PROPOSALS

Project 1 Proposal 

Presentation for Project 1 Proposal 

• Proposal halfway update plan (document)

• Project 1 Checkin/Update Powerpoint

In-class Activity

End Presentation for Project 1 

Project 2 Proposal 

Presentation for Project 2 Proposal 

Project 2 Update Slides

Poster 

In-class Activity 2

40 second Flash Talk Slides

• 40 second flash talk document

 End Presentation for Project 2

VR Time Spreadsheet

ALL OTHER W IKI CONTRIBUTIONS

CONTRIBUTION 1 Added updates/tips, and potential errors and fixes to MINVR tutorial

CONTRIBUTION 2 Basic Normcore Tutorial and Troubleshooting 

• Created a subpage of the Normcore overview page

CONTRIBUTION 3 Tutorial and troubleshooting on Using DinoVR for Point Cloud Data

• Created a Subpage to the DinoVR Tutorial

CONTRIBUTION 4 Comparing DinoVR vs Unity for Collaborative Point Cloud Visualization

• Created a Subpage to the DinoVR Tutorial

CONTRIBUTION 5 Unity Tutorial and troubleshooting on Using Unity for Visualizing Point Cloud Data in VR

• Created a page on using Unity for Point Cloud Data visualization

CONTRIBUTION 6 VR for Manuscripts

• Explains the potential for using VR to visualize Manuscripts. Sites and links to USC's software description and code.

CONTRIBUTION 7 Added updates to Normcore Tutorial to include using Normcore with OVR

• Now includes how to incorporate Normcore into a Unity Project using OVR. Links to OVR and XR Toolkit comparison page.

CONTRIBUTION 8 Custom Quest 2 Home Environment Tutorial

• Explains how to create your own Quest 2 Home Environment and set the environment as your own home environment.

CONTRIBUTION 9 Manuscript Visualization Software Evaluations 

• Summary of Manuscript Visualization experience evaluations as well as screenshots and downloadable .apk to experience updates.

CONTRIBUTION 10 Immersive Reading Experiences

• Comparison of techniques to create Immersive Reading Experiences as well as related research 

HOURS journal

1/26/21 - 3 Hours

• Example entry.

• Be sure to always include the amount of hours you've worked. 

1/27/21 - 2 Hours

• Another example entry.

• Descriptions of what you did.

• Feel free to add pictures as well!

1/31/22 - 4 Hours

• Set up journal,  joined slack, reviewed course homepage

• 9 separate changes to wiki

  • 10 minute changes:

1. Remove "List of AR software" from under "I want to develop a VR app or experience" since this doesn't seem to be relevant to the user's needs. Instead link to a simple tutorial that will guide the user to develop a simple app or experience.

2. Fix the "jump to" navigation at the bottom of the homepage. Currently, it errors when clicking on anything other than the introduction. It is also rather unnecessary since the other two sections are so close to the intro. Instead change to a jump back to top link.

3.  Make the buttons under "I want to contribute to the wiki" a different color potentially to not only make these resources stand out, but a user who wants to contribute to the wiki probably has something to share rather than those who want to learn from the resources in the wiki. This set of buttons seem to be for a different purpose than the other sets. 

• 1 hour to complete

1. Actually make an intro to WebVR page that the user will be brought to when clicking "Intro to WebVR" on the wiki home page.

2. In VR Development Software, make the order of the summaries in the base page in the same order as the software listed along the side nav-bar. This is for better usability.

3. There are pages comparing VR and AR, but it may be helpful to also explain XR and how it relates to the two. 

• 10 hours to complete

1.  Rather than linking to the page comparing low-budget VR headsets, I think the page linked should be a page that compares all widely used headsets currently and have the current low-budget VR headsets page linked on that page. This would take a while as one would need to compare many different headsets and perhaps make a graphic that summarizes the many pros, cons, and differences between the headsets. This page could also include links to potential reviews of various headsets by trusted critics.

2. Redo / do the landing page for Student research. It would be helpful if this page included a summary of this section. Clicking on this section, I expected resources that would maybe link me to how to participate in VR research at Brown or just in general. It may be beneficial to include such resources.

3. Redo the landing page for VR Development Software: Currently, it is a little confusing what its purpose is. It seems to want to give a sort of summary of each listed software, but much of the stuff listed should honestly go into the individual pages of the software. This page should be redesigned to show a key graphic of each software and perhaps a 1-2 sentence summary of each.

