3d Interactive Objects Layout Using Virtual Reality Techniques and Constraint Programming

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) is a promising tool for effectively visualizing and interacting with objects and 3D environments. However, Virtual Environments (VEs) should provide some assistance to help the users in complex solving tasks. We aim to combine VR and Constraint Programming (CP) techniques in order to assist the users in realizing 3D objects layout in restricted spaces. The proposed approaches are based on a tight communication between a 3D rendering module and a highly efficient constraint solver. Layout modification are translated in incoming queries to the solver which generates the solutions that satisfy predefined constraints. In order to achieve users' immersion in the VE and intuitive manipulation of the objects, a human-scale VE platform with haptic feedback is used. In this paper, we focus on the system architecture and we describe the implementation of simple constraints. Finally, some results based on geometric constraints are presented.