Po-Ying Chu

Developing the index for product design communication and evaluation from emotional perspectives

Often customers make their purchase decision based on price, quality and functionality of the product. Sometimes the decision is influenced by the perceived value, which is always subjective and emotion-driven. In order to ensure successful launch of a product, it is extremely important to predict the perceived value of design alternatives systematically based on the common language understood by both target users and designers. However, the index for communicating and evaluating such value from emotional perspective is not available in the literature. Therefore, the objective of this research is to extract key indexes of perceived value from emotional perspectives and develop an effective algorithm to evaluate products. First, through literature review and the interview of participants, many scenarios of purchase decision were collected. A focus group was invited to identify the essential elements that influence the perceived value of products. Followed by a large scale questionnaire survey and factor analysis, four indexes were extracted. These indexes, named as FASE Index in brief, included features, association, social-esteem, and engagement. Second, by combining the fuzzy mathematics and the pairwise comparison method, an evaluation model was developed. Third, the perception differences of sample products were conducted to verify the validity of FASE index. The findings of this study demonstrated that FASE index was effective for decision making in product design.

A Study on the Design of Augmented Reality User Interfaces for Mobile Learning Systems in Heritage Temples

In order to reduce switching attention and increase the performance and pleasure of mobile learning in heritage temples, the objective of this research was to employ the technology of Augmented Reality (AR) on the user interfaces of mobile devices. Based on field study and literature review, three user interface prototypes were constructed. They both offered two service modes but differed in the location of navigation bars and text display approaches. The results of experiment showed that users preferred animated and interactive virtual objects or characters with sound effects. In addition, transparent background of images and text message boxes were better. The superimposed information should not cover more than thirty percents of the screen so that users could still see the background clearly.

Exploring the Ergonomic Issues of User-Defined Mid-Air Gestures for Interactive Product Exhibition

Recently, the applications of 3D and mid-air hand gestures have increased significantly in public and interactive display systems. Due to the context and user differences, it is necessary to consider user-defined gestures at the design stage of the system development. However, user-defined gestures may not be able to conform to the requirements of ergonomics without in-depth studies and careful selection. Therefore, the objective of this research is to develop a systematic method for extraction and evaluation of user-defined gestures from ergonomic perspectives. In this research, a behavior coding scheme was developed to analyze gestures for six tasks of interactive product exhibition. The results indicated that hand dorsiflexion caused by the posture of opening palm and facing forward was the common ergonomic issue identified from user-defined gestures. In order to reduce discomfort of prolonged gesture controls, the alternative combinations of gestures for accomplishing these tasks was determined based on ergonomic limitations and the considerations of vision-based hand gesture recognitions.

Identifying the Usability Factors of Mid-Air Hand Gestures for 3D Virtual Model Manipulation

Although manipulating 3D virtual models with mid-air hand gestures had the benefits of natural interactions and free from the sanitation problems of touch surfaces, many factors could influence the usability of such an interaction paradigm. In this research, the authors conducted experiments to study the vision-based mid-air hand gestures for scaling, translating, and rotating a 3D virtual car displayed on a large screen. An Intel RealSense 3D Camera was employed for hand gesture recognition. The two-hand gesture with grabbing then moving apart/close to each other was applied to enlarging/shrinking the 3D virtual car. The one-hand gesture with grabbing then moving was applied to translating a car component. The two-hand gesture with grabbing and moving relatively along the circumference of a horizontal circle was applied to rotating the car. Seventeen graduate students were invited to participate in the experiments and offer their evaluations and comments for gesture usability. The results indicated that the width and depth of detection ranges were the key usability factors for two-hand gestures with linear motions. For dynamic gestures with quick transitions and motions from open to close hand poses, ensuring gesture recognition robustness was extremely important. Furthermore, given a gesture with ergonomic postures, inappropriate control-response ratio could result in fatigue due to repetitive exertions of hand gestures for achieving the precise controls of 3D model manipulation tasks.

