A VR-based Interactive System to Improve Users' Involvement in OAP Development

Open-architecture products (OAPs) allow users to add personalized functional modules in an original product to meet changeable requirements for the product. The development of personalized products requires users' involvement to meet the users' needs effectively. The existing methods of Internet-based interactive platforms and direct market user surveys cannot provide users full experience of product features. This research proposes a virtual reality (VR)-based interactive system to improve users' involvement in OAPs development. The system consists of a user interactive interface, a product model-processing module, a function execution module, a data recording and process analyzing module. Users operate the product model in the VR environment to experience the product. A soft-bag folding machine designed using the OAP concept is used in a case study to verify the proposed method.