Cubtile : the future Bordeaux lift bridge in 3D

As the foundations for the Bacalan-Bastide lift bridge were laid in Bordeaux, an “observation kiosk” of the building opened its doors on Wednesday, December 9, in the premises of Cap Sciences (Hangar 20). During all the building work, almost three years, a device using the Cubtile will permit to superimpose virtual depictions from the future bridge to real time Garonne’s pictures. The objective is to permit the general public to discover in an interactive way the work as it will finally be in autumn 2012. Moreover, this augmented reality installation also permits to display the lift bridge in action: touching the tactile faces of the cube, the user can easily interact on screen with the mobile span of the bridge.
This installation is the result from the collaboration of Immersion with Cap Sciences, Alcove and IPARLA Team (INRIA) within the framework of the national research project Instinct (for more information, see this page): it was the opportunity for Immersion to develop a 3D application which is accessible to the general public using the Cubtile, but it was above all the first time that the tactile device is given to the general public.
The baptism of fire of this bold augmented reality device took place successfully in the presence of the various local politicians (Alain Juppé – Bordeaux mayor, Vincent Feltesse – CUB chairman and other local politicians). This display solution for the future bridge, which is called to evolve over the building work, will definitely seduce the inhabitants of Bordeaux.

Cubtile’s adventure : from the concept to the finished product

The recent announcement of the commercialization of the Cubtile (more informations on http://www.cubtile.com/index.php?lang=en) is a new step for Immersion in the development of this long-term innovative project. All this time, Immersion team never stopped improving the Cubtile, as far as equipment is concerned, but also regarding interactions or display modes.

Technical improvements permitted for example the upgrade of the reactivity of tactile faces or the recognition process of movements: illimited contact points, better data acquisition frequency…
Regarding use improvements, Immersion R&D Team worked to give birth to the most intuitive tactile interface possible; 3D contents handling or navigation is now accessible to the most of us : translation movements, definition of rotation axes or zoom shot in 3D have never been so easy!
New solutions have also been found concerning display modes: possible depictions come in a variety according to the different applications of the Cubtile (industry, research, culture…), and the contributions as regards 3D volumes perception or navigation in a virtual environment are huge.


The commercialization of the Cubtile is so the opportunity for Immersion to measure the progress made since the birth of the concept of the tactile cube to its presentation to the general public. Adapted to many professional uses as well as general public applications, the Cubtile keeps on arousing anyone’s curiosity: it has never been so discussed on blogs and websites or in press, and is at the present time presented for the first time to the general public within the framework of an exhibition on the building site of the Bacalan-Bastide lift bridge in Bordeaux. This project is an example of the tactile technologies “democratization” wanted by Immersion in order to offer a new approach of virtual reality.

CARE Project: Augmented Reality applied to the cultural domain

CARE, acronym of “Cultural experience: Augmented Reality & Emotion”, is a research project selected and cofinanced by the French Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche - ANR), whose Immersion is the coordinator. Launched in the end of 2007, it should end in 2010, and aims at applying Augmented Reality techniques to the cultural domain.

Combining human emotion and Augmented Reality techniques, CARE project took up the challenge to find appropriate hardware and software solutions to develop interaction spaces between public and culture.


The collaborative and multidisciplinary work of the 7 partners involved in the project (Immersion, ESTIA, IRIT, LIMSI, Metapages, Laboratoire Informatique de Grenoble & Gipsa-lab, Université de Technologie de Troyes) led up among other things to 2 concrete applications:

- Ballet of Biarritz: create a show in which the dancer and its shadow could act differently, to reinforce the emotional exchange between the artist and the audience ;


- Muséum of Natural History of Toulouse: make abstract concepts related to natural evolution become accessible and lively for the general public.


CARE project also permitted Immersion to focus on the possible applications of innovative tactile interfaces. Progressively, making use of the iliGHT multitouch technology and adapting it to the ergonomic requirements of the CARE project, the R&D team of Immersion improved the original concept of the Cubtile, offering an Augmented Reality solution perfectly in line with the constraints of the cultural domain (no head-mounted display required, intuitive handling, device accessible to the great majority of people).

Forum of the Actors of Digital technology 2009: Immersion presents the professional solutions of tomorrow

During the third edition of the Forum of the Actors of Digital technology (FAN 2009) on September 29th and 30th, Immersion presented on its stand two of its flagship products:

• The tactile cube Cubtile™, first 3D multi-touch device in the world, which offers infinite applications in terms of interaction and display of 3D objects in an intuitive way.
  
  
  

  
  Click on the picture to read the article and watch the movie from La Tribune.
  




• The interactive iliGHT™ touch table, which uses gestures (G), the hand (H) and touch (T), and offers an innovative workspace to collaborate around the same project.
  


Demonstration of the iliGHT touch table to a journalist.




The 2009 edition of the Forum of the Actors of Digital technology thus permitted Immersion to take its place within the "Innov Business / Company 2.0" space, which focused on the use of digital technology in tomorrow’s companies.

Laval Virtual 2009 : Cubtile™ wins the "Science and Education" trophy

During the 11th international maeeting of virtual reality which took place in Laval at the end of April, Immersion team displayed its last innovations on several stands. A few months only after its world premiere presentation at Imagina show (see previous article), Cubtile™ was already awarded a prize, allowing Immersion to win the “Science and Education” trophy, thanks to its playful approach of culture.
First 3D multi-touch device in the world, this tactile cube allows people to handle intuitively 3D contents and to display the depiction on a screen. Awarded by the jury of one of the most important European shows dedicated to virtual reality, this first reward confirms the strong potential of Cubtile™.

(Crédit : Laval Virtual 2009 / Jean-Charles Druais)

Imagina 2009 : Immersion enhances the 3D technologies

From 4 till 6 February was held in Monaco the Imagina 2009 show, a significant European event which gathers together the major actors of virtual reality. Immersion team took advantage of this opportunity to show to the visitors the Cubtile ™ (see previous articles), as well as a new version of the iliGHT™ touch table, whose last features held attention of the public: It is now possible to read videos and the multi-touch interface has been improved so that it’s able to recognize 80 fingers and more forms, allowing interactions (movements, zoom…) which have never been so fluid and intuitive.

Video which shows the new features of the iliGHT touch table, in particular the remote control of a security camera (source: Clubic).