The Effects of Knowledge Sources and Learning Styles of the Elders on Their Motivations to Use Weblog Tools for Lifelong Learning

Recently, many research groups have dedicated their efforts to the development of Weblog (or Blog) tools to facilitate cooperative learning. However, these tools were mainly for young students in regular courses at schools. For adult learners, especially elderly people, lifelong learning is also important in their everyday life. Therefore, it is valuable to study the possible development of these tools for such a user group in the future. The objective of this research is to study the effects of knowledge sources and learning styles of the elders on their motivations to use Weblog tools for lifelong learning. Field studies and questionnaire surveys were conducted to elicit their requirements. The results showed that both knowledge sources and learning styles had significant effects on the willingness to use Blogs as the platform to exchange their knowledge and experience.

A Study on the Differences Among M3D, S3D and HMD for Students with Different Degrees of Spatial Ability in Design Education

In the curriculum of product design education, some teaching materials for demonstrating and discussing case studies are always presented in images with monocular depth cues. However, using this approach to train students with different spatial abilities is a great challenge. It was reported that stereoscopic 3D (S3D) displays were helpful for the performance of depth-related tasks. Some research groups had tried to use stereoscopic visualization for teaching Descriptive Geometry, and some research reported that the effect of stereoscopic displays on science learning was related to the spatial ability of the viewer. In product design education, identifying proportion and manipulating proportional relationships were important practices of form-giving training. Whether the correctness of proportion judgement would be influenced by different displays remained an open question. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the performances of students with different background across three display modes, i.e. M3D, S3D, and head-mounted display (HMD). In the experiments, physical chairs and the corresponding digital models with different proportions were used as the stimuli. The participants were asked to identify the correct digital models of chairs. The results indicated that HMD approach could facilitate the reflection and adaptation of dimensions and proportions, compensating the differences of spatial abilities, and therefore enhancing the learning effects significantly.

The Common Characteristics of User-Defined and Mid-Air Gestures for Rotating 3D Digital Contents

Recently, the technology of mid-air gestures for manipulating 3D digital contents has become an important research issue. In order to conform to the needs of users and contexts, eliciting user-defined gestures is inevitable. However, it was reported that user-defined hand gestures tended to vary significantly in posture, motion and speed, making it difficult to identify common characteristics. In this research, the authors conducted an experiment to study the intuitive hand gestures for controlling the rotation of 3D digital furniture. Twenty graduate students majored in Industrial Design were invited to participate in the task. Although there were great varieties among different participants, common characteristics were extracted through systematic behavior coding and analysis. The results indicated that open palm and D Handshape (American Sign Language) were the most intuitive hand poses. In addition, moving hands along the circumference of a horizontal circle was the most intuitive hand motion and trajectory.

Exploring the Interactivity Issues of the Stereoscopic 3D Systems for Design Education

Stereoscopic 3D displays have been used by some research groups to present learning contents for education. However, in the highly interactive situations, the intertwined depth cues may result in symptoms that hamper the usability of such systems. In this research, an experiment was conducted to explore the interactivity issues. Thirty students were invited to participate in the experiment. The first task was to identify the differences between printed pictures and 3D virtual models. The second task was to point out ergonomic or design problems in a single piece of furniture or pairs of chairs and tables. Based on the analysis, discomfort caused by model rotation did contribute to the degree of overall discomfort. Even all participants had the background of using 3D modeling systems, some still experienced different levels of symptoms. Their comments indicated that adaptive adjustments of disparity and control response ratio were necessary in the highly interactive situations.

Adaptive Depth Cue Adjustments of Interactive and Stereoscopic 3D Product Models for Design Education

Recently, presenting Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) images for product design education has become an option. However, visual discomfort caused by interacting with S3D contents should be minimized. In this research, representative S3D virtual models of automobiles were constructed for experiments. These models were displayed on a 50-inch S3D TV and viewed through polarized glasses. The task was to control the rotation of an automobile and identify the design problems. Thirty students, majored in Industrial Design, were invited to participate in these experiments. The result showed that although S3D images had advantages in the task of dimension and distance estimations, the degree of visual discomfort increased significantly while the participants were interacting with the virtual product model intensively. Furthermore, adaptive adjustments of binocular depth cues, such as disparity, could reduce visual discomfort and accommodate individual differences.