[From The Construction Index, where the story includes additional images]

Keeping it real

Virtual reality has come out of the games console and onto site. David Taylor looks at a new approach to training.

With any kind of training, there’s nothing quite like first-hand experience to make all that theory come alive. But on the other hand if you drop a complete rookie in at the deep end there’s always the danger they will sink instead of swim.

Some trainees simply cannot be allowed to make big mistakes – think of trainee airline or fighter pilots. But on the other hand no amount of theoretical teaching can equip someone with the skills needed to fly a plane.

That’s why they use simulators: thanks to modern virtual reality systems, a trainee pilot can crash and burn as many times as it takes.… read more. “Keeping it real: Construction training with mediated and non-mediated simulations”

[From MIT’s Technology Review]

[Image: Copy and paste: A tablet can be used to make 3-D scans of an object using the Structure Sensor and other new hardware coming to mobile devices.]

Depth-Sensing Cameras Head to Mobile Devices

Adding 3-D sensors to existing and future mobile devices will enable augmented-reality games, handheld 3-D scanning, and better photography.

By Tom Simonite on October 1, 2013

Just over a decade since cameras first appeared in cell phones, they remain one of the most used features of mobile devices, underpinning wildly popular and valuable companies such as Instagram and Snapchat. Now hardware that gives handheld computers 3-D vision may open up a new dimension to imaging apps, and enable new ways of using these devices. Early mobile apps that can scan the world in 3-D show potential for new forms of gaming, commerce, and photography.… read more. “Depth-sensing cameras head to mobile devices to enable AR games, 3-D scanning, more”