3D, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR).

More than a glimpse of nature

For Barker, just as much as for the Renaissance artists who first perfected the technique of drawing perspective in 2D, and for many pool and landscape designers today, the goal of sharing an immersive view of the landscape was clear. He wanted to perfect the most vividly realistic view of nature.

When Barker patented his panorama in 1787, he emphasized the importance of accuracy in creating a truly immersive experience: he wanted viewers to “feel as if really on the very spot.[4]”

To achieve this feeling, he detailed in his patent the best way to immerse a viewer. “To perfect an entire view of any country or situation, as it appears to an observer turning quite round,” Barker insisted not only the artist must “delineate correctly and connectedly every object which presents itself to his [her] view as he [she] turns round.” He also perceived the importance of making the details as realistic as possible: an artist “must observe the lights and shadows, how they fall, and perfect his [her] piece to the best of his [her] abilities.”

What Barker patented as La Nature à Coup d’Oeil (Nature at a glance) would help lead the way for the increasingly complex optical illusions that artists, inventors, and scientists collaborated to create.

As one look at the history of modern inventions suggests, “When human beings create and share experiences designed to delight or amaze, they often end up transforming society in more significant ways than people focused on more utilitarian concerns.[5]”

One such amazing transformation followed 200 years after Barker patented the panorama. A new term would emerge in 1987 that would push the limits of what artist and designers could create to share even more—virtual reality.

Paving the way for immersive experiences

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Long before virtual reality experiences became a genuine possibility, however, artists and scientists alike had been attempting to create ever more immersive ways of sharing experiences and ways of seeing.

Before the term became popularized in the late ’80s, the technology for creating immersive virtual reality experiences was already in place.

For example, Ivan Sutherland, the same researcher whose early Sketchpad paved the way for 3D today, also developed a headset in the ’60s that allowed the wearer to explore different views. Called the “Sword of Damocles[7],” Sutherland’s headset was slightly too heavy to be portable; it had to be suspended from the ceiling. Slightly translucent, it paved the way for future wearable virtual and augmented reality headsets.

Morton Heilig’s “Sensorama[8],” developed in the ’50s and patented in the early ’60s, was intended as a way to “stimulate the senses of an individual to simulate an actual experience realistically.”

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Heilig’s invention was also a useful means to train people in, for example, military or flight simulations. Offering what he called “a completely new approach to the overall problem of realism,” the Sensorama created a highly immersive view that would go beyond what was then available. Since even 3D movies at the time only used “one-twelfth of a viewer’s field of vision,” it meant that “objects floating in space [were] disagreeably truncated by the picture’s frame,” preventing the most “life-like” experience Heilig sought to create.

Creating more immersive virtual reality

A little more than 200 years after Barker’s panoramas opened to the public, virtual reality arcade games would create a similar stir in London.

Less than a mile away from where Barker built his panoramas in Leicester Square, visitors to the Trocadero in London lined up to experience interactive virtual reality via arcade headsets[10]. Today, immersing viewers in a 360-degree view no longer requires a custom-built rotunda or even an arcade.

As detailed as those early panoramas often were, it is now almost trivially easy to add layers of highly realistic detail with the aid of 3D computer software, inviting viewers to examine even the smallest details while also featuring accurate shadows, immersive sound effects, and day-to-night transformations.

In fact, designers who wish to create the most immersive experiences for clients do not even need to learn a new software program—now that 3D design software is able to support virtual reality, designers can create a fully interactive 3D design, and then task the software with the work of preparing it to be explored in fully interactive virtual reality.

A growing industry

The comparative ease and affordability of virtual reality today is reflected in the growth of the industry. According to one report, more than one million people used the most common consumer virtual reality headset in April 2016[11].

Another study suggests the virtual reality industry will grow to see “$38 billion in annual revenues by 2026,[12]” with new platforms, accessories, and content creating and bolstering consumer demand for virtual reality experiences.

Of course, many have speculated before that virtual reality was right on the cusp of taking off. For example, the 1992 issue of Computer Gaming World[13], discussing some of those virtual reality arcade games in London, suggested this technology would become affordable within two years. The games “took cyberspace out of the NASA labs and put it into the arcades,” creating “an entirely new gaming medium rather than just a new game.”

That experience, however, came with a significant price tag ($60,000) which put it out of reach for most people. While it took closer to two decades, rather than just two years, for virtual reality headsets to come within range of the $500 price which was suggested in the 1992 article, today virtual reality is an affordable option, even with the best hardware, and the fastest processing power.

Layering instead of immersing: Augmented reality

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Had Barker been able to look forward to a time when his immersive panoramas could go beyond just giving what he called a glimpse of nature, he might have been amazed by the prospect of inviting viewers to not just see his panoramas, but actively add to and transform them.

Unlike virtual reality, which places the viewer into an entirely new ‘virtual’ world, augmented reality adds a new layer atop the real world. In fact, the latter is already in use, most notably in industries that require extraordinary care and attention to detail.

For example, vein imaging devices help medical professionals place IVs quickly and, “as early as 1990, assembly workers at Boeing were wearing see-through head displays that superimposed computerized images of where to place the wires on the 777 aircraft, which saved them from looking back and forth at their manuals.[15]”

Soon after, NASA’s Ames Research Center worked to create an “immersive virtual reality work bench” that would help doctors, with the aid of 3D glasses, “predict what the result will be in a real operation.[16]”

For pool and landscape designers, augmented reality will soon offer similarly compelling new ways to communicate with clients as well as subcontractors. Because it is overlaid on top of what is already visible, it is a powerful way to enhance what clients can already see instead of immersing them in an alternate, virtual reality. Augmented reality can feel completely seamless—the pool will really seem like it is directly in front of the client, right in their backyard.

