Liza's Journal
GOALS
before after
---- ----
1 | 5 | articulate VR visualization software tool goals, requirements, and capabilities
1 | 5 | construct meaningful evaluation strategies for software libraries, frameworks, and applications; strategies include surveys, interviews, comparative use, case studies, and web research
1 | 5 | execute tool evaluation strategies
1 | 4 | build visualization software packages
1 | 4 | comparatively analyze software tools based on evaluation
1 | 4 | be familiar with a number of VR software tools and hardware
1 | 4 | think critically about software
3 | 5 | communicate ideas more clearly
1 | 3 | explore how VR could be used collaboratively in OR
PROPOSALS
Presentation for Project 1 Proposal
Project 1 In-Class Activity Handout
End Presentation for Project 1
Project 1 In-Class Activity Results
Project 1 In-Class Activity Results Discussion
Presentation for Project 2 Proposal
Project 2 In-class Activity Handout
End Presentation for Project 2
Project 2 In-Class Activity Results
Project 2 In-Class Activity Results Discussion
Public Demo <ADD LINK>
ALL OTHER WIKI CONTRIBUTIONS
CONTRIBUTION 1 [Combined 2018 Research Findings page (renamed as well) and VR@Brown page since one was referenced in the other] 2018 Research Findings page
CONTRIBUTION 2 [Made Video Tutorials section in Unity ProBuilder page and embedded video going through installation and basic functionality of the Package for Unity 2022.2.6f1] Unity ProBuilder Video Tutorials
CONTRIBUTION 3 [Under VR in Environmental Science tab, made a page about 2D Visualization vs VR visualization for the water data I used in Project 1 -- essentially recapping in-class activity and everyone's responses to my Google Forms] Water Data 2D vs VR
CONTRIBUTIONS 4 and 5 [Under Scientific Data, uploaded the CSV data and Shapefile data I found throughout Project 1] CSV and Shapefile Data
CONTRIBUTION 6 [Made subpage of Scientific Data about CSV for VR ] CSV for VR page
CONTRIBUTION 7 [For Blender, made tutorial page on GIS and importing Shapefile data ] Blender GIS Tutorial Page
CONTRIBUTION 8 [Added Project 2 Data under MRI Data on Scientific Data page; updated softwares to include ParaView, syGlass, and MEDICALHOLODECK; added sentence about OpenNeuro (where I got my data from) ] MRI Imaging Data
CONTRIBUTION 9 [Tutorial on How to View Nii Files in ParaView ] Nii File in Paraview
CONTRIBUTION 10 [Page on ParaView Collaboration Capabilities] ParaView Collaboration
CONTRIBUTION 11 [Project 1 In-Class Activity Handout] Project 1 Handout
CONTRIBUTION 12 [Project 2 In-Class Activity Handout] Project 2 Handout
CONTRIBUTION 13 [Project 2 In-Class Results Discussion Page] Project 2 Results Discussion Page
CONTRIBUTION 14 [syGlass Page ] SyGlass
CONTRIBUTION 15 [MEDICALHOLODECK Page] MEDICALHOLODECK
Google Earth VR
Home
College Dorm
Important Place

Important Place to Home
Google Earth Web
Home
College Dorm
Important Place

Important Place to Home
HOURS SUMMARY
Total: 147.75 hours
HOURS journal
1/26/23 - 4.25 Hours
Three changes should each require ~10 minutes to complete.
Rename the title on the 2018 Research Findings page as it's just Findings right now and then combine the VR@Brown and the 2018 Research Findings pages as they reference each other -- completed this task
Organize research papers and student research pages by year
Contributing page should probably be either moved or should simply become part of the homepage so people know to contact Prof. Laidlaw if they would like to edit the wiki
Three changes should each require ~1 hour to complete.
Add page about EMOTIV EEG headset in VR Hardware with brief description, cost, and some issues others have found
Course Archives is not very useful if we are only seeing the homepage for each year --> so either make it so we can see the journals and projects to make everything easier to find or simply make the Archives not shown in navigation as well
Add a page about EON Reality in VR Software (not sure if would be considered developmental or visualization)
The final three changes should each require ~10 hours to complete.
