Mixed Reality Prototyping for Handheld Products Testing

Abstract

Due to the rapid evolution of ICT during the last years, information appliances have gained more and more importance in the industrial products domain. Nevertheless, the process used for designing these products has not been subjected to considerable changes, and the evaluation phase is still carried out using expensive and time-requiring real prototypes. The aim of this paper is to highlight, within a real design process, the most important advantages and benefits of using virtual prototyping techniques in respect to the traditional development and manufacturing of real prototypes. For this purpose, the paper presents an experimental activity in which an information appliance-a video storage device-has been developed according to a "traditional" design process, whereas its evaluation has been carried out using a Mixed Reality application specifically developed.