Homeowners will be able to see every detail, at scale, right around them. Designers will soon be able to use augmented reality applications to place, move, and change elements of a design immediately, not with clicks of the mouse on a screen, but by using simple, intuitive hand gestures and a tablet.

Much like the aircraft workers and medical professionals who came to rely on superimposed images to achieve the most accurate results, designers will be able to use augmented reality to superimpose the details of their pool and landscape design directly on their client’s lawn, sharing the view not just with homeowners before finalizing a project, but also with the entire team to make sure the project is built exactly as planned.

That ability to seamlessly shape and transform elements instantly, without the intermediary of, for example, a computer and mouse, might also benefit designers by enhancing creativity and sparking even more innovative solutions. Researchers studying the benefits of doodling suggest that, when “struggling to concentrate” or otherwise feeling “stuck,” doodling can “more creatively and tirelessly solve a problem at hand.”

With augmented reality apps soon to be on the market, sketching—or doodling[17]—pools or meandering garden walks might offer designers a new creative path.

Creating incredible client experiences

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Virtual and augmented reality—once the realm of science fiction—can sometimes seem more like glossy add-ons in big-budget movies instead of practical options worth sharing with clients. Instead of just watching movie superheroes manipulate translucent models or swipe across holographic screens, however, designers can now use the latest, newest technology to amaze their customers and create spectacular experiences for them.

Whether fully immersing homeowners in new virtual reality experiences or using augmented reality to imagine improvements visually overlaid on reality, the process of creating the most incredible client experiences will be enhanced by taking care to avoid any pitfalls and building the viewer’s enthusiasm.

Avoid potential pitfalls

Perhaps inevitably, the same 18^th-century landscape panorama that so intrigued viewers was said to make Queen Charlotte feel “seasick” on first viewing[19]. Today, virtual reality can create a similar sense of discomfort if creators are not careful.

The racing jumps and leaps that might be popular with video game players are often too quick and disorienting for those viewers new to virtual reality, especially when the goal is not to win a high-speed game, but rather to explore and discover a new pool and landscape. Therefore, it is important to create a comfortable environment that viewers enjoy exploring at their own pace.

One research team has even found that virtual reality experiences can be an excellent way to help people feel a lasting connection with nature[20].

To create that strong connection, designers might choose to layer a design over the homeowner’s familiar outdoor space, building a comfortable environment that clients feel relaxed enough to want to explore, even while wearing a virtual reality headset that blocks their view of the real world.

Enhance familiar reality

The Londoners who flocked to Barker’s panorama did so in part because they were drawn to the new way of seeing their own familiar city; his first work, of another city, was less popular.

It was only after he painted London that the new way of sharing a 360-degree view gained in popularity. In fact, for the sake of his enormous, and enormously popular, landscape painting, Barker custom-built a rotunda that “would become for over sixty years one of the several buildings that made Leicester Square the center of London’s popular entertainment industry.[21]”

Nearly two centuries later, Heilig’s patent for the Sensorama simulator also recognized the importance of creating familiarity. In it, he noted letting someone “experience a situation or an idea in about the same way that he experiences everyday life” would help them not just understand “better and quicker” but also feel “drawn to the subject matter with greater pleasure and enthusiasm.[22]”

That said, what some researchers point to as a possible drawback of virtual reality with respect to movies and games proves, in fact, to be an advantage for pool and landscape designers:

“The most surprising twist in the evolution of [virtual reality] VR may turn out to be the pace of the new medium,” it has been noted. “Jumping from one perspective to another can create a literal sense of nausea.” But when exploring in virtual reality, people often “don’t want to move on to another experience once they’ve put the headset on. They want to linger[23].”

This is in part because, when analyzing the decision-making process, researchers found “customers, it turns out, make most purchase decisions almost automatically. They look for what’s familiar and easy to buy,” attracted more by the “easy” choice than the perfect one[24].

With virtual reality, it is easy to situate even the most innovative and creative project design within a reassuringly familiar outdoor space, and then give customers the space to explore, and even linger, over the details that attract their curiosity and excite their enthusiasm.

Design in the future

Designers today will be able to use virtual and soon augmented reality to realize what Barker set out to achieve back in 1787: “to make observers, on whatever situation he [she] may wish they should imagine themselves, feel as if really on the very spot.[25]”

Soon, it will be possible to design without being tied to a workstation. Using tablets, gloves, and even hand gestures sketched in the air, designers with their clients will be able to see results immediately, as though the new design were already placed in the client’s outdoor living space, ready to be enjoyed.

Just as artists once transitioned from the pencil to the computer, from early computer-aided design (CAD) programs to more flexible (and user-friendly) 3D design software, artists and designers today have the opportunity to use virtual and augmented reality to create the most immersive experiences yet.

[26]Noah Nehlich is the founder of Structure Studios. As the creator of Pool Studio Pool Design Software, he is into everything 3D. With more than 16 years’ experience building the design software pool and landscape designers commonly use today, Nehlich’s goal is to improve lives through 3D experiences. He can be reached via e-mail at noah@structurestudios.com[27].

Source URL: https://www.poolspamarketing.com/trade/how-virtual-and-augmented-reality-are-transforming-pool-projects/

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