The Virtual Reality design tool: case studies and interfacing open topics

Virtual Reality (VR) techniques are, nowadays, consolidated in the scientific community as support tool along the whole product/process life cycle, but it is not commonly adopted by industries in their day-by-day activities; mainly because virtual applications are not always both user friendly, despite their own nature, as well reliable in the presentation of results. Immersive devices are not so easy to use and well developed to allow a interaction in a real natural way. In this paper we present some case studies where VR is used in industrial applications as support to product design, aiming to work on the virtual prototypes, trying to save materials, time and costs. The case applications are: the design of shoes style lines, factory's layout design and simulation, whitegoods configuration and test. Some guidelines for the creation of virtual interface will be presented.