Investigations of collaborative design environments: A framework for real-time collaborative 3D CAD

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This research investigates computer-based collaborative design environments, in particular issues of real-time collaborative 3D CAD. The thesis first presents a broad perspective of collaborative design environments with a preliminary case study of team design activities in a conventional and a computer mediated setting. This study identifies the impact and the feasibility of computer support for collaborative design and suggests four kinds of essential technologies for a successful collaborative design environment: information-sharing systems, synchronous and asynchronous co- working tools, project management systems, and communication systems. A new conceptual framework for a real-time collaborative 3D design tool, Shared Stage, is proposed based upon the preliminary study. The Shared Stage is defined as a shared 3D design workspace aiming to smoothly incorporate shared 3D workspaces into existing individual 3D workspaces. The addition of a Shared Stage allows collaborating designers to interact in real-time and to have a dynamic and interactive exchange of intermediate 3D design data. The acceptability of collaborative features is maximised by maintaining consistency of the user interface between 3D CAD systems. The framework is subsequently implemented as a software prototype using a new software development environment, customised by integrating related real-time and 3D graphic software development tools. Two main components of the Shared Stage module in the prototype, the Synchronised Stage View (SSV) and the Data Structure Diagram (DSD), provide essential collaborative features for real-time collaborative 3D CAD. These features include synchronised shared 3D representation, dynamic data exchange and awareness support in 3D workspaces. The software prototype is subsequently evaluated to examine the usefulness and usability. A range of quantitative and qualitative methods is used to evaluate the impact of the Shared Stage. The results, including the analysis of collaborative interactions and user perception, illustrate that the Shared Stage is a feasible and valuable addition for real-time collaborative 3D CAD. This research identifies the issues to be addressed for collaborative design environments and also provides a new framework and development strategy of a novel real-time collaborative 3D CAD system. The framework is successfully demonstrated through prototype implementation and an analytical usability evaluation.Financial support from the Department and from the UK government through the Overseas Research Studentship Awards

Sketch-based rapid prototyping platform for hardware-software integrated interactive products

This paper presents a platform in which interaction designers can effectively and rapidly develop tangible interactive prototypes by sketching. The study aims to build a platform that plays the role of sketching in the hardware-software integrated interactive product design process. The platform consists of three components: a sketch based interactive concept exploration software application called STCtools, a set of physical user interface(PUI) widgets with a key converter and a video projection based Augmented Reality desk (ARdesk). For prototyping, a designer creates hardware and software sketches with pen based computers using STCtools. Sketches of hardware and software are drawn in a client device and composed in an electronic whiteboard, which is the server device. PUI widgets can be physically attached on a foam mockup or on a screen of the client device. The hardware-software integrated simulations are conducted on ARdesk. The sketch simulation is captured and projected onto a paper marker created with invisible infra-red ink

An effective prototyping method for delivering interaction design in industrial design education

Increasingly industrial designers are required to engage in the design of computer-embedded products. Due to the interactive nature of these products, efficient prototyping is becoming more critical in the design process. This paper presents a designer-oriented prototype development method that facilitates the construction of fully functional physical prototypes. Unlike the multi-media authoring tools commonly used to date, this method employs a cheap and widely available software application: Microsoft PowerPoint with embedded Visual Basic. The method has been designed for use by programming non-literate designers and allows interactive physical prototypes to be created and tested without extensive specialist knowledge. This was achieved in part by simple modifications to a standard computer keyboard. Our case study on the use of this method in the teaching of information ergonomics demonstrated that students could effectively produce software-hardware hybrid prototypes with minimum effort in a short time scale. This method offers an excellent means of collaboration between designers and professionals from different domains. The prototyping method enables rapid and iterative design cycles in design education, research and practice

Designing Social City Experiences

‘GoGlobal: Seoul Social City Software’ is an interdisciplinary cross-cultural project partnership between the Innovation Design Engineering Masters programme at the Royal College of Art/ Imperial College London, department of Industrial Design of KAIST, The British Council and The Seoul Design Foundation with advice and support from LG, Samsung and KIDP. The essays contained in the first part of the book are a collection of reflections by project partners and supporters that highlight our evolving thoughts, project challenges and outcomes. Our themes include how social design activity can improve city habitability, connection between emerging design ecology for industrial production, social design and recombining design methods as ‘design tackles’. The second part of the book documents the 2012 partnership with the department of Industrial Design at KAIST in Daejeon highlighting students project work and the tutorial feedback notes from each session to show readers to see how students were advised and guided throughout

Design for Sharing Emotional Touches during Phone Calls: A Quantitative Evaluation of Four Tactile Representations

Background As the importance of mobile phones as an emotional communication medium is growing, non-verbal behaviors such as facial expressions, touching behaviors and gestures ought to be considered to enhance phone conversations. Among various non-verbal signals, we focus on sharing specific touches that could be used for exchanging contextual and emotional cues. Along with this, to make the new phone conversation involving touching more natural, we consider maintaining natural audio conversation with phones by keeping the receiver on the ear and the transmitter on the mouth while holding the phone to the cheek. Methods In this paper, we focus on investigating ways to deliver four touches: pat, slap, tickle and kiss with sound and tactile feedback while holding the phone to the cheek as in typical phone calls. The interaction technique is called CheekTouch, and it is based on enabling users to share touches by representing finger gestures on one phone screen to the other party???s cheek using a vibrotactile display and sound stimulations. We asked the 30 students who participated to put the device on their cheek and wear earphones, and we provided them with 24 different stimulations. Results An evaluation was conducted to propose the most appropriate type of stimulation to deliver a pat, slap, tickle and kiss using CheekTouch. We showed that the best way to deliver a pat was to use a vibrotactile display combined with sound; however, a tickle was best delivered with only the vibrotactile display. A kiss and slap, on the other hand, were best delivered when there was only sound. Conclusions Considering the trends in sharing delicate emotions during phone-mediated communications, it is significant to investigate ways to convey touches during phone conversations beyond sharing visual emoticons. Here, we focused on findings ways to pat, slap, tickle and kiss by using existing phone technologies (vibrotactile motors and sound). Through the quantitative evaluation of those four touches, we discovered which stimulation type is best for delivering each of the touches. The results do not show whether those touches can deliver emotions, however, we believe CheekTouch and the findings from the evaluation can be used for sharing different types of non-verbal signals during audio-based phone conversations and enable further studies in the field of remote tactile interaction.clos

The data hungry home

It's said that the pleasure is in the giving, not the receiving. This belief is validated by how humans interact with their family, friends and society as well as their gardens, homes, and pets. Yet for ubiquitous devices, this dynamic is reversed with devices as the donors and owners as the recipients. This paper explores an alternative paradigm where these devices are elevated, becoming members of Data Hungry Homes, allowing us to build relationships with them using the principles that we apply to family, pets or houseplants. These devices are developed to fit into a new concept of the home, can symbiotically interact with us and possess needs and traits that yield unexpected positive or negative outcomes from interacting with them. Such relationships could enrich our lives through our endeavours to “feed” our Data Hungry Homes, possibly leading us to explore new avenues and interactions outside and inside the home