Spatial Computing
Which spatial decisions become clearer when a room is experienced at body scale?
- Study period
- 2023-2025
- Note updated
The research question
A plan can be clear while the experience of a room remains uncertain. Is the passage comfortable? Can two people work without blocking one another? We investigate spatial computing as a way to examine these specific decisions in relation to a measured room.
The proposed review compares two furniture arrangements through a drawing, a screen-based model and an immersive view. The same questions about clearance, reach and sightlines are asked in each representation. Presentation order must change between participants so familiarity does not become an apparent benefit.
The useful outcome is a decision record: what was noticed, what was missed and what revision followed. Confidence will be recorded alongside simple geometric checks. An immersive experience can be persuasive even when it leaves an important conflict unresolved.
Keep the room, change the view
The plan makes the table footprint and route around it explicit. It is useful for locating relationships across the whole room.
Two authored schematic views. This is not a VR session or a measured test of understanding; perspective and clearance must be checked against a dimensioned model before a design decision.
Ideas and methods
Presence research helps frame how people experience immersive environments. JST’s high-speed digital-twin programme studies sensing and reconstruction over time at a very different scale. Together they prompt us to keep capture, display and human judgement distinct in the room-review experiment.
Read the sources ↓Current work and the next experiment
- On this page
- A plan and eye-level schematic showing a clearance question.
- Planned output
- Measured room inputs, counterbalanced participant reviews and a record of requested revisions.
How we will test it
- Verify the representation
- Check selected dimensions, viewing scale and known alignment points before the session. Keep capture gaps visible and record device, software and tracking conditions.
- Ask the same design questions
- Use identical alternatives and questions across drawing, screen and immersive review. Vary the order so familiarity with the design is not mistaken for a medium’s benefit.
- Capture the decision, not just the reaction
- Record requested changes, missed conflicts, confidence and discomfort. Let participants use another medium where needed and examine why a representation failed.
What remains open
- No verified capture benchmark or controlled client study is published with this note.
- Reflective, transparent and poorly observed surfaces need explicit inspection.
- A simplified review model and a fabrication model serve different purposes.
Next output
The next output is a room-review kit: a capture cleared for use, reference dimensions, two alternatives and a short decision protocol. It will show which questions participants could answer, which conflicts they missed and which medium helped them reconsider. This gives capture research a practical role in design review, with dimensional accuracy and participant benefit evaluated separately.
Sources and method notes
- Slater and Sanchez-Vives, Enhancing Our Lives with Immersive Virtual Reality (2016) ↗
A review of immersive VR and presence; background for defining review questions.
- Apple: Tracking specific points in world space ↗
Official documentation on world anchors and persistent placement; checked 15 September 2026.
- Apple: RoomPlan overview ↗
Room-scale capture and parametric export as one possible input to the proposed review workflow.
- JST-Mirai, Multidimensional Digital Twin Sensing and Reconstruction (2024 programme) ↗
Primary programme description of dynamic sensing; its hardware and results are outside the proposed room pilot.
Research connections to our products
- SpaceCraft: a capture app in development In development
SpaceCraft is in development for iPhone LiDAR capture, textured models and floor plans. This note does not establish the app’s speed or accuracy.
SpaceCraft → - Scanned context for AI visualization Exploration
Using scanned rooms as context for Archly visualization is an integration under exploration; it is not a currently connected capture-to-design workflow.
Archly →