Brett Halperin journal

Activity Log

Week 1: Experimenting with A-Frame (VR for the masses) 

• 1/28, 12 - 2:00 PM, 4:00 - 5:00 PM: Worked on creating VR environment with A-Frame (for Googlecardboard) 

• 1/29, 10 - 11:00 AM: Browsed website and created journal page 

• 1/29 2:00 -  5:00 PM:  I am testing the virtual reality environment that I created with A-Frame and hosted on glitch. I am experiencing a lot of problems with interacting in the environment via Google Cardboard. This is of particular interest because Google Cardboard is the only VR technology somewhat accessible to the masses. And it is clunky and unreliable. I am experiencing 'double vision' and I think because of an issue with the iPhone scanning an (incompatible?) QR code on the Google Cardboard. I am reading different threads online trying to get it to work. 

• 1/31 8:00 - 11:00 PM Work on A-frame VR environment and testing with Google Day Dream 

• 2/1 8:00 - 11:00 AM Continue working on A-frame VR environment and testing with Google Day Dream 

• 2/2 12:30 - 3:30 PM, 5:00 - 6:00 PM, 8:00 - 9:00 PM, Finished coding and testing A-Frame VR environment -- check it out at  www.technicolor-technoutopia.glitch.me !

• 2/5 2:00 - 4:00 PM, 5:00 - 7:00 PM, Completed Blender physics simulation tutorial (cloth) 

• 2/6  9:30 - 10:00 AM Updated wiki with Blender physics simulation tutorials

• 2/7  4:00 - 7:00 PM  Added textures and aesthetics to Blender cloth simulation 

• 2/10  7:00 - 9:00 PM:  Completed wrecking ball tutorial

• 2/12 1:00 - 2:00 PM: Attended Visual Computing Talk

• 2/12 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM: Added textures and aesthetics to Blender wrecking ball simulation

• 2/14 12:00 - 1:00 PM: Attended minVR meeting

• Road Map:  

Total hours as of 2/15: 27 hours 

Deliverables:

• • 1. A-Frame tutorial: written instructions to build a small (hello) world  with A-Frame (to be published under "Tutorials")

    2. A-Frame Review (to be published under VR Software Development) 

    3. Blender tutorials: physics simulation. I will evaluate  physics simulations in Blender (to be published under "Tutorials" as of now, but may collaborate with a classmate to compare this to another software for 'VR for Science' and publish it under "Comparisons")

    4. User-study:  I will evaluate Blender learning curve, the accessibility, user experience, etc. (to be published under "Findings") 

Activities to be complete by 3/8:  

A-Frame, to be complete by 3/1: 

• • • • Completed A-frame tutorials and built VR environment  to learn the ropes (17 hours)

      • Document A-Frame tutorials (hours TBD)

      • Add A-frame analysis to VR development software  (hours TBD)

      • Collaborate with Ankita and Linda on A-Frame tutorial/workshop  (hours TBD)

Blender, to be completed by 3/8: 

• • • • Completed blender physics simulations tutorials -- cloth and wrecking ball (10 hours) 

      • Collaborate with Ankita and Linda on Blender user-study (hours TBD)

      • Collaborate with VR for Science folks to compare with another software - X hours (hours TBD)

Relationship between deliverable and activities: 

• • • • Exploring A-Frame and completing tutorials enables me to learn and therefore document how to build a "Hello World" VR environment. 

      • Experimenting with physics simulations in Blender will enable me to team up with another classmate to comparatively analyze Blender's science applications with those of another software. 

      • Using A-Frame and Blender enables me to collaborate with other classmates on user studies / user experience.