VR_EX honours publication by hamish buttle

VR-EX

INTELLEGENT

CONNECTED

EXHIBITION

Hamish Buttle Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours) RMIT UNIVERSITY 2016 S3439536@student.rmit.edu.au Supervisor : Nick Hardiman

Abstract There is a plethora of growing issues in regards to furniture/interior design exhibitions, environmental and accessibility being the key problem areas. My paper titled ‘VR_EX’ details these specific issues and then highlights methodically, how this outdated service’s design can be re-designed by ‘pivoting’ the technology that encapsulates it. This approach in turn aims to create a viable exhibition service that accommodates for the needs of future generations. These designers should then be able to expect their work to be seen on an accessible and global scale without any negative assumptions being drawn towards them, be it environmental or otherwise.

most positive effect in revolutionising exhibition, resolving both the issues of being environmentally irresponsible and inaccessible. These results were then utilized to influence the development of prototypes as well as test these previous assumptions. Furthermore this coincided with the constant input of key stakeholders in the aim to increase the likelihood of success of the service proposition. In conclusion my research and prototyped service design ‘VR_EX’, highlights the benefits that exhibitions located inside of virtual reality and online can have on exhibition that the future generations will greatly appreciate and be comfortable to use.

Through personal immersion, interviews and thorough research regarding the context of exhibitions, a clear understanding of exhibition as a service has been developed. The result of this research presented specific technological platforms that are likely to have the

10 10 10 10 10

Abstract

Methods

Introduction

Methods E V

The Field

Reflection

Context

Bibliography

35 57 75

Introduction After experiencing first hand the exitiment and drawbacks of exhibitions and looking to personally advertise recent design projects, it became apparent that the proccess of being recognised and exhibited was very out of date and hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen great innovation for a extended period of time. The frustration of this less than ideal service design made me feel obliged to reserach for a solution. After reserach into the field It was concluded that nothing exsisted that would directly solve this problem and because of this it was decided that this project would be taken on in an atempt to create a service that is innovative and exiting to use. The direction of the project was then defined towards testing the impacts that exhibition can benifit from in relation to emerging technology. This will be validated through testing and in depth research of the industrys current state as well as compariosions being drawn between emerging technologies The primary technologies to be test will be Virtual reality softwares and hardwares modern graphics processing and the positives and negatives of browser based applications today.

THE FIELD The idea of exhibitions is not new nor revolutionary any more, in fact they are increasingly becoming unethical and are restricting the promotion and growth of industries that they are designed to support. There are also dilemmas in localised exhibitions of furniture and in boutique furniture distribution. Firstly they often add very large markups on furniture putting designers in a position where it is difficult to make a profit, not to mention that they also decide what is and is not good enough to be exhibited. This can sadly leave many excellent designs to remain sight unseen. Also you are playing an aesthetic guessing game when you decide to buy furniture from such distributors. By this I am referring to the annoying trip to the distributor, then having to imagine what the furniture could look like in your house. This is very risky as details can be missed out and your imagination can run wild. With the advent of modern technologies such as VR and AR this should never be the case. Problems also occur in larger exhibitions, Mason & Objet Exhibitions embody similar

complications to small scale distribution and exhibition as well as many more complications. Accessibility in regards to the pricing and location and environmental impacts are the key issues, often easily overlooked. Networking and the retention of what you have seen is problematic too. Plastic bags of bussiness cards and brochures proving to be less than ideal.

Financial Accessibility Accessibility issues in regard to price are numerous. The Price of a small stall is so high that for someone who is starting up and wants to show their work in a place it will be seen, canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. The Price of transporting furniture is also outrageous as companies are having to ship large quantities of furniture from all over the world to populate their stalls whilst putting their furniture at risk of damage. The Price of tickets are very expensive too starting around $70 but sadly this is only for people involved with registered companies, as this exhibition is not open to the public. This is a shame because furniture is in the end, a consumer product, and it would benefit greatly to receive input from

the public as well as business. Also with these pricing issues you exclude many interesting up and coming designs and secondly the people who do manage to afford and come to the show only to be viewed by a limited audience. These prices are damaging to the democratisation of design style, whilst creating a uniform monopolised industry of dull furniture and interior design.

Physical Accessibility There is also an accessibility issue to do with the location of the exhibition. If you are interested and are eligible to attend you are going to have to wait in often gridlock traffic to get there and huge queues to be checked on your arrival. This is going to add to the cost of attending the event as well as take away enjoying the event once you arrive. Due to the share size of the exhibition it is hard to view everything without becoming exhausted and or lost. Retaining the memory of which furniture you liked and who you meet is challenging, especially after mixing business cards and pamphlets or even losing them all together. This is not aided by the fact that you are prohibited from taking photos.

Environmental Impacts The environmental impacts of a large scale furniture exhibition such as ‘Mason and Objet’ is significant. Firstly shipping or flying product around the world puts strain on the environment. Stalls are also assembled with many different materials and fixings, unfortunately when the show comes to an end a large portion of the stalls are not packed up and taken home but are thrown out as it is cheaper. Lots of the materials used to build the stalls also inhibit recycling, such as fixings which include glues, screws, nails as well as the painted and plastered used for surface finishing. Also the large amount of flyers posters and handouts that are often thrown out creating a noticeable environmental issue.

Precedents in Business New precedents are being set in business due to the advent of the e-commerce model. This is radically changing the Business to Consumer supply chain in which, traditionally multiple entities exist such as supplier, manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer and consumer. This Disintermediation is prevalent in companies such as Airbnb and Amazon as they have respectively hosted platforms that act as the new centralised middle men. convenience and trust are proving to be a primary factor in the success of these platforms with the availability of social reviews and free shipping and return [1].

Sotheybys Currently, the rich and famous are touring their prospective homes using virtual reality and in few year so will everyone else. This is spearheaded by Sotheby’s International Realty, they are experimenting with the Samsung Gear VR(phone based platform) in luxury homes in America [2]. To create a VR scene they are scanning the homes at a cost between 300 and 700 dollars with 3d environment scanners. They are created by a company called Matterport and sell their cameras at a whooping 45,000 dollars. Hiring a photographer is the most time and budget effective costing 100 dollars per hour. To navigate the customer are using a hand controller so they do not walk into walls or fall down stairs. This technology is increasing customer accessibility from around the world as well as reducing the need to commuting locally.

NextVR VR is also set to revolutionise the sports and entertainment Industry. NextVR and FOX sports are now broadcasting this year’s NCAA march madness basketball tournament live in VR. It is an immersive experience, all though not without the teething issues, it is set to revolutionise how sports and live entertainment is viewed from around the world. Amazingly this technology which they have developed and named “Lens to Lens” technology can give previously unprecedented access to court side seating that wasn’t previously accessible to the large majority of people. Recently, with the investment from Comcast and Time Warner seeing a 30.5million investment to grow NextVR we can be sure to expect big things in the near future [4].

