Currently the design review of new products in Virtual Reality is conducted by companies basically using visualization devices, sometimes consisting of large powerwall displays. Consequently, the products are mostly evaluated from a visual point of view, thus limiting the realism of the reviewing activities. Adding the sense of touch to these activities, rendered through haptic technologies, may help in making the interaction with the prototype more natural, realistic and similar to the interaction with real prototypes. In consequence, it can also contribute in making design review phases more effective, accurate and reliable. This master thesis will study and develop an application for product design review based on the integration of haptic and 3D visualization technologies for the simulation of the interaction with a cupboard hinge system. The application will be as follows: a virtual prototype of the cupboard will be visually represented on a large retroprojected wall in stereoscopy; an optical tracking system will be used to detect the position and the orientation of the user’s point of view. The user will we able to physically interact with the virtual prototype through a point-based 6-DOF haptic device, the Haption Virtuose. The application will be validated through some users’ tests with the aim of measuring the benefits and potentiality of advanced virtual prototyping practices in products design review.

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