Forum8AZ

Australian Highway Project Aided by Forum8AZ Iterative Design Approach

forum8az — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:26:32 +0000

Roads and Maritime Services of New South Wales worked with Forum8AZ to develop iterations of a highway alignment near the town of Berry. Changes to the alignment location as well as features like a noise barrier and highway landscaping were based on an ongoing dialogue with nearby residents. At key points in the highway design phase, residents of Berry were given the opportunity to see the virtual model of the alignment and contribute their opinions. The process embodies a new standard in community-oriented infrastructure design.

Check out the project overview and animated output of the Berry bypass alignment HERE

The virtual model of Berry and the new highway alignment gave residents and engineers alike an intuitive tool for collaborative design.

ITS World Congress 2011

forum8az — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:50:00 +0000

Forum8AZ will be attending this year’s Intelligent Transportation Society’s world congress, a gathering of innovative transportation engineering firms from around the world. Forum8′s exhibit will feature our latest driving simulation technology and virtual reality software. The ITS World Congress will take place October 16-20 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. For more information, please visit the conference website HERE

Look for our booth at ITS Orlando 2011!

Valley of the Sunflowers

forum8az — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:34:24 +0000

A large parcel of vacant land in Phoenix’s urban core will soon be transformed into a vibrant garden and a source of local bio fuel. Valley of the Sunflowers is a collaborative effort between downtown Phoenix’s Adaptive Reuse of Temporary Space project (ARTS), Intel, the Phoenix Bio Science High School, and dozens of volunteers. The urban farming project will be tended by volunteers and students from the Bio Science High School, who will then harvest seeds twice a year and transform the yield into bio fuel. Valley of the Sunflowers broke ground on Friday, September 9th – just in time for fall growing season.

Forum8AZ used the real-time 3D graphics software UC-win/Road to visualize the incredible transformation of the project site:

Thousands of sunflowers will soon transform this lot that has been left vacant for years in a project that coordinators hope to ultimately spread to other lots throughout the city.

Forum8AZ to Showcase at ITS AZ 2011 Conference

forum8az — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:39:20 +0000

Forum8AZ will be exhibiting real-time transportation and design technologies at this year’s Intelligent Transportation Society of Arizona’s 18th Annual Conference. The event will take place on September 29, 2011 at the Mesa Convention Center in Mesa, Arizona. Please swing by our exhibit! More information about ITS AZ and the 2011 conference is available HERE

World16 2011 Summer Workshop in Italy

forum8az — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:30:04 +0000

Forum8′s World16 project is a global research group working to develop innovative virtual reality technologies in architecture, civil engineering, driving simulation, urban design, construction, and a variety of other fields. Researchers are based at universities around the world and use Forum8′s virtual reality software UC-win/Road as a common platform to share and present their research.

This year, the research group held its VR summer workshop at the Università di Pisa, home of host professor and World16 member Paolo Fiamma. Professor Fiamma teaches in the department of Civil Engineering and organized this year’s VR workshop.

This year’s workshop included presentations on real-time 3D graphics technology by guest speakers Simon Mabey from ARUP in Manchester, UK, and professor Fumio Seki from Nihon University, Japan.

Simon Mabey presents VR and 3D modeling technologies used by ARUP.

Other sessions included presentations by each research team representative, new product demonstrations, and a collaborative workshop for all current projects.

2011 RESEARCH PROJECTS

The on-going research listed below and featured at last week’s workshop will be presented at the upcoming International VR Symposium this November in Tokyo, Japan:

Implementing “Traffic Derivation Protocol” to UC/win/Road to Avoid Traffic Jams While Visualizing VR Models.
Prof. Amar Bennadji, Robert Gordon University

Two “Cloud” Technologies: Point Cloud Optimization and VR Cloud Application for Townscape Design
Prof. Tomohiro Fukuda, Osaka University

eParkingSim
Prof. Kostas Terzidis, Harvard University

Digital Manga in UC-win/Road
Prof. Marc Aurel Schnabel and Dr. Inge Yingge Qu,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Media Field Navigation
Prof. Marcos Novak, University of California SB

