On the Heidelberg US conversion site Patrick-Henry-Village (PHV), a working and living space for up to 15,000 people is being created on almost 100 hectares. The "Knowledge City of Tomorrow" is to be designed to be more diverse, ecological and socially sustainable, relying on innovative places of education, forward-looking supply systems and a "multi-mobility approach," among other things. We have brought the digital future within reach.
Anyone can use cardboard, and so can 3D models on a PC screen. The goal of our project was not only to visualize the ideas of the architecture and urban planning project, but to make them tangible as an interactive world of experience.
The new urban quarter was to be presented to a wider public in a format never seen before. As forward-looking as the project for the PHV conversation area is, the PHVision development concept was to be spectacularly groundbreaking even in the planning phase.
Via a Mixed Reality Experience, we bring the "PHVision" to life for visitors to ExpoReal 2017. Where before there was the bare table, the neighborhood appears as a hologram with the Microsoft HoloLens. People wearing glasses move through the three-dimensional model, and the soundscape changes between birdsong, lively chatter and multicultural music - depending on which area the user is focusing on. Houses, streets and squares can be viewed from different angles. By focusing visually, animations are started and additional information is displayed. The special feature of the immersive experience: one can not only walk around the holograms placed in the room, but also through them.
How does it feel to walk through the city of the future? Nothing makes the experience of a planning vision more lifelike than immersive technologies. Visitors to ExpoReal 2017 experience PHVision in its full dimension: they view the planned space from different perspectives, perceive with all their senses and move freely through the neighborhood. In doing so, users are guided intuitively, and operate a visual interaction and navigation concept that requires a minimum of assistance.
The PHVision mixed reality experience can be reliably placed anywhere in the world using built-in image recognition and the logo designed for it. Furthermore, it can be easily extended by integrating other resources, e.g. additional 3D models, into the augmented reality environment.