The entirety of the 2018 Research Findings page could be reorganized a bit clearer such as adding an explanation as to what was being studied, diagrams of the results with descriptions, links to the Google Slides being fixed, etc. --> essentially making the page more professional now that the research was done almost 5 years ago and could be presented to future students as an official, done research project
Add a page about VR in Operations Research in Applications of VR
What is VR for? and Applications of VR are similar ideas, so maybe it would be best to combine or link the pages to save space and make there not be too much information for site visitors
Question(s) for Tuesday's NREL visitor, Kenny Gruchalla, who will give an introduction to VR assisted research software at NREL
How much energy do the visualizations laboratories use on average?
How long did it take for you to learn and become an expert in using VR assisted research software?
Researched StellarX (a VR collaborative software)
OVA "created StellarX to help industries, businesses, and individuals alike access the Metaverse through immersive technologies and artificial intelligence."
Found in 2014 in Canada
It's a codeless platform so anyone with any experience can use it
Pricing varies depending on what you need the software for
If you just want it for personal use and to play with immersive technologies, it's free.
If you have a more professional use for it, it becomes $275/year.
For academic or entreprise use, you need to contact OVA to discuss.
StellarX seems to be already used across industries as the Case Studies page has examples ranging from health care to engineering.
1/31/23 - 1.5 Hours
Setup Quest 2
Read Visualizing Mars Data in OpenSpace project by Anessa Petterruti
Researched papers
02/01/23 - 4 Hours
Inserted GOALS section of journal
Read through Amanda Levy's Project 2 Finalized Plan and Final Poster
Read Beatrice Hoang's Project 2 Poster
Skimmed Teaching Computer Science Algorithms Through Virtual Reality
2-5 potential pieces of software to explore and evaluate for your research project
Unity game engine
Photon Pun 2
3D Slicer
OpenSpace
Using this software and insight from previous projects, create 3-5 potential project ideas in your journal. Be prepared to share concisely (one sentence each) in class. We will ponder their levels of: 1) collaboration, 2) immersive VR, 3) scientific visualization.
Visualize data of different brain imaging scans of different sports
Compare contrast groundwater data of countries and their water economies? Maybe connect to non-profit organizations like Charity: Water?
VR Escape Room that allows 2-4 people to work together to solve the puzzles (no data visualization :-D)
02/03/23 - 3.5 Hours
Installed DinoVR
Finished Google Earth class activity
02/06/23 - 3.75 Hours
Project idea 1: Compare contrast groundwater data of countries and their water economies
Three things that will be done during project:
Pick two VR software to show the data in
Create survey to get class's thoughts on the software
Once data is found and collected, divide the world into 6 areas and put in the data for each area: height of country to represent groundwater level while another indicator to show water economy
Class activity:
Have each pair in class be designated an area in the world to discuss what they saw in terms of the country's groundwater data vs that country's water economy. Survey afterwards to get their thoughts the VR software each pair used.
Potential deliverables:
Page comparing the VR software used by each pair
Making a tutorial on how to use the different software and how to look at the project data
Might create a page on how this project could be expanded to help non-profit organizations like Charity: Water find the places to rehabilitate/build wells
Project idea 2: Visualize how much energy it took to create a renewable energy source versus how much energy it produced over time
Three things that will be done during project:
Pick two VR software to show the data in
Create survey to get class's thoughts on the software
Once data is found, determine indicators that would properly show the change of these renewable energy attributes over time
Class activity:
Maybe groups for each renewable energy source could have a debate of which renewable energy source seems to be evolving better and will be better to use in the future
Potential deliverables:
A page about VR in Renewable Energy
Survey results of class's thoughts on the software's effectiveness of showing the data
Project idea 3: Visualize data of different brain imaging scans of different sports
Three things that will be done during project:
Find at least 3 sports that have brain imaging data of players
Determine how to show the data and what will be compared between sports
Create survey for class to take
Class activity:
Each pair will be given two sports to compare and contrast. If there is time, there can be a discussion about the sports differences. Survey afterwards to get their thoughts on the countries and the VR software.
Potential deliverables:
Could have an additional page in VR in Medicine that connects to VR in Sports
Potential software evaluation metrics
How accessible is the software in terms of color blindness
How quickly can one go through the data in the software without it glitching or lagging
Are the instructions clear and simplified?
