With the introduction of new devices, industries are turning to virtual reality to innovate their product development processes. However, before the technology’s possibilities can be fully harnessed, certain constraints must be overcome. This study identifies the benefits and challenges of virtual-reality-based usability testing and design reviews in industry through a patents and articles review. We searched Derwent Innovation, Scopus, and Web of Science and identified 7 patent filings and 20 articles. We discovered an increase in patent filings since 2016 and strong development in the technology space, offering opportunities to enter an area while it is still young. The most frequently researched field is the automotive industry and the most used device is the HTC VIVE head-mounted display, which is frequently paired with motion capture systems and Unity 3D game engines. Virtual reality benefits design reviews and usability testing by providing the visualization of new angles that stimulate novel insights, increasing team engagement, offering more intuitive interactions for non-CAD specialists, saving redesign cost and time, and increasing participants’ safety. The challenges faced by virtual-reality-based prototypes are a lack of realism due to unnatural tactile and visual interactions, latency and registration issues, communication difficulties between teams, and unpleasant symptoms. While these constraints prevent virtual reality from replacing conventional design reviews and usability testing in the near future, it is already a valuable contribution to the industrial product development process.
The late detection of ergonomic component assembly issues during manufacturing processes has an influence on operator well-being and productivity, as well as having a high cost of correction. Although virtual reality may enhance digital human modeling, there is a knowledge gap on the combination of these technologies to assess ergonomics. This study aims to analyze the application of virtual reality and digital human modeling for physical ergonomics assessment during product development in the industry, through a review of patents and the literature. We searched the Derwent Innovation Index, Scopus, and Web of Science databases and found 250 patents and 18 articles. We observed an exponential increase in patents, concentrated among major technological players, and a wide range of technologies being invented. A significant number of studies focuses on the automotive and aviation industries. Despite a relative consensus in the literature on the benefits of integrating virtual reality and digital human modeling to assess physical ergonomics in the early stages of product development, the technologies are seldom combined in the same analysis; moreover, most cases continue to focus on analyzing pre-designed production processes, when resources are completely deployed. These outcomes may provide a reference for practitioners and researchers to develop novel solutions for the early detection of physical ergonomics issues in the industry.
A contextualização das tecnologias educacionais é importante para entender as implicações desses recursos nos processos de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento humano. Dentre essas tecnologias, os jogos podem ser recursos importantes para o desenvolvimento cognitivo, oferecendo oportunidades para o meio educacional. Assim, este trabalho tem como objetivo realizar uma revisão da literatura sobre a utilização dos jogos digitais no desenvolvimento de habilidades cognitivas, especificamente nas habilidades espaciais. A pesquisa foi realizada utilizando a ferramenta de busca da Thomson Reuters, que buscou artigos em revistas internacionais indexadas, publicados entre os anos de 2010 e 2015. Os resultados apresentam um cenário da relação jogos digitais e desenvolvimento de habilidades espaciais. Além disso, a revisão aborda elementos que poderão conduzir novos estudos e trazer novas propostas de tecnologia educacional. Palavras-chave: Jogos digitais. Habilidades espaciais. Tecnologia educacional.
Na formação de engenheiros, a criatividade é valorizada por estar relacionada com inovação, mas há muitos desafios para serem enfrentados a fim de encorajá-la nesse contexto. Buscando oferecer condições para o desenvolvimento da criatividade no ensino superior, a literatura investiga a existência de fatores pessoais e ambientais que podem facilitar ou inibir a expressão criativa dos universitários. O objetivo foi identificar preditores de barreiras à criatividade de estudantes de engenharia, considerando variáveis pessoais e acadêmicas. Participaram 374 universitários, que responderam ao Questionário para Caracterização da Amostra e ao Inventário de Barreiras à Criatividade Pessoal. Regressão logística múltipla foi usada para tratamento dos dados. A variável resposta (se concordam ou não com fatores que refletem barreiras à criatividade) foi explicada levando em consideração um conjunto de variáveis preditoras (idade, gênero, curso de engenharia, período de curso e se trabalha). Os principais resultados sugerem que as variáveis gênero feminino e primeiro ano do curso foram preditoras para a barreira Inibição/Timidez; e as variáveis primeiro e segundo ano do curso foram preditoras para a barreira Repressão Social. Discutiu-se a importância desses resultados na ampliação de recursos pessoais e no fortalecimento de uma cultura institucional voltada para a valorização e o desenvolvimento da criatividade.
Virtual reality (VR) technology is applied to product development process and supports evaluation of product usability. This study aims to analyze findings from technological mapping research of VR in use for usability testing on products. Through the investigation of the patenting activity on Derwent Innovation database, this study describes the technological progress of this subject, the patent filing tendencies, their areas of application and details the inventions related to usability testing. Among the 161 patents fillings found, two patents have correlation between VR and usability testing of products. Therefore, opportunities are available for researches related to virtual reality and usability testing for products under development.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.