Abstract
The environment where Japanese industry has been paid with respect is changing tremendously due to the globalization of economics, where Asian countries are undergoing economical and technical development as well as advancing in information technology. For example, in the design of custom-made casting product, a designer whom lacking of casting knowledge may not be able to produce a good design. In order to obtain a good design and manufacturing result, it is necessary to equip the designer and manufacturer with a support system related to casting design or so called, knowledge transfer and creation system. This paper proposes a new virtual reality based knowledge acquisition and job training system for casting design, which is composed of the explicit and tacit knowledge transfer system using synchronized multimedia and the knowledge internalization system using immersive virtual environment. In our proposed system, the education content is displayed in the immersive virtual environment, where by a trainer and trainee may experience in the virtual site operations together. Sharing the content with the trainer who has a master of casting technique, the trainee has gained explicit and tacit knowledge of casting through the multimedia-based knowledge transfer system, the immersive virtual environment catalyzes the internalization of knowledge and also enable the trainee to gain tacit knowledge before undergoing on the job training at real operation site.
