14
May
2009
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Category: ARL News
For the first time in the history of the MedCup Circuit, Virtual Eye (ARL's Sports Division) will make it possible to follow the races just by visiting www.medcup.org or on screens set up for the occasion in the village, as well as in different facilities of the port of Alicante. A team of five people and one tonne of specialist equipment has been brought to Alicante, the first venue of this fifth edition of the Audi MedCup Circuit.
3D images of the city of Alicante, its port and the fleet have been generated using satellite photographs and topographic maps. Each boat (both GP42 Series and TP52 Series) will carry a transmitter unit with GPS and GPRS and radio on its aft deck, which collects and relays the boat’s performance data to the committee boat which transmits it to the roof of the hotel Meliá Alicante, and from there to the virtual animation room in the regatta village. The GPS and radio transmission systems on the boats transmit simultaneously as a failsafe if either system should go down. This raw data allows Virtual Eye to create the animations which will be shown at the big screens of the village, in the media and guest boats, and in different buildings of the regatta complex.
26
Mar
2009
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Category: ARL News
Animation Research Ltd has taken the checkered flag in a race to win a contract to provide graphics for this year’s Formula One series for the BBC. Staff had been working 18-hour days to put together a graphics package for Sunday’s Formula One season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, and yesterday CEO Ian Taylor proudly showed off the fruits of their labour to the media. That included a detailed 3-D depiction of the Melbourne track and, as the series progressed, it was hoped data from the vehicles would be used for graphics showing lines the drivers took; where they accelerated; braked; their speed; gear choices, and the G-forces they had to deal with. As well, commentators would be able to “drive” the virtual cars during analysis before or after race coverage, choosing the lines they would take into corners, and how they might have dealt with crashes.
The company heard the good news just before Christmas and seven staff had worked “flat out” since then. Once Melbourne had been completed, staff will begin work on Kuala Lumpur, then the rest of the tracks used in the series. The company will build 17 virtual tracks, as well as all the vehicles involved, their drivers, and at a high level of detail (down to bumps on the track). Staff members are already overseas photographing the tracks. The detail was important, from showing reflections on water to getting the track measured to the millimeter.