Shader Graphs for UC-win/Road
Matthew Swarts, Georgia Institute of Technology

Multiple Stakeholders in the Shadows of the Datascape
Prof. Michael Jemtrud, Jason Crow, and Andrew Chung, McGill University

Visualizing Wadi Madaiq
Prof. Ron Hawker, Zayed University

From Acoustic Simulation to Form Generation ::
a Case Study in Noise Simulation and Visualization
Prof. Ruth Ron, University of Florida

Extreme Interaction with UC-win/Road using a Lightweight Character Representation Method
Prof. Taro Narahara, New Jersey Institute of Technology

VR in Construction Monitoring
Prof. Wael Abdelhameed, University of Bahrain

Character Development
Prof. Thomas Tucker, Winston-Salem State University

CityDesign Tool for Japanese Castle
Prof. Yoshihiro Kobayashi, Arizona State University

SIM Lucca – VR for Italian Cities
Prof. Paolo Fiamma and Pierluigi D’Acunto, University of Pisa

Virtual Design World Cup 2011

forum8az — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:25:36 +0000

Forum8 Japan is hosting the world’s first ever international student competition utilizing Building Information Models (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) technology to complete a design challenge. The theme of the first annual competition is “Shibuya Bridge”, an innovative look at how Tokyo’s famous intersection could be re-imagined using these CAD technologies. Participate for your chance to win the $12,000 Grand Prize!

Two pieces of software will be used and are provided to contestants for free (for the duration of the competition): BIM software Allplan by Nemetschek and VR software UC-win/Road by Forum8.

For more information and to register, please visit the competition website HERE

The 2011 competition is sponsored by: CG-ARTS Associates, Kentsu Publishing, Shinkenchiku-sha Co., Ltd., NICOGRAPH, and the Japan Institute of Art.

International VR Projects Using UC-win/Road

forum8az — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 21:11:43 +0000

Forum8 AZ provides design consultation services and is a licensed distributor of the virtual reality (VR) environment UC-win/Road. This software is used globally for visualizing urban environments, managing construction projects, simulating traffic and mass transit systems, and a variety of other civil engineering, architectural, and urban design projects.

Here is a glimpse of how some of our international partners and clients are using UC-win/Road in their design framework. These and other projects were exhibited at the November 2010 VR Contest hosted by Forum8 in Tokyo, Japan.

Urban Planning Directorate – Kobe, Japan: “VR environment for the formation of the Kobe-city landscape design plan”

Asunaro Aoki Construction Co., Ltd.: “VR simulation of proposed park facilities”

Forum8 AZ at North America Auto Testing Expo 2010

forum8az — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 22:19:04 +0000

Forum8 AZ will be exhibiting the linkage of its visualization software UC-win/Road with SensoDrive force-feedback steering wheel hardware and CarSim’s comprehensive vehicle dynamics software. The combination of these technologies allows for a visually rich virtual driving experience using industry-leading hardware and software packages. See More at the conference website.

Forum8 AZ Showcase at Transportation Events

forum8az — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 22:17:43 +0000

Forum8 AZ is spreading knowledge of its innovative transportation/civil engineering visualization software and production pipeline at Intelligent Transportation Society (ITS), Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), and other related events around the country. The following are the two most recent events featuring Forum8 AZ and Forum 8 products and services:

Fall Transportation Conference (FTC) 2010 – University of Nevada Las Vegas: See More

ITS Arizona 2010 Conference – Phoenix, Arizona: See More

ITE Western District Conference 2010 – San Francisco: See More

World16 VR Research Blog

forum8az — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:17:17 +0000

Forum8 AZ manages a worldwide working group of VR researchers called World16. Researchers represent Universities from around the world, including Osaka University, University of Pisa, Harvard, Georgia Tech, University of California Santa Barbara, Arizona State University, University of Bahrain, and Zayed University.

The Blog features a 3D Virtual Reality (VR) tutorial series using Forum8 software UC-win/Road as a front-end visualization platform, as well as updates on state-of-the-art VR technologies from around the world. Please check the blog for frequent updates HERE.