Virtual Design of Ship Cabins by Computer

Leather, wood or cloth? So far, the owner had to make these decisions without any visual reference to the actual ship’s interior. Fraunhofer IGD shows how this will be easier in the future at SMM 2014 in Hamburg, Germany, from September 9-12.

While only engine power and size mattered for yachts in the past, the focus is mainly on their design with fine materials and top-quality interior furnishing today. So far, designers had to decide on the interior design by means of cloth or material samples or commission costly models. Customers only saw what the finished yacht would eventually look like once the construction process was complete. Researchers of Fraunhofer IGD have developed a system to interactively design the interior of yachts even prior to their actual construction with the Virtual Maritime Interior Configurator, VI:MAR:CON in short.

This is how it works: By means of virtual reality technologies, the Fraunhofer researchers are creating a realistic 3D model of the complete interior furnishing of a yacht. In the process, a so-called meso scanner is used. It scans real materials within minutes down to the smallest detail, generating precise virtual reproductions. “This combination allows customers to configure their yacht in line with their individual design wishes”, explains Professor Uwe von Lukas, head of the Competence Center “Maritime Graphics” at Fraunhofer IGD. “Due to the realistic effect, they will be able to tell whether the selected materials match the interior inside the future yacht even before the first stage of construction begins”. Complaints and elaborate alterations are therefore a thing of the past.

How yachts can be configured by means of virtual reality technologies will be shown by the researchers of Fraunhofer IGD at this year’s SMM in Hall B6, booth 411 from September 9-12, 2014.