The use of tangible objects is paramount in industrial design. Throughout the design process physical prototypes are used to enable exploration, simulation, communication, and specification of designs. Although much is known about prototyping skills and technologies, the reasons why and how such models are employed in design practice are poorly understood. Advanced techniques and design media such as virtual and augmented prototyping are being introduced without insight as to their benefits. We believe that an augmented prototyping system, that is, employing augmented reality technology to combine physical and digital representations, could positively influence the design process. However, we lack knowledge on why and how it might facilitate design. This paper reports on case studies performed in different domains of industrial design. At each of three Dutch design offices, a project was followed with particular attention to physical prototyping and group activities. The projects encompassed information appliance design, automotive design, and interior design. Although the studies vary in many aspects (product domain, stakeholders, duration), the findings can be applied in conceptualizing advanced prototyping systems to support industrial design. Furthermore, the data reveal that the roles of a prototype in current practice are not necessarily utilitarian; for example, the prototype may serve as a conversation piece or as seducer. Based on so-called “hints,” bottlenecks and best practices concerning concept articulation are linked to usage scenarios for augmented tangible prototyping. The results point to modeling and communication scenarios. Detailed study of the cases indicates that communication activities, especially design reviews, would benefit most from interactive augmented prototyping.

(2019). Ontological engineering for supporting semantic reasoning in design: deriving models based on ontologies for supporting engineering design. Journal of Engineering Design: Vol. 30, Ontological Engineering for Supporting Semantic Reasoning in Design, pp. 405-416.

During design reviews, multiple stakeholders convene to reflect on the quality of intermediate results and to decide upon following steps. As prior research indicates, such design reviews are only partly a structured, rational process; often aspects as trust, hidden agendas or lacking commissioning skills influence this activity. Furthermore, a wide range of media is being used during these meetings, which are difficult to recollect in their context after the event. This research project attempts to improve design reviews in the domain of Industrial Design Engineering by two means: (1) by providing a specific prototyping and annotation device employing physical mockups, (2) by recording both communication between stakeholders and interaction with the prototype to produce comprehensive coverage of the review session. Based on literature and additional case studies, an analysis of the information streams is presented. Furthermore, an Interactive Augmented Prototyping solution is devised. Early verifications show that the recording resolution still requires a lot of fine-tuning, which will be the primary focus prior to a comprehensive evaluation in practice.

Enhancing engagement of patients during stroke rehabilitation exercises are in the focus of current research. Various methods and computer supported tools have been developed for this purpose, which try to avoid mundane exercising that is prone to become a routine or even boring for the patients and leads to ineffective training. This paper introduces an engagement enhancing cyber-physical stroke rehabilitation system (CP-SRS) aiming at enhancing the patient's engagement during rehabilitation training exercises. This paper focuses on introducing the implementation and validation of the engagement monitoring subsystem (EMS) in the CP-SRS. The EMS is expected to evaluate the patient's actual engagement levels in motor, perceptive, cognitive and emotional aspects. Experiments in these four aspects were conducted separately, in order to characterize the range and accuracy of the engagement indicators by influencing the subjects into different engaged states. During the experiments, different setups were created to mimic the situations in which the subject was engaged or not engaged. The subjects involved in the experiments were healthy subjects. Results showed that the measurement in motor, perceptive, cognitive, and emotional aspects can represent the corresponding engagement level. More experiments will be conducted in the future to validate the efficiency of the CP-SRS in enhancing the engagement with stroke patients.