Real Estate Companies such as the Swiss Archilogic[5] and Shapespark[6] have experimented in the VR field targeting Real Estate. Currently they are not making a significant impact on the market and are struggling to achieve adoption. By promoting customer interaction via VR and Web.Gl browser based graphics within websites of realestate companies they aim to increase the sales and the size of there customer base. In comparison to Sotheby’s they are not making a large impact on the market as of yet and they are not seeing noticeable adoption in the real estate industry, which may be because it is not immersive, realistic or seamless enough of a service. From Technological standpoint it is very impressive but the consumer needs to

Problem Areas

FINACIAL

ISSUES

MANAGABLE

INFO

TRANSPORT

CROWDING

GETTING

PERSONAL

LOST

TRANSPORT

COST

ENVIRONMENTAL

be wowed, they don’t understand the powers at play just what they see on a surface level. Furthermore they do aid the environmental impacts of transport, traveling back and forth from properties, but they do not to eliminate the need to go to an exhibition or open home they just compliment them by adding novelty to the experience.

being process through a games engine such as unity.

IKEA Recently Ikea also made a move into the emerging virtual market, releasing an

Underpinnings of Virtual Reality

interactive online exhibition of a kitchen to showcase and solicit consumer feedback. They used the world leading gaming platform, Steam to launch it. It is designed to be used with the HTC Vive headset and has some very interesting features packed into it. Firstly, Draws and Cabinets can be changed colour with a click of a button. Another feature they added is the ability to view the scene in different perspectives, in this case from someone that is 6.4 foot adult or a 3.3 foot child. This potentially could be very useful to the user as they could spot hidden dangers with what they are purchasing and experiment with possible design solutions. It was cocreated with French company Allegorithmic, using Unreal Engine 4 which is a game creation platform [7].

Facebook-Virtual A social virtual reality has recently been showcasing by Facebook of two people interacting using virtual gestures and voice chat in various environments[8]. This was done using the Oculus Rift and not yet released hand controllers. The demo was located in various photo spheres/panoramic images that could be activated with specific hand gestures. Whilst in the enviroment they show cased taking selfies and posting them to the Facebook website highlighting the functionality that is able to be achieved in socual virtual reality applicaitons. Drawing in 3d space was also showcased as a method of quick content creation. The demo underscores how gestural movements are pivotal to high quality virtual reality experiences.

Realityvirtual.co Reality Virtual is an Auckland based reasearch collective specialising in high quality Virtual Reality applications. A large portion of what they do is centered around environment capturing using photogrammetry. This allows them to create hyper realistic scenes that are directly ready for virtual reality applications

The technology they use involves very high powerd computers with over the top graphics proccessors, that can handle thousands of images at a time being run through the photogrammetry software Reality Capture[9].

Stereoscopic head-mounted displays, commonly referred to today as Virtual Reality headsets, were first demonstrated by Evans and Sutherland in 1967 [10]. By the late 1980s, Jaron Lanier coined the term ‘Virtual Reality’ (VR) and developed the world’s first commercially available head-mounted display(HMD) or virtual reality headset [11]. In later years, there were to be many more entries into the Virtual Reality Hardware market, companies like Fakespace releasing, ‘BOOM’ as well as the University of Illinois in Chicago releasing their ‘CAVE’ system. Virtual Reality, during it’s inception was referred to in alternative terms such as “virtual worlds” and “virtual environments”, reflecting the scope of possibilities that this technology enabled. ‘Virtual Environments’ was often also seen as the prefered term in academia due to the fact that Virtual Reality was still a distance from replicating reality, partially due to the lack of computational developments and partly due to the lack integration and quality of haptic devices. The advancements in HMDs and Virtual Environments, coincided with the inception of the world wide web in December 20, 1990 [12] leading to the creation of Virtual Reality Markup Language(VRML) in 1995, a standardised modeling language aimed for viewing 3d vector graphics on the world wide web. Central to these Virtual Environments was a poligonal computer model, opposed to Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) used for engineering applications. If models were created in the CSG format, boundary representations would then then have to be produced that a polygonal approximation could be derived from. Tessellation algorithms achieved this by substituting the boundary surface representations to a mesh of polygons, (usually triangles) coining the term ‘poly count’ - the amount of polygonal faces that makes a up a model. This polygon count was and still is, a very real performance requirement determining the speed in which a scene renders in ‘real time’. To view this VRML model, plugins would have to be downloaded to provide initial viewing and manipulation tools sets on the desired desktop monitor.

VRML VRML

GAVE

WAY

THE

NATIVELY

SUPPORTED

WEBGL

THREE.JS

WebGL

BABYLON.JS

An early study undertaken by students of the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan highlighted the strengths and drawbacks of the Virtual Reality Markup language [13]. A three-dimensional CAD model was created using Autocad which a polygonal approximation was derived from. They illustrated the increased accessibility by placing this VRML model on the developing world wide web, allowing for customer inspection via fly throughs and walk through navigation. This allowed for increased evaluation of the model and proved to be much more intuitive than traditional blueprints, allowing for for final iterations of the model to be engineered in the most time and cost efficient manner. The study also highlighted pitfalls of VRML, security being the predominant area of concern. VRML being a readable text file, published on the web enabled outsiders with the knowledge of the web address to access the site and reproduce details of its innovative details such as the hull. Encryption and password protection of websites are seen to be the logical solution to this.

The Transition from VRML to WebGL Fast forward to March 2011, version 1.0 of WebGl(Web Graphics Library) specification was released [14]. WebGl is a Javascript API for rendering hardware-accelerated interactive graphics, be it two or three dimensional to a browser. This advancement did away with the pitfall of having to utilize a plugin for rendering models such as VRML in a browser. Furthermore it aided the creation of advanced lighting and material effects development utilizing ‘shaders’ [15]. This lead to a wave of innovation with graphically rich user interfaces inside of web gaming as well as educational and training applications. To address accessibility a plethora of ‘middleware’ javascript libraries were developed that increased accessibility to those who had a more limited knowledge in regards to programming [16]. These libraries enabled these programmers to write using an alternative and simplified set of commands to create objects in three-dimensional space in a browser. Two main middlewares emerged as the most popular, Three.js written by Ricardo Cabello (Mr.doob) in 2010, alongside Babylon. js and API developed by Microsoft during the summer of 2013 [17]. (see graphic on the previous page)

