A Mixed Modeling Environment Exploring Tangible and Digital Interactions for Iterative Design Modeling

This thesis explores the concept of embodied virtuality in design modeling and proposes a way of creating 3D models through the concurrent manipulation of both physical and digital representations. Inspired by researchers' efforts to explore the interaction patterns for 3D modeling, the idea of taking advantage of both tangible and graphical interfaces is emerging: the physical space supports embodied interaction, while the digital space offers parametric editing operations as well as some post-processing functions. Based on an analysis of previous researches, this thesis argues that by combining the half-edge mesh data structure with a physical encoding of geometries in voxels, we can leverage some of the strengths of both digital and physical modeling environments, opening new ways for professional and non-professional users to create geometric models.

In this thesis, a mixed modeling system is prototyped as a modeling tool. The system supports concurrent interaction with both the tangible cubes and the graphical interface, making it convenient to iterate the design. The project aims to set up a mixed modeling framework that is extendable, so future research can extend either the tangible or the graphical interface.