Timber De-Standardized 2.0 : Mixed Reality Visualizations and User Interface for Processing Irregular Timber

Abstract

Timber De-Standardized 2.0 is a mixed reality (MR) user interface (UI) that utilizes timber waste produced by manufacturing dimensional lumber, suggesting an expanded notion for "material usability" in timber construction. The expanded notion of designing with discarded logs not only requires new tools and technologies for cataloguing, structuring, and fabricating. It also relies on new methods and platforms for the visualization and design of these structures. As a MR UI, Timber De-Standardized enables professionals and nonprofessionals alike to seamlessly design with irregular logs and to create viable structural systems using an intuitive MR environment. In order to develop a MR environment with this level of competency, the research aims to finesse the visualization techniques in the immersive full-scale 3D environment and to minimize the use of alternative 2D UI(s). The research methodology focuses on (1) cataloguing and extracting basic properties of various tree logs, (2) refining mesh visualization for better user interaction, and (3) developing the MR UI to increase user design agency with custom menu lists and operations. This methodology will extend the usability of MR UI protocols to a broader audience while democratizing design and enabling the user as co-creator.

Structure Made of One Tree -Digital Assistance to Put Natural Shape Wood in Practical Use

“…Several studies have utilized information technologies such as 3D scanning and mixed reality (MR) to improve the ease of handling naturally shaped wood. In Timber Destandardized 2.0 (Lok and Bae, 2022), a MR user interface was developed to enable both professional and non-professional designers to utilize naturally shaped trees. In…”

CAADRIA 2023: HUMAN-CENTRIC - Volume 2

“…Several studies have utilized information technologies such as 3D scanning and mixed reality (MR) to improve the ease of handling naturally shaped wood. In Timber Destandardized 2.0 (Lok and Bae, 2022), a MR user interface was developed to enable both professional and non-professional designers to utilize naturally shaped trees. In limitations of the processing method, we came up with the joint (figure 3, left).…”

Nemagari Crafting – Utilizing Bent-root Timber with Mixed-Reality Fabrication

“…Construction from an inventory where no two parts are exactly alike necessitates new tools for visualizing the design intent and for accurately cataloging the exact shape of the logs. 5 LiDAR scanning, a crucial component to the discussed MR workflow, was used to verify the accuracy and fitment of each processed log, prior to and following each chainsaw cut, so that the holographic guides for subsequent parts may be quickly adjusted as necessary.…”