IMPROVE: Designing Effective Interaction for Virtual and Mixed Reality Environments

IMPROVE: Designing Effective Interaction for Virtual and Mixed Reality Environments
Pedro Santos, André Stork, Thomas Gierlinger, Alain Pagani, Céline Paloc, Giuseppe d Conti, Raffaele DeAmicis, Inigo Barandarian, Celine Paloc, Oliver Machui, Georg Bodammer, Jose Manuel Jiménez, Don McIntyre
In: Proceedings. Human Computer Interaction International Conferences (HCII-2007), 12th, July 22-27, Beijing, China, 2007.

Abstract:

In this paper we present evaluation results of an innovativeapplication designed to make collaborative design review in the architecturaland automotive domain more effective. Within IMPROVE, a European researchproject in the area of advanced displays, we are combining high resolutionmulti-tile displays, TabletPCs and head-mounted displays with innovative 2Dand 3D Interaction Paradigms to better support collaborative mobile mixedreality design reviews. Our research and development is motivated byapplication scenarios in the automotive domain involving FIAT Elasis fromNaples, Italy and in the architectural domain involving Page/Park architectsfrom Glasgow, Scotland. User evaluation took place at Glasgow (UK), Naples(ITA) and Darmstadt (GER), where we tested the integrated IMPROVEprototype application. The tests were conducted based on several heuristicssuch as ergonomics and psychomotorial factors and they were conducted basedon guidelines recommended by ISO 9241 to verify whether the developedinterfaces were suitable for the applications scenarios. Evaluation results showthat there is a strong demand for more interactive design review systems,allowing users greater flexibility and greater choice of input and visualizationmodalities as well as their combination.