position. This is not new, of course, but innovation is even more crucial today than it was yesterday because we have entered a regime of intensive innovation (Hatchuel et al. 2000). On a global scale, the number of patents filed and scientific publications is constantly increasing. While it took more than 60 years to go from a 17 cm vinyl to a 12 cm CD, it took only 5 years to go from a digital music player to a subscription-based streaming service. This example illustrates the accelerating pace of innovation. MPO, the European leader in vinyl records, became the European leader in CDs and then DVDs after a successful technological transition. Moreover, the reduction in the number of vinyl records on the shelves has not disrupted the expertise of companies in this field, whereas the arrival of online listening platforms has made other media obsolete. This is the second characteristic of the era of intensive innovation: innovation is increasingly radical. Not only do disruptions happen more often, but they are also more brutal. Companies are therefore more and more subject to the risk of seeing their market disrupted and must adopt methods that allow them to transform this risk into an opportunity. Incremental innovation remains essential, but does not protect against the emergence of a disruptive competitor.
It is possible to prepare oneself to face this obligation of innovation, either through methods or tools. Innovation is a way of transforming ourselves to absorb the revolutions underway; the digital revolution in the broadest sense (including artificial intelligence, immersive technologies, supercomputers, etc.) is the one we are currently dealing with. It is also a way to adapt to the new constraints linked to the consideration of ecological issues, with a set of opportunities to be seized.
The impact of innovation as a process is considerable in the long run, but innovations as an outcome of the process are often small, incremental steps. We only hear the stories of very dramatic innovation, but most innovations are not. They are not original, nor technically complex, and often look like common sense in hindsight.
1.1.3. From creativity to innovation
Creativity differs from innovation in that the former is about coming up with ideas and the latter is about implementing them. Creativity is therefore a psychological trait and process, whereas innovation is a management issue, a professional activity that is generally collective. Indeed, the implementation of ideas often requires the association of several forms of expertise in an innovation team. When the organization allows it, creativity will generate a flow of new ideas that will feed the innovation process. If innovation is a question of survival, it is also an exciting playground with flexible rules, allowing each step forward to transform ideas into successes. The challenge is to ensure that new ideas can survive in mature companies, that is,
Figure 1.1. It is essential to train in methods to improve the innovation process, to protect ideas, to have a dedicated place and to train teams in ideation methods. For a color version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/fleury/innovation.zip
1.1.4. Equipping ourselves to innovate better
It is necessary to be equipped with new technologies to take advantage of recent advances in the field. The time it takes for a company to go from idea to concept is the key factor. The revolution that is taking place in the world of immersive technologies is a tremendous opportunity to accelerate innovation. Today, immersive tools for innovation are emerging. It is now a question of seizing them and conceiving the uses that will allow us to make the most of them to innovate.
In many companies, innovation processes are clearly defined and standardized, with sequenced phases, from idea gathering to transfer to development and then production units.
Virtual technologies, which are now mature, can provide a decisive advantage in accelerating the processes put in place, by equipping specific phases of this process. Thus, virtual and augmented reality, while it has already proven its benefit for product design, can be used from the creative phases and integrated into the digital chain to facilitate the production of intermediate representations, whether virtual or physical, as in the case of three-dimensional (3D) printing.
To support innovation, these technologies must be embedded in an organization. They must be introduced in a timely and appropriate manner in terms of management. They will be employed by users who will rely on them to be more creative. These technologies must therefore also be compatible with the cognitive characteristics of the users to encourage their creativity.
The purpose of this book is not to describe in detail what immersive technologies are. Our position as researchers in a laboratory specialized in innovation and immersive technologies leads us to support companies in their digital transition and to help them optimize their innovation processes. We show our support (e.g. in our creativity workshops) with virtual reality technologies, notably thanks to the immersive applications developed in our laboratory. We are convinced (and we have a lot of scientific proof) that this way of doing innovation constitutes a considerable gain in efficiency and will progressively impose itself in companies that have the desire to innovate. The objective of this book is to provide elements concerning the uses of these technologies for innovation. The research works that are called upon are therefore often at the frontier of, or totally within, the human sciences, but also from the design sciences. An individual alone is not innovative. At best, an individual can be creative. It is the conjunction of the creativity of a whole multidisciplinary team that leads to innovation. Innovation management consists of creating an organizational, human and possibly technological environment that is as favorable as possible to innovation.
1.1.5. Modeling innovation at the company level
Numerous models exist which outline the innovation process, that is, the stages located before the industrialization of a product, which we will call the upstream phases of design. Several of these models take the form of a funnel, wide on the left and thin on the right, to graphically represent a large number of ideas at the beginning and successive selection stages as concepts are developed. This is the case, for example, with the innovation funnel
Bouchard et al. (2006) have modeled product design in the context of work on innovation in the automotive sector. This approach concerns a process in which the designer’s creativity will potentially concern innovative uses or functions, but also esthetic choices. This innovation process is composed of three main successive steps: inspiration, generation and embodiment. Inspiration corresponds to the exploration process which consists of gathering data concerning the context of the future product in order to converge on first guidelines. This can take the form of a moodboard
