Development of a distributed collaborative virtual environment for engineering design application
M. Abdul-Jalil, Christina Bloebaum · 8th Symposium on Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization · 2000
Communication between designers in a multidisciplinary design field has always been a problem particularly when they are geographically dispersed. It becomes a hurdle in the decision making process especially when dealing with complex engineering problems. This paper describes a research project to develop a distributed collaborative virtual environment (VRoom) that allows designers from multidisciplinary backgrounds in geographically dispersed locations to collaborate during design development process. The environment described allows designers to communicate and interact in a totally immersive environment. Multiple users can log on at the same time and each will be represented by an avatar. The designers have the ability to view and manipulate a 3D virtual reality model while communicating interactively to each other. This environment supports several graphical file and audio formats.