Augmented reality (AR) technology is as fascinating and captivating as it sounds. While many people are aware of the potential offered by this emerging technology, its successful implementation remains somewhat limited to this day. Nevertheless, AR has experienced a notably rapid evolution and is now on the cusp of making significant breakthroughs. The technology’s diverse applications in company settings are driving this change, as limitations in hardware are gradually being addressed.
Among the areas poised to benefit from AR is the realm of product design and development, where new product design services, new invention design services, and product development for inventors all stand to gain from AR’s capabilities. By integrating AR into these services, companies unlock new opportunities for innovation, bringing enhanced user experiences to life. Continue reading below to learn more about AR and the different benefits of using it for product design at today’s companies:
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What is augmented reality (AR)?
Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that enriches a user’s real-world experience by superimposing computer-generated visuals onto their field of view using a screen and camera. AR can also project these images onto a lens, creating a composite view seamlessly integrating virtual elements with the physical environment. Photorealistic rendering services in conjunction with AR can generate highly realistic and detailed virtual images, enriching the overall immersive experience and expanding the possibilities for design, visualization, and interaction.
AR technology has already successfully entered the mainstream, as evidenced by its use in popular applications such as Pokémon Go, Ikea, and Lego. Microsoft, for example, continues to invest in its HoloLens product, which now explicitly targets business environments rather than consumers. These investments demonstrate the vast potential of AR technology, and this focus suggests that design-specific AR tools may soon become available.
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The advantages of AR are indeed compelling. By superimposing virtual information and objects onto a real-world environment, product designers can create an enhanced and immersive experience. Within the scope of new product design services, AR brings the added value of offering real-time feedback and interaction opportunities during the design phase. By utilizing prototype design services in tandem with AR, designers can refine and optimize their ideas before committing to building a physical prototype or cutting materials. This proactive approach leads to greater accuracy, efficiency, and innovation in product development.
Product designers can explore questions such as: How will the scale of the designed object appear in real life? Is the design suitable for the surrounding environment? Will it meet anthropometric and ergonomic requirements? With AR, product designers can place virtual objects in the intended environment and consider these questions at the onset of the design process. By utilizing 3D virtual reality & VR/AR rendering services, product designers gain valuable insights that enable them to make informed design decisions before committing to additional expenses, ultimately optimizing the development process and enhancing the outcome.
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Why use AR for product design
Increasingly, companies are recognizing and experiencing the tangible benefits of augmented reality in their creative rapid visualization process. Augmented reality accelerates the time to market and introduces new dimensions to collaboration among design teams. Emerging technologies such as additive manufacturing further enhance this process. With the expertise of design for additive manufacturing experts, a single part can undergo multiple design iterations simultaneously—a feat that would require significantly more time using conventional development methods.
This ability to rapidly iterate and refine designs empowers companies to optimize product performance and aesthetics, ultimately delivering higher-quality products. Making AR a part of your prototyping arsenal will help you seize its fullest potential. Below are the top five benefits seen from AR today, as well as its potential value in the future:
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1. Bring products to life with AR
Visualization is, and will always remain, the core activity in any design process. User experience and product concepts are often shaped and envisioned during the initial development phase through CAD modeling and sketching. Integrating 3D modeling design services adds depth to this visualization process, allowing product designers to create more detailed and accurate representations of their concepts. By using 3D modeling, product designers can explore and refine their ideas, ultimately enhancing the quality and functionality of the final product design. Product designers can effectively use these tools to develop digital content and 3D models.
However, on the computer screen or paper, their concepts can get disconnected from the realities of spatial and scale context in the real physical world. Thanks to AR design, product designers can pull the idea from the screen and then drop it at full scale into the real world. You can then walk inside or around it and get a better feel of its proportion, form, and relationship with the surrounding environment. AR also allows visualizing products in a higher fidelity early in the process. It dramatically lowers the level of investment, which might not be possible with other types of rapid prototyping.
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2. Collaborate across geographies with AR
Virtual collaboration tools have existed for years, with varying levels of effectiveness. AR introduces a new dimension to real-time sharing, providing companies with an innovative way to experiment and unlock the full potential of collaborative design across geographies. AR enables the inclusion of many stakeholders in reviewing virtual assets while they are still in progress, facilitating a highly intuitive and interactive experience. For retail devices, companies can thoroughly examine the product’s mechanics and assembly from all angles, both internally and externally.
