Shape Knowledge Embedded in a Collaborative Virtual Design Environment for Architectural Design

Abstract

VR-based design environment have been traditionally not connected to companies’ design repositories and knowledge management systems. Till now these tools are mainly used for the initial exploration of innovative and original three-dimensional spaces and curves. Our approach encourages the use of VR-based design environments as design tools from where to reuse design solutions and to access design information, which are stored in internal repositories. This vision goes towards the development of a VR-based integrated design platform. Further, today’s knowledge management systems show evident limitations when dealing with multimedia files and 3D models. In order to overcome this limitation a framework for embedding in our VR-based design environment a Knowledge Management system for multimedia content has been developed and it is here described. Our solution implies the use of annotation languages such as the recent MPEG7 ISO/IEC (Multimedia Content Description Interface) standard for meta-data, which is based on the XML language. Data types handled in our system are multimedia formats including text, audio, video, images, and 3D models. The main contribution of our research activity is in providing an innovative and original approach for supporting the design process, which takes advantage both of the visualization and design capabilities of virtual reality technology and of the reuse of design solutions directly in VE, through the retrieval of 3D models and multimedia data from various sources.