3D Product Presentation Online: The Virtual Design Exhibition

J. Dauner*, J. Landauer, E. Stimpfig, Fraunhofer IAO,

D. Reuter, Designatics

http://Virtual.Design-Exhibition.com

ABSTRACT

VRML offers a high potential for product presentation:Instead of regarding flat, static pictures, configurable andanimated 3D models embedded in entertaining environmentsprovide a new way of product presentation. But seriouslyusing VRML for this application domain means facingseveral challenges. We discuss these issues by using theVirtual Design Exhibition as a showcase. In this exhibitionseven interior design companies show products with highaesthetic quality. We discuss how these aesthetics influencethe VRML presentation and give some guidelines resultingfrom our experience.CR Categories and Subject Descriptors: H.5.1[Information Interfaces and Presentation] MultimediaInformation; Systems - Artificial realities H.5.2[Information Interfaces and Presentation] User Interfaces -Screen design; I.3.6 [Computer Graphics] Methodology andTechniques - Interaction techniquesAdditional Keywords: virtual worlds, digital aesthetics,3D design, product presentation, business application

1 INTRODUCTION

Virtual Reality (VR) has been applied for marketing andproduct presentation in the past. Using stereoscopic displaytechnologies such as Head Mounted Displays (HMD), 3Dmodels can be experienced immersively. The observer isable to spatially perceive shape and design via stereoscopicrendering._______________________*Nobelstr.12, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany,Jens.Dauner@iao.fhg.de

The advantage of real-time rendering is the interactivity ofthis technology: Object attributes such as color, positionetc. are variable. Presenting products in VR is also enter-taining, since the product can be embedded in a lively envi-ronment. Prototypes, just existing as 3D CAD models canbe displayed before even physically being built. For productpresentation nowadays we use the Internet mostly like wedid with brochures in the past: Everything is 2D and static.Although using hyperlinks and Java have improved theinteractivity of a presentation, the displayed objects stayflat. With the Virtual Design Exhibition (seehttp://virtual.design-exhibition.com) as a showcase, thispaper discusses aspects of VRML based product presenta-tion with respect to technical issues and design aspects. TheVirtual Design Exhibition went on-line in March 1997 andis coordinated by the Fraunhofer IAO in collaboration withthe Milanese architecture and design Studio De Lucchi.Furthermore, a focal point of the project was the develop-ment of tools for configuring 3D objects and room plan-ning.

2 REQUIREMENTS

The Virtual Design Exhibition comprises seven interiordesign companies. They were interested in establishing anew way of showing high design quality products to pro-spective buyers. In contrast to already existing demonstra-tors in this application field, the development of the contenthad to face the following challenges:- The project partners wanted to reach as many consum-

ers as possible. This meant that the content had to betuned to fairly low computing conditions as far ashardware equipment (i.e. 3D graphic performance),software and Internet bandwidth are concerned.

- The navigation, the interaction and the informationretrieval had to be as intuitive as possible.

- The high design demand of the participating companiesand the design qualities of their products should matchthe appearance of the entire site.

- The large amount of objects and the corresponding dy-namic attributes (i.e. surface colors) required a systemthat stores and organizes data automatically.

3 RELATED WORK

Matsushita uses VR for product presentation in its VirtualKitchen project [1], a retail application set up in Japan tohelp people choose appliances and furnishings for the rathersmall kitchen apartment spaces in Tokyo. Users bring theirarchitectural plans to the Matsushita store, and a virtualcopy of their home kitchen is programmed into thecomputer system. Buyers can then mix and match appli-ances, cabinets, colors, and sizes to see what their completekitchen will look like-without ever installing a single itemin the actual location.

Figure 1: CIA-Tools

In 1994, Fraunhofer IAO and the British software companyDivision presented the Cooperative-Interactive ApplicationTool (CIA-Tool) [2]. The CIA-Tools as shown in figure 1consist of a VR based system for immersive placement andsurface adjustment of interior design objects in offices.Being equipped with a HMD the user is able to navigatethrough a room. The interaction takes place through ges-tures controlled by a dataglove. With a certain gesture, a 3Dmenu pops up offering access to the furniture database ortools for manipulating the objects.Both projects showed the potential of VR for dynamic roomfurnishing. But it turned out that the crucial part of theseVR tools is the interaction. However, according to [3]immersive VR applications still lack an easy-to-use inter-face.