Discovered something called Merge
02/07/23 - 1 Hour
Finished DinoVR class activity
02/08/23 - 4.5 Hour
Commented on classmate's project idea on Activity Board
More groundwater data found and another one from Knoema (this one seems most promising as it has data from 2000-2019)
Found interesting data of percentage of countries' population with access to safely managed water from World Bank (2000-2020)
Project plan:
Description: Compare contrast groundwater data of countries and their water economies using a 3D visualization and a VR visualization
02/14: Find water economy data and decide on which groundwater data to use; Sift through data and decide what/how will be visualizing it; Install Blender and run through the tutorials on the wiki; pick VR software, install, and go through tutorials;
02/16: Start/edit pages for the VR software and Blender with any information; Get started on first layer of 3D visualization of data
02/23: Research how to make 3D model and VR collaboration friendly; Continue with 3D visualization.
02/28: Finish 3D visualization of data. Start first layer of VR data visualization.
03/02: Determine what criteria will be evaluated and how that will be evaluated; Create survey for class activity; Continue with VR data visualization
03/07: Finish VR data visualization; Make video tutorials for 3D visualization and for VR visualization.
03/09: Contribute to wiki with data, tutorials; Make sure both visualizations work in collaboration settings; Prep for class activity
02/12/23 - 2 Hour
Worked on Project 1 Proposal Presentation
Prepared Project 1 Proposal Plan page
Installed Blender
02/13/23 - 2 Hour
Did Hello World Tutorial for Blender
Noticed that tutorial instructions are for older version of Blender, same for key shortcuts
Finished Project 1 Proposal Plan page
Evaluation of Project 1 Proposal
The proposed project clearly identifies deliverable additions to our VR Software Wiki : 5
The proposed project involves collaboration in VR : 4
The proposed project involves large scientific data visualization along the lines of the "Scientific Data" wiki page and identifies the specific data type and software that it will use: 3
The proposed project has a realistic schedule with explicit and measurable milestones at least each week and mostly every class: 4/5
The proposed project explicitly evaluates VR software, preferably in comparison to related software: 4
The proposed project includes an in-class activity, which can be formative (early in the project) or evaluative (later in the project): 5
The proposed project has resources available with sufficient documentation: 3/4
02/14/23 - 3.5 Hour
Downloaded Unity using Student License and got free Polygon Asset package
Unity Hello World Tutorial
02/15/23 - 2.5 Hour
Finished 3D Rotating Earth Model and learned how to record the game play of the model
Learned how to import CSV Data to Blender, need to actually adapt for my csv files
Journal Criteria
Journal activities are explicitly and clearly related to course deliverables : 4
Deliverables are described and attributed in wiki: 2
Report states total amount of time: 4
Total time is appropriate: 4



02/18/23 - 1.5 Hour
Implemented Poly Shapes on World Map in Unity of Uruguay, Paraguay, French Guiana, and Uganda with random extrusions using the Pro Builder package on Unity
02/19/23 - 1.5 Hour
Put in more Poly Shapes for some other countries in Unity, tried layering them manually.
Brown Poly Shape Layer with extrusion of 0.1 to represent a ground layer
Blue Poly Shape Layer with random extrusions for now to respresent a water layer
02/21/23 - 4 Hour
Downloaded Paraview and vtk file on Paperspace Machine
Found CSV2Table and One-Click CSV Reader Tool Assets on Unity's Asset Store
Played with that on separate Test Run projects to learn how I could use it to adapt my Water layers
Lightweight CSV Reader for Unity
Tried to edit a PolyShape's extrusion value through C# script, learned PolyBuilder doesn't allow this, so looking into another way to represent countries
Found new dataset from World Bank that looks at volume of renewable fresh water resources available in reach country for 2007, 2012, and 2014
Better to use as previous data set values rarely changed year to year --> maybe a mistake?