A pioneer in WebGl Virtual Reality experiences, Arturo Paracuellos creator of Inspirit, a responsive VR experience [18], embodies a clever and accessible approach to designing virtual experiences. His platform is designed so that it runs on multiple VR platforms. His responsive methodologies are likened to those of responsive web design, which is the process of websites scaling in size, changing in appearance as well as in behaviour from desktop to mobile. He embodies this responsive method of thinking by embodying a wide range of Virtual Reality HMDs to increase the accessibility of his work. He targeted desktop and the ‘main VR players’, which he defines as the Google Cardboard an entry level phone mounted kit, the Samsung Gear VR, a phone mounted display and the Oculus Rift a computer powered device. To enrich his VR experience Paracuellos comments on the value of referencing and editing examples from three.js website and the importance of including holophonic audio to create convincing immersive experiences, THREE.audio THREE.AudioListener intergrated with SoundJS and PreloadJS to create this. Additionally he comments the importance of keeping the key functionalities of the application to be kept within 30 degrees of the users viewport to reduce strenuous movements as well as refraining from creating “camera movement that isn’t directly initiated by the player”.

Service Design Proposition If exhibitions were to exist within a browser based virtual reality, impacts in regards to accessibility, environment and democratisation of design style could be directly addressed. If stalls where to become virtual they could be viewed by a larger audience and achieve a more enjoyable and personable service including links to websites, email reminders and modern data collection and storage techniques that already utilized in online applications. Environmentally they would avoid the unethical large scale disposal of resources as well as decreased environmental impacts derived from the logistical nightmares of setting up and disposing of resources used in the construction of the exhibition. From the perspective of the user, cues could be avoided leading exhibitions to be a more personable and comfortable experience. To combat democratisation of design the freedom to upload to the site and or to exhibit will be key. To achieve this technology would still have to advance greatly, inevitably when this is to occur exhibitions are sure to be revolutionised in the future. Contemplating this prior research, the likelihood of writing a regular text file in webGl representing the exhibition is likely to lead to an inefficient use of time, consequently games engines and modelling software is intended to be taken advantage of to produce an outcome of the highest quality in the minimum amount of time.. Unity in particular seems the most viable option as it efficiently can compile its C# scripts and 3d data into webGl through creating an Asim.js file. This is illustrated on the following page, also illustrating how it can the be located with in a web application..

THE CONTEXT Demographic Age Brackets People aged between 35-45 are the age bracket that commonly spends the most on furniture, recently the demographic that made up the majority of this age bracket was the ‘baby boomers’ [19]. The demographic that occupied this age bracket is now in a stage of transition, this transition is seeing the x demographic people born between 1982 and 1994, replacing the the ‘baby boomers’ who are now aged between 52 and 70 years old in 2016 [20]. An American study by Nicole Ponder, ‘Consumer Attitudes and Buying Behaviour for home furniture’ details this transition in America and trends that exists within it. It shows that in 2012, Baby Boomers in America accounted 42% of furniture and bedding sales in the US, fast forward to 2014 and the Baby Boomers are now aged between 51- 69 and now account for only 29% of buyers. In contrast the millennials, which in this study are defined as the x and y demographics, only made a mere 12% of this market in 2012 now occupy 37% of furniture and bedding sales in 2014, emerging as the dominant age bracket. Transition of Demographics x-y-z With the transition of most furniture purchases to generation x and y, there are a set of factors that will see a large increase in importance in retaliation to the likelihood of buying

furniture. Firstly due to generation x and y’s online and technological orientation there will be a greater increase of searching for furniture and its related information online as well as purchases. ‘Ponder’ highlights that in 2008 11% of her respondents purchased furniture online compared to 2014 where 21% of people had purchased online and that 50% now said they were also willing to do the same. This online confidence is very much reflective of the x and y generations as they are becoming increasingly oriented towards online activities and using available technologies. It was also noted in ‘Ponders’ study that often it was difficult to determine certain information about furniture. The issue of determining furnitures exact level of environmental friendliness or quality was very hard to determine thus raising the question are there ways around this utilising technology. Social Media for Content Collection With the advent of social media, the use of sites like ‘Pinterest’ and ‘Instagram’ are becoming an increasingly common method of searching. People can determine quality by seeing who else also likes and has used similar furniture as well as using it to search for specifics within furniture such as material or brand. It is sure that the traditional sticker awkwardly located underneath a piece of furniture that shows an

Tech Orientation

66%

70%

81%

95%

X Y BB

arbitrary star rating in relation to environmental friendliness or quality, is hugely impractical and a inaccurate method of displaying this necessary information. Notably also the sentiment of made in “America” or wherever your location may be, is becoming less of a factor towards the likelihood of purchasing in comparison to quality or the environmental friendliness of the object, this again is a phenomena brought about from the transition from the baby boomers to the younger generations. Viewing/Previewing Furniture The Importance of getting the best idea of what furniture might look like in your own home is also a key factor in purchasing. Well procured websites with a plethora of multimedia originally emerged to solve this issue, informing customers as best possible of the functional and aesthetic qualities of their product. Ikea has experimented with emerging technology in attempt to pivot customer expectation towards viewing furniture. The creation of augmented reality using tablets and phones that interact with printed codes in their catalogs placing the furniture in-situ provided many benefits. Ikea found that this greatly solved the issue of 14% of there customers taking home furniture that was the wrong size [21]. This method of promoting sales is said to also be good as it’s akin to “taking the puppy home” [22] which is in reference to not taking returning an item once interacting with it at home. Economy Driven Habits The housing market alongside economy can influence greatly how much and what type of furniture is also bought. Low interest rates lures people into purchasing their own homes in turn driving people by furniture. Due to the large size of this purchase and emotional investment involved furniture of a high quality is likely to be purchased to compliment. This is reflective of the American Housing market where 64% owned their own home in 2014 [23] and more expensive furniture is bought. To the contrary, in Australia the price of owning a house is second to only those of Hong Kong. The typical house in Sydney costs more than 1 million dollars which is 12.2 times that a middle income household earns in a year [24]. This increases the prevalence of renting and intern cheaper and more temporary furniture is bought. Weather or not these families have children or pets can also influence their purchases. Issues such as hygiene and durability are then key issues for these families. This raises the issue of searching for collections of furniture accommodating the needs of those in a range of economic environments.

