Few displays here on the exhibit hall floor in Reno could create more slack-jawed admiration than that of HLRS. We gathered around the big screen to watch the collaborative, real-time viewing and manipulation of a 3-D car engine model by the researcher standing right next to us and his counterpart in Stuttgart. For an encore, they showed us a Hybrid Prototype simulation results displayed directly upon the actual physical object (in this case, simulation of cabin airflow inside a Mercedes SUV parked at the booth.)

The technology that makes this possible is called COVISE: Collaborative Visualization and Simulation Environment. The COVISE Virtual Environment Renderer, OpenCOVER, “forms the basis for a virtual prototyping concept in which the geometry, as well as the behavior of virtual and hybrid prototypes, can be studied and modified interactively.” To see more of HLRS’s own words on this topic, check out their website. In our own words: “Wow”