Interactive Virtual Prototypes for testing the interaction with new products

Today, the tests of a new product in its conceptual and design stage can be performed by using digital models owning various levels of complexity. The level of complexity depends on the nature and on the accuracy of the tests that have to be performed. Besides, the tests can involve or not the interaction with humans. Particularly, this second aspect must be taken into account when developing the simulation model. In fact, this introduces a different kind of complexity with respect to simulations where humans are not involved. Simulation models used for numerical analyses of the behavior of the product (such as Finite Element Analysis, multi-body analysis, etc.) are typically named Digital Mock-Ups. Instead, simulations that are interactive in their nature, requiring humans-in-the-loop, are named interactive Virtual Prototypes. They cannot be intended as a simple upgrade of a CAD model of a product, but they are instead a combination of functional models, mapped into sensorial terms and then accessed through multisensory and multimodal interfaces. In this paper, the validity of this concept is demonstrated through some case studies where interactive Virtual Prototypes are used to substitute the corresponding physical ones during activities concerning the product conceptualization and design.