Lube Group, in collaboration with Camerino University, is offering the first virtual reality experience inside the Lube kitchen models

From 12 to 17 April at the Lube stand at Eurocucina 2016, it will be possible to visit the first Lube virtual showroom, created in collaboration with the “E. Vittoria” School of Architecture and Design of Unicam. A virtual experience created using the Head Mounted Display (HMD) technology of Oculus Rift, which allows the user to move around inside a 3D kitchen and interact with the surroundings.

Lube Group is aware that virtual reality is developing rapidly and is destined to form an integral part of everyday life. HMD technology offers an infinite range of possibilities for use in allowing customers to test finishes, accessories and details before they decide to purchase, or to view the kitchen plan with new perspectives.

The Lube virtual showroom is part of the “Environment Interaction and Multisensory Virtual Reality” project, created with the aim of studying interaction between the individual and the environment by reproducing actual and virtual kitchen environments. A research group formed of sector experts has developed a hardware and software system for processing an application which offers a full-immersion perceptive experience inside a digital reconstruction of Lube kitchens, specially optimised for this viewing mode.

The binocular projection system on the visor inside the Oculus Rift device gives the viewer a 360° view of the virtual kitchen environment, as if it were real. The model can be explored with a level of interaction offered both by the possibility of moving virtually inside the 3D environment displayed, approaching, moving away or changing the direction of the view, and of configuring the kitchen model using a gesture based graphic interface, which allows the colours and essences of all the kitchen components to be chosen interactively.

A natural user interface which allows different digital contents to be selected for the kitchen displayed, using recognised gestures which are interpreted by a finger detection sensor capable of transforming hand movements into input for the kitchen configuration system.

“We are extremely satisfied – says the Rector of Unicam, Prof. Flavio Corradini – to see the first tangible results, although they are virtual in this case, of an important collaboration between Camerino University and Lube Industries. We are, in fact, convinced that this could be further and concrete proof of how the skills and professional capabilities of university researchers can be provided to enterprise and produce innovation and development for companies and consequently opportunities for young people, consumers and for the entire territory".