Author: vlz210

Accurate, Prophetic, Powerful

• Is 5G a Game Changer for VR and AR? (yes!)

Considering the potential speed increase, low latency, and high computational power, 5G brings a lot of potential to stream VR/AR content, allowing another step to a more untethered experience.

• Create An Entire Home Gym With Oculus Quest

I think this is particularly the case more so with cardio and floor workouts rather than weightlifting, but having a coach that guides you in VR can give the extra push that people need.

• VR Skin

Haptics are absolutely an important part of VR and the sooner they can migrate away from controllers, the better. This allows for a more realistic touch sensation than moving around and holding things with a controller.

• Adobe Appears! (in AR space)

I think AR cameras will definitely be regarded as important if we are shifting to an AR based society. Doinf something like taking AR pictures in real-time seems interesting.

Absolutely Silly

• VR for Cows and Milk Production

Do I really need to say anything about this one? The headset doesn’t even cover the cow’s eyes correctly!

• VR for Women in Labour

I feel that labour pains are too intense that a virtual environment would not be helpful in easingba prexisting pain.

• VR Live Concerts
  

One of the best parts of a love concert is how analog it is. You get to meet and talk to other people, dance, look at all the imperfections. Something is lost when that shifts into Vr, that I’d loses its appeal

• Death of Mobile VR

Phone VR may be dying out, but that is only considering the current generation of phones. I think that there is still potential for phone based VR in future devices, that may be designed with more of a VR focus.

For my final project, I worked with Kenneth and Kennedy to present Extinction: A Commentary on Urbanization in Natural Settings, which showcase the animals of the African Safari going extinct, until we see these animals again as an exhibit in the Shanghai Natural History Museum.

My primary focus was the visual post-production of the project. From the 360 video we took from inside the museum, I took some still frames from the shot and used Photoshop to change the environment to a full landscape. I did this several times, with each iteration removing an animal, until the final image was just an empty landscape. I then used Premiere to cut together these images with fade transitions to provide the effect of the animals disappearing.

Some of the difficulties I ran into while working on this project was that I had issues with creating a stereoscopic image. I attempted to edit both eyes individually but there was too much discrepancy between the two images that there was weird artifacting and graininess from this. Because of this, I chose to leave the final video in 2D, until it fades back into the museum, which is 3D.

I feared that the 2D shift into 3D may have looked strange, but based on the expressions that people made afterwards, most were quite pleased with our work. I knew that if I wanted criticism, the most genuine responses were going to be the reaction of children. Based on the results of the show, I can say most of the kids really enjoyed our project and it was amazing to see their fascination when they see the animals dissapearing.

In terms of improvement, I would hope that there is another method as to actually making the image stereoscopic. Perhaps there is a way, but my Photoshop skills is not to that caliber. I would hope that I could improve on that. Our 360 audio also was not functional, as it played a mono channel in both ears. The ambisonic sound was a final and last minute decision and went without a lot of testing and debugging. In terms of that, I wish we had started working on audio earlier. I would also wish that the first portion wasn’t static. For example I would have preferred to see some moving animals as a video rather than a still image. I think if I were to redo my project differently, I would have made my own environment and added 3D models that moved, but I felt that my current skills in 3D game engines are not good enough to realistically do this.

1.) BBC Spacewalk: The Spacewalk experience was one of two vive experiences that I tried during our time in the immersive media lab. The entire experience was computer generated and really emulated the gravity of outer space well. However, I found that the grabbing physics were a little off. I also found that the space physics invoked very intense motion sickness due to the high speed of turning in motion.

2.) Tilt Brush: I found that the tilt brush experience is very reminiscent of that of a 3D pen, where you can draw in a three dimensional space. Though appearing very fun, I found it somewhat of a gimmick. It feels somewhat like a tech demo showcasing VR capabilities, rather than an experience I would want to revisit.

3.) YouTube VR: I experienced this on the Oculus Go, where my main form of control is from tilting my head. This works great for 360 videos, and the impression I had from watching regular videos in VR is reminiscent of a movie theatre, implementing some form of false distance from the “screen”. However, I found that the video quality after processing is somewhat low to have a great VR experience, which takes away from the immersion, as well as the lack of directional audio.

Time Lapse of Seattle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2MTiUGvqyE

Article Relating to the Video: https://medium.com/hackernoon/seattle-3-year-time-lapse-video-from-the-space-needle-9a9e76cfe8bf

Several places come to mind considering the requirements of our project,

1.) Jing an Temple

  

I’m particularly intrigued by this location because of how the subject remains mostly unchanged, however today the surrounding area is extremely gentrified. I think it may be interesting to see the progression of the surroundings, while the focal point of the temple remains the same.

2.) The Bund

The Bund is an extremely changed part of Shanghai, particularly after the first opium wars when the British took control of the area. Most of the infrastructure and cultural relevance stems from that period. Today, the same architecture and buildings are still there, however, it has been gentrified to carry luxury brand stores, not to mention the skyline of skyscrapers in Lujiazui right across the river

3.) Lujiazui

  

In the 1970s and 80s, Pudong was not developed. There were no buildings or commerce like it is today. Lujiazui was farmland. It may be interesting to consider this since the particular area developed extremely quickly. Within 30 years it developed from undeveloped farmland to one of the biggest commerce capitals of the world.