Representation of Implicit Product Properties in Virtual Reality Environments

Virtual Reality (VR) has already moved from its initial phase of overblown expectations and big promises which characterize every new technology to the present period of time of clarification and integration in everyday human activities. In the field of engineering applications the ability to explore the design of a product in a computer generated immersive environment and to verify its functionality using a virtual prototype rather than building a physical one gives considerable advantage over the competition reducing time-to-market, especially for SMEs. Several widely accepted standard descriptions of product properties have been defined and implemented recently. One of them is the German product classification and description scheme eCl@ss commonly used for information exchange between customers and their suppliers. It divides all product properties in two main groups: basic and standard properties. The basic set of properties encompasses five properties for the exact identification of products. Standard sets of properties are individually elaborated by expert groups. An extension in the classification of the standardized product properties is proposed in the paper considering the way in which the object properties can be perceived by the observer defining two main classification groups: 1) Explicit properties: these are properties of the objects that can be perceived immediate by the observer through his/her senses (e.g. shape, color, size, etc.) and 2) Implicit (or „hidden”) properties: these are the properties of the objects that cannot be perceived by the observer through his/her senses but require sort of special equipment which expands the sensory range of the observer’s different sensory channels or additional symbol presentation (i.e. magnetization, radiation, humidity, toxicity, etc.). Currently the process of exploration and verification of design functionality is based mainly on the explicit properties. Introducing implicit features and representing them with an appropriate combination of stimuli in VR environment can significantly increase the ability of the designer to check and verify various design layouts and allow for the costumer to be effectively involved in the product configuration task properly arranging modules from a given construction set. Until now, especially in VR environments, representation of implicit features is performed mainly through their substitution with primitives perceived through the human visual channel, i.e. temperature or pressure distribution is presented through color codes or icons. Enhancing the representation of implicit properties with other senses besides seeing for the human-computer interaction and specifically for information presentation significantly increases productivity in the process of solving engineering problems. Combining explicit and implicit object properties and mapping to multiple stimuli to make the user simultaneously aware of different features of a virtual object will increase the ability of the user to perceive and evaluate several object features at the same time.