Second Life

During the workshop I was introduced to Second Life, the virtual world which allows its users to create an avatar and live a 'second life', you meet people from all over the world through the internet. I found it very similar to the 'Sims' games series as you can control your avatar to carry out day to day human activities. I guess the main curiosity about Second Life is how the users choose to represent themselves in terms of appearance and gender and how do their personalities change whilst in the virtual world compared to the real world. Personally I preferred to create an avatar resembling me in terms of appearance and found myself spending vast amounts of time tweaking and playing with the edit appearance tool. I found problems removing the hair, and after a few minutes exploring the virtual world and eventually lost interest. I guess its because of my outgoing personality as I do spend much of my time outdoors.

Here are two screen shots of Second Life

Edit Appearance Tool

Second Life Virtual World

 

Steve Mann - wearcam.org

Steve Mann's work, involves augmentation as he has created surveillance devices to 'compliment' the human body.

As you can see from the picture above, it is a surveillance camera attached to a chain and is ergonomically designed to be placed onto a human chest. The other is a more practical and compact design around the eye. They were designed to wirelessly stream live videos to the internet of whatever the device is recording, in other words whatever the user is viewing at that moment in time. This can be viewed as an example of Mixed reality and also Lifelogging if the intensions were to store and allow the user to review their personal experiences for that day. 

Christian Nold

Christian Nold has a library of artworks he has created but, my focus is on his emotion maps of Greenwich and San Francisco. The visuals on his work are quite amazing and a different way to present graphs, however there are great similarities between his work and Google earth were there are 3D models placed on an illustrated 2D surface. 

The following quote explains how he created them:

"The project was set up as a series of participatory workshops that invited people to borrow a Bio Mapping device and go for a walk. The device measures the wearer's Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), which is an indicator of emotional arousal in conjunction with their geographical location. The resulting maps encourage personal reflection on the complex relationship between us, our environment and our fellow citizens".

Here are some examples of his works

Greenwich Emotion MapSan Francisco Emotion Map

Metaverse Roadmap Document

This document is a very interesting one and i received a detailed lecture based on this document. I was very interesting in the mirror worlds and augmented reality examples, simply because it had given me some inspiration towards initial ideas for my assessment 2 project. However with some extensive reading of the document I feel in order to create a successful assessment 2 project, I may need to implement Virtual Worlds, Mirror Worlds, Augmented Reality, and Life logging into my single project if possible.

 

Here is the a diagram from the Metaverse Document which shows the relationship between: 

• Virtual Worlds,
• Mirror Worlds,
• Augmented Reality, and
• Lifelogging 
  

Please Click Here for the METAVERSE ROADMAP DOCUMENT

Week 2

Into week two now and after some extensive research in the previous week, more references and research links were recommended from the lecture.

This involved

• The Metaverse Roadmap Document - which explains everything needed for this module towards Virtual Worlds, Mirror Worlds, Augmented Reality, and Life logging. The whole module seems to be based on this document.
•  An introduction to Second Life
• And a list of artists including Christian Nold, Jeffrey Shaw, Char Davies, Mark Reaney and Jenney Holzer

ReacTable

Another interesting link I had obtained from this lecture is the ReacTable and found this piece extraordinary. It is described as a "collaborative electronic music instrument with a tabletop tangible muti-touch interface". I consider this piece extraordinary, because of the amount of control you get over these objects and the visual aspect of the table. The way in which the visuals interact and animate with co-ordination towards the music, i feel is absolutely amazing. Different objects obmit different sounds and when within close range to each other they connect creating different effects. It is a unique masterpiece which doesn't require any technical knowledge from the user to create pleasurable sounds.