User Profiles 1: My service should enable people who are looking to purchase furniture for their home or business which could constitute a bustling cafe too a fast pace office. They may have a specific aesthetic requirement to stick too and would like to search and collate a collection of furniture quickly in relation to these needs. They may also require visualisation services to increase the likelihood that the furniture suits their needs. 2: A customer who is looking to furnish a newly built house, would benefit greatly from a centralised exhibition/distribution service. Instead of driving around to collate limited groups of furniture from the exhibitions and distributors, wasting precious time they could complete the necessary research from home. This would save time and precious financial resources which then they can now spend on better furniture for their home ,making their place stand out. If a affordable visualisation tool was accessible from within this service It would also do away with the risky process of guessing with unknown outcomes. 3: It will also be for someone who is looking for inspiration and is looking to just attend an exhibition without the hassles of driving there, getting stuck in traffic and getting lost inside huge warehouses. This user profile will add hugely to the service as there attendance and contribution to the virtual event can lead to more information to be shared via word of mouth. Also to interact with scenes adds the possibility of conversation and networking so people can be more informed for future endeavours and projects. 4: Also this service could be for existing distributors of furniture looking for new or on trend stock. They might have slowed intake of new stock due to retiring or out of date designers. This virtual exhibition will serve as a platform where they can find an collate their own collect they see fit distribute and sell in their location. 5: It is also for Designers of big brands looking to expand their market exposure and client base. This is because due to the online nature of our services and our demographic of potential users will be larger than existing exhibitions clientele. It is also for big brands looking to present a more environmentally conscious and smart image away from the outdated style of warehouse exhibitions they currently associate with.

2015

35-44

Age Demographic

Transition

WHO BUYS MORE? Gen X and Gen Y now purchase more furniture thatn the BabyBoomers.

DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION

6: Also Boutique furniture makers and designers who are looking to promote their work and market themselves on a global stage will use my service. People who are especially looking to promote their work from a green standpoint will use it, as we bypass the mass trashing of valuable resources. This will increase people’s likelihood who are looking to buy furniture and are conscious of the environment as these brands who exclusively use this service will have differentiated from the mainstream of furniture to a more ecofriendly position. 7: It will also be for people who just like to collate inspiration and want to use 3d models in their own visualisations, such as existing interior designers or architects. They will be able to download furniture from the exhibition and collate it into ‘pinterest’ style boards and review for inspiration as well as share the collections. This shows a not all business side to the service as it can be used purely for fun and entertainment. 8: Families that are first home buyers. These people will have access to VR because they all are likely to have access to VR be it on there phone or via their children’s playstation or high quality Oculus or Vive device. They will have many criteria they are looking to meet whilst searching and buying. Budget, Shipping costs, trending and quality are all things they will be looking to meet, ideally my service would help cater to these needs and refine the scope of furniture in which they look. Where is it implemented? The definition of the lead users further define the necessity to create the most seamless service possible. This exhibition and distribution service will be browserbased meaning it will be located on web page. This would be the most appropriate because it largely solves all issue related to accessibility, which are physical exhibitions major complication. Being on a browser it will be a more seamless interaction where you can access the exhibition at anytime you please leading to a better user experience as well making it available to a much larger demographic. This has potential to then lead to a more social service which recognised factor that increases the likelihood of achieving viral adoption. To create more than just a novel experience the exhibition will be accessible via a Virtual Reality platform. This could be via a high powered computer using such systems as the oculus rift or it could be mobile oriented using Samsung VR which adds to the accessibility of VR. The exact specifications recommended

for an Oculus Rift, 8GB of ram and Intel i5-4590 processor equivalent or greater is going to lead to laptops costing well over $1000 [25]. This is not yet currently seen in laptops only desktops but these are like to be ubiquitous in the future. Range of HMD platforms It would be ideal if the service had a supporting iOS application, android application and high end HMD output to support it, because it would further add to its accessibility and to the seamless nature of accessing virtual exhibitions when the target audience might be. A fall back for this service all though is that phones currently don’t support a screen refreshing rate of 90 frames per second. In the future these kind of specs are like to be seen universally in all devices. Currently Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are the only VR companies to apply such high end specifications. Being available on the phone app widens the demographic but runs the risks of creating an experience of a lesser quality, that could detract from the perception of the service. Conclusions Drawn from Context Games design techniques and software also could be beneficial technology to make my design. Specifically because they are efficient in making assets and scenes with a decreased amount of poligons, increasing the performance of how the scene runs. They use complex projection methods of textures from high polygon 3D files to low poly assets to give a realistic appearance but at a realistic file size for a game engine. Normal mapping is seen as the latest method of projection but it does rely on as smooth as possible poly structure otherwise it will appear deformed and unrealistic. These games design engines such as Unity or Unreal Engine provide a very good platform to test how interactions will appear inside them, subsequently these engines now capable of outputting web.gl files that can be embedded into websites [26]. Creating Exhibition Environment From contextualising the service it has raised the need address the issue of creating a captivating exhibition environment. After research into environment and asset creation 3d scanning presented itself as a viable and innovative solution along side games engines using the webGl exporting function and asset managment techniqiues. Unreal engine 4 or Unity are both reputable engines to do this type of work with. Three dimensional scanning can be broken into two separate components, laser scanning and photogrammetry. Each technique of scanning has benefits and weaknesses.

VR Adoption

GAME

CONSOLE

HIGH WITH

SPEC HEADEST CONSOLE

HTC

PHONE INCLUDED

PHONE

VIVE

HIGHT

TECH

LOW

SPECS

AND

EXPENSIVE

SPEC

AFFORDABLE

AND

VERY

ACCESSIBLE

Laser scanning Laser scanning or Lidar, achieves the most accurate set of scan data. This collection of data, a point cloud, is highly accurate with a tolerance +-1 millimeter, effective from low to high ranges of distance. Faro Scanners are a formidable supplier of such equipment offering scanners that are effective up to a 30 metre range to 150 metre range, capturing data sets accurate to the millimetre [27]. The drawbacks of this technology are most definitely the price of scanners, costing around 80,000 dollars, this was noted after contacting an industry professional professional Michael Larobina of Real Serve, an architectural surveying company based in Australia and New Zealand. Precedents set in the industry by Scott Metzger using such technology additionally proved to be greatly influential. His published work on ‘Rise’ and ‘Beautiful Creatures’ highlighted the strengths of the technology coupled with texturing using spherical photography projection [28]. Spherical projections were created using a stitched set of images taken at a high dynamic range to capture information all the way from light to dark. These were then aligned to model of the scene created using the point cloud reference and projected onto it as a texture. Photogrammetry Photogrammetry the alternative to laser scanning, a cheaper alternative is popular in asset creation for games. A DSLR camera with a fixed length lense, shooting at f8 - f11 was recommended to capture high quality pictures. From here the set of pictures were run through software such as Agisoft Photoscan, Reality Capture or 123d catch by autodesk to process the set of photographs into textured three dimensional model. This benefits of utilizing this work flow allowed the creation of textures and model all in one go alongside the creation of individual cameras in relations to the model that could be used as a later reference for texturing. Fall backs of this area included often a loss in quality, due to inaccurate images or troublesome changes of the light. Gleb Alexandrov tutourials provided crucial in experimenting with photogrammetry to achieve a reputable results [29}. From here potential environments will have to be located and experiments undertaken to define the most viable approach to creating this service proposition.