   1. Perhaps make it look a bit more like the VR Visualization Software landing page 

• Messed around with my Quest 2.

• Also, began to ponder some final project ideas by looking into some of the ideas on the project ideas page.  

  • The idea about how examining VR games for collaboration and scientific visualization is especially interesting.

    • Note: Scientific visualization = visualizing large data sets to improve scientists' interpretations

2/2/22 - 3 Hours

• Realized what "link your journal to top of Journal page meant" and did so. (sorry!)

• Software explored:

  • Unity

  • Unreal Engine4

    • Compared and contrasted them. Very similar purposes -> Unity has more assets and seems more open source so will use this between the two

• Project Ideas:

  • Social Science/ Network visualization / personal info (collaborative effort to collect data) 

    • Might have sketchy privacy concerns?

  • Visualization of extinct animals in original environment and in life-like size

  • Research of paintings? / Virtual museums / Data from current museums

    • May be really good for paintings or pieces that are too fragile or big to be displayed in a physical museum

2/3/22 - 1 Hours

• Looked a bit at Unity frameworks and engines with friend

• Made paperspace account and purchased virtual desktop

  • Waiting for course email now

2/6/22 - 2 Hours

• Finished setting up virtual desktop on oculus 

• Messed around on Google Earth VR 

• Completed Google Earth assignment:

  • (images below)

2/7/22 - 3 Hours

• Brainstorm better ideas

  • Found a couple of articles that articulate the interconnection between VR, data visualization, and collaboration quite well.

    • My notes (initial ideation/planning/milestones/research):

    • Thinking of putting a couple of these links on the wiki somewhere -> ask prof and TA if we should make changes??

• Did the DinoVR installation

2/8/22 - 1.5 Hours

• Further research my ideas

  • See  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j2AN_8UhNLHhDRdm06X2YLJ4O4LX5O6vIgJgu7e3Yas/edit?usp=sharing for notes and more info about the ideas.

POTENTIAL IDEAS:

1. Library/wiki of animals:

   1. 3 things I will do during the project

      1. Model a collection of animals in a 3D modeling software and model the environment of the animals and have it transported to Unity to be eventually seen on the oculus headset

      2. Allow animals to be placed next to each other for comparison as well as clicking on the animal to see it move

      3. Create an interface to allow others to contribute to the library

   2. One (two potential) class activity:

      1. The class makes a contribution to the library 

         1. There can be a prepared model of an animal and they can load it in

      2. Students choose to compare a collection of animals and interact with the project data

   3. Deliverables

      1. Potential page on the wiki that deals with how to allow multiple users on the same space in VR as well as troubleshooting this area

      2. A link to a collection of tutorials that I followed to be able to model in 3D

         1. This can be useful to those who are starting with no experience and want to see how someone else does it.

2. Social Network Visualization:

   1. 3 things I will do during the project

      1. Model my social network on facebook in the form of a graph with nodes

      2. Display this graph virtually so I can see it in the headset

      3. Figure out/ create an interface so that others can also view their connection as a graph in virtual reality

   2. One class activity:

      1. Someone can load their facebook friends data into a graph

   3. Deliverables:

      1. A wiki page on dealing with meta’s api???

3. Display of Fragile artworks:

   1. 3 things I will do during the project

      1. Somehow scan the pieces in 3D to model them in Blender or Maya

      2. Create an interface to display these works in VR. Essentially create a virtual museum

      3. Implement functionality of being able to click on a piece and walk toward the piece to examine it more closely

   2. One class activity

      1. The class can potentially take a walk around the museum

   3. Deliverables

      1. A demo video of walking in the museum and interacting with it

      2. A wiki page on allowing multiple users to be in the same virtual room?

2/9/22 - 1 hour

• Finished taking pictures of DinoVR

  • It took me a while to run the software again

    • Had to re-extract and do the setup installation portion

  • Took some time to upload and position on Google Doc

2/8/22 - 1 hour

• Made plan/milestones for one of my project ideas

  • Note: I also took notes on this document when Ross reviewed my project

  • Project Idea + Plan + Peer Review Notes: 

2/12/22 - 1.5 hour

• Worried about not having access to original tapestry data, so looked for alternative data of artwork to visualize

• Struggled to find data of artworks relevant to current research topics

  • Added to previously linked google doc

2/13/22 - 2.5 hours

• Looked for alternative plans still related to the original plan of visualizing artwork unable to be displayed in museums due to size and/or fragility

• Also looked into related topics that also meshed artwork (passion), VR, research, collaboration, and data visualization.