Found Shapefile Data of World Map boundaries
Downloaded QGis
World Map shapefile imported into Blender using Google Satellite imaging as GIS basemap
02/23/23 - 2 Hour
GIS Terrain Loader that helps to input shapefiles into Unity costs $46, so not possible to use shapefile in Unity
Decided to simply hard code a couple countries for this first project, so have returned to the poly shapes from 02/19
In Blender, tried to extrude countries; can do it manually but not sure where to find extrusion editor to put an actual number
02/24/23 - 1 Hour
Created three buttons for the years data will be looked at in Unity
02/27/23 - 1 Hour
Created Project 1 Updates Presentation
02/28/23 - 2.5 Hour
Finished Melvin's In-Class Activity (still wasn't able to implement VR software section)
Connected buttons to different scenes in Unity
Made Buttons Colorful to show which year is currently selected and which year is being hovered over
Added Australia PolyShape
03/01/23 - 0.25 Hour
Prepared for Mohammed's and Lexi's In-Class Activities
03/07/23 - 2 Hours
Finished Yifei's, Yuanbo's, and Dave's In-Class Activities
03/09/23 - 5 Hours
Learned Merge Object tool of Poly Builder can be used to combine parts of countries that have to be created separately initially
Found Land Area data in sq. km. for 2007, 2012, and 2014 such that the extrusions of the poly shapes representing countries can be dependent on volume of fresh water resources per sq. km of a country.
Created more countries such that there are 19 countries in total
2007 groundwater data inputted, increased scale of all 3 scenes, and had to reattach Level Loading script to each button
Started on HackMD In-Class Activity Handout -- to be sent out Sunday at the latest
03/10/23 - 10 Hours
Tried to build and run project in VR and fix issues along the way
was not properly building and run when converting 3D project into VR so decided to try to import 3D project objects into Unity's VR template
Importing 3D objects between projects was not possible without exporting 3D project as a package
Lead to having to redefine materials, textures, etc.
Remade buttons so they were compatible with VR system
Meant had to redo the functions for button clicks to switch between levels
Imported XR Interaction toolkit and Oculus XR Plug-In
Wasn't able to enter immersive experience with headset at first
Tried SteamVR, Virtual Desktop, and direct cable; all three weren't working and then realized I hadn't set Android platform to Oculus in Project Settings
Set up teleportation for 2007 Level and included a teleportation point on end of raycast to show where user is teleporting to
Teleportation areas were set to World Map and each countries object (only in 2007 since country objects were merged with Pro Builder)
Setting up teleportation meant adding an XR Origin game object in addition to XR Rig
Messed up the camera angle/height so need to redo that
Inputted the data for 2012 and 2014 water levels
Setup continuous turning at 30 degrees so not too fast
Can thank Fist Full of Shrimp and Justin P Barnett for showing the simple steps to find XR related tools in Unity as Unity documentation is a bit complicated to understand sometimes

03/11/23 - 15 Hours
Fixed User view in VR by simply moving objects to where they can be seen easily
Updated raycast to focus on the closest point only and only have one controller be able to teleport at a time
This is to make it a bit harder to enter the poly shapes, but this is still possible as that does help users reach the top of Luxembourg (in per capita per sq km VR data visualization)
Not sure how to edit mesh collider so that it is not possible to teleport to map underneath the countries
Considering redoing teleportation so that it is just teleportation anchors
Tried this and wasn't working, so in the interest of time as well as allowing users to be able to move where they wanted, I kept teleportation areas
Working on information buttons near each country to tell the user the water economy data
Tried hovering over button mechanism, but text box not appearing in VR
Decided instead to just make like a museum: each country has an image with a text mesh pro on top of it stating the water economy data
Some of these need to be updated still as they may not be at the right heights above country data but text is inputted already
When reviewing the data units to create a scale object so users can try to understand the volume of water being shown, I realized I missed that the renewable internal freshwater resources was stated in cubic meter per capita and not just cubic meter
This meant first VR data visualization was in cubic meter per capita per sq km
Decided to keep this and update in-class activity so that classmates can compare how land area might affect the renewable internal freshwater resources data
Created a second VR data visualization that showed just the cubic meter per capita and updated what the scale object represented
03/12/23 - 5 Hours
Fixed textbox images in second VR data visualization
Finished In-Class Activity Handout and built the two apk files
Had to update apk files because of some minor issues and test run the sideloading with Sidequest and confirming controls for actions in the VR visualizations


03/15/23 - 4 Hours
Created Project 1 End Presentation
Worked on contributions to wiki that were related to Project 1
VR wiki having issue publishing some things so will get back to it
03/20/23 - 1 Hour
Read Seven Scenarios Paper
Project 2 Plan
Not set on specific idea of what data I will use since Project 2 I discussed during presentation is more on the teaching side rather than showing data
To be discussed more with Jakobi and David probably
However, two ideas of the paper did interest me: Communication through visualization and Collaborative Data Analysis
My Project 2 originally was to communicate through visualization how Operations Research algorithms worked with real data. Maybe I could combine this will collaborative data analysis?
