3- Idat 210 - Keyword Exploration - Environment

"the surrounding area in which something exists or lives, has its own ecosystem"

Environment is an important keyword for this project, as i plan to compare the digital environments which we live in through our computers with the real world which we physically live in.  There are lots of different types of environment. in my opinion virtual and digital environments mean different things, a digital environment is more software its a string of interfaces connecting wone system to another. While a virtual environment is a 3d worled created for games or learning exploration. Then theres augmented virtual reality, this is where real objects and people are put into virtual worlds as components. Then augmented reality this is where digital layers are put into a real environment to modify it in some way an area which i have explored in a previous section of this blog See:  http://gavinjonesidat2.blogspot.com/2010/01/1-augmented-reality.html and then of course theres reality, the rather standard world we live and breathe everyday. I wish to explore connections between the two whether its digital socialisations with facebook or myspace, virtual socialisations with secondlife or real life socialisations with lectures, meetings or a drink down the pub with friends. I want to see what similarites these have abd see whether or not they effect us differently.

Here is an amazing video by Bruce Branit, About a man who creates a world for the woman he loves. It looks into virtual reality, Interfaces and augmented virtual reality. I really enjoy watching this video, it really makes me think about the connections between vitual reality and reality, especially when she touches the railing at 5:28, smells the digital flower at 6:23 and the very clever use of sound to make it seem even more real.


World Builder from BranitVFX on Vimeo.

3- Idat 210 - Keyword Exploration -Interface

"interface is (a place) where interaction between humans and machines occurs"

Look at your screen you see buttons, stuff to click, stuff to watch, stuff to type in,...... ok its an interface, the way we control the digital world through the machine we call our computers. Interfaces keep changing as technologies develop, we are now seeing the dissapearance of physical buttons to interact with and seeing the appearance of touch screens. Allowing us to get even closer to the interfaces which allow us to surf the digital waves.


There are interfaces all around us though, not just on personal computers. When you go to an ATM to get money out even pay for a ticket so you can park. its a more physical form of interface but it still has the connection between man and machine.  a connection which i wish to explore through this project as part of my journey.

Here are some visuals of interfaces.

2- Learning Tool - Virtual Immersive Learning Environments.

An existing idea we have been looking at is the cave design which works with projectors projecting on 5 surfaces, top, front, left, right and bottom.  with screens all around you, you feel fully immersed. but this does create the issue of if you walk in this environment you walk straight into the projection screen. So depending on the way we want people to interact with there environment this may not be a viable option to work on.

This idea i like to call the hamster ball, projctors project onto a ball which acts a screen. The image which are projected are stitched in such a way which allows a whole image to be projected. The way the ball which becomes on your environment moves, allows you to move freely in any direction while still being completely immersed.

There is another option, still using the ball idea we create the environment purely using immersive vision goggles. The ball is still present allowing you tom move round in your environment withough the extra cost and fuss of multiple projectors.  We would need to implement sensors on the user so we can track there movement and be able to make the environment to react to there movements. whether it is them digging up samples or blocking the sun from their eyes. This could also work with the lab environment, when they want to pick up test tubes and such from the lab surfaces.

These are just ideas for possible methods of implementing our environment. very important when planning our interface designs, in how our user will be able to move around.

1- Learning Tool - Idea

Virtual Immersive Environments

This project is about desinging a method of learning using existing technologies. We are not required to implement our designs as of yet. For this assignment we are asked to work in pairs. My collegue is William Skates and this project is what we like to call Virtual Immersive learning Environments. For this project we are specialising on science as our learning field. We have two eliments we are hoping to explore which are "in lab" experimantation and "field trip" experimentation.

 In Lab
The purpose of  an in lab experiment it erases the issue of health and safety. In a digital experiment there are no dangerous chemicals which could either blind you or potentially blow you up. It allows you to experiment with chemicals  which have had there stats inputted into our databas to the outcome has already been recorded, to be safely explored withought weeks of planning, applying for parental permissions and also makes science a bit more fun.

Field Trip
This has the same health and safety advantages as lab experiments with an added cost benefit. imagine being able to go out and take samples to learn about your environment without the cost of hiring a coach and wasting time on permission forms. We are planning on making the environments ans interactive as possible creating the feeling that you are actually there.

Obviously if this was to be created into a produvt it would cost a lot, but think of the saving in the long run? i meen yea you can take a trip to the lakes for soil testing... but what about the moon? with our idea our learning facility we would be able to make it all possible.

At the moment it is just an idea, now its our job to work out the specifics, create interface designs and make it all possible.

1- Idat 210 - Initial Thoughts

A very open brief for this project. Being skilled in mainly software it would have to be that sort of outcome. With stong interests in the way we use both the digital environment and our real world environment i would like to experiment with connections between the two. Whether it is by looking at the way we navigate through those environments, or what we use them for.

Navigation would be a keystroke or a mouse click from page to page moving our way gradually getting to the final page. It could be knowing which page you want to co to and typing in its address getting there instantly or it could be a more indirect route via a search engine. while real world navigation could be a physical movement to a destination directly by walking, controlling your every turn and movement. It could be getting on a bus or train, obviously you know where its going but you have no real control over how it gets to the destination.

What interfaces are there in our real world?

Interface a definition: a thing or circumstance that enables separate and sometimes incompatible elements to coordinate effectively- http://dictionary.reference.com/

For this project I wan too look at the journey I make through the digital world and real world and see if there are any connections or correlations, or just see how they compare. I have been asked to select a number of keywords which will guide my thoughts through this project and hopefully lead my down some interesting paths of exploration.

- Interface

- Environment

- Journey

- Keylogging

- Social Networking

4- Augmented Reality - Models and Modelling

Thanks to Peter Starostin website: www.3dluvr.com/clisk3d.

I found Max a ready rigged model, i would research into how to build and rig my own 3ds model but due to time restrictions it is just not viable. This model has given me the freedom to move both the body and facial features in a manner perfect for this augmented project.

This also allowed my to focus on creating instruments for the band, so far creating the microphone and guitar which has ment learning some elements of 3ds Max modelling. If i was to have any fault with this model i would say the neck is a bit wide. If i plan to create a bass guitar i will probably just lengthen the neck, change the colour and reduce the strings. Just to save time on modelling and allow me to explore the FLAR toolkit.

The FLAR Toolkit is still a mystery to me and i am spending most of my time trying to input my own models into it with no success. So for the moment i created this simulation of the sort of thing i am working on:

The timing is a bit out but i had to do the sequence in 3ds Max then input into After effects to put the music in. It is a rough prototype:

Augmented Reality Band from Gavin Jones on Vimeo.

#bdat

3- Augmented Reality - Idea Related Research

Here is a video i  found on youtube exploring full size augmented reality. i probably would not work on this scale but it is definately a thought. Real size augmented bands could open the floor for augmented reality gigs when the visualization goggles becom a lot mor widely available and cost effective. This is a way in which my project could be developed into.



Another video i found while searching the web was this one which brings me to the idea of my stage. Looking at this video say i chose the book to be on ... High school musical... for a younger audience, i could implement my augmented reality in bringing the musical scenes to life with my character visualizations. Just another egsample of how it could be implemented:



Then there is also the stage option. for those who do not like crouded gigs and concerts or are too young to enjoy them, i could create physical pop up stages for my Augmented reality band to play in. you can move the band around in any formation, you could even put the drummer at the front if you want to go crazy :).