  • These ideas included:

    • Simulation of degradation of art mediums

    • Image filtering for art restoration

      • Added relevant links to peer review notes doc

2/14/22 - 7 hours

• Looked more into the topic of painting restoration and restoration of artworks as a potential project Idea

• Talked to a MEMS researcher about VR project 

• Looked a bit more at MEMS

• Came up with a new plan

  • Wrote proposal/powerpoint presentation:

    • Link to powerpoint: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gm23lGW8pvDUMHqykoXXhU78ZGglUiRjSUc4Q-1Nrbw/edit?usp=sharing

Schedule:

2/15 - Find how to import CSVs to Unity 

2/17 - Have data imported into Unity 

• View the data in Unity

• Find how to export into headset

2/22 - Be able to view data in headset

• Implement features

  • Click on a point to see a value

  • Slide slider to potentially denoise the data

• 2/25 - features implemented

  • You should be able to click on multiple points

    • Have a reset button

• Research how to implement multi-user functionality

• Implement multi-user functionality

3/01 - Multiple people can view and interact with data

Viewing the same  data using other software

• Try loading and viewing data using Visualitics

  • Find tutorials on how to use Visualitics

• Document experience and difficulties

3/03 - Implemented data viz using Visualitics and multiple users can view

• Try loading and viewing data using D6 VR

  • Find tutorials on how to use D6 VR

• Document experience and difficulties

• 3/05 -  Implemented data viz using D6 VR  and multiple users can view

• Try loading and viewing data using Immersion Analytics

  • Find tutorials on how to use Immersion Analytics

• Document experience and difficulties

3/08 -  Implemented data viz using using Immersion Analytics and/or D6 VR and multiple users can view

• Compile notes and write wiki pages comparing the experience of using these different softwares and resources that helped (tutorials, websites, etc.)

3/10 - Wiki pages/deliverables finished

2/16/22 -2 hours

• Looked at the data and the github for the tapestry project

• Edited Journal and linked proposal and presentation to journal

• Looked at potential VR talks to attend

• Graded my own Journal

• Grade for Journal: 4/4.5

  • I wouldn't say my journal is amazing and exceeds expectations but I do think it meets expectations and I have been updating it rather often. 

Self Evaluation

• Journal activities are explicitly and clearly related to course deliverables - 5

• deliverables are described and attributed in wiki - 4

• report states total amount of time - 5

• total time is appropriate - 4

(note: look into mapbox)

2/17/22 -2 hours

• Did research on IATK  

  • Link on the IATK Github for Mac Users led to a broken page

  • Looked at notes on wiki for IATK and realised it did not work on Mac

  • Searching IATK for Mac and similar queries was futile since there were no helpful results on google

• Tried to find other toolkits that were compatible with Mac

• Decided to combine Unity functionalities and XR Interaction Toolkit to have same results

2/19/22 -1.5 hour

• Watched 10 minute C# tutorial

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFayQioG71A

• Followed tutorial on loading scenes from Unity into Oculus 2

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyxbA2bm7os

    • This tutorial was very fast. I had to slow down and pause every few seconds to follow along.

  • Was slow very successful in doing so

    • Took a while with getting developer mode to work

2/22/22 & 2/24/22 - 4.5 hours

• Followed this tutorial on creating scatterplots in 3D for Unity

  • Started notes on tutorial for the wiki for future users since the tutorial is from 2017 (a bit old)

  • First was able to exactly replicate the results from the tutorial

  • I then swapped in my own data and garnered favorable results (see section below)

    • Made computer very slow and laggy. Searched for alternative ways to optimize rendering.

Peer-evaluation (by Jennifer)

• Journal activities are explicitly and clearly related to course deliverables - 4

• deliverables are described and attributed in wiki - 5

• report states total amount of time - 5

• total time is appropriate - 4

2/25/22 - 4 hours

• Followed this tutorial to better understand the most updated version of the Unity's XR Interaction Toolkit

  • Started notes on the tutorial as well as wiki content for uploading custom templates into Unity

    • Really struggled for a bit because importing for Windows and for Mac followed different file paths and didn't realize the terminal was needed to access the files in unity.app

  • Managed to view a cube in VR and move around it and turn using the left and right joysticks

• Meshed the scatterplot tutorial and this one to move the data into the headset.

