Ideas workshop with partners from industry and theatre
In theatre and event technology there are often two souls living in the chest of the technician: on the one hand, he or she appreciates reliable tools & technologies that have been tried and tested for years, but on the other hand, there is always curiosity about the new and unknown.
This is the field of tension in subproject 4, where the central question is to what extent applications using augmented reality can lead to an improvement, facilitation, expansion of daily work and an increase in safety on stage.
The second workshop on this subproject, which took place on January 29, 2020 at the Academy for Theater and Digitality in Dortmund, was attended by about 20 representatives of manufacturers (Gerriets GmbH, CAST, Vectorworks, Fülling & Partner, HOAC, RIEDEL Communications, Schokopro) and users (Friedrichstadtpalast, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Theater Dortmund) and the DTHG project team.
Already in the first workshop three application scenarios were examined:
- Recognition and augmentation of objects / products for precise determination of object type, origin, compatibility, expiration date, inspection history, life cycle of the machine / product etc.
- AR in use to support safety-relevant work, e.g. for risk assessment, discard maturity, functional safety etc.
- Construction aid for the assembly and dismantling of complex technical stage decorations.
- Remote diagnosis, remote maintenance and safety-relevant activities subject to the dual control principle.
Fields of application can be:
- on stage
- in the shop floor
- Simulation for training purposes out of town
- Education and training (university, vocational school, workplace, at home)
Possible targets for the use of AR solutions are:
- Increase of occupational safety, increase of visitor safety
- time efficiency improvement
- Increasing cost efficiency
- improved communication processes
- more planning security
- Create incentives for the recruitment of skilled personnel / junior staff.
As a result of the workshop, concrete use cases were discussed and described. These are:
- Determining the discard age of trusses
- Visual inspection of steel cable loops
- Assembling and dismantling aid for decorations and stage technology elements
- Mounting aid when using curtain rails
In order to implement these ideas in concrete software solutions, e.g. for AR-glasses, essential questions concerning the introduction of unique product IDs as well as wireless reading or transmission using RFID chips or barcodes were also discussed.