User-Centred Product Design with Photorealistic Virtual Prototypes: A Case Study on Process Optimisation for Aesthetic Quality Enhancement

In Industry 4.0, companies must focus on human-centred design for a competitive edge. The 4USER project aims to establish a user-centred design method using an interactive Photorealistic Virtual Prototype (PVP) based on Extended Reality (XR) technology, objectifying customer requirements into technical specifications. The PVP overcomes limitations associated with traditional physical prototypes, serving as a quality benchmark for final products. The research focuses on a case study involving the development of sports rifles, emphasising the importance of aesthetic quality. The proposed semi-automatic process in Blender enables the generation of low-poly PVPs, incorporating hyper-realistic textures and high-frequency details. In particular, the overall process is composed of the following steps: i) wooden texture generation via the Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Network (WGAN); ii) model creation based on a low poly “Shrinkwrap Cage”; iii) integration of generated textures into the UV-mapped model. This approach accelerates the product development cycle, reduces costs, and facilitates efficient quality control.