15-06-2013, 12:16 PM
INKTUITIVE: AN INTUITIVE PHYSICAL DESIGN WORKSPACE
[attachment=55454]
Abstract
The development of computer-aided design (CAD) tools
such as Autodesk Revit, ArchiCad and SketchUp, has
leveraged the power of the digital world by allowing
designers to express their creations in new ways. Despite
the advances and advantages of these digital tools,
traditional pencil and paper continue to exist as some of
the most important tools in the early stages of design. In
this paper, we introduce 'Inktuitive', an intuitive physical
design workspace that aims to bridge the gap and bring
together the conventional design tools such as paper and
pencil with the power and convenience of the digital tools
for design. The paper discusses the design and
implementation of the 'Inktuitive' platform. The paper
also analyzes and outlines the advantages and challenges
of this new workspace, where designers can create and
manipulate digital models and representations of ideas in a
more direct and natural way.
Introduction
Recently, a new design paradigm is emerging in the field
of computer-aided architectural design. As opposed to the
conventional method of drawing primitives on multiple 2dimensional
floor plans, it is becoming increasingly
popular to directly model 3-dimensional representations of
the actual component objects being used and to specify the
relationships between them parametrically to design an
architectural product. CAD tools such as Autodesk Revit,
ArchiCad and SketchUp are examples of tools that
support this new paradigm known as Building Information
Modeling (BIM) [2]. This new design paradigm allows
for the design changes to be made simpler allowing CAD
tools to be used at various stages of the design process
from the abstract, conceptual design phase, where
flexibility to try out multiple what-if scenarios is essential,
to the construction detailed design phase, where
consistency and accuracy carry more weight.
Related Work
There are many projects aiming to create a relationship
between physical and digital workspaces. The
DigitalDesk [4, 7] provides an environment in which
physical paper gains electronic properties, while physical
obj ects can be used to operate electronic documents.
There are also systems, such as LivePaper [6], that add
digital information to enrich the interaction with physical
artifacts like paper. Many research projects have
specifically attempted to support architects and designers
within the early stages of the design process. Electronic
Paper [I] explores augmented reality based approaches for
supporting early stages of design. Luminous Table [3]
combines and integrates two dimensional drawings,
physical models and digital models to support the urban
design process. On the other side applications such as
SKETCHPAD+ [5], focus on creating 3D scenes in a
natural and intuitive way on systems that only offer 2D
interactions.
INKTUITIVE
What is Inktuitive?
Inktuitive is an intuitive physical design workspace. The
goal of Inktuitive is to combine the intuitive process of
creation that is inherent in paper and pencil with the
power of computing that digital design tools provide.
Inktuitive also extends the natural work-practice of using
physical paper by giving the pen the ability to control the
design in physical three-dimensional space, freeing it from
its tie to the paper. The platform brings enormous
advantages of digital design tools to traditional and natural
work practice of designing. The following use scenario
outlines major features ofthe 'Inktuitive' platform.
How does 'Inktuitive' work?
Figure 1 presents an explanation on how 'Inktuitive'
works. The 'Inktuitive' system provides a physical
workspace environment where digital content is projected
from below onto the paper placed over the frosted-glass
surface of the desk. Pen movement on the surface of the
paper is tracked by ultra-sonic digital-pen hardware. Two
stationary sensors receive ultra-sonic waves that are
emitted by the transmitter placed at the tip of the pen. The
device measures the location of the pen tip on the paper
using the calculation of receiving time of the waves
received by the two stationary receivers. Further, the pen
tip is also augmented with infra-red (IR) LED array for
tracking the three-dimensional coordinates of the pen
above the paper surface using stereo vision. Two USB
cameras with IR-pass filters mounted above the table
detect the IR light emitted by the LEDs which are used to
calculate the three-dimensional coordinate of the pen tip
via triangulation. The projector, ultra-sonic pen hardware,
cameras and SpaceNavigator are all connected to a PC. A
software program processes the data collected by the
digital-pen hardware and two cameras. Image processing
of the two camera inputs provides the system with
absolute location of the pen tip in three-dimensional space
above the paper surface while the ultra-sonic components
help capturing precise user strokes on the paper surface.
The software program uses these two streams of user hand
motion in augmenting the paper on the desk with
projected digital information.
Future work and Discussions
A unique property of Inktuitive is that allows the architect
to use pen-motions in the workspace above the paper to
capture their ideas. By freeing the pen from its bond with
the paper, Inktuitive allows the architect to draw windows
on the vertical planes of their buildings, change the height
of a building through vertical hand movements, etc. The
fact that the changes on 3D objects occur in direct relation
to the spatial hand motion will give the user more intuitive
control over the object or the control points on
parameterized objects as if she is grabbing it within the
actual physical volumetric space formed by the two
orthogonally placed displays. This together with the
expressiveness. of sketching on paper gives designer more
freedom to explore their design possibilities focusing on
the design itself rather than wasting their valuable
attention on extra control manoeuvres like menu selection.
It also allows the user to edit objects or control points
while changing the views to see its effect from different
angles on a single screen.
Conclusion
In this paper, we present 'Inktuitive', an intuitive physical
design workspace which brings the power of computing
and digital design tools to the traditional work practice for
designing using paper and pencil. We explain the design
and implementation of the working prototype of 'Inktuitive'. At the end of the paper, we also discuss some
advantages and challenges of the proposed new interaction
mechanism.
