Topic Exploration: VR/AR
Topic: VR/AR
FACILITATED BY: Hridae, Ruitao, Jackie, Yuan
During their lecture I learned about the differences between AR, MR, and VR. AR is just an overlay over reality while MR allows users to interact with the overlay. VR fully immerses users into virtual reality. It’s truly a spectrum from the real world to the virtual world because there are differing levels of immersion. They have a brief history of AR which began in the 1970’s but the first operational system was in the 1990’s. There are now tools to help designers design with AR and VR. The main design principles are safety, readability, and usability. Lastly, there are controversies about AR and VR but companies and users are focusing on the benefits such as learning, training, and reduced costs.
We tried out an AR mobile app called “Just a Line.” It allowed us to draw in real space and draw with another user nearby. It was an interesting concept but ultimately it felt that it was mostly for novelty and outdated. The partner feature was very buggy and kept getting disconnected. I enjoyed that they incorporated the interaction but it could be done better.
They allowed people to try out VR but ultimately it wasn’t very successful due to the space we had. We needed more space to accurately set up the sensors and have the devices connected. It would have been fun to try out the bomb defuse game through VR but perhaps another time. Ultimately, I learned about how far AR and VR have come and it’ll be interesting to see how it evolves.
