Weekly accomplishments
Continuing from my previous post, I created another prototype for a “tabletop AR experience to inspire creativity” and focused on figuring out the best settings for my materials from blender to the importing process. I also created a custom marker to test out how that works, which I printed out on an 8″x11″ piece of paper. It seems to work better if the QR code is not overlapping the marker. The viewer can also rotate and zoom in on the model using their finger.

Challenges
I feel like I’m getting comfortable with this workflow, which was my main challenge in the beginning. My next challenge will be how this is displayed in the space and solidifying the working title and marker. Another issue will be figuring out of I need to re-orient the models to work if the marker is vertical instead of flat.

Future Work
Next week I’ll be focusing on the display, poster and final form of what I could bring to the April 7th event for testing. I think for the final month of this project following that I’ll be able to see how people responded and make adjustments, since I plan to have a few different experiences for people to view rather than just one.

Weekly accomplishments
Over Spring Break, I was able to get more testing done with a working prototype, from creating an animated 3D model to making it accessible via a link. The idea I decided to move forward with is “tabletop AR experiences to inspire creativity” to focus on the study areas where students normally spend time in the WID building.

This is an example of how it would work and the first prototype I created, it works best when printed out and viewed flat on a table.

This is a screenshot of what it looks like:

Challenges
The challenges so far last week have been determining the scope of what’s realistic to achieve in the timeframe of this project, but I think I found a good balance of what will be feasible and will fulfill the desired accessibility needs.

Future Work
The rest of this week will be used to focus on the aesthetics of the models, and fine tuning the materials and lighting of the models since the first prototype is fairly rough. I would like each study area to have a variety of experiences so the students can get the feeling of exploration and discovery while viewing the works.

Weekly accomplishments
This week I worked on some concepts, continued testing and toured the space at WID to explore potential layouts for the exhibit. The concepts around this piece will be related to the process of discovery. Including themes surrounding creativity, inspiration, experimentation and cycles.

Concept art for ideas in the space abstract these themes meant to be viewed by the students who study in these areas and serve as a source of inspiration & to help spark creativity. This will continue to evolve over the coming weeks as I continue testing.

Weekly challenges
This week’s challenges have been that Reality Composer seems to be the obvious choice for development, but makes the experience limited to iOS devices.
I was able to get a working test from AR.js studio, but the limitation with that platform is the experience can only be viewed while the QR marker is within sight of the viewfinder, whereas with Reality Composer the viewer is not limited from that particular viewpoint.

Future Work
Over spring break I’ll be continuing testing and creating prototypes while planning out the exhibit within the space.

Weekly accomplishments:
This week I was able to run my first test in AR, after doing some troubleshooting with AR.js Studio I determined it would be a good idea to try a test with Reality Composer, and it worked very well. The user interface is relatively seamless and much easier to use, I also received a contact at WID as a venue for this project, which is great news.

This test is an example of one of my abstract 3D sculptures created in Blender, called “Comfort Sculpture”. I was able to test the relative scale to the room and viewer to give me a sense of how it translates from the software to the AR viewer.

Challenges:
Some challenges this week was shifting focus to a different software, what I liked about AR.js Studio was its capability to be used cross-platform, since Reality Composer will be specific to iOS devices.

Future work:
Next week I’ll be focusing on the overall vision, concept and design for the project aesthetics, as well as scheduling a time to tour around WID. The final link technologically will also be publishing it to a linked website that can be scanned via QR codes.