Design review and visualization steering using the INQUISITIVE interaction toolkit

As novel technologies are absorbed into the conventional systems development methodology they usually pass through three phases: firstly, they are demonstrated in specialised stand alone systems; secondly they are demonstrated in rapid prototype environments used to elicit requirements from users unfamiliar with the potential of the technology in their domain; and thirdly, system representations and documentation for each contractually important development stage, and methods for moving between them are defined incorporating best practice. As knowledge based technologies did in the late 1980’s, so Virtual Reality (VR) technologies appear now to be moving from the second to the third of these phases, and establishing manageable system development practices that can be subject to general contractual obligations (Wilson et al, 1988).