Figure 2: The "Virtual Car" simulator

In 1997 at the IAA motorshow in Frankfurt, Germany,Mercedes-Benz introduced the "Virtual Car" Simulator [5].In this high-end application users hold a screen in theirhands which displays the 3D model of Mercedes-Benz' newA-class model and make selections for colors etc. (figure 2).In some sense, this application could serve as a model forpost-VRML 2.0 applications (if Internet access were pro-vided).

4 CONVENTIONAL PRODUCTPRESENTATION

In order to emphasize the relevance of VRML for this ap-plication field this section points out problems of usingconventional media for presentation.Taking a closer look at today’s consumer products comparedto the past leads to two important trends:The usage of technology components has soared in productswhich once had just a simple functionality. It is hard yet tofind a product, which is not equipped with technical finesses(just like the fuzzy logic controlled washing machine) andwhich does not challenge the user’s technical skills for itsoperation.The amount of variations has risen. Color, shapes, acces-sories and many other attributes can be adjusted in order tomatch the customer’s demands.Product presentation methods have to be adjusted to thesetrends. But large attribute variety and complex technologymake it difficult to inform the user about the importantfeatures of the product. In contrast to the past, when it waseasy just to demonstrate pure functionality, nowadays thelimits of conventional presentation media such as a bro-chure are reached quickly. The large amount of variants,which actually should serve as an advantage, can swing tothe other extreme: The buyer is not able to perceive thevariety or the complexity of the object.

5 DESIGNING VIRTUALENVIRONMENTS

Design is a means for better communication between hu-man beings, computers, and products. In this section wediscuss differences between traditional product presentationtechnologies (ranging from printed brochures to 2D webpages) and VRML product presentation and how this affectsboth usability and commercial success when using VRMLin this domain. Our results are still rather informal andstem from experience gained within this project.

5.1 Challenges of Presenting DesignProducts in VRML

With the limited transmission bandwidth of today, buildingvirtual environments for the Internet always means to re-duce geometry and the number of elements shown. How-ever, in order to explain the quality and aesthetics of aproduct it is often important to show it in full detail, whichis, sadly, impossible if a photo-realistic product perceptionis required. In these cases it might be better to provide 2Dimages instead of or in addition to a 3D model.Note, however, that other media often encounter a similarproblem. For instance, newspaper advertisements onlydescribe the visual aspects of an object, too. Acoustic feed-back is missing. The same applies to TV advertising if weconsider our haptic senses.Instead of presenting an isolated product, however, adver-tising often tries to create a mood or mediate a certain life-style. Sometimes a campaign can be conducted withouteven showing the product. For example, in perfume com-mercials typically not the product itself is the focus of in-terest but the lifestyle of the people using it.Finding suitable metaphors and symbols in virtual envi-ronments is one of the big challenges for good 3D productpresentation in VRML.

5.2 Using 3D for StructuringInformation?

In an early stage, the virtual design exhibition had a 3D"root world" where links to all other worlds were arrangedin a circle with the camera, i.e. the user, in the center.However, many users reported problems with this simpleinterface, as parts of the presented information were eitheralways located behind them or hidden from other objects.We found that providing usable 3D indexes is still an un-solved problem and after trying various other approaches weturned to a standard HTML index structure.Similarly, we dropped the obvious (and highly popular)concept of creating "real" shopping malls, that is, existingdepartment-store like architecture. Whereas this might be

useful for truly immersive virtual environments our usersfound it difficult to navigate in a "screen VR" environment.Mainly due to their limited field-of-view users had problemswith orientation when they approached walls. We thereforeutilized mostly "transparent" geometric structures such asfences, collonades, and others.

