The 9 students were asked to reflect on their confinement environments and express their feelings about it. Though they knew the final project would be in VR, they began with conventional photography. They then learned photogrammetry with their smartphones (mostly using Metashape) and how to export to and compose in Unity, while also writing and recording 30-second personal voice-overs and background audio. They also added simple shapes, lighting, and “camera on rails” movement, then exported to stereo-panoramic video, which we titled and uploaded to YouTube as a 5-minute a 3D 360 video.
Special thanks to David Santiano, our Research Associate for Telepresence!
We live in a society where everyone has never been so closely connected. As the butterfly effect suggests, the behavior of each individual can result in a bigger change and eventually transform the reality around us. In (A)synchronous force, a virtual object serves as the metaphor for such a ‘result’ of collective actions. Taking four videos of body movement as the input, the audience experiences how movement gestures apply forces to an object on the screen and together create the movement of the object. The asynchronous videos allow the audience to transcend the limitations of time and space. The visualization of the synchronous interaction attempts to extend the understanding of social interaction and connection.
Inspired by the story of the butterfly dream written by Zhuangzi, this project aims to illustrate the mind flow of different layers of the dream. From the surface of the dream to the subconsciousness, the audience will go deeper and deeper. With the boundary of virtual and reality being questioned, people are led to Zhuangzi’ inquiry from thousands of years ago – Am I dreaming of the butterfly, or the butterfly is dreaming of me?
Instead of showing numbers that quantify the level of happiness of analysis about the reasons for happiness, this data visualization takes a more emotional path. Here the audience will be about to immerse in the exploration of 100,000 happy moments written down by different individuals. Features like filters and brushes enable the viewers to look closer to the moments and encounter surprises. Details about the dataset are also provided in the “details” page. (By clicking the details button the viewer can navigate to it.)
Rhythm, or 律 in Chinese, means both the pattern of things and the rhythm of sound. In this project, we aim to explore the rhythm of body movement and how can it be integrated into the computer graphics. The hand gesture and body movement of the dancer guide the movement and change of the pattern, the pattern in return communicates with the dancer while maintaining its own rhythm.