Virtual Optical Bench: Teaching Spherical Lens Layout in VR with Real-Time Ray Tracing

IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), pp. 503–508

Abstract

Teaching in optical systems design is usually performed on an optical bench. While experimentation plays an important role in education, experiments involving expensive or dangerous components are usually limited to short, heavily supervised sessions. Computer simulations, on the other hand, offer high accessibility, but suffer from reduced realism and tangibility when presented on a 2D screen. For this reason, we present the virtual optical bench, an application that lets users explore spherical lens layouts in virtual reality (VR). We implemented a numerically accurate simulation of optical systems using Nvidia OptiX, as well as a prototypical VR application, which we then evaluated in an expert review with 6 optics experts. Based on their feedback, we re-implemented our VR application in Unreal Engine 4. The re-implementation has since been actively used for teaching optical layouts, where we performed a qualitative evaluation with 18 students. We show that our virtual optical bench achieves good usability and is perceived to enhance the understanding of course contents.

Authors 6

1. Martin Bellgardt Aachen Visual Computing Institute

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Visual Computing Institute, RWTH Aachen University

2. Sebastian Pape Aachen Visual Computing Institute

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Visual Computing Institute, RWTH Aachen University

3. David Gilbert Aachen Visual Computing Institute

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Visual Computing Institute, RWTH Aachen University

4. Marcel Prochnau Aachen Chair for Technology of Optical Systems

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Chair for Technology of Optical Systems

   Chair for Technology of Optical Systems, RWTH Aachen University

5. Georg König Aachen Chair for Technology of Optical Systems

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Chair for Technology of Optical Systems

   Chair for Technology of Optical Systems, RWTH Aachen University

6. Torsten Kuhlen Aachen Visual Computing Institute

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Visual Computing Institute, RWTH Aachen University