A Collaborative Multimodal XR Physical Design Environment

Traditional design processes for physical prototypes can be time-consuming and costly due to iterations of prototyping, testing, and refinement. Extended Reality (XR) technology with video passthrough offers unique benefits for alleviating these issues by providing instant visual feedback. We have developed an XR system with multimodal input capability that provides annotations and enables interactive visual modifications by superimposing and aligning visual counterparts to physical objects. This system can help designers to quickly experiment with and visualize a wide range of design options, keep track of design iterations, and explore innovative solutions without the constraints of physical prototyping. As a result, it can significantly speed up the iterative design process, while requiring fewer physical modifications in each iteration.