Talk about a game-changer.
Microsoft HoloLens has been working with Autodesk's Fusion 360 software to develop an app that would allow industrial designers and engineers alike to collaborate on 3D designs in real-time via mixed reality, both companies announced Monday.
The collaborative project, FreeForm, takes what Fusion 360 has already built, with advancements in engineering, computer design and manufacturing and enhances it via HoloLens' mixed reality, bringing their creations into the real world, able to control them freely without a screen.
The app is already being tested by companies that are reaping the benefits of working in mixed reality.
Adam Ellison, founder and mechanical engineer for ModBots, likens his company to a situation as if LEGO were building industrial-scale robots and has already seen the advantages of working in mixed reality.
"HoloLens will actually let you see the physical size of the context, and you won't go making stupid engineering decisions," Ellison says in Microsoft's announcement clip, moving his index finger and thumb together to elongate the free-flowing 3D robotic arm before further manipulating it in mixed reality. "We can interact in real-time in a shared workspace, and that means we should be able to come to one final solution in one meeting."
It's hard not to be impressed watching this video. From the clip alone, one will be able to forecast what an advantage industrial designers, engineers and car mechanics would have working in mixed reality. Perhaps Autodesk pinned the technology best, saying working in it "changes every aspect of how you work with your data, environment, peers and customers."
Although HoloLens isn't slated to be available until 2020, this video will only have people wanting it sooner — especially industrial designers and engineers.
