Towards user empowerment in product design: a mixed reality tool for interactive virtual prototyping
Towards user empowerment in product design: a mixed reality tool for interactive virtual prototyping
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DOI：
10.1007/s10845-016-1276-0
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发表时间：
2016-11
影响因子：
8.3
通讯作者：
Pierre-Antoine Arrighi;C. Mougenot
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Pierre-Antoine Arrighi;C. Mougenot
根据用户需求和要求设计新产品是企业成功的关键因素。然而，由于这些需求的主观性，以及用户和设计师之间的沟通差距，在早期设计阶段对用户需求的表征并不是一项容易的任务。数字设计工具有可能使用户能够积极参与设计过程，并直接与未来产品的表现方式互动。然而，他们在准确表现未来产品的用户体验和为最终用户提供简单界面以进行操作的能力之间进行了权衡。为了解决这个问题，我们引入了一种新的模块化数字工具，允许用户通过高水平的沉浸和控制成为设计过程的积极参与者。该工具包括用于沉浸的虚拟现实环境和用于直接控制的直观物理界面的组合，从而产生混合现实硬件/软件系统。硬件由模块化的有形用户界面(TUI)组成，通过3D打印定制，并由3D游戏引擎提供动力，而互动内容则在虚拟现实中显示。该系统的模块化允许多个TUI和3D内容行为配置，为每个特定设计项目带来用户友好和直观。
Designing new products according to user needs and requirements is a key success factor for companies. However, the characterization of user requirements in the early design stages is not an easy task due to the subjective nature of these requirements and because of the communication gap between users and designers. Digital design tools have the potential to enable users to actively participate in the design process and to directly interact with representations of the future product. Yet, they suffer a trade-off between their ability to accurately represent the user experience with the future product and their capacity to offer simple interfaces for the end user to manipulate. To overcome this issue, we introduce a new modular digital tool that allows users to become active participants of the design process through a high level of both immersion and control. The tool consists in a combination of a virtual reality environment for immersion and intuitive physical interfaces for direct control, resulting in a mixed reality hardware/software system. The hardware is made of modular tangible user interfaces (TUIs), custom-made by 3D printing and powered by a 3D game engine while the interactive content is displayed in virtual reality. The modularity of the system allows several TUIs and 3D content behaviours configurations to bring user friendliness and intuitively for each specific design project.