Baichen’s VR AR & MR Blog
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Contextual & Theoretical Studies 2 Uncategorised

Part 1 Ideas Generation

I was inspired by five words I brainstormed in class: Mixed Reality, Phygital, Human-Computer Interaction, Virtual Reality, and Innovation. These concepts led me to choose my dissertation topic. Having watched and experienced Meta’s latest Mixed Reality headset, the Meta Quest 3, which is set to release in 2023, I was fascinated by the potential of MR technology. It struck me as a field ripe for exploration. After considering various topics related to MR, I finally decided on a thesis exploring how Mixed Reality technology is transforming our world. I began my research by seeking out pertinent information in the field of Mixed Reality.

Meta Quest 3

I started by asking myself a lot of questions based on my understanding of MR
How does MR work?
How does MR affect the user experience?
What are the main areas in which MR is currently being used?
What are the main challenges faced when designing and developing MR applications?
What are the considerations of MR in dealing with user data and privacy?
What are the ethical and social issues that may arise from MR?
…………

Based on these questions I have targeted my dissertation to a topic that can cover all of these queries, which is MR technology fusion reshaping our world.

Part 2 Determine Article Content

On the topic of how MR technology is reshaping our world I research and write what I think should be discussed in each section.

  • Introduction: Examines MR’s evolution and its transformative applications, especially in healthcare.
  • Literature Review: Discusses MR’s development, applications, social impact, and research gaps.
  • Discussion: Delves into MR’s technological evolution, applications in healthcare and education, and societal implications.
  • Conclusion: Summarizes MR’s potential, limitations, and future research directions.

Then I wrote a detailed article outline based on this.

Introduction

  • Introduction to the concept and significance of Mixed Reality (MR).
  • Historical development and early contributions to MR technology.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Literature Review

  • The evolution of Mixed Reality technology from concept to practical application.

Chapter 2: Evolution of Mixed Reality Technology

  • Milestones in the development of MR technology.
  • Exploration of the connection between Phygital and MR.

Chapter 3: Application Fields of Mixed Reality Technology

  • Applications of MR in healthcare, entertainment, and education.
  • Case studies and examples of MR applications.

Chapter 4: The Impact of MR on Society and Culture

  • Effects on communication, social interactions, and consumerism.
  • Ethical concerns and privacy issues.

Chapter 5: Identification of Research Gaps

  • Need for comprehensive studies on MR’s effectiveness and long-term impacts.

Discussion

Chapter 1: Technological Evolution and Principles of MR

  • Fusion of digital and physical realities.
  • Breakthroughs in MR headset technology.
  • Expansion and societal impact of MR.

Chapter 2: Application of MR in Diverse Fields

  • Transformation of healthcare through MR.
  • The role of MR in education and entertainment.
  • Comparative analysis of MR applications across various fields.

Chapter 3: Societal Implications and Ethical Considerations

  • Cultural and social dynamics influenced by MR.
  • Ethical challenges and regulatory approaches.

Conclusion

  • Summary of MR’s technological advancements, applications, and societal impact.
  • Implications for future MR development and further research directions.
  • Limitations of the study and emerging technologies in MR.

Part3 Writing and Paper Analysis

I decided to start writing from the Literature Review section, I found and analysed a number of journals based on the outline of my dissertation and cited a few of the most authoritative articles from them that best fit the content of my essay.

Billinghurst, M. & Kato, H. (1999). Collaborative Mixed Reality. In Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Mixed Reality (ISMR ’99) (pp. 261-284). Berlin: Springer Verlag.

Rosenberg, L.B. (1992). The Use of Virtual Fixtures As Perceptual Overlays to Enhance Operator Performance in Remote Environments. Technical Report AL-TR-0089, USAF Armstrong Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB OH.

Scorzin, P.C. (2023) ‘The ‘Phygital’ as the Virtual Real: The Role of Mixed Realities in Contemporary Art’, in Grabbe, L.C., Rupert-Kruse, P. & Schmitz, N.M. (eds.) Mixed Reality Images: Trilogy of Synthetic Realities III. Büchner-Verlag eG, Marburg/Germany. p. 115.

Vervoorn, M.T., Wulfse, M., Van Doormaal, T.P.C., Ruurda, J.P., Van der Kaaij, N.P., & De Heer, L.M. (2023). Mixed Reality in Modern Surgical and Interventional Practice: Narrative Review of the Literature. JMIR Serious Games, 11, e41297.

Liu, S.-H., Toreini, P. and Maedche, A., 2022. Designing Gaze-Aware Attention Feedback for Learning in Mixed Reality. In: Proceedings of Mensch und Computer 2022. [online] DOI: 10.1145/3543758.3547565.

