Augmented reality applications in product design process

Abstract

Computer aided design (CAD) systems as visualization tools play a vital role for designers in product design process. However, these systems itself become insufficient to achieve 3D interaction with virtual models. Virtual Reality provides alternative solutions to this problem, hence its maximum requirements and high cost makes the use of it in design process unpopular. Hence, Augmented Reality, defined as mixture of reality and virtuality and combining 3D virtual object with real environment, presents many advantages for product design process as a new technology. It allows the designers to display and modify modify the virtual model in real-time and have a 3D interactive experience with the virtual model in a real environment. This study aims to analyze in which stages, in what way and for which product groups AR would be used in product design process, and to understand the role of these applications on the perception of actual dimension and product-space relationship, the quality of evaluation and the amount of evaluation time. For this purpose, an interview study was conducted with nine designers from three different sectors that are design, interior design and furniture. The results have shown that if the AR applications are developed in parallel with firms’ requirements, they could integrate and use them in design process more efficiently.Keywords: Augmented reality, visualization tool, product design process, 3D interaction, product-space relationship