"Digital Sand Table" which reads terrain made of sand in 3D to synthesize virtual reality video

Anyone would have experienced playing sandbanks once in a childhood and twice in the sand, but the US Army Research Institute has adopted such a sand mountain as part of the virtual reality "Digital Sand Table"Technology has been developed.

BLDGBLOG: Touchscreen Landscapes
http://bldgblog.blogspot.jp/2014/10/touchscreen-landscapes.html

A Sandtable as Fun as a Sandbox | Military.com
http://www.military.com/video/logistics-and-supplies/army-equipment/sandtable-as-fun-as-sanbox/3849414398001/

You can see how the digital sand table works in the following movie.


A camouflage clothing man is working on something like a digital sand table case. Sand is spread over the white glowing part.


A projector for projecting video on the top of the case ......


Microsoft's Kinect is showing up. This part where Kinect becomes a kimo of digital sand table.


Contour lines drawn according to the topography of sand mountains.


However, if you change the shape of the sand mountain by hand ... ...


Contour lines matching the new terrain were displayed. It processes the height information Kinect reads and projects the contour lines using the projector.


A river was created by scratching the area that was originally a mountain by hand. This interactive nature is unique in its structure using a computer.


A mountain rising like this ... ...


Just change shape and shape with hands.


It was a field of caldera topography with so much work.


The "sand table" which is also the source of the name is "Sand board"That corresponds to. This is a facility for reproducing the figure of the strategy execution area with a model like a diorama, and for making strategy and simulation. That's why there are many people in camouflage clothes in the movies.


When using it for military purposes, project the satellite photograph data and check the positional relationship ...


It will be used to build a strategy assuming enemies.


Units laid out in real mountain topography, too.


By sharing data, it can also be used for briefing and training with remote areas.


It was the US Army Research Institute that developed this digital sand table. Its objective is of course the development of military technology using virtual reality technology, but it seems that it could be expected to be applied to private fields such as construction field and interactive game development.