Improved User Experience in a VR Based Design Review

Abstract

Observations of design review sequences by means of Virtual Reality (VR) and participant interviews have demonstrated that improvements may be made through providing selected user functions to participants who would otherwise just be observers. These functions are found from a survey of more or less experienced VR users in design reviews. The basic idea is that the participants are given access to special review data via App and smart device and are thus capable of immediately controlling the view of the product under review. Thus, for instance, the participants are able to download the structure tree including the components of the product to be tested onto their devices, navigate inside the structure tree, and get information about component parameters independently of the other participants. Participants can also configure the representation of the VR model displayed for all participants via smart device (highlighting, visibility, colour, ...) and set up the view. This makes communication easier, since otherwise the respective settings have to be administered by a VR operator. Special user interaction functions may improve the control of design reviews by changing the participants’ role from passive to active. A special requirement is the spatial selection of model components in the stereoscopic VR view. To meet this demand a Leap Motion controller transmits position data from the users hand to the pointer of the VR System via the protocol Virtual Reality Peripheral Network (VRPN).