TU Chemnitz: Fakultät für Informatik: Professur GDV

In this paper we report on a VR-based system for the virtual prototyping of shoes. The main effort of this work is to create a user interface that mimics the conventional work style of the shoe designer using a pen and a shoe last as 3D proxy objects. Our interface enables the user to sketch design lines onto the last using his personal drawing style. For this task a novel algorithm for real time sketch recognition on curved surfaces has been developed. Based on the framework of curves further design elements (e.g. leather pieces) are created to complete the model. Three pen-based interaction metaphors are provided that can be used to directly interact with design elements, to input values or to make choices from a menu. The results of our user study show that the presented methods of interaction can be easily learned and applied by conventional designers.