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Character Design Uncategorised

Part7 Rendering

https://youtu.be/oUJRRi13ky0
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Character Design Uncategorised

Part 3 Retopology

Since there are too many faces in the HPM sculpted in Zbrush, there will be many problems in the animation, so I need to reduce the number of faces in the model by topology. I am using TopoGun, which is a professional topology software. First I imported the obj model I just exported from Zbrush into TopoGun.

I drew the auxiliary lines on the model, and then started retopo them according to the trend of the auxiliary lines.

Adjusting the mesh after drawing the preview mesh.

Click Generate Mesh after adjusting the preview mesh.

Topping up the lower part of the helmet.

Select all vertices on the edge and align them along the x-axis.

Import to Blender and then symmetrical along the x-axis.

5.28 Update, I was not very happy with the results of the previous topology, so I reworked the model.Here are some of the processes.

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Character Design Uncategorised

Part 1 Concept Design

Mood Board

Before creating my character, I was first based on the image of the character I envisioned in my head from the Internet to collect some images to serve as a reference for my design, I was inspired by the game Titanfall II and the image of the pilot in the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, wearing a combat helmet and a tight-fitting combat suit.

Backstory Setting

I started to create the backstory of the character after the initial character image was decided.

World background: In the future world, the world is divided into several camps due to the conflict of interests and resources between countries, Rin’s camp is the “Free Alliance”, which advocates individual freedom and equality, and is committed to maintaining peace and security in the world.
However, there is another powerful camp, called the “Unity Empire”, which has great technological and military power and tries to unify the world by force. Tensions between the Freedom Alliance and the Empire of Unity escalate and fierce battles break out from time to time.Mecha technology has become the focus of competition among the major powers. Mecha is a kind of robot made of high-tech materials, with strong combat ability and defense, and has become an indispensable combat force in the armies of various countries.

Character background: Rin is a 19-year-old girl born into an engineer family. She has been dealing with machines since she was young, even assembling robots with the materials her father used at work. Due to the outbreak of war, Rin was called to join the military academy after graduating from high school. Later, thanks to her outstanding mechanical skills, she was recruited into the mecha training camp. Due to the urgency of the war, Rin was sent to the front line as a second lieutenant and mecha pilot after only half a year of training. Like many new soldiers on the battlefield, Rin was full of passion for war. She won overwhelming victories with her mecha many times, until she encountered that blood-red imperial mecha in a chance encounter battle. Her entire unit was wiped out, and her mecha was destroyed. Fortunately, the life support system in the cockpit saved her life. It was then that she realized that as an inexperienced pilot, she was no match for the imperial pilots, who may have been small in numbers but were rich in experience. Since then, Rin has become silent and taciturn, a true warrior.

Sketch

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Uncategorised

How to achieve self-identity in VR

Based on what was mentioned in class about people’s self-perception of their vr avatars, I learnt that for each individual, characteristics such as gender, skin colour, appearance and race are not self-determined. Now, the advent of VR has changed this fact. In the virtual world, you can choose the colour of your skin at will and decide for yourself whether to be a man or a woman or even not human. For example, in the game vrchat, players can upload their own models as their avatars, which is why many of the beautiful girls in this game open their mouths as male voices.

With a VR headset, you will not be able to see your real body. vr is special in that it allowsIt allows us to ignore our original body and replace it with a new self-image. As depicted in The Matrix, in the near future, people will spend a lot of time in VR worlds, living with others in a new self-image.

Studies have shown that a person’s looks and body shape tend to influence their behaviour, for example, good-looking people tend to have more confidence. Avatars and other virtual images used on social networks also tend to have an impact on the psychological state of the user. So do VR avatars also affect people’s psychological perceptions and therefore change their behaviour?

I read about research by Harvard academic Nick Yee, who discovered a phenomenon known as the Proteus effect.Proteus is an ancient Greek mythological creature that can constantly change itself.Yee wants to suggest that people’s behaviour is influenced by their fictitious images in the imaginary world.

A 2009 experiment by Yee, Bailenson and Ducheneaut explored the effect of avatar appearance on user behaviour. In this experiment, some of the subjects’ avatars were relatively unattractive, while others had higher value avatars. The subjects chatted as avatars in the virtual world for 20 minutes and were found to be more confident in their avatars. The evaluator recorded the amount of personal information revealed by the subjects and found that those with higher face value revealed more personal information.

