What is new in AR and VR for the built environment?

Lots. Rather than being an interesting R&D project being undertaken in a corner of the office, these technologies are now being used in flag-ship projects. Hololens, HTC Vive and Occulus Rift are making head-mounted augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) more broadly available to engineers and architects, and a wide range of urban design, architecture and construction applications are rapidly being developed. 

We have been tracking these on twitter @vrandbe  There are some very impressive new graphical tools and workflows available. We've been impressed by DesignSpace, Vuforia and others. There are active hackathons, YouTube videos and communities.

The latest research by the research community will be discussed in the LC3 conference, which includes 'convr', the established conference on construction VR. There is currently a call for papers for this conference.

As we write the second edition of the book "Virtual reality and the built environment" we have been tracking and documenting the wide range of applications in which people are experimenting, which include conceptual design, construction site-work, home renovations, store layout, urban planning.

While the Pokémon game is relatively inaccurate in locating virtual objects into the real world, it is suggestive of a new generation of tools that provide professionals and citizens new ways to explore the natural and built  environments.
 
The challenge is to find new applications that help us to understand the interdependencies within and across infrastructure systems to better address societal challenges such as climate change; and also new applications that enrich our ability to see, interact with others and enjoy time spent dwelling in particular places. 

From Google Earth to Pokémon Go

Across scales, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to see buildings and infrastructure in the context of cities and regions is the focus of chapter 2 of the 2nd edition of the book, which I am working on at present. So much has happened in this space, since I first wrote this chapter: from Google Earth and Google Streetview to Smart Cities; Internet of Things (IOT); laser scanning; mobile devices; Occulus Rift, HTC Vive, Vuforia ... I could go on. Pokémon Go is the current craze.

My early thoughts and reflections are that these technologies are profoundly changing our relationship with the built environment. They do potentially give greater power to citizens (at least those with smart phones) to have an augmented experience of the built environment and immersive virtual reality could be used to bring people together and empower them to participate in planning decisions. Applications include tourism, planning, emergency response, infrastructure management etc. However there are also new challenges. This subway rider in Boston shows how VR may not augment understanding of the built environment but may instead isolate people in virtual worlds.... I am looking for great examples of the use of AR and VR to enhance cities and regions; and of the changing relationships between people and the hybrid digital and physical environment in which they operate ....