Using evolutionary design to interactively sketch car silhouettes and stimulate designer's creativity

An Interactive Genetic Algorithm is proposed to progressively sketch the desired side-view of a car profile. It adopts a Fourier decomposition of a 2D profile as the genotype, and proposes a cross-over mechanism. In addition, a formula function of two genes' discrepancies is fitted to the perceived dissimilarity between two car profiles. This similarity index is intensively used, throughout a series of user tests, to highlight the added value of the IGA compared to a systematic car shape exploration, to prove its ability to create superior satisfactory designs and to stimulate designer's creativity. These tests have involved six designers with a design goal defined by a semantic attribute. The results reveal that if friendly is diversely interpreted in terms of car shapes, sportive denotes a very conventional representation which may be a limitation for shape renewal. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.