Virtual reality prototyping is a promising technology that combines the virtual reality approach to advanced modeling, simitlation and user interface techniques. The technology adjoins development models of different engineering disciplines to an executable simulation model of a product. A designer, or a customer, can see, touch, hear and operate a future product before its physical implementation with lower cost and effort than earlier. In this paper, the virtual reality prototyping research in the field of consumer electronics and telecommunications is described. The possibilities and benefits of the technology are presented, and a process and research environment for the development of virtual prototypes is introduced.The environment is demonstrated with a public pilot case -a pen-like wireless cellular phone interface device. Finally, the possibilities of virtual reality prototyping as a comprehensive design framework, including software and hardware simulation features, are considered and the future work is described.
A major problem in the management of a product development process is to facilitate the continuous communication between perspectives of different stakeholder groups, especially in early phases of design. In this paper we suggest that virtual prototypes -3D models of product prototypes with functionality in virtual realityare a promising candidate to form the core of a support system that smoothly integrates several of the necessary support functions for multidisciplinary cooperation in design into one system. Thus, we address the question what should be communicated between the different stakeholders in a design situatim from the point of view of Activity Theory, an approach well known in the fields of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and human computer interaction (HCI). Consequently, in addition to the virtual prototype as a common object for supporting cooperation between designers, we identify following four means for cooperation: by directly changing the state of the object of the cooperative work, through a jointly constructed common information space, through a specially designed coordination mechanism or by active communication between persons through communication channels. Each of these means needs a different kind of computer support, and their importance varies during the design process. We elaborate the concept of virtual prototype into a concept of virtual design space, which could be an environment that integrates these perspectives of cooperation and communication support for a design group. From implementational point of view a virtual prototyping environment has been built in order to simulate a cellular phone. This prototype demonstrates how a virtual prototype can be built to simulate and in combination with hardware enable telephone calls. For technology transfer purposes the research work is done in close cooperation with industry.
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