One of the potential challenges with Digital twins, Virtual Reality (VR) experiences, and the metaverse is the accurate representation of physical materials. Using physically based rendering with procedural or painted materials may “look good” for a gaming scenario, but what happens when the virtual experience is supporting a purchasing process or a scientific analysis? Accurately reproducing the textures of the fabric in a designer coat or the brush strokes on a painting is much more difficult. As digital twins in the metaverse become more important for designing, marketing, and selling physical product, accurate reproduction of physical properties gains importance.
Umajin’s core engine in Umajin’s low-code 3D application authoring platform incorporates game technology for beautifully animated and rendered 3D content. The engine can also be “run in reverse” to capture objects from the real world. We have been working with off-the-shelf cameras and smart lighting rigs to feed photometric data about a surface through Umajin to calculate in great detail reflectivity, self-shadowing and even translucency. The patented process calculates 3D surface details along with diffuse, specular, hyperspectral colors and polarized light response.
Umajin computational imaging can extract accurate three-dimensional light information from glossy, rough, metallic or other materials. This can be extremely valuable in constructing high resolution digital twins and providing an immersive experience that provides more visual information than one would see with the naked eye. Accurately capturing surface cracks or rust overtime allows accurate audit, analysis, and intervention for structures. Further examples include facilitating distributed scholarly research on oil paintings, enabling life-like access to the vast amount of art that is not on display in a museum at any given time, or remotely examining an antique in all its glory before an auction.
The Umajin Platform enables low code creation of amazing applications for mobile and XR devices, and immersive 3D with life-like textures can be part of the experience. True-to-life textures will play an important role in the metaverse and Umajin continues to explore and extend the tools needed to deliver real frontline business applications that are metaverse ready.