Immersive drafted virtual reality: A new approach for ideation within virtual reality

Abstract

There is a void between design and computer in ideation. Traditional tools like sketching are more appropriate for conceptual design since they can sustain abstraction, ambiguity, and inaccuracy- essentials at the beginning of the design process. Actual graphical user interface approaches, as well as hardware devices, constrain creative thinking. Computer representations and virtual reality are now used for presentation and validation rather than for design. Most virtual reality tools are seen as passive rather than active instruments in this process of ideation. Moreover, virtual reality techniques come from other disciplines and are applied to design without considering the design process itself and the skills designers already possess. This paper proposes and evaluates a new approach for the conceptual design of spaces within virtual reality. Starting from the non-immersive technique we developed before, where the user was able to be inside a 3D modeled space through real sketches, this technique goes one step further, allowing the designer to sketch the space from the inside all in real-time. Using an interactive pen display for sketching and an immersive projective spherical display, designers and colleagues are able to propose and make design decisions from inside the project. The capabilities of the computer to display the virtual environment are, therefore, mixed with the designer's skills in sketching and understanding the space.