Design of a virtual world for space planning

We describe a low cost virtual reality interface to execute space planning in a 3D space by direct manipulations of 3D objects. Operators can work in the virtual world in a similar way to the real world: they perceive the position of objects through the depth cue of stereo view, and can grab and push them in any direction until they reach the destination. Objects can be put on top of each other or lined up. to help users reach their objectives, the virtual world is modeled to be a job oriented world, thus it is governed by a few simple rules which facilitate positioning. We describe the design and implementation strategies to obtain a real time performance on a low level workstation.