MY_SQL

VR_EX

VR AND WEB APPLICATION INTERGRATION

METHODS Validated learning is central to efficient methods of research, it provides actionable metrics that help prioritise the most effective courses of action. These discoveries will be progressive and will be likely to ‘pivot’ the course of action that was previously assumed. The ‘Build-measure-learn feedback loop’ made popular by ‘Eric Reis’ in the ‘Lean Startup’ [30] will also be evident in stages of my research process where prototyping and testing is necessary. This will ensure that the proposed direction of my project proposal is on track and if not, it will highlight the need for a ‘pivot’ or a change of direction. These pivots can exist in many forms they can range from a change in targeted customer needs, customer demographic or to a technological platform. Also in line with the ‘build measure learn feedback loop’, instead of designing shelf ready prototypes I will instead be testing bare bones, ‘minimum viable products’ or MVP’s to maximise the limited development time and to iterate the design to the highest level before its release. Across all methods of research it will be necessary to measure the relationship between quality, time and cost of the experience against existing services. Also research will be undertaken in relation to a set of principles, they embody the ‘Zero to One’ [31] methods of thinking which is a

term coined by Peter Theil. This will ensure the creation of a successful product that will aim for vertical progress, which involves doing something that has never been done before in comparison to horizontal progress which is incrementally improving something that already exists in a competitive, price point market. The fact that new and revolutionary ideas can be met with scepticism as Peter Theil details during his involvement with PayPal during their start up up phase will be taken into account. These convoluted growth models can lead people’s perception on a company or startup to be negative before they reach their critical mass of customers, to then prompt exponential growth. Research into how to achieve critical mass will be a critical piece of research towards the success in regards to the intended direction of the proposal. This is easier said than done and methods to achieve this vary greatly, for Paypal they needed to achieve a customer base of 1 million people and to do this they rewarded each activated account with a $10 dollar credit. This was as effective as it was unsustainable. Also the necessity of possessing a unique competitive advantage will be a central factor to being able to concentrate on innovation and progress. There is also a set of 7 questions, such as “can you create breakthrough technology?” and “is it the right time?, that Peter Theil proposes that

User Discovers Exhibition Service

LANDING PAGE

Note: Pick exhibition and location

Personalise what you want too see

Exhibition Note: All information Collated inside of Virtual Reality

everyone should ask themselves during their startup phase. I will keep these questions in constant reference to make sure I’m guided in the unique direction. Interviews Ethnographic Interviewing is the process of understanding people’s opinion in relation to what is being researched. The interview is undertaken in an open-ended and explanatory style, allowing the conversation to be more directed, and enabling the person to reveal experiences and activities to the interviewer [32]. This will involve contacting and listening to people who have been involved in attending exhibitions, purchasing and looking for furniture, as well as those who have exhibited and attempted to sell their designer furniture. This will provide valuable insight into how people locate furniture at outlets or online as well as professional insights into the future of VR.

touch points can be useful in identifying problem areas as well as potential unnecessary touch points. This can be somewhat similar to a service map but in relation to the furniture this will be very useful in relation to the creation of a seamless service. Service maps will further help and guide the design of MVP’s that could take form of a ‘sticky noted map’ or ‘wire framed’ service, efficiently identifying problem areas for further development and areas for improvement. Also maps of competitor services, be it online or offline will be compared alongside successful tech ventures to visualise the mechanics of how they operate. This will provide insights into problem areas of the existing services. Service design mapping and thinking will be an essential tool before prototyping an ‘MVP’. It will help develop a clear picture of how interactions will take place with the service as well as problem areas. Comparisons can be made regularly between similar services to highlight the strengths and weakness of each. (see following page)

Experience Mapping/User Journey Mapping . Immersive research methods will be used, this is to experience first person deficiencies in distribution and exhibition within furniture. This will involve attending international furniture exhibitions such as Mason and Objet as well as trying to purchase furniture. This style of research can provide an informative contrast to that of the respondents.

Split testing MVP’s/Iteration This method of research will be utilised as a way of debugging wireframes and proposed user journey prototypes, iterating towards the most suitable product. This will be helpful in identifying problematic user interactions that weren’t previously identified as well as improve and identify positive areas of the service. An example of this could be from a poorly designed User interface.

User journey maps visualise how the user travels through a service or the steps involved with interacting with a product. These specific

From the cross testing of prototypes and comparisons of service maps of user touch

points regards specfic areas presented them seleves as problematic in the tradiotion user experience. It was recorded that atticipation of events often lacked as there was extend periods of time between discovering when an exhibition was on till when it was attended. Then the arduous task of finding a carpark presented its self as one of the most common areas people found the least satisfying. Lastly the quality of the exhibited items played a large factor in the over all impression of the event alongside the annoyance having to sift through bussiness cards and brouchers after the fact. In resolution, these problem areas will be preferably be removed when possible creating a user journey that is more efficient and consilidated. Where possible technology will implemented as inovative new touch points, this is most likely to involve accessible web application features such as Social networking, communication, information storage and virtual reality. The customer satisfaction user journey map highlights the positive effects that this is likely to have on the service. Consolidation and increased likehood of customer satisfaction being the central results.

User Journeys

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Test Case 1. The hypothesis tested in test case one, are the strengths and weaknesses of the workflow advocated by Scott Metzger in relation to his projectes ‘Rise’ and ‘Beautiful Creatures’. In this test, potential sets will be located and organised to three dimensionally scan, Point Cloud data will be processed into a model and textured. The results will then be scrutinized on how they could benefit the final outcome of redefining exhibition as a service’.

scanner. Michael Larobina from Realserve was contacted and agreed to help conduct tests using his Faro Scanner.

Date: 26.7.2016

Point Cloud Processing Software was then cross tested to create a Mesh from the point cloud data. Recap was then tested against Geomagics Wrap to determine which would output the best result. The result showed that Geomagics could handle the point cloud sampled to 50% of its size and create a mesh that could be used as reference for a the final low polygon surface model. (see next page)

To begin, captivating potential environments were located, then the owners/managers of each property was contacted for permission to experiment with laser scanning. This lead to the contacting of Green Co Parking who manage The Rose st car park in Fitzroy, the manager of the Melbourne Gaol and Rmit Property managers to scan a section of the design hub as a final option. Unfortunately due to the lack of understanding about 3d scanning and risk of liability, access was not granted to these properties and Rmit was organised to be the test scene. From here 3d scanning companies were contacted around Australia to gain access to a highly accurate laser scan(Lidar), preferably a FARO

1.Point Cloud Processing The process of scanning level 10 of building 100 took approximately 45 minutes creating a point cloud file of 90,000,000 points. This was originally created by Faro’s proprietary software and then transferred into Recap 360 by Autodesk.