5.3 Technical Limitations

VRML content should be suitable for an off-the-shelf PCand standard bandwidth without any additional software apartfrom standard web browsers. Especially the Internetperformance has been an important issue because Germantransfer rates are quite low. In order to meet these require-ments, the project had these constraints: No more than 200KB of data transmission at once for one scene (i.e.showroom) and no more than 6000 polygons had to beexceeded.The first approach to fulfill these demands was to design theexhibition not as one single building but to split it up inseveral hyperlinked zones. Also for the time being 3Dsound which was already created for each showroom hasbeen finally omitted in order to save bandwidth.

6 CASE STUDY:THE VIRTUAL DESIGN EXHIBITION

The Virtual Design Exhibition was founded by FraunhoferIAO in collaboration with the Milanese Design and Archi-tecture bureau Studio De Lucchi. The project currentlycomprises seven German companies with high designqualities (Duravit, FSB, Axor, Hoesch, Honeywell Centra,Klafs, Steng Licht). The goal of the project was to offer anew way of presenting products of interior design furnituremanufacturers. The Virtual Design Exhibition consists ofan exhibition part and of a set of tools for interactive prod-uct configuration. Within the exhibition the visitor walksthrough virtual showrooms, which are equipped with theproject partners‘ products.

6.1 Design of the Virtual DesignExhibition

Figure 3: The intro circle

The "intro circle" as displayed in figure 3 is the first placeto go in the exhibition and serves as an index which pro-vides an overview about the different areas of the exhibi-tion.

Figure 4: The screen layout

The screen structure (figure 4) was divided into a 2D(HTML) and a VRML part. The HTML area is needed fordisplaying text or photographs. A navigation bar and il-lustrating comments are clearly structured in the HTMLframe.The exhibition requires homogeneity all over the differentshowrooms. The demands of the exhibition concept were asfollows:- High recognition value- Easy navigation structure- Structured guidance

- Neutrality to the individual styles of the participatingproject partners

- Low data volumesThe main design element of the corporate identity of theVirtual Design Exhibition is a frame. It serves as a reducedsymbol for a wall. The frame is also a symbol for a clipwhich embraces different objects in a group. This symbol isvery transparent and thus a neutral structure in the VRMLworld. Moreover, the frame serves as a reference for inter-active objects and tells the user that addition information isavailable by following the hyperlink associated with it. Inaddition to this the frame encodes each showroom by usingdifferent colors.The arrangement is deliberately reduced to the essential. Wechose a black background for the showrooms because blackis a "neutral" color. Also black is a preferable backgroundfor computer graphics [4].In spite of a homogenous corporate design of the exhibitioneach showroom has its own design concept. The main as-pect of each company was mentioned and transformed in ametaphor. For instance, in the showroom of light manu-facturer Steng, the meaning of light was transformed as asymbol in a texture at the floor resembling a light cone.

6.2. The Corporate Showrooms

Figure 5: The Klafs sauna showroom

In the "Relax" showroom (figure 5) which displays saunasand steam baths of a German sauna manufacturer VRMLbackface culling is used to display information otherwiseunavailable to observers. For product photographers it isnormally difficult to find a perspective showing the interiorwithout removing one complete wall of the sauna. Here,the wall facing the user is automatically invisible (culling)revealing best views from all sides.

Figure 6: The FSB game showroom

The designer door handle company Franz Schneider Brakel(FSB) has implemented two games within its showroomgiving the visitor the opportunity to win a small prize (fig-ure 6).Honeywell-Centra is using VRML for demonstrating thestrength of a new product: Hometronic, a digital thermostatwith which several home appliances like radiators can becontrolled via wireless communication. In the Honeywell-Centra showroom, the user can start an animation whichdemonstrates the wireless control of a floor radiator. Afterpressing a button on the control "rays" are transmitted tothe radiator which changes its color from blue to red.

6.3 The Interactive ProductConfigurator

As mentioned above, most participating companies allowfor configuring their products. For instance, the lampmanufacturer Steng offers a dozen or so lamps with differentshapes and for each of them a dozen colors and/or surfacepatterns is available. Even their printed catalog does notprovide an image for all these combinations. Instead, littlecolor samples are provided and the real appearance of theproduct is left to the customer's imagination.

