DuPont is one of the world’s largest chemical companies and a leading provider of materials behind products as diverse as telecommunications, electronics, next-gen automotive, Teflon, Kevlar, Lycra, and drones.
DuPont was preparing to open an Innovation Center in Silicon Valley, California that would be home to several high-tech engineering labs. The Innovation Center would host customers, partners, and collaborating scientists, providing a convenient way to foster collaboration on cutting-edge applications for DuPont materials.
To help guests get better acquainted with the Innovation Center and its various labs, DuPont approached CitrusBits to build an augmented reality (AR) experience to allow guests — both in-person and virtual — to explore the labs while mitigating confidentiality concerns. Importantly, the AR experience needed to generate an immediate “wow factor” that epitomized the myriad of innovative capabilities within the labs.
The DuPont team provided CitrusBits with floorplans and other details about its exciting new facilities, and our designers went to work. We created a 3D model of the facility’s floor plan and went onsite to capture 3D images of the intricate lab equipment using a 3D lidar scanner.
Once we had built CAD models to scale, based on architectural drawings and 3D image data, our designers then began to layer on additional details: colors, textures, and animations.
Meanwhile, our AR engineers worked on the computer vision models that would allow this AR experience to trigger from a 2D image — in this case, a 2D floor plan. The AR content had to trigger reliably, snap accurately onto the anchor image, and respond realistically as viewers moved around the viewing space.
Once the 3D models and animations were completed, our engineering team integrated them into the viewer application and worked to optimize all aspects of the AR experience.
The final AR experience designed and developed by CitrusBits allows DuPont’s customers and partners to virtually tour DuPont’s new Innovation Center and interact with each lab’s impressive equipment and capabilities.
DuPont was thrilled to leverage augmented reality to deploy an immersive way for customers and partners to interact with its new facilities and cutting-edge equipment. The DuPont AR experience has been lauded by internal stakeholders and end-users alike, and DuPont is now exploring additional ways to use AR to showcase its industry-leading capabilities.