2. Maya Maya was then used to load the mesh output by Geomagic-Wrap and reconstruction created. There were many issues in modeling learnt through this process.

Firstly as models got larger, it was essential to remember to delete the history of the model other wise the size got out of control and Maya became dysfunctional. Secondly the use of special duplication allowed for efficient creation of similar geometry that shared a relationship with a common parent object inheriting the dimensions. UV maps The process of separating mesh into surfaces and organising them as a net in two dimensional space to store texture information for the model. This was largely done with planar and automatic mapping. The surfaces were then organised in a multi tile layout or UDIM style layout so that the model would be as high resolution as possible. (see right). This process was appeard a very abstract system that previously hadnt been encountered, online resoucres such www.digitaltutours.com were pivotal in understanding thise workflows.

3. Photography for textures This step involved researching in depth the software and Hardware that Scott Metzger used to create his spherical photography. For the photography Scott Metzger Used A Nikon D800 with a Nikor 10.5mm fisheye lens mounted a tripod using an Atome 360 head. This Tripod head is essential in the creation of these textures as it allows for the camera to be rotated in 90 degree increments to capture a set of overlapping images that can be stitched into a 360 degree panorama. The cameras set to an an aperture of f8-f12 was used per recommendation to achieve the sharpest images possible with the white balance set to the cloudy day function. For this a Canon D5 was used with a canon fisheye lens due to it the unnecessary financial implications of purchasing a new camera body and lenses. Images were then taken at bracketed intervals which captures very amounts of light at high to low exposures. These are combined to create an HDR image that has clear information from the shadows all the way to the highlights. These Images were stitched using PTGUI PRO which takes the 16 images(four sets of four bracketed images) and aligns and stitches them into a panorama of high dynamic range. This process was very painful to complete if the images were not consistent or if the tripod moved between the shots.

4. MARI Texturing The model created with Uv texture layout was then loaded into Mari to experiment texturing with the spherical projection function. The process of lining up the spherical images to the corresponding geometry was very difficult as they load center to the model. Furthermore edge masking was necessary to stop projection on areas that result in a stretched texture. Depth fall of was also necessary to utilize only the sharpest portion of the spherical image. Once more than 5 80mb image files were loaded it overloaded the computer’s memory. To remedy this it was found that the images had to be baked down into a single layer to free memory. Storing these images in Cache(this is process of storing application information in your computer’s RAM) also helped improve the software’s performance.

5. Conclusion In conclusion The effectiveness of using Lidar scanning to recreate an environment with repetitive structures was great as it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t depend on recognising information between images and outputs a highly accurate point cloud. The down side was due to the limitations of computing power the laptop used was only able to create a mesh from a point cloud that was 50% of its original size. This resulted in a useable but less than ideal model for recreation purposes. From this test it clear that other workflows should be tested, to perfect the workflow of environment capture and recreation.

Test Case 2. The hypothesis tested in test case two was in response to the less than ideal workflow and result achieved in test case 1. In this test More interesting environments were located that had open public access where photogrammetry would be used to capture the environment information. The result will be reviewed in relevance to the desired outcome of creating 3dimension sets for virtual exhibitions. The test was broken up in two 5 stages, location of environments, photography, image process, set reconstruction/ modeling, Texturing.

large format jpg to retain image quality and enhance processing time in relation to shooting in raw. 1.Agisoft Photoscan Pro These images were then processed through Agisoft photoscan pro creating a model that could be tested in maya. This process presented no issues as the images were taken consistently with 95% of the photos registering to each other. The only noticeable issue was the issue of occluding objects compromising the images but in this case they worked in becoming part of the scene.

Date: 10.8/2106 Set location 1: Croft Alley

This model with was then output in .obj format with a mosaic tile capturing the projected texture information at 8000 x 8000 pixels.

The First issue faced when testing photogrammetry was photographing on a overcast day with diffuse light. This lighting condition provided even lighting with little highlights or shadows maximising the information that can be captured with a locked exposure. When opportunity arises the photographs were taken amounting to a collection of 100 images shoot on a canon 5d with 28mm pentax fixed length lens, at an aperture of f16. These images were shot in

2.Maya Relocating the model in Maya allowed for further texture mapping sub-experiments to be undertaken. The transfer mapping tool in maya proved to be very powerful in transferring the texture information, be it diffuse, normal, specular or roughness from one map to another model, provided that there was one created in with similar geometry with Uv information to capture the transferred information.

Conclusion In conclusion from testing photogrammetry at croft alley, it was concluded that the process was very viable due to the fact the texture information did not have to be lined up with geometry. This model also highlighted the issue of occluding objects, in particular rubbish bins and debris comprimising parts of the geometery texture and geometery information. These object will likely have to be removed or remodeleded totally other wise your model is likely to include inaccurate texture projections. On the downside it was determined that all though a great test bed for photogrammetry, Croft Alley was not as captivating as some other iconic areas around the city such as Hosier lane. Flinders Station or Fedoration square. The next part of this test case will involve testing one of these environments.

Set location 2: Hosier lane The second set, Hosier Lane was chosen because of its popularity as a tourist attraction. To scan this environment using photogrammetry was to prove difficult due the amount occluding people visiting the site during the day. To combat this issue, visiting the site just before sunrise around 5:30am was done as there was no people visiting at this time and the light was very diffuse in this 45 minute window before sunrise. This window of operation provided the opportunity to take a collection of 150 images. 1.Image Proccesing The collection of images were then processes using Agisoft Photoscan Pro and Reality Capture to compare the quality of output data. The majority I achieved a better result using agisoft achieving better registration of images, but occasionally Reality Capture did out perform agisoft in processing time and did ouput a better model. : Software testing 2.Texture Output It was found that many options were formating the output from these photogrammetry software. Firstly it was found that when outputting .fbx format instead of .obj it was possible to embed the cameras used for projecting texture. This proved useful when a model that is missing information or texture as it is possible to model looking through these images on to a plane containing the correlating image.

