Assignment7

Concept
For this project, I chose to represent the world from the perspective of a cockroach, a resilient yet often overlooked household insect. My goal was to convey how a cockroach senses its surroundings through sound and nearly panoramic vision and experiences vertical and horizontal surfaces in an almost seamless way.

Scene Design Elements

1. Visuals
   • 360-Degree Camera View: The camera setup is adjusted to simulate the nearly 360-degree field of view characteristic of a cockroach’s compound eyes, creating an immersive, wide-angled perspective for the player.
   • Wall-Climbing Ability: The scene allows the cockroach to climb vertical surfaces, simulating the insect’s natural ability to move freely across walls and ceilings, challenging conventional spatial orientations.
   • At night, the cockroach cuold see much clearer.
2. Audio
   • Directional Sound Waves: I placed sound waves within the scene to mimic how a cockroach might rely on vibrations to navigate its environment. This effect is designed to provide spatial audio cues to help the player “hear” and sense objects or entities nearby, compensating for the cockroach’s limited visual detail.
   • There are five spots in total, two for the fridge and the stove but you could only here it when you are at the crack between them. One is the toilet, the water flush kind of sound. One is the TV, where elctricity flows which also means danger somehow. The last is on the bed, where human snores.
3. Interaction with Environment
   The cockroach’s interaction with its surroundings is designed to enhance a sense of vulnerability and cautious exploration. By placing everyday objects (e.g., food crumbs, small obstacles) in the scene, I aimed to capture the cockroach’s constant need for alertness and caution.

Development Process

• Research and Observation: I explored details about cockroach biology, particularly their vision and hearing mechanisms. 
  • Compound Eyes: Cockroaches have compound eyes made up of thousands of small units called ommatidia. Each ommatidium captures light from a slightly different angle, allowing the cockroach to achieve a very wide field of view—nearly 360 degrees. This setup prioritizes detecting motion over clarity, giving cockroaches an almost panoramic view that’s ideal for spotting quick movements, though with a blurred, mosaic-like quality.
  • Low-Light Sensitivity: As nocturnal creatures, cockroaches have evolved to see well in dimly lit environments. Their eyes are highly sensitive to low light, allowing them to navigate in darkness by amplifying minimal light sources. This adaptation is crucial for their survival, as it lets them avoid predators and find food at night.
  • Vibration Detection: Cockroaches don’t have traditional ears but are extremely sensitive to vibrations. They rely on specialized sensory structures, or mechanoreceptors, located on their legs and body, which can detect subtle changes in the environment, like ground vibrations or air currents. This ability helps them detect approaching threats quickly, even without seeing them.
  • Wall-Climbing and Surface Adhesion: Cockroaches can climb smooth and rough surfaces due to tiny, sticky pads and claws on their feet, enabling them to maneuver vertically. This wall-climbing ability opens up more space and escape routes, making them highly adaptable to various environments, including homes.

            

• Audio Design: For the sound waves, I experimented with spatial audio settings, ensuring that players would feel audio cues from various directions, which is crucial for recreating the insect’s heightened awareness of environmental vibrations.