1. Gesture Modeling
Improving Spatial Recognition in Architectural Design Process
Chih-Pin Hsiao
Georgia Institute of Technology

2. In Design Environments
----- Meeting Notes (11/2/11 19:41) -----

3. The design process
Why spatial cognition is important? comparing many different (types of ) experiences.
Mapping models/drawings to the real world
Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, opened on July 13, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada

4. The Design Process

5. The design process
Designers utilize their senses of Vision, Auditory, Touch, and/or Motion in human processing part of design process.
Stimulate the new ideas from an analogy-making process.
Visual and motion experiences are two most important experience for spatial cognitions

6. The current CAAD System
1. WIMP user interface
2. Command Line inputs
3. For Recording, Rendering, Communication, and Simulation
4. Long Learning Curve

7. The Ideal Scenario
World Builder, Courtesy of Bruce Branit

8. Many VR projects in Computer Aided Architectural Design field
There are too many instruments they need to deploy
Dorta, T. Kalay, Y. et al. Comparing Immersion in Remote and Local Collaborative Ideation through Sketches : A Case Study. Proceedings of the CAAD Liege, Beilgium, ACM:
Many VR projects in Computer Aided Architectural Design field

9. The goal Use Hands to Direct Manipulate the Geometry
Simplify the Instruments / Easy to Deploy
Easy to Learn/Use
Help Designers to Imagine their design

10. Research Questions
To what extent the spatial cognition can be involved in the process by using gestural inputs.
What kind of visual cue do we need?
Can our visual and spatial short term memory support us to do modeling tasks?
What is the best way to create virtual geometry with gestures?

11. The first implementation

12. More details

13. Lesson learned
There are still gaps between computer graphics and the places where the user manipulate the model.
Gestures are still too categorical.
It cannot produce a model with details.
User cannot hold the hands for a long time.
An user will have no idea of what to do in a too flexible user interface.

14. HOW ARCHITECTS CONSTRUCT THE DRAWINGS?

15. related work Imaginary Interfaces
Gustafson, S., D. Bierwirth, et al. (2010). Imaginary interfaces: spatial interaction with empty hands and without visual feedback. Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology. New York, New York, USA, ACM: 3-12.

16. The New Implementation
In Progress

17. more details In Progress
Enable Drawings on the touch surfaces (Physical and Virtual)
Only two gestures (for drawing and extrusion)
Users only needs to draw on one surface and extrude it for the shape of building.
Projecting the visual cue one the users’ hand to assist them

18. proposed experiments
Question: To what extent can the spatial cognition be improved in the design process by using gestural inputs?
What’s the differences between the prototype and the CAD programs?
How does the third dimension (Z) affects the users in gestural input system? In other words, what’s the limitation of users’ short-term memory when they work on this prototype.
Quantitative:
The accuracy of drawing in the air.
The speed of completing the drawings.
Qualitative:
Post-Questionnaire

19. Futures Adding contextual visual cue for indicating the current state
Predicting the designers’ intents and adopting their needs
More ways of supporting creative design - parametric modeling, solid modeling, building information modeling
Constraints of manipulating virtual objects

20. Conclusions Advantages Creating geometries in 3D environment
Direct manipulate the geometries
Help to imagine the virtual world?
Shortcomings
Might be slower?

21. Thanks!! Gesture Modeling
Improving Spatial Recognition in Architectural Design Process
Chih-Pin Hsiao
Georgia Institute of Technology