5.Mari The model was then imported into Mari and the texture information was projected using the cameras embedded in the file. During this process it was found that masking was an essential tool in avoiding projection stretching. After this process was complete there were gaps in the texture where tileable textures were used to fill in the missing spaces as if it was part of the texture.(see page 53). 6.Unreal Engine Next the implementation of unreal shader module required the creation of a different types of texture maps. These maps included, the creation of a normal map and roughness map to create the realism needed in a virtual reality model. The Normal map effects how light bounces of a surface and adds depth perception. Roughness adds or reduces the level of reflectivity of a surface. Diffuse handles color information, preferably with out highlights or shadows. 5.Conclusion In conclusion Photogrammetry has emergas the most practical solution to the issue of creating photorealistic environments for virtual exhibitions. It was also noted that the more photos taken of the subject equated to in most cases a better quality model output. Over lapping images often aided in registration in both of the photogrammetry packages. lastly

3.Set reconstruction Due to the large size of this model in comparison to the model of Croft Alley the texture information could not be held in a single texture file of 8k or 16k tile. Instead the information had to split over many udim tiles or ignored and reprojected using a texture painting software. In this case the udim texture outputs proved faulty so texture projection and painting was chosen as the texturing method. 4. Maya From here a model was created using maya. The initial scan geometry was used as a reference as in all methods and then cross checked with camera images to improve the omitted detail. This provide me with a mostly accurate model. Next The model was Uv mapped on two a set of udim uv tiles planar mapping different faces of the street on each tile. The most interesting technique learnt in this process was the reducing the scale of inset edges to reveal their faces for Uv projection.

A roughness map determines the amount of reflectivity of a given surface.

A diffuse map is a texture you use to define a surfaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main colour.Oct 15, 2007

A normal map is an image that stores a direction at each pixel. These directions are called normals. The red, green, and blue channels of the image are used to control the direction of each pixelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s normal. A normal map is commonly used to fake high-resolution details on a low-resolution model.

Once a model has been created it then must be sent to the game engine of choice. In the case of this Model of Hosier lane Unreal Engine four was choosen as the prefered engine. This process allows material inputs to be automatically assigned to the seperate UV faces in unreal when exported as an .FBX format. Editing these colors is then a process of improting the mari texture files correlating to the normal, roughness and diffuse channels.

The Base material is set up In Unreal Engine and instances are made for each shell selection for the corresponding udim tiles to be assigned to. (see above instance material). This then creates a material that reflects light that is physially acurate in relation to roughness and normal reflection angles of light. (see image, right)

10 f1

f1 f1

METHODS ( E V ) To validate the intended impacts of the design proposal (startup furniture designers can compete against established furniture designers through emerging tech), by implementing a series of tests. These tests will provide metrics which will then validate the response. The aspects of the design proposal that will need to be tested will involve convenience, user interactions, demographics, logistics, adoption and the interaction with virtual and augmented reality. These will be summarised in a relative, cost, time and quality comparison. Ethnographic Studies/Interview From this study the assumption that exhibitions can be time consuming, limiting and inconvenient as well as the process of buying furniture to be disjointed and limiting will aim to be reinforced. This will be tested by contacting families who have recently experienced buying and looking for furniture. The respondents

opinion will be evaluated into strengths and weakness to understand where improvement is necessary. This will involve interviewing emerging demographics as well as defining the issues baby boomers had in the past. They will be asked also a set of predefined questions: Questions for Exhibition/distribution Managers. Contacting trade exhibition organisers to interview could also be a valuable source of information that could enhance the proposed design or pivot the direction it is heading. A contact from the Australian International Furniture Fair AIFF, could provide insights to problem areas that could have been overlooked or undervalued. Contacting their exhibition director Chris May or their operations manager could provide a quick insight into this. Simon Le Amon, a curator of exhibitions may also be able to provide valuable insights.

KEY WEBSITE STRUCTURE Login Landing Page Testimonials Overview Library

KEY WEBSITE FUNCTIONS

Follow co-Creaters Sharing Search

SOCIAL PUBLISHING Self networking

SUPPORTING TECH Ruby On Rails Javascript CSS HTML Stripe

GUM ROAD - Blueprint 58

Questions for Exhibition Managers Do you find that you get a limited range? Do you invite brands or do brands request a space themselves? Do you think emerging technology such as VR could improve your service offering? Questions for Furniture Buyers. Have you attended exhibitions for Inspiration? Did you use an interior designer? Did you buy from a distributor or craftsman or sole trader? Did you find it difficult to find furniture in relation to your specific set of needs(style/ function/colour etc) Did you find it difficult for you to find a creative range? Did you buy local? How much were you looking to spend? Did you use the internet to search or buy? Hardware testing Testing using a google card board VR or a more up market VR headset will be undertaken for final iterations of the prototypes. The test subjects which will include all targeted demographics will individually be tested in a room and a record will be taken on how they naturally choose to interact with the prototyped VR equipment and the relative furniture in-comparison to the cardboard scenarios. Their opinions of their experience will also be recorded to improve the service. These prototyped Virtual Reality scenes will be made using either Unity or Unreal Engine 4. The final prototype will then look to be integrated into a web application where furniture files can be stored, collected, organised and viewed. Immersion First person immersion will be used to validate and cross reference findings from ethnographic studies. The visitation of exhibitions, to document and develop personal perspective will help to clarify direction. Visiting AIFF, Australian International Furniture Fair will provide this as well as visiting a noting experience at the involvement in creating a stall at the Mason and Objet exhibition show in Paris and smaller local exhibitions such as Vivid and Fringe Furniture Fair. A record will be kept of environment concerns, materials, promotion and pricing in regards to the experience at the exhibition. This will be translated into a graphical format to improve the accuracy and understanding of the information. This immersion will also involve attempting to secure a distribution contract with a local distributor to further understand the mechanics of the process. This will be cross

referenced and again be displayed using graphics to compare the results from the results of the interviews. Attending startup tech events could also be of great value to validate my proposal and network. These events can hold information on the success of recent startups and serial entrepreneurs as well as being informative and the current . Content Creation Documenting what prometed content to be created on design platforms was also undertaken to validate the projects direction. Grabcad, a engineering website founded in Estonia by Hardi Meybaum, and Indrek Narusk[33] as a platform for engineers manage share and view there 3d models. Today there user base exceeds 2,000,000 people with over 670,000 open source models[34]. To achieve these numbers Grabcad have implemeted many innovative techniques to promote such growth. The most obvious of these would be the range of challenges and prizes that are sponsored by industry partners to promote the creation of inovative engineering solutions. GE famously in 2013 opensourced the design of an aircraft bracket to Grabcad. The recieved a plethora of entries and the winning bracket by Arie Kurniawan was able to slash the origonal brackets weight by nearly 84 percent to just 327 grams (0.72 pounds)[35]. This example of sponsered challenges and tests show cases the power it can have on increasing the rate and amount of innovation seen on the web applications. Documenting serial entrepreneurs opinion from online resources will be used to embody a experienced frame of mind. Sahil Lavingia, founder and CEO of Gumroad, an online platform that enables creators to sell electronic and online goods directly to their audiences. Lavingias methodologies and opinion will be researched and documented for cross reference. This will involve documenting exact technologies he uses to implement his intermediary ecommerce service as well as creating a service map of his company as well as the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey map in regard to how they achieved their critical mass. Another serial entrepreneur who will be detailed is Jeff Bezos, founder and Ceo of Amazon. His views will be documented from online resources to gain perspective on how these intermediaries are brought to life as well as how they are logistically managed. This is particularly relevant to furniture distribution intermediary as it also involves shipping a large amount of product. Service maps will be used to do this and compared to furniture distribution on a large global scale.

