Issues in Mixed Reality-Based Design and Collaboration Environments

This paper highlights an approach to Mixed Reality-based enhancement of design detailing and collaboration for the communication and shared perception of designs, essential to meaningful design development and review and construction planning. The approach is based upon a prototype Augmented Reality Computer Aided Drawing (AR CAD) system, which uses spatial tracking, graphics, and networking techniques along with standard CAD. Concepts and considerations are presented for Mixed Reality (MR)-based collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) and two application scenarios are described. Using this system, design collaborators may communicate either by shared interactive virtual model, object manipulation and gesture in a face-to-face collaboration or by shared communication space through spatial visual and audio cues combined in natural ways to aid communication in a geographically distributed environment. Human perception is explored to address visualization and perception issues associated with MR-based CVEs. Related research in psychology and human-machine perception is briefly cited as background and basis for future experimentation, and the further development of MR-based design environments where either individual or collaborative work can be done more intuitively, efficiently, and accurately.