Virtual and Augmented Reality for Collaborative Design

By nature, the design engineer imagines and anticipates solutions before being able to apprehend them more formally by means of prototypes, and then with the final product. It is during this ideation and design phase that the engineer will produce numerous artefacts for evaluation, resulting in a final product that is no different from the one imagined.

For a long time, these intermediate representations were costly physical models, the production of which slowed down the design process. The "digital mock-up", often produced by CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software, makes it possible to evaluate these intermediate representations, thus avoiding the need for physical representations. However, digital mock-ups offer little or no user interactivity.

Virtual and augmented reality technologies give companies control over real time and open up new perspectives:

• multiplication of choices, architectures, combinations, colors ;

• integration of end-users into the design team (thanks to interactive simulation, they can evaluate the future product intended for them);

• staging of products in different environments, comparison with competing products ;

• collaborative engineering with other professions, other cultures or other countries, with a common working language: the interactive image;

• all industry sectors are concerned: construction, automotive, medical, engineering, trade, aeronautics, oil...

Since the early 2000s, the market for Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies has been booming, driven today by consumer electronics manufacturers, which has driven prices down, while at the same time significantly improving the technical capabilities of hardware.

At the same time, the rapid development of crowdfunding platforms has led to the emergence of original materials.

A case in point is the Oculus Rift immersive headset, whose first version was launched in 2012 via the Kickstarter platform and offered a product whose price was 10 times lower than models on the market at the time. Two years later, the company was acquired by Facebook for an estimated $2 billion.

The example of the Oculus Rift is far from isolated. In an original move, these consumer electronics manufacturers are now turning to the enterprise, such as the HTC Group (maker of smartphones and the Vive virtual reality headset), which in April 2016 announced a strategic partnership with Dassault Systèmes.

In the corporate world, and particularly in large groups, virtual reality initially...