An investigation into the implementation of virtual reality technologies in support of conceptual design

Virtual reality (VR) technologies provide novel and enhanced modes of human computer interaction that can be used to overcome communication drawbacks that prevail in conventional computer aided design (CAD) systems in the support of conceptual design, principally in concept generation and evaluation. The work reported here focuses on how VR technologies can proffer more natural and intuitive interaction between the designer and the CAD system thus enabling a rapid and more straightforward approach to concept design creation and evaluation. As the result of this research, an innovative conceptual design system called the LUCID system has been developed. LUCID provides designers with a new interaction paradigm that enables them to take fuller advantage of their visual, auditory and tactile sensorial channels in order to create, view, touch, manipulate and listen to CAD digital models more effectively. The LUCID system has shown particular human computer interface (HCI) benefits to designers during conceptual design stages based on the outcome from a user evaluation test. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.