7 december 2019
Klaas can indeed do anything
Total Reality enthusiastically contributed to “Klaas kan Alles”, Zapp’s popular scientific TV show. Saturday 7 December it was shown how Klaas took on Kees Tol in a game of bricklaying with a Hololens. We specially developed an app for it.
Approached by TV program
Some time ago we were approached by the producers of the TV show: they wanted an tool for the Hololens, for the duel in which Klaas takes on a famous Dutchman with the help of a gadget.
The requirement was that there would actually be a physical showdown, in combination with the Hololens. The show already had contact with the Dutch bricklaying champion Erik Hop, for which we developed a masonry app for the Hololens. As far as we know, such a thing does not yet exist in the Netherlands. But it works well.
Tested by professional masons
A professional mason tested the masonry app extensively beforehand and it went well. His colleagues joked that they already saw everyone walking on the construction site with glasses like that on their heads, but really saw it as a way to improve work in the future. For Klaas and Kees a fairly simple masonry design was made, but especially with complex masonry works – such as archways – this can be a very nice solution.
The masonry app shows what we have in mind with the XR technology, which is to improve processes via Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality (XR). The masonry app is a very good example of what is possible.
How the masonry app works
The Hololens glasses provide the person who is going to masonry with a blueprint that is projected onto reality. In this way even Klaas and Kees are able to brick a wall with a complex structure. For each row they could see which bricks to lay and how thick the cement layer had to be.
The app is controlled using voice commands. For example, by calling ‘next’ or ‘up’, the next row is shown. The usual string is no longer needed.
Klaas & Kees Tol
And what did Klaas and Kees think? After all those episodes full of technical gadgets, Klaas is already used to some things, but enthusiastically worked with the bricks. For Kees it was all new; he was impressed. At the end it turned out that Klaas is indeed capable of anything, because he won the challenge.
Vereniging Koninklijke Nederlandse Bouwkeramiek
There was also an immediate invitation from the branch organisation of the ceramic industry, the KNB. They are very interested in our applications and invited us for a presentation on 29 January during the congress Gevel 2020 in the Ahoy in Rotterdam. For more informations: www.gevel-online.nl.
F.l.t.r. Radoslav Raykov, Albert Hoekstra, Kees Tol, Klaas van Kruistum, Erik Hop, Marjan van Lagen.