[attachment=55454]
Abstract
The development of computer-aided design (CAD) tools
such as Autodesk Revit, ArchiCad and SketchUp, has
leveraged the power of the digital world by allowing
designers to express their creations in new ways. Despite
the advances and advantages of these digital tools,
traditional pencil and paper continue to exist as some of
the most important tools in the early stages of design. In
this paper, we introduce 'Inktuitive', an intuitive physical
design workspace that aims to bridge the gap and bring
together the conventional design tools such as paper and
pencil with the power and convenience of the digital tools
for design. The paper discusses the design and
implementation of the 'Inktuitive' platform. The paper
also analyzes and outlines the advantages and challenges
of this new workspace, where designers can create and
manipulate digital models and representations of ideas in a
more direct and natural way.
Introduction
Recently, a new design paradigm is emerging in the field
of computer-aided architectural design. As opposed to the
conventional method of drawing primitives on multiple 2dimensional
floor plans, it is becoming increasingly
popular to directly model 3-dimensional representations of
the actual component objects being used and to specify the
relationships between them parametrically to design an
architectural product. CAD tools such as Autodesk Revit,
ArchiCad and SketchUp are examples of tools that
support this new paradigm known as Building Information
Modeling (BIM) [2]. This new design paradigm allows
for the design changes to be made simpler allowing CAD
tools to be used at various stages of the design process
from the abstract, conceptual design phase, where
flexibility to try out multiple what-if scenarios is essential,
to the construction detailed design phase, where
consistency and accuracy carry more weight.
Related Work
There are many projects aiming to create a relationship
between physical and digital workspaces. The
DigitalDesk [4, 7] provides an environment in which
physical paper gains electronic properties, while physical
obj ects can be used to operate electronic documents.
There are also systems, such as LivePaper [6], that add
digital information to enrich the interaction with physical
artifacts like paper. Many research projects have
specifically attempted to support architects and designers
within the early stages of the design process. Electronic
Paper [I] explores augmented reality based approaches for
supporting early stages of design. Luminous Table [3]
combines and integrates two dimensional drawings,
physical models and digital models to support the urban
design process. On the other side applications such as
SKETCHPAD+ [5], focus on creating 3D scenes in a
natural and intuitive way on systems that only offer 2D
interactions.
INKTUITIVE
What is Inktuitive?
Inktuitive is an intuitive physical design workspace. The
goal of Inktuitive is to combine the intuitive process of
creation that is inherent in paper and pencil with the
power of computing that digital design tools provide.
Inktuitive also extends the natural work-practice of using
physical paper by giving the pen the ability to control the
design in physical three-dimensional space, freeing it from
its tie to the paper. The platform brings enormous
advantages of digital design tools to traditional and natural
work practice of designing. The following use scenario
outlines major features ofthe 'Inktuitive' platform.
How does 'Inktuitive' work?
Figure 1 presents an explanation on how 'Inktuitive'
works. The 'Inktuitive' system provides a physical
workspace environment where digital content is projected
from below onto the paper placed over the frosted-glass
surface of the desk. Pen movement on the surface of the
paper is tracked by ultra-sonic digital-pen hardware. Two
stationary sensors receive ultra-sonic waves that are
emitted by the transmitter placed at the tip of the pen. The
device measures the location of the pen tip on the paper
using the calculation of receiving time of the waves
received by the two stationary receivers. Further, the pen
tip is also augmented with infra-red (IR) LED array for
tracking the three-dimensional coordinates of the pen
above the paper surface using stereo vision. Two USB
cameras with IR-pass filters mounted above the table
detect the IR light emitted by the LEDs which are used to
calculate the three-dimensional coordinate of the pen tip
via triangulation. The projector, ultra-sonic pen hardware,
cameras and SpaceNavigator are all connected to a PC. A
software program processes the data collected by the
digital-pen hardware and two cameras. Image processing
of the two camera inputs provides the system with
absolute location of the pen tip in three-dimensional space
above the paper surface while the ultra-sonic components
help capturing precise user strokes on the paper surface.
The software program uses these two streams of user hand
motion in augmenting the paper on the desk with
projected digital information.
Future work and Discussions
A unique property of Inktuitive is that allows the architect
to use pen-motions in the workspace above the paper to
capture their ideas. By freeing the pen from its bond with
the paper, Inktuitive allows the architect to draw windows
on the vertical planes of their buildings, change the height
of a building through vertical hand movements, etc. The
fact that the changes on 3D objects occur in direct relation
to the spatial hand motion will give the user more intuitive
control over the object or the control points on
parameterized objects as if she is grabbing it within the
actual physical volumetric space formed by the two
orthogonally placed displays. This together with the
expressiveness. of sketching on paper gives designer more
freedom to explore their design possibilities focusing on
the design itself rather than wasting their valuable
attention on extra control manoeuvres like menu selection.
It also allows the user to edit objects or control points
while changing the views to see its effect from different
angles on a single screen.
Conclusion
In this paper, we present 'Inktuitive', an intuitive physical
design workspace which brings the power of computing
and digital design tools to the traditional work practice for
designing using paper and pencil. We explain the design
and implementation of the working prototype of 'Inktuitive'. At the end of the paper, we also discuss some
advantages and challenges of the proposed new interaction
mechanism.