DualCAD : Intégrer la réalité augmentée et les interfaces d'ordinateurs de bureau dans un contexte de conception assistée par ordinateur

Abstract

The increasing performance and falling price of head-mounted displays (HMDs) create new opportunities for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Computer aided design (CAD) in immersive 3D environments will be accessible to more users and make it easier to perceive and understand 3D scenes. AR and VR will also allow the user to point directly in 3D with a device or with their fingers, allowing certain tasks to be performed faster than with a mouse. However, HMDs often suffer from limited field-of-view and/or limited pixel density. Also, users become quickly tired of holding their arms up, and pointing in midair is less precise than a mouse. This dissertation investigates two novel solutions to these problems for CAD and 3D modeling. First, we propose allowing the user to quickly and easily switch between two modes: a desktop mode ("DesktopCAD") for precise work, where a keyboard, mouse, and external LCD monitor are used; and an augmented reality mode ("ARCAD") for rougher but more natural work, with HMD for output and the use of fingers and a hand-held device for pointing. Second, to improve the augmented reality mode, we leverage the use of a smartphone that supports multitouch input and stylus input. The smartphone can display information such as menus but can also be used to register touch or stylus input. The phone’s position and orientation can be tracked to turn it into a physical prop for transformations. We present two novel interaction techniques for defining and for modifying 3D objects using the stylus and smartphone while in ARCAD mode. Finally, we compare our system to the state of the art through two taxonomies and we report the results of informal testing with expert users.

Date	27 Apr 2016
Original language	French
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Michael John McGuffin (Supervisor)