• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.4 s.66
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• pp.71-80
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• 2006

Collaboration has become essential in the product design process due to internationalized and specialized business environments. This study presents a real-time collaborative 3D design workspace for distributed designers, focusing on the development and the evaluation of new interaction techniques supporting nonverbal communication such as awareness of participants, shared manipulation and tele-presence. Requirements were identified in terms of shared objects, shared workspaces and awareness through literature reviews and an observational study. An Augmented Reality based collaborative design workspace was developed, in which two main interaction techniques, Turn-table and Virtual Shadow, were incorporated to support shared manipulation and tele-presence. Turn-table provides intuitive shared manipulation of 3D models and physical cues for awareness of remote participants. Virtual shadow supports natural and continuous awareness of location, gestures and pointing of partners. A lab-based evaluation was conducted and the results showed that interaction techniques effectively supported awareness of general pointing and facilitated discussion in 3D model reviews. The workspace and the interaction techniques can facilitate more natural communication and increase the efficiency of collaboration on virtual 3D models between distributed participants (designer-designer, engineer, or modeler) in collaborative design environments.