X-Rite Method Evaluates Digital Material
- Published: March 28, 2017
GRAND RAPIDS, MI | X-Rite, global supplier of color science and technology, and its subsidiary Pantone recently announced what they say is the industry’s first immersive Virtual Light Booth (VLB). The VLB reportedly allows designers, material suppliers, and marketers to accurately and efficiently visualize and compare 3D digital material renderings side by side with physical samples in an environment that controls all parameters influencing the perception of appearance. Part of the company’s Total Appearance Capture (TAC) ecosystem, the VLB is said to ensure a new level of consistency between digital prototypes and final physical products.
X-Rite says as companies transition to digital manufacturing processes, there is a growing need for physically precise virtual designs that represent the true appearance of the final product. To date, according to company, CAD and rendering software solutions have been limited in their ability to visualize physical appearance characteristics such as texture, gloss, transparency, and opacity. The TAC ecosystem and VLB make it possible to capture and verify the true appearance of a material in a digital environment.
“We have incorporated more than sixty years of color and appearance science into our state-of-the-art Virtual Light Booth to provide an immersive and interactive experience that allows users to accurately evaluate material appearance in both a physical and virtual world,” says Dr. Francis Lamy, executive VP and chief technology officer, X-Rite. “For the first time, VLB allows product teams to compare digital and physical materials under the exact same perceptual conditions—from illumination to contextual to observational factors. With the VLB, design teams can easily vary these conditions to see changes in material performance. As a result, designers can make more informed material selections and reduce approval times and improve product quality.”
The Virtual Light Booth combines the X-Rite’s SpectraLight QC professional light booth technology with a high-resolution, color-calibrated LCD display and a real-time color management engine. A digital material rendering or product simulation is shown on the VLB’s display next to the physical sample. This enables users to view both the virtual and physical samples under controlled daylight conditions in a standardized visual observation environment. VLB offers users the flexibility of viewing samples under diffuse or spot light sources.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
