Development of a Web-based Customer-oriented Interactive Virtual Environment for Mobile Phone Design

During recent years, mobile phone companies have experienced market-related difficulties that result in increasing competition globally. In an attempt to maintain or increase their market share, enterprises reorganize their resources and employ new technologies to sharpen their competitive edges. Moreover, with the globalization, more and more companies become multi-sited. Efficient and timely collaboration and communication among the development team members become critical for product success. This paper proposes a web-based interactive virtual environment for mobile phone design, named VMPDS (Virtual Mobile Phone Design Space). The features of the system include the combination of web technology and VR (Virtual Reality) technology, the ability to deal with and extend the product model database, adequate interaction for 3-D product model modification and customization, and usefulness for the examination and evaluation of product concept design. The system is implemented by using standard open technologies such as VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), Java, SAI (Script Authoring Interface) and EAI (External Authoring Interface) to assure accessibility and platformindependence. 1