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

Project 1 Proposal

Presentation for Project 1 Proposal

End Presentation for Project 1

Project 1 In-Class Activity

Project 2 Proposal

Presentation for Project 2 Proposal

Poster <ADD LINK>

In-class Activity <ADD LINK>

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 N [short description] <ADD LINK>

Google Earth VR

Google Earth Web

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

  • Using Remote Sensing and Machine Learning to Locate Groundwater Discharge to Salmon-Bearing Streams

  • Neuroradiologic Evaluation of MRI in High-Contact Sports

  • Widespread Positive Direct and Indirect Effects of Regular Physical Activity on the Developing Functional Connectome in Early Adolescence 

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

• Found Global Country data of groundwater conditions

• 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

• Unity Tutorial on Creating 3D Rotating Earth Model

• Blender Tutorial on Creating 3D Earth's Inner Core

• Fixing Pink Materials in Unity

• Unreal Engine Tutorial On Creating Earth

02/15/23 -  2.5 Hour

• Finished 3D Rotating Earth Model and learned how to record the game play of the model

  • Exporting Video of Unity Scene

• 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

02/16/23 -  1 Hour

• Tried  to make a layered environment in Blender

  • Wireframe and Solid Object in Blender

• How to Make a Statistical Map in Blender

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?

• Import Shapefile Into Unity

• Found Shapefile Data of World Map boundaries

• Downloaded QGis

02/22/23 -  1 Hour

• Installed BlenderGIS Add-On and imported shapefile of world map

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

• How to Load a Level on Button Click

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

• Object Selection Outline

• Displaying Text OnMouseOver

• 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 -  X 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