Context modeling in a collaborative virtual reality application as support to the design process

A virtual-reality design environment, in which a multidisciplinary team will discuss modifications or developments in areas such as Product Development, Plant layout, Maintenance and Production Planning is being developed with the participation of The Department of Industrial Applications at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics, . In this project, team members can bring their own ideas using different representing means (files, sketches, processes, etc.) and visualize them. The users will be also provided with the possibility to interactively modify the gathered information or to separate from the group with newly acquired information and work on an aspect relevant only to specific specialities and present the results again to the group. Since the exchange of information between the participants takes place by means of direct manipulation of virtual objects on a shared area, the amount of inputs requested from the user is very restricted, and a great part of the simulation outcome is dependant on the way participants manipulate such objects. It is desirable that objects within the virtual environment respond according to the context in which they are being used or they are likely to be used. Consequently, a means to identify and model the context in which a task is carried out is an imperative. In this application, the main role of context is to provide the users with a much greater control over knowledge. Identifying context permits defining which knowledge should be considered, what are its conditions of activation and limits of validity and when to use it at a given time. Such a model of context will act as an adjustable filter for giving the right meaning and to present the minimal number of information pieces and essential functions that are necessary to the task at hand. This paper discusses a set of rules that have to be elaborated in order to allow the system to create a model of the context in which a design task is being carried out. This will constrain the behaviour of the objects within the VR environment and will be reflected e.g. in the way geometry, content or interaction is allowed or supported, the level of detail information is provided or graphs are displayed, etc.