CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -- (Marketwired) -- 06/16/16 -- On the Chicago Theatre stage, in front of more than 700 people from DIRTT's worldwide team of distribution partners and employees, DIRTT (TSX: DRT) unveiled the first-ever demonstration of ICEreality™ -- mixed reality technology for design and construction.
Mixed reality overlays virtual reality with the real world. Users see the physical world around them, including people, while experiencing and manipulating virtual objects. In the case of DIRTT and ICEreality, the 3D design of a proposed interior space is placed into real environments. Designers and owners walk through the design making changes and keeping track of the budget while creating new iterations in real time.
DIRTT is a custom prefab interior construction company. Its software platform ICE® is the backbone of the company's ability to deliver unique spaces to their clients on a two-week lead time. ICE was designed from the beginning to engage with new technologies such as mixed and virtual reality - ICEreality is the latest advancement. The company's video-game patents allow them to leverage the investments in gaming technologies, integrating them into the interactive intelligence of ICE, which runs DIRTT's sales and marketing, project management, production and implementation. Building owners and tenants design, experience, modify and price their interiors in ICE while the software simultaneously produces the construction directions for DIRTT to build it to the decimal point of a millimeter.
With this cloud-based system, DIRTT's ICEreality experience is available from any location and on several devices including personal smartphones. It's an incredible shift that removes communication barriers.
"DIRTT's ICEreality technology approach takes something that was very private and opens it up for collaboration, understanding and participation," says Barrie Loberg, DIRTT's VP of Software Development. Barrie is leading the team developing ICEreality.
"You can virtually build or add to what's already physically around you, and you can do that in a group experience, regardless of location," says Loberg. "This completely changes our ability to share the virtual experience and how we create and design. It's a new form of communication that has the ability to expand our entire world and I think eventually it's going to be a normal part of our everyday lives."
Once the interior spaces are completed, DIRTT foresees facilities teams using mixed reality headsets to gather additional information about their space including training and ordering new components for repurposing rooms.
The decision to add ICEreality to the company's virtual reality experience creates a more comfortable experience. The layering of the virtual over the real removes the feeling of being disembodied during a full virtual reality experience. ICEreality is a powerful and exciting technology that will revolutionize the design and construction world.
Loberg and the ICE software team continue to develop DIRTT's ICEreality technology and its real-world business application, with the ultimate goal of providing DIRTT's regional partners around North America with the ability to offer the experience to their own clients.
Visit DIRTT's website or visit YouTube for a glimpse of ICEreality in action.
About DIRTT
DIRTT Environmental Solutions (Doing it Right This Time) uses its proprietary 3D software to design, manufacture and install fully customized prefabricated interiors. The Company's customers in the corporate, government, education and healthcare sectors benefit from DIRTT's precise design and costing; rapid lead times with the highest levels of customization and flexibility; and faster, cleaner construction. DIRTT's manufacturing facilities are in Phoenix, Savannah, Kelowna and Calgary. DIRTT's team supports more than 100 sales distribution partners throughout North America, the Middle East and Asia. DIRTT trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "DRT." For more information visit www.dirtt.net.
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