Figure 7: Product Configurator of Steng lights

VRML allows for interactively changing scene parts, soVirtual Design Exhibition users can select any combinationof variants and see the result of their selection in almostreal-time. When they enter a corporate showroom, a userinterface window (a Java frame) pops up (figure 7) dis-playing possible choices.Selections made there are propagated to the VRML pluginwindow through EAI calls. The difficulty of the softwaredesign was twofold: First, due to bandwidth limitation itwas impossible to download the geometry of all variants,e.g. lamps, at once and simply switch between them(Switch node). The same applied to texture files. Instead,we had to apply a "lazy loading" strategy and to replaceparts of the scene via the createVRMLfromURL() EAI call.Second, in order to make the variant switching interfacesimple the VRML files had to look as similar as possible.This was achieved by encapsulating each of them inPROTOs with identical field names. For instance, a fieldnamed "lampshadeColor" would refer to the respectivematerial node in each lamp file.These fields are then associated with fields in the VRMLtree which represent the property to be changed. In somecases it is inevitable to make changes at more than oneplace in the tree. Then a simple script node and a set ofroutes serves as a "fork" to broadcast change information.Currently, no VRML authoring tool provides support forthis kind of editing, so all files are edited manually.

6.4 The Showroom Kit

It is likely that future contributors to the Virtual DesignExhibition are not geometric modelers or programmers butexperts in their field without deep VRML insight. For in-stance, we envision interior designers, architects, or theircustomers who furnish their houses by selecting predefinedparts from some model database and arranging them insome standardized virtual environment.

Figure 8: the Showroomkit (prototype)

Figure 9: The room editor of the Showroomkit

As a first step toward this goal, we are currently developinga VRML-based "Showroomkit" (figure 8) for an interiordesign domain. In this application users such as salesper-sons or their customers first create a 2D floor plan of aroom (figure 9). Then they choose products such as furni-ture or accessories from the Virtual Design Exhibitiondatabase. Currently this is simply done by selecting from ascrollable list of images. When a product is selected, arequest to the JDBC server is generated and the VRMLgeometry of a default variant of the product, a list of pos-

sible variants, and (in the future) associated product infor-mation such as pricing or ordering is downloaded. Theproduct is placed at a default position in the world. Userscan now move the product within the currently selectedviewing plane by using the mouse. Standard viewpointssuch as "top" or "front view" provide support for position-ing.In addition, users can invoke the IPC described above forthe currently selected item and, as described before, trydifferent variants within the composed environment.When a room is furnished with products and attributes areconfigured, an ordering record can be generated with a list ofitems, order strings, and prices. A sales assistant couldquery headquarters for stock and product information viamobile communication.

7 CONCLUSIONS

In this paper we discussed how VRML can be used to pre-sent products to "internet buyers" despite the bandwidth andimage quality restrictions. Even for products with highaesthetic quality it is possible to present them on the web ifcertain guidelines are observed. This allows for utilizing theinteractivity VRML 2 provides. For instance, productvariants can be configured and experienced. At this stageonly an incomplete and informal set of design guidelinescan be derived. Moreover, we expect them to evolve andthus change rapidly as the aesthetics of VRML worldschange. While early VRML worlds were more or less animitation of the physical world, that is, translations of re-ality into cyberspace, worlds such as the Virtual DesignExhibition are intentionally more abstract and leave morefreedom for fantasy to the user. New "digital aesthetics" canbe expected to evolve.

8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank Geert Koster from Studio DeLucchi for the design consulting. Special thanks to OliverRiedel and Wilhelm Bauer for their support. Also thanks toour students Stephan Trojansky, Jens Böhmler, MarkKaufmann, Alexander Barth, Kai Todenhöfer, Elmar Loth.

9 REFERENCES

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[3] M. Mine. Brooks, Frederick Jr.: Moving Objectsin Space: Exploiting Proprioception in Virtual-

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[4] R Brugger. 3D Computer graphics and animation,2nd edition, Addison-Wesley,1994, p. 56

[5] Mercedes-Benz Website: Short description can befound at the press release, http://www.mercedes-benz.com/e/home/iaa/iaa_pr10.htm, 1997