Cyber Physical Mockup for Usability Evaluation at Upstream Stage of Design Process

Abstract

This study attempts to explore the possibility of user-test related to hands and fingers with low-cost physical mockups that enable easy quantitative usability evaluation at the upstream stage of design, while wearing no devices on the body. To achieve this, we propose a cyber physical mockup that integrates the position and posture of the physical mockup by video analysis with an infrared hand motion capture device. Mockups are made of transparent plastics and thin color tapes are put on the characteristic edges of mockups, which are detected in video images and used to calculate three-dimensional position and orientation so that motion captures of hand and fingers and the mockup are aligned together. We applied this method for a simple rectangular solid intended as a mockup for smart phone. Operating the smartphone mockup is shot with video and hand capture devices, then the position of mockups and hands are analyzed.