Please click link to official website were there is a whole range of information present:
http://reactable.iua.upf.edu/?media

Lego Digital Designer

I downloaded a version of the Lego Digital Designer as it is an example of an immersive environment. I found this piece of software very realistic and easy in terms of relation to the real life Lego bricks. As you would expect the tools are very limited compared to an advanced 3D modelling software like Maya or even Google Sketchup. They have the whole range of Lego bricks available and the software can detect if two bricks can physically be put together, if they do not, it will not allow you to place them together. Its just as much fun to play with as real life Lego, but without the mess and is very easy to use. Here is what I have managed to createin a matter of minutes using the "starter models" and "bricks" tools

Johnny Lee - Desktop VR Display

Johnny lee's work is very fascinating and a great example of an immersive environment. His 'Desktop VR Display' and head tracking project allows the user to have a far greater 3D environmental experience, like a VR headset, but without the large equipment. He uses a wii mote and an infa-red device to achieve this and as you move the infa red headset (which represents your eyes position). He has effortlessly found a way to get the most out of the wii mote which is a great design by itself. Take a look at his videos as his work speaks for itself.

LINKS

Click here for Johnny Lee's Blog:

http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/

Avert Fate

From the Unity 3D website it also has a game demo: 'Avert Fate'. This game is a first person shooter where yo navigate through the game environment and the initial objective is to survive and kill the enemy 'Droids' and 'Airborn Drones'. On the download page it reads "Particles, physics, ragdolls, image effects and custom shaders are used to awesome production values. This stunning demo really shows what a two-man team can do with Unity in a couple of months". I too myself was amazed after experiencing Avert Fate and reading this quote. The graphics and animations are truely stunning. Here are some screenshots of other works made by user's:

Room of Shadows

There is also another demo which involves light and common household objects. This demo allows you to select which light you wish to turn on or off (Sun, Kitchen, Bathroom, Foyer or living room light). This then creates shadows, dependant on the position of the household objects and which lights are turned on, just as it would apply in real life. There are also physical attributes present which this example, as you are allowed to move the objects and as you move them, collision detection takes place. For example, as I have tried to move the large dinning table, it knocks over the chairs near by as they touch. Also gravity and weight is present in this demo, as it is slightly more difficult to knock over the large dining table than it is the small chairs. (The dining table weighs more). However the objects do not get damamged or break.

Week 1 Continued

Other interesting phrases i learnt from this lecture involve "Augmented Reality", "Hybrid Reality" and "Mixed Reality". I will start with the definition of Reality, which means 'the world or state of things as they actually exsist. Augmented means to 'be made greater in size or value'. Hybrid means to 'a thing made up by two different elements'. Finally mixed means to 'make or prepare something by combining several elements'. Again these phrases are very similar in terms of their meanings. An example of an Augmented reality would be "Rugby fields an cricket pitches branded by their sponsors; giant logos are inserted onto the fields when viewed on television in real time". An example ofa mixed reality would be the @Eye Toy@ hardware built for the Playstation games console. This requires physical movement from the user to control or manipulate a virtual space view from the television screen.

Unity 3D

Unity 3D is a game/visual engine which allows users in realtime to navigate through a virtual space on a web browser. I found this piece of software amazng because it delivers high quality graphics, with animations, sound and physical attributes. In the Unity 3D website there are a few demos of a navigational 3D virtual space such as Tropical Paradise. This demo has, real time physical water animations, birds flying in the sky and even a Flamengo bird which rus awyay when you try to get near it. So even though there is not much going on, there is a sense of time in the sense that there ar other moving object present within the space. They have also inputted forms of physics as you cannot just walk through a rock, collision detection will occur. with the water, as you walk in it your vision becomes blurred.

Links

http://unity3d.com/gallery/live-demos/tropical-paradise

Week 1

I attended the first lecture and it was just an introduction to the module of Virtual Space. The key concepts covered in this lecture were "Simulation", "Virtuality" and "Artifice". Simulation means to 'imitate the appearance or character of something'. Virtuality means to 'not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so' Artifice means the 'clever or cunning devices or expedients as used to trick or deceive others'. These are excellent starting points for me to find an interesting concept proposal. These words are generally quite similar but intricately very different. I have brainstormed initial ideas that relate to these words.

VIRTUALITY (Examples Of)

• Virtual Reality Headsets 
  
• Gaming

SIMULATION

• Flight Simulators
• Military Simulators
• Healthcare/Clinical Simulators
• Truck Simulators
• Gaming

ARTIFICE

•  Links to 'Artificial'
• ANIMATED FILMS
• Gaming
  

Virtual Reality Booth