Method for evaluating VR-based tools for collaborative design

Abstract

Virtual Reality systems can impact on quality of collaboration design processes. In the present work is defined a structured method to classify, qualify and select VR-based tools for supporting co-design activities by adopting a set of benchmarking metrics. Attention is focused on collaboration scopes and requirements, participants' behavior and exploited interaction modalities. The method has been applied to synchronous and remote collaboration that actually represents the most critical communication in industry. Three different types of collaborative VR tools have been investigated and compared. Experimental results highlight how the proposed method is able to identify the main collaboration requirements by selecting the most proper supporting technology and show also the contribution to collaboration success. © 2010 Springer-Verlag London Limited.