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Fantasy Environment Uncategorised

Part 6 Animation

First, add noise modifiers to the XYZ axis of rotation of the camera, respectively, by adjusting the intensity to simulate the sense of shaking when moving the camera. Afterwards, create the animation of the camera moving forward and rotating and add the key frames

https://youtu.be/KTlMt45jI_8

Then add key frames for the power of the spotlight to make it flash to simulate thunder

First create a plane similar in size to the window and subdivide it, then add the fabric modifier, at this point play the animation directly the curtain will fall directly to the ground, so you need to select the top edges of the curtain and then in the weights panel to fix it to the window, then create a wind force field from the back of the curtain blowing forward, so that when the animation is played the curtain will float up, and finally add keyframes to the curtain in the timeline

https://youtu.be/qa0CuBUxHck

Categories
Fantasy Environment Uncategorised

Part 4 Water Surface

First create a plane, then use the Ocean Modifier on this plane, adjust the water height, wave strength, direction and density in the ocean modifier interface

Create the water material, I mainly use the Glass and Transparent nodes, connect the glass and transparent nodes to the blend node, then add a Fresnel node to the blend node to enhance the refraction effect, and then add a ColorPamp node to the fresnel node to enhance its effect. This way the basic water surface material is created. Then use the Glossy, Bump and Noise Texture nodes to further enhance the water surface effect and finally connect to the blend node.

Next I wanted to create the effect of an object floating on the water, first I added a life ring model and then created a plane and subdivided it

Add a Shrinkwrap modifier to the plane, then select the target as the water surface, so that the plane will be attached to the water surface

Then move the life ring to the plane and add copy position and copy rotation to it in the Object Constraint Properties panel, and select the target as the plane, so that when the plane moves and rotates with the waves, the life ring will also move and rotate with the waves, and press H to hide the plane. Add a sequence of frames to it and move it, so that it floats away with the waves in the animation. Then use the same method to make three strips of wood floating on the water surface

https://youtu.be/KtJKb1B97Qw

Categories
360º Filmmaking Uncategorised

Part 5 Final Video

We use the stornaway to complete the final steps, importing the video in to stornaway and then adding options in the middle of the video so that you can choose the direction of the story.

Storyline

Final Video

https://studio.stornaway.io/watch/f2722f81/preview

Categories
Uncategorised Virtual World Building

Part 4 Scene layout and terrain editing

First I added a sky ball in unity.

I then imported the collated models into unity, and added the first-person plug-in.

Wall obtained by splicing and Boolean modifier、

After confirming the position of the model, I started the terrain editing.

I started by dividing the terrain into sections: grass, stone tile ground, road, asphalt ground, and playground. Then added texture maps, normal maps and reflection maps to each of them.Stone tile floorI started by dividing the terrain into sections: grass, road, asphalt, and playground. Then added texture maps, normal maps and reflection maps to each of them.

No Normal Map
With Normal Map
Top view

To keep the scene from looking empty I added a lot of detail to the scene, such as trees, guardrails, shoulders, barricades, etc.

Categories
Augmented Reality Uncategorised

Part 1 Concept Design

When I was given the subject of this virtual world artefact, I associated it with my favourite genre of literature and film, cyberpunk. For example, the film Blade Runner series, the anime Ghost In The Shell series, and the game Cyberpunk 2077, so I chose to set my virtual world setting in a cyberpunk world.

Prostheses are an important element of the cyberpunk world, as they have been used since their inception as a tool to repair people’s disabilities. The first facial prostheses were used to help disfigured soldiers to repair their faces after World War I. Modern prosthesis technology is also used in the medical field, such as artificial hearts. In the future of the cyber world, people will choose to wear cyberwares for a variety of reasons: rigid needs, self-enhancement, entertainment, or fashion. Cyberwares are as much a part of modern culture as tattoos and mobile phones are in our time, but they are also a means of cultural expression, a symbol of fashion, and an efficient and convenient tool, such as the mantis blade in Cyberpunk 2077. At the same time, the cyberpunk world is an era in which the world is connected by a vast information network, so some people have modified parts of their bodies, people have kept only their brains and mechanised their entire bodies, and people who have turned themselves into a cyborg. Almost all human beings have been modified to varying degrees, and have a body with a port for connection to the network (at the back of the neck); for them, the body is simply a computer terminal, a container for the soul. I think it is highly likely that this will happen in our current world, where Elon Musk is working on his brain-computer interface, and I believe that this technology will be used in the near future.

In the Ghost In The Shell, the heroine, Suiko Kusanagi, is a full-blown cyborg, with a human appearance but a cold prosthetic body all over, even her brain is a machine that holds human souls and memories (similar to the concept of the relic chip set up in Cyberpunk 2077). So the question arises, is the cyberized me still ‘me’? As the name of the anime Ghost In The Shell suggests, which is the main body of me, GHOST or SHELL? And how can I prove the existence of ‘I’? So with this question in mind I created this AR avatar, when I use it, my facial skin will flip open like the geisha robot in the Ghost In The Shell, revealing the machine structure inside. I wanted to find the definition of the human through this process of transforming from a human exterior to a mechanical interior.

MOOD BOARD