Technical Demonstrators
Demonstrating the future
Building on our prototyping expertise, DCA has the capability of delivering sophisticated technical demonstrators from small devices to large-scale transport solutions. These demonstrators can have embedded software running on prototype hardware to drive and control physical interaction elements. We have expertise in creating development software for operating systems such as Unity, Unreal, Android and iOS to interface with the physical prototypes and bring the user interfaces (UI) to life. This allows our clients to validate integrated physical and digital solutions during the development process, which is critical to building confidence in the legitimacy of the proposed user experience.
An example of this capability is the Future Systems Simulator (FSS) that DCA designed and built for Rolls-Royce, in collaboration with a team of leading academics from Cranfield University and experts from Rolls-Royce. We created this purpose-built test bed to be used by pilots to explore new aviation scenarios. The simulator provides the pilots with a panoramic view of the external world presented on a large wrap-around display. The modular cockpit interior is highly configurable, with flight information presented across up to four large touch screens and two additional smaller side screens, as well as more conventional controls for thrust levers and side sticks. By adjusting the seating configuration, the simulator can accommodate a traditional pilot set-up, or be used to evaluate potential and futuristic arrangements, including a single pilot with a remote co-pilot. Different physical controls could be introduced or removed completely, while the number of screens and their locations can be changed, all within a short space of time.
The FSS is, quite simply, a design researcher’s dream that allows an almost endless number of experiments to be accommodated, exploring the key questions facing aviation now about its future.
AI demonstrators
DCA partnered Bentley on an experimental project to better understand how to utilise Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create enhanced comfort experiences in the future. The results of this work to date were shared for the first time at the 14th International ACM Conference on Automotive User Interfaces. The team set about trying to understand if/how AI had the potential to drive the next level of in-car comfort based on the hypothesis that this will require the AI design solution to build user trust. Together the team designed a physical AI interface that aimed to harmonise the different comfort parameters to create richer in-car experiences. Building a physical AI interface allowed the team to explore and build on the physical craftsmanship that Bentley has become synonymous with, reinvented for a digital age.
A configurable prototype demonstrator was built, with all the custom hardware and software needed to emulate an intelligent in-car system. This allowed the team to investigate and iterate the design with users in real-time to see how they interacted with and control a smart user-comfort system. Part of this work involved the creation of a physical AI interface, which was designed to invite users to interact with it through touch. Users could use their fingertips to accept or adjust changes made by the AI comfort system with the interface itself moving in response, creating a bi-directional interactive symbiosis that re-prioritises tactility.
Technical demonstrators for agile timelines
Our clients often need to demonstrate new concepts to internal stakeholders or users rapidly. DCA has experience of applying existing technologies or procuring and integrating existing products to create technical demonstrators in rapid timescales.
Panadol identified a particularly urgent need; in rural Indonesia, people face a difficult choice - endure the physical and emotional burden of pain or make a long journey to access medical care that can be hours away. Over 42 million* people in Indonesia delay treatment because medical care is too far away. Panadol set out to bridge the distance between these rural Indonesian communities in pain and the experts who could help. Panadol partnered with DCA and the Indonesian health-tech platform Halodoc to develop the new telemedicine unit. The unit allows patients to receive a consultation over the phone and share key health metrics such as their heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and oxygen levels.
DCA supported Panadol in this initiative by rapidly designing, engineering and fabricating a working technical demonstrator for the Pain Phone in just over two months. DCA’s agile, multidisciplinary team overcame a series of technical and usability challenges by rapidly curating a collection of existing technologies and integrating them into a new bespoke booth. The team ensured the design could operate in low bandwidth, rural areas and its usability allowed accessibility to the widest spectrum of patients.
Helping our clients achieve success through great product design
