Evaluation of Cognitive Effort in the Perception of Engineering Drawings as 3D Models

摘要

In this paper, an experiment aiming at estimating the cognitive complexity of engineering drawings by measuring the reaction time and the accuracy of mentally reconstructing 3D objects from engineering drawings is presented. The performed experiment emphasizes the complexity that the engineer is facing in the product development process, shown by increased reaction time and reduced accuracy of 3D reconstructed objects. The precision and the reaction time were not considerably improved by using 3D stereoscopic viewing. Based on the results obtained from the experiment, a new class of technical drawings called Augmented Reality Technical Drawings (ARTD) is proposed. This solution enhances the visual perception by co-locating the 3D virtual object with the corresponding engineering drawing and offers the quick recognition of the object with less perceptive ambiguities.