Design, Collaboration, and Communication in Virtual Environments

1. Design, Collaboration, and Communication in Virtual Environments Dr. Xiangyu WANG

2. What is design? • Design, usually considered in the context of the applied arts, engineering, architecture, and other such creative endeavors (From Wikipedia). • As a verb, "to design" refers to the process of originating and developing a plan for a product, structure, or component. • As a noun, "a design" is used for both the final (solution) plan (e.g. proposal, drawing, model, description) or the result of implementing that plan (e.g. object produced, result of the process). • More recently, processes (in general) have also been treated as products of design, giving new meaning to the term "process design". • Designing normally requires a designer considering aesthetic, functional, and many other aspects of an object or process, which usually requires considerable research, thought, modeling, interactive adjustment, and re-design. (From Wikipedia)

3. Cooperative work: Definitions • “People engage in collaborative work when they are mutually dependent in their work, and therefore are required to cooperate in order to get the work done.” (Schmidt and Bannon 1992).

4. Characteristics of cooperativework (Schmidt and Bannon 1992) • Collaborative work is sometimes complex! • Collaborative work might be distributed physically, in time and place,

5. Architectural Design in VEs • The way an architect uses a design medium to sketch, interpret and communicate spatial constructions strongly influences the final outcome of the design process. • Communication of ideas, interpretation and understanding of space and the translation of mental ideas to its physical counterpart takes a key role in an architect’s world. The more transparent and the more direct this process is, the clearer and more direct the outcome will be. • VE opens a door to a whole new range of collaboration between the different minds, task-groups and end-user.

6. Architectural Design in VEs • Architecture is no longer only defined by haptic reality but also though different virtual and digital components. • The creation, communication, expression and exchange of ideas will be restricted to virtual technologies. Through Immersive Virtual Environments, it may be possible for designers to develop new tools and idioms to express and create space and volume. • Using architectural metaphors (virtual architecture as information visualization, virtual habitats) people can manage complex structures with a different approach.

7. VRML • VRML: virtual reality modelling language • Wide-spread use of VRML in such diverse areas as architecture, archeology, medicine, scientific visualization, human animation, multimedia presentations, entertainment, education, or even 3D cartoons. • In the area of Computer-Aided Design, the CAD model can serve as the basic source for creating a virtual model of a design.

8. VRML • A VRML representation of a design is a polygonal approximation of the original CAD model. • It is less precise and, often, less detailed. • As a virtual model, its purpose is to allow for viewing and interactions with real-time response. • Interactive changes in the VRML model cannot easily be propagated back into the CAD model. This current drawback is a topic of ongoing research and will find appropriate solutions in the future. CAD model VRML model Additional Information Creation of a VRML application from CAD data

9. Examples of VE for Design • Design of a sailing yacht • Studies that relate to reachability, accessibility, visibility, and operational task can be performed in a more realistic way. Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan

10. Examples of VE for Design • Visualize the motion of a high speed container ship • The engineering analysis results were used to animate a VRML model • Engineering analysis software is for modeling of dynamic behavior and VEs for correct motion visualization. • A good example to show that a realistic looking and immersive environment is not important.

11. Examples of VE for Design • Simulation of Ship Production Processes • A walk through the VRML model revealed several design errors typical found in initial CAD models created at an early design stage.

12. Examples of VE for Design • Allows for the study of clearances, possible collisions during assembly, required welding operations at various stages, necessary crane operations, and other production aspects. Stages of animated assembly sequence

13. Simulation of Ship Production Processes • Airport Terminal Design: VRML in a practical application involving a large scale, 1.2 billion dollar construction project. • A VRML model of the terminal's exterior was created and included the adjacent environment consisting of concourses, gates, aprons, taxi ways, a fleet of aircraft, control towers, parking structure, access roads, and others.   • The effect of design modifications on the visibility from control towers, on compliance with various FAA regulations. Midfield Terminal layout (left) and view from air traffic control tower (right)

14. Example Discussion 1 Design, Communication & Collaboration in Immersive Virtual Environments MARC AUREL SCHNABEL & THOMAS KVANDepartment of ArchitectureThe University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

15. Motivation • The goal of their study was to identify how designers use and communicate design ideas by using Virtual Environments (VEs) versa conventional methods of 2D representations such as paper and pen.

16. Motivation • They explored which factors influence designers during the process of design such as color. • Design intentions, their translation/realization, textual descriptions and collaborations within VEs or a 2D realm were also investigated.

17. Experiment • Eighteen pairs of randomly selected architectural students were asked to design 3D mazes within a 4 * 4 * 4 grid framework

18. Experiment • A modified "think aloud" methodology by establishing a design team of two at each end, one team member wearing the HMD and the other taking notes and chatting with the remote team to convey design intent. The text records also provided a protocol to be analyzed later. 

19. Discussion • Technology issues such as usability, interface and navigation and have to be further developed to reach the same ease to use and familiarity as any 2D media. • Other issues: • The Head Mounted Display hindered users; • limited field of view constrained use. • the wiring entangling arms or legs; • sensitivity of the tracker; • lack of precision in gesture recognition and insert-points of elements; • frame rate of display, • rendering and calculation time of models; • inability to support multi-user, multi-viewpoints and networking of VEs

20. Discussion • The experiment has shown that immersive VE can support an instantaneous, direct, scale-less and intuitive control over a (three-dimensional) design. • As of today, VEs capabilities do not match the sophistication of today's CAD software;

21. Paper link • http://faculty.arch.usyd.edu.au/kcdc/journal/vol4/schnabel/index.html

22. Example Discussion 2 A Virtual Environment for Conceptual Design in Architecture Lee Anderson, James Essery and Victoria Interrante University of Minnesota, USA Eurographics Workshop on Virtual Environments (2003)

23. Designer’s workspace A typical design environment for architecture contains structures such as tables and boards that enable one to surround oneself with images.

24. Example Discussion 2 • Their virtual environment application runs on a Dell 650 workstation and is written in Visual C++ with OpenGL. • HMD is used. • The environment is implemented using a Hi-Ball 3000 optical tracker with a 24' by 24' trackable area, which is large enough so that there can be significantly physical movement within the space being created. An image of their lab, showing a portion of the tracked area

25. Example Discussion 2 The geometry tools kiosk, and some simple objects created with modeler. The kiosk with texture selection wheel displayed.

26. Example Discussion 2 Video sequence selection with the kisok, and an example of a video clip a that might be chosen for inclusion in a design environment. A table and chair in the physical environment.

27. Example Discussion 2 A table and chair in one possible virtual design environment, in this case the interior court of the Architecture building. The courtyard environment is modeled by a large image placed vertically in the background. An extreme closeup view of the desktop, upon which a plan view of the contextual environment for the design task has been laid out.

28. A series of images demonstrating of the use of multiple scales in the context of designing a display system for the interior courtyard of the Architecture building. Interactive design can take place either at the desk or out in space.

29. Example Discussion 2 In this image, the model has been scaled to be in place on the building plan laid out on the desk.