Imperial’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) and London tech startup Gracia AI have collaborated to apply Gracia’s photorealistic 4D video technology to experiential workshops on core hand-soldering operations. This summer, EEE undergraduate students were the first to trial the masterclass using VR headsets, with early feedback proving positive.
A group of incoming first-year EEE students also tested the experience last week, where success in these workshops could mean opening the opportunity to full cohorts as a useful tutorial part of their degree.
Capturing the soldering process in three dimensions was nothing short of a challenge. At AdventuryXR’s London studio, 44 cameras were arranged around the soldering table to allow filming of different VR-enabled perspectives of the technique. At a scale at least ten times smaller than Gracia’s usual footage, the processing detail required a custom solution that reveals astonishing levels of detail, like printed numbers on the solder pads. The processed footage is then reconstructed into a 4D Gaussian Splatting (4DGS), which captures how the 3D scene moves over time.
“The project was not done as a proof-of-concept or tech demo, we were solving a real problem of demonstrating procedures to students straightaway,” said Gracia CEO Georgii Vysotskii.
Ideas have already been suggested for future workshops, like filming solutions to common mistakes to provide first-hand experience in developing practical skills.
