Characterizing Human Spatial Thinking When Designing 3D Objects.

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As current virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies become affordable and accessible, their use has extended outside research labs into classrooms, design studios, and people's homes. One area that has become prevalent is using VR/AR for creative tasks, such as 3D sketching. 3D sketching is transforming design activities as it is a medium that provides designers with both the expressiveness, immediacy, and editability of traditional 2D sketching. Additionally, it supports the body-centered spatial awareness, presence, and multiple perspectives afforded by traditional 3D design tools, such as prototyping. There are already success stories of VR/AR sketching systems that designers use in their workflow, like Tiltbrush and GravitySketch. Besides the ability to directly sketch in 3D, these systems also incorporate tools from CAD software, like adaptive assistance in some scenarios, e.g., by automatically detecting the center of a shape or mirroring the user actions, making the design process even simpler. But the potential of new user interfaces (UIs) is currently held back by a lack of knowledge about how people think spatially when designing 3D objects. Spatial thinking creates a significant cognitive load for the user, which limits their effectiveness when designing an object. My research program aims to create new adaptive and intelligent UIs for 3D design by identifying the actions and elements humans use when thinking spatially. I focus on spatial thinking as the key element in creative design that leads to cognitive load on the users, especially to those with lower spatial abilities. Here I propose three projects, each of which considers different elements inside the virtual environment, which will inform new UIs that optimize the user's flow. Project 1 will create VR UIs that automatically suggest a camera position and orientation by understanding the effect of a user's point of view on the design process. Project 2 is about designing AR UIs that use haptic and audio feedback to extend real-world objects to mid-air. For this, we will study the effect of reference frames (e.g., walls, tables, etc.) on the design process. Finally, Project 3 is about making AR and VR UIs that provide non-intrusive guides that enhance the user's spatial gestures in real-time. We will study the gestural actions that aid the spatial cognition of a person. These new intelligent UIs will allow users to focus more on being creative and less on understanding the virtual space, which will help democratize the use of 3D design tools by diminishing the cognitive load of the users. My research on spatial thinking extends to areas like education, spatial cognition, and data analysis. These are activities that rely on people making sense of complex environments or mentally visualizing the results of their actions, which depend on people's spatial abilities and spatial thinking. Researchers in these areas can use this knowledge to design intelligent UIs.