Thanks to AR, product designers can immerse themselves in holographic models, inspecting every internal detail in its fully assembled condition. Integrating 3D product demo services with AR capabilities enhances the visualization and demonstration of products, allowing for more informed and accurate design decisions. Ultimately, AR empowers designers to create high-quality products that meet the specifications and expectations of stakeholders.
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3. AR goes beyond the screen
One of the biggest impacts of using AR that everyone is expected to see is the ability to revolutionize how people interact physically with this technology. Most of today’s AR executions only put holographic screens in space to leverage the familiar touchscreen paradigm. But with the recent strides observed today in sensor technologies, machine learning, spatial sound, and optics, more imaginative solutions will soon pop up to make interactions with objects and information simpler, more intuitive, and more human. It will involve all of the different senses in a more engaging, effective, and natural way. Before you know it, AR will be here to dominate and stay for good.
4. AR allows product development efficiencies
AR product design can also streamline product development, particularly with other prototyping methods. Following a flexible process that uses different tools at various times is essential. During the initial part of the process, product designs can explore an extensive selection of options and visualize them through virtual means. Doing so can dramatically reduce the investment required and allow them to iterate and tweak quickly. As they narrow their field of concepts, product designers can then use 3D printing, which is often combined in AR with virtual assets.
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For example, one project could involve 3D printing services to create a curved display element overlaid with an interactive UI simulation using AR. Through this mixed reality prototype, product designers can test their concepts with expert users and acquire valuable insights much earlier than conventional processes allow. Integrating 3D printing and AR technology provides a powerful tool for rapid prototyping and iterative design, enabling designers to refine their ideas and optimize the overall user experience.
5. Visualize in context with AR
It is one thing to move out the design from the screen and another to see it in its actual context of use. It is where you can see the tangible advantages of AR design in helping assess concept alternatives.
AR limitations in product design
AR is still taking baby steps as it enters the product design realm. For most people, it only implies that the technology is not yet ready for full implementation. Here are some of the limitations of augmented reality in product design:
- Need to reassess old values
Designing products with AR represents a paradigm shift from traditional techniques used and relied upon for years. As such, embracing this new technology requires a period of adjustment and the willingness of product designers to reexamine the values and methods they have held dear. For some individuals, adapting to this change may prove challenging. Product designers can tap into greater innovation and efficiency by taking advantage of product engineering services and gaining the skills needed to use AR in design effectively. The effective use of AR in design empowers product designers to develop state-of-the-art products that satisfy the market’s ever-changing needs.
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Although AR is still an emerging technology, it is developing at a remarkable pace. This rapid progress means that, while not everyone may fully appreciate its capabilities, product designers worldwide are likely to soon adopt and benefit from AR tools that will enable them to enhance creativity without excessively depleting the design budget. The potential of AR to revolutionize the design process makes it an exciting frontier for innovation and efficiency in product development.
- Complicated implementation
Using AR for product design requires access to specific tools and training that should be readily available to product designers. Fortunately, there are now platforms where AR is quickly becoming a more common tool in a product designer’s arsenal, alongside other valuable resources such as 3D product animation services. By incorporating AR and 3D product animation into the design process, designers can create highly realistic and interactive visualizations of their products, enhancing communication, collaboration, and decision-making throughout the development journey.
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How to use AR in product design
The continuous evolution of the digital age has highlighted the importance of collaboration in product design. While 3D CAD has played a significant role and will continue to be a critical tool in the coming years, its data is typically viewed on screen in 2D. AR has the potential to elevate the collaboration experience by offering product designers a more immersive form of engagement, not only internally among their peers but also externally with potential markets and clients.
For instance, a piece of machinery could be reviewed remotely with clients at a 1:1 scale using AR technology. Similarly, a consumer product could be virtually presented during a group meeting gathered around a table. Integrating 3D product modeling services with AR capabilities enhances the visualization and communication of design concepts, leading to more effective collaboration and decision-making.
AR has the potential to not only enhance collaboration and review but also to become an integral part of the creative process itself. Imagine the immersive experience of being virtually inside your product as it is being developed by 3D product rendering designers. Such immersion will likely enable instant feedback, which the designer can utilize to improve the product’s form and scale, resulting in a more refined and well-crafted final design.
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Only time will tell if AR can break through as a critical mainstream tool in product design. But as this technology advances by the minute and with companies searching for new ways to stay ahead of the game, it is expected that AR will become more active in the product design industry.
How Cad Crowd can help
Working with experienced product designers is another great way to design universally usable products. Cad Crowd is ready to connect you with the expert product design freelancers you need to bring your product to market. Contact us today for a free quote.