  • Able to view data in the headset but incredibly laggy

• Created a git repository for the project with the default .gitignore for Unity and made 2 commits

2/26/22 - 1 hours

• Made a megafile to consolidate my primary notes for this project

• Messed around with the color of the data

  • Wanted the color to display the difference in z-values since it is what is most interesting to scientists handling this data

• Attempted to make the rendering less slow by rendering every 3rd, 5th, and 10th data point

2/27/22 - 4 hours

• Tried implementing click functionality of data points

  • Took a long time to figure out keywords to search for (aka. XR interaction tookit raytracing and UI interaction)

  • Watched and read multiple tutorials to know what I needed to do

  • Followed this tutorial on UI Interactions in VR

2/28/22 - 2.5 hours

• Created the Progress Update powerpoint

  • Collected clips and pictures

  • Ensured that video clips worked when opened as .pptx

  • NOTES: 

    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFuV0HD4Veg&ab_channel=Jack-UnityBlockchainandXRTutorials -> normcore

    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J78uxCPO4rs&ab_channel=MatthewCelia -> normcore and names

    • Note: skipped a bunch of stuff here because sites was just not cooperating -> will update sometime next week

3/4/22 - 4.5 hours

• Debug project -> try to get controllers in VR to match actual movements (were stuck and very laggy)

  • Struggled for an hour and just decided to restart

  • Was stuck for 2 hours on why updates were not rendering -> built the wrong scene

• Reached state before the controllers got stuck

3/7/22 - 4 hours

• Attempt to implement multiplayer/cooperation

  • Decide between Pun2 and Normcore 

    • Watch multiple basic tutorials on both and ended up choosing Normcore

• Followed this Normcore tutorial

  • Nothing happened at first. Created a new project just to test Normcore. Took a couple tries to get it to work.

  • Attempted to follow this testing tutorial to test multiplayer since only one headset

3/9/22 - 8 hours

• DinoVR successfully visualizes MEMS data 

  • Struggled to get SteamVR to work

  • Wrote new python script with correct data types

• Implement realtime grabbable functionality with multiple normcore tutorials

• Wrote wiki for in-class activity and prepped downloadable files and links

  • Took a bit for sidequest to work (had to try some alternative ways at first because .apks were named the same thing)

3/10/22 - 8 hours

• DinoVR successfully visualizes MEMS data 

  • Struggled to get SteamVR to work

  • Wrote new python script with correct data types

• Implement realtime grabbable functionality with multiple normcore tutorials

• Wrote wiki for in-class activity and prepped downloadable files and links

  • Took a bit for sidequest to work (had to try some alternative ways at first because .apks were named the same thing)

3/15/22 - 8 hours

• Write Wiki Deliverables:

  • Basic Normcore Tutorial and Troubleshooting (Created a subpage of the Normcore overview page)

  • Tutorial and troubleshooting on Using DinoVR for Point Cloud Data (Created a Subpage to the DinoVR Tutorial)

  • Comparing DinoVR vs Unity for Collaborative Point Cloud Visualization (Created a Subpage to the DinoVR Tutorial)

• Wrote Presentation for Final Project Presentation and linked to journal

3/21/22 - 6.5 hours

• Wrote final wiki deliverable

• Read the Seven Scenarios paper (3 hours)

• Project 2 ideation

  • Project 2 ideas inspired by Seven Scenarios

3/23/22 - 5 hours

• Brainstorm and research potential Project 2 Ideas

• Wrote and linked Project 2 Proposal and Presentation

  • Project 2 Proposal 

    • Note that this includes some notes about possible codebases to look at for AFrame

  • Presentation for Project 2 Proposal 

3/31/22 - 1 hour

• Went to  webinar on VR where a really neat project was presented.

• According to the project description, it is "an immersive 3D setting that turns the subtext of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower into literal text that has the power to shape the natural and built environment. " 

  • "California Text + Terrain"

4/1/22 - 1 hour

• Met with Professor Lynn Dodd to try the virtual manuscript VR experience