Interview with Andrea Carignano, seac02 CEO

This article was published in November 2009, on the Novedge blog.
That was a pivotal moment when computer graphics were shifting from slow, CPU-reliant static rendering to real-time interactive visualization, a revolution fueled by the rapid democratization of powerful GPUs. Andrea Carignano, CEO of seac02, captures a snapshot of an industry just beginning to unlock the potential of interactive product configuration and early augmented reality (AR). His insights offer a visionary look at the hardware-driven breakthrough that paved the way for today’s real-time 3D web experiences and immersive design workflows.

Andrea Carignano brings his passion and competence to seac02, a company that is radically changing the way we think about rendering. No more static pictures for designers. Instead, seac02 provides fast, real-time, interactive rendering and augmented reality.

Franco Folini

Italy is a country famous for several reasons. Among them: artistic and historical monuments, great food, fashion, music, and sports cars. Software and technology are seldom added to the list. So when you happen to meet the CEO of a successful Italian software company, the first reaction is always some surprise: “Software?” If the CEO in front of you is Andrea Carignano and the company is seac02, the initial shock quickly gives way to excitement about the types of products seac02 is creating. Andrea brings his passion and competence to the company. seac02 is radically changing the way we think about rendering. No more static pictures; instead, seac02 provides fast (real-time) interactive rendering and augmented reality.

Designers do not have to simulate an environment around their products. Now they can place their products in a real-world scene. All they need is a webcam, a laptop, a LinceoVR license, and a 3D (virtual) model of their new object. Here, Andrea shares with us what he is doing and how it will affect the way we work.

The Interview with Andrea Carignano

Franco Folini: Hi, Andrea! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and seac02?

Andrea Carignano: As you know, I am from Italy, the country of design. I have a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and spent the first years of my career at an international industrial design company. That company at that time, it was late 90’s, was one of the first to use virtual reality hardware and software, and I was in charge of R&D. In 2003 I left the company and founded seac02, with the goal of creating new tools for design, marketing and sales, to be used by mass markets, in one word [I aimed for] Virtual and augmented reality for anyone, easy to use, perfect quality, low prices.

Seac02 is a private company located in Italy, we started some years ago with a seed investing, and now, actually we have about 50 resellers and VAR in the world and several hundreds of users of our software.

I founded seac02, with the goal of creating new tools for design, marketing and sales, to be used by mass markets, in one word: virtual and augmented reality for anyone, easy to use, perfect quality, low prices.

Andrea Carignano

Franco Folini: Real-time rendering is a new technology that is becoming very popular. What are the limitations and benefits compared to more traditional rendering technologies?

Andrea Carignano: Yes, it is true, real-time rendering is becoming very popular. I see several benefits, but two are especially important: time and focus. With real-time rendering technology, anyone can create images of 3D models at the quality needed for most uses, and achieving good-quality real-time rendering is often easier than with an unbiased renderer. Real-time renderers are usually the companions of raytracers, not competitors.

The second benefit is focus. The designer or marketing manager keeps their focus on the product, seeing real-time changes to materials and different viewpoints, and can modify anything with a few clicks. The limitations are slightly lower rendering quality and fewer options for high-professional users.

Franco Folini: With real-time ray tracing, seac02 is pushing the limits even further. How will this affect end-users?

Andrea Carignano: Right now, it’s a must to have real-time raytracing. My personal opinion is that only some markets can take advantage of complex raytracing systems. In fact, raytracing is really helpful for gems, glasses, or any material with reflection and refraction, where most design objects use other materials, and the differences between rendering and raytracing are almost imperceptible. To satisfy our customers in jewelry markets, we added a good, real-time, GPU-based ray-tracing feature that’s quite fast and highly accurate.

Raytracing is really helpful for gems, glasses, or any material with reflection and refraction, where most design objects use other materials, and the differences between rendering and raytracing are almost imperceptible.

Andrea Carignano

Franco Folini: Can you describe the typical LinceoVR user? Is he or she working in the design or the marketing department?

Andrea Carignano: We have both designers and marketing managers; the needs that join them together are collaboration and product placement, which are the real distinctive features of LinceoVR. Assuming there are many good real-time renderers, including LinceoVR, our users usually searched for a solution that lets them see the product in real-world conditions very quickly and eventually modify its appearance in real time. LinceoVR has real-time camera matching to place virtual objects in the real world, and to please users looking for a designer-driven collaborative tool, LinceoVR offers its own free viewer that lets anyone share models with anyone else as easily as creating a PDF. Our typical marketing manager user sends a new product prototype to international traders. It is a completely different user experience to receive an interactive 3D model that can be placed in the real world using a simple webcam, rather than the usual set of plain images.

Franco Folini: The tracking technology that comes with your products is very impressive. Can you help our readers to understand what it is and why it’s important?

Andrea Carignano: The tracking technology allows the user to place the virtual prototype in the real world. What is needed is a camera/webcam, a tracker (one image printed on the paper) defined by the designer, and the 3D model. When the camera captures the real world and detects the tracker, the user sees the virtual object at the correct size and perspective. The user can freely move the camera or the tracker, and the object will be moved accordingly.
Augmented reality is a new way to think about design. We help designers create and define objects in the real world. The designer has, in every single second, a sense of what the real object will look like in the physical world. Any modification to materials is allowed.

The tracking technology allows the user to place the virtual prototype in the real world. What is needed is a camera/webcam, a tracker (one image printed on the paper) defined by the designer, and the 3D model. When the camera captures the real world and detects the tracker, the user sees the virtual object at the correct size and perspective.

Andrea Carignano

Franco Folini: LinceoVR offers a special edition designed for Rhino users. How does this version work with Rhino, and what does it bring to the crowded ecosystem of the Rhino plug-ins?

Andrea Carignano: LinceoVR for Rhino is the entry-level version of LinceoVR. It’s a full-featured version of LinceoVR, with very few limitations on output resolution. It is a standalone software, not a plugin, and we also provide a free toolbar to export models from Rhino to LinceoVR with a single click. LinceoVR opens directly .3dm files and is updated to the latest release of Rhino.

Franco Folini: seac02 is lowering the threshold between 3D models and the web. Are we going to see and use more 3D on our browsers, or simply more and better pictures?

Andrea Carignano: Yes, we are going to release a new web platform very soon, it will be called Eligo web. The platform is based on an exporter for the web (optional) in LinceoVR, and a free plugin for all browsers in the market. The new web viewer has all the rendering features of LinceoVR and allows one to redesign the e-commerce experience, which we call e2-commerce (experiential e-commerce). It is the first plugin on the market to deliver augmented and virtual reality in real time in a browser.
Users can configure the product, interact with it, and then experience it in the world. For example, a lamp on your desk that can be moved in real time and modified in terms of materials and colors, depending on the available commercial options. Exporting is as easy as saving a 3D PDF and publishing it online.

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I would like to thank Andrea Carignano for taking the time to answer my questions.