🏆 2016 Summer/Fall URP (Excellence Award)

MichelangeloAR

Hyung-Gi Ham

Rapid foam-sculpting support system based on augmented reality for idea exploration in product design

We present MichelangeloAR, a rapid foam-sculpting support system using augmented reality technologies. At the beginning of a product design process, the designer should sculpt physical prototypes of many ideas in a short period of time to choose one of these ideas. However, mistakes are fatal to sculpting. Our system applies augmented reality technologies to the sculpting process and helps designer sculpt without mistakes. With our system, the designer can see the silhouette of the 3D model with actual scale and proportion on a block of Styrofoam through the head mounted display (HMD), and draw silhouette directly on the Styrofoam block using a pen. The designer can then install a physical guide along the silhouette and cut the Styrofoam block along the physical guide using a hot-wire cutter. The physical guide prevents the hot-wire cutter from accidently penetrating into the model. By iterating the process progressively, the designer can prototype 3D ideas easily and rapidly.