03/22/23 - 2 Hours
Project 2 Proposal Self-Evaluation
The proposed project clearly identifies deliverable additions to our VR Software Wiki : 3
The proposed project involves collaboration in VR : 5
The proposed project involves large scientific data visualization along the lines of the "Scientific Data" wiki page and identifies the specific data type and software that it will use: 4
The proposed project has a realistic schedule with explicit and measurable milestones at least each week and mostly every class: 3
The proposed project explicitly evaluates VR software, preferably in comparison to related software: 4
The proposed project includes an in-class activity, which can be formative (early in the project) or evaluative (later in the project): 5
The proposed project has resources available with sufficient documentation: 3/4
03/28/23 - 3 Hours
Worked on viewing MRI images in Slicer
Had to unzip .gz file
Updated 2D vs VR page (can be found in contributions)
04/03/23 - 0.5 Hours
Seven Scenarios Questions
Do people learn better and/or faster using the visualization tool?
Is the tool helpful in explaining and communicating concepts to third parties?
Does the tool support effective and efficient collaborative data analysis?
Does the tool satisfactorily support or stimulate group analysis or sensemaking?
What is the process of collaborative analysis? What are users’ requirements?
04/05/23 - 1 Hours
Worked on viewing Nii file in Paraview
Discovered there is a plugin that needs to be loaded in order to see Nii files
Viewed files in Slicer

3D Slicer viewing of file

Paraview viewing of file
04/06/23 - 1 Hours
Trying to understand how to setup collaboration in Paraview: Paraview Collaboration Wiki
04/18/23 - 5 Hours
Continued trying to figure out how to setup Paraview server
Fixed Ubuntu not starting by uninstalling and installing Ubunutu LTS
Uninstalled version of Paraview and installed Paraview 5.10 through Ubuntu as well as on computer locally
Found OpenVR plugin discussion on Paraview forum after creating forum account
04/19/23 - 1 Hour
OpenVR of Paraview didn't work on local computer due to graphic card not meeting Quest 2 standard for link cable to work
Downloaded Paraview 5.10 on Paperspace machine
Was able to use OpenVR via Paperspace and supposedly created a collaboration server
This will be tested when another person with a headset is free
Server: vrserver.kitware.com is pre-filled and Paraview forum says you can leave it as such
Session: this is the unique name of the session so that other collaborators can join
Name: your name or the name you would like the other collaborators to see connected to your avatar
Port: pre-filled as 5555, when changed to 5556 it couldn't join the server, so I think it needs to be left at 5555
04/20/23 - 2 Hour
Explored collaboration in Paraview with Austin
Explored 3D Slicer VR Extension

04/24/23 - 5 Hours
Tried to find a collaborative version fo 3D slicer --> found a paper about something called GROUP-Slicer but no app was available
Found syGlass View, explored the system and it's collaboration capabilities
04/25/23 - 9 Hours
Tried to resize DICOM file of data through Adobe Photoshop so that syGlass View didn't just show one corner of the brain
Lead to data volume looking a bit flattened so decided to look into more ways of changing data and other softwares
Found MEDICALHOLODECK, explored the system and it's collaboration capabilities
04/26/23 - 5 Hour
Prepped Project 2 Handout and Google Form
Finalized data files and tested MEDICALHOLODECK/Paraview collaboration once more
05/03/23 - 4 Hour
Finished Melvin's in-class activity
Created Project 2 Final presentation
Replicated Project 1 In-Class Activity Handout in the wiki
05/05/23 - 3 Hour
Prepped Flash Talk Presentation and practiced speaking
05/15/23 - 6 Hour
VR Final Poster Finalized
05/16/23 - 6 Hour
Finishing up wiki deliverables and journal entries
Prepping demo
05/17/23 - 4 Hour
Finishing up wiki deliverables and journal entries
Writing self-evaluation email