Content Driver LANDING PAGE Exhibition

COMPREHENSIVE SEARCHING

Onclick: CALL TO AGTION LINKS TO METRICS

LANDING PAGE: Exhibitions

Profile

User Goes to Site If new to website

Trending My collections / Groups

Content D Personal Info/ Sign Up with FB/Google

What People Say

Mailers? Request a Render of furnture

Metrics Let us know what you like?

Mailers? Purchase Furniture/Stipe Confirmation Email

SUPPORTING

Model Viewer: Backwards Compatable

TECHNOLOGY

Ruby on Rails HTML CSS Jacascript WebGL 3rd party paypal stripe

libraries

challengs

grabcd

tender(GROWTH

DRIVERS)

NKS TO METRICS

Content Driver

Designer

Sponsored Challenges

Content Driver

Social Posting

s / Groups

My collections / Groups

TIME LINE OF REQUEST

Content Driver

ender of furnture

urniture/Stipe

Campaign

TIME LINE OF REQUEST

Mailers Purchase Confirmation

CURATE

INFO

(PRICES

ETC)

DOWNLOAD / CURATE 3D MODELS

MANAGE INFORMATION

INSTANT MESSANGER REQUEST

INVOICE

FACEBOOK TWITTER LINKEDIN INSTAGRAM

SOCIAL

INterface expectations

FURNITURE INTERACTIONS MATERIAL FEEDBACK LIGHTING CHANGING BROWSE CATALOGE

From the initial research methods service maps will be detailed to visualise the first iteration of the project. Service maps will also be created to represent the initial Augmented and Virtual Reality components that prototypes can be made from. These may also be compared to existing service maps of exhibition.

presents the idea of a wrist based system that will serve as a localised interfaced which is similar to that of the leap motion interaction design. The issue of backwards compatibility should also be a key consideratoin as not every body will have access to a VR system that so support will have to be built for desktop alongside these creations.

RubyonRails From the research of the underpinnings of the web application Gumroad, Ruby on Rails appeared as a key factor in its creation. Ruby on Rails, frequently referred to as Rails, is a server-side framework written in the Ruby programming language. David Heinemeier Hansson developed the Ruby on Rails framework while working at a web application based company Basecamp [36]. This revolutionary framework, provides a highly functional structure patterns such ‘MVC’, standing for model, view and controller making it efficient in creating applications that communicate between databases and webpages [37]. This is likely to be a useful tool in the creation of a web application that is to support the proposed exhibition service and experiments will be undertaken to dive deeper into using it.

Design and Iteration Chapter In summary of the design and iteration, the process was split it to simultaneous sections, one part working on developing the Virtual Environment and the other, concentrating on developing the web technologies that is intended to encapsulate the service proposition.

After proposing a service map a wire framed prototype will be made as a representation. Menus and interactions that replicate user interaction will be researched and tested. This will highlight the level of convenience and fluidity of user interactions. The wizard of oz method which involves controlling something in reaction to an interaction with a prototype may be used here. If a problem is to arise I will use the ‘five whys’[38] method detailed by Eric Reis that looks to dive deeper into where the problem originated from, instead of creating a temporary fix for the problem. This will ensure the project is heading in the most valid direction. VR Manifesto Mike Alger’s post graduate work on his VR UI and UX interface manifesto, presented a set of rules that addresses that will be critical in pardigm shift from two dimensional interactions to 3dimension interactions[39]. He envisages a future that harness ergonomic Virtual Reality applications that enhance productivity. This pardigm shift from working on a screen to with in a virtual environment emphasises methods of interaction to be made as instictual as possible, similar to instictivly knowning how to use a straw. Design patterns using color patterns, motion, hollophonic sound, contrast wil be paramount to these interactions functionailty. Alger

The iteration process of prototyping Virtual environments encompass exhausting all possible technologies available to environment capture. The first technology to be tested was that of Lidar. After much research and project management it was decided that the most appropriate site for testing this would be a level of the Rmit Design hub. With assistance from Realserve, a Faro scanner was used to capture the entire top floor. Experiments with the point cloud ensued, experimenting with a multitude of softwares to sample the point cloud to a lesser size, that a potential triangulated model could be calculated from. This process led the 90,000,000 point, point cloud to be sampled to half its original size and be triangulated using Geomagics Wrap. Geomagic wrap emerged as the most resilient as well as tolerant software to these large data sets, which is akin to the workflow recommended to that of Scott Metzger in the creation of ‘Rise’ [40]. Texturing was the next issue of the model to be tackled and with the hire of fisheye canon lens and the purchase of ptgui pro, spherical images were created and painstakingly lined up with the geometry. Unfortunately this process turned out to be to inefficient and the desired level of quality was not achieved. This informative Lidar testing phase lead on to testing and an iteration of scenes using photogrammetry. This lead to experiment mainly with lens types as well as lighting conditions of the desired environments to address the path of less resistance to an accurate replication. It was quickly discovered through research the ideal techniques using the process to capture object, and with adaption I found using a the widest fixed length lense with the least amount of distortion possible was the most effective. This lens was a 24mm pentax lens attached to a full frame canon 5d mk2 at a f-stop of 11. It was crucial to capture these in the most diffuse light possible

360 DEGREE PHOTOGRAPHY

to minimize the addition of highlights and specularity in the projected texture on the process model. Croft alley was the first locations used as a trial and find only specific, it was quickly determined that get the best set of photography there was a definitive criteria that had to be meet. Firstly, occluding objects where needed to be kept to a minimum, be it rubbish bins, people or automobiles. Secondly lighting, to achieve diffuse lighting overcast days were far and few between subsiding to either rain or glorious sunshine. A short window from 5;3o am to 6:30am, prior to sunrise to window of diffuse lighting that photos could be taken. This knowledge was then applied to a more captivating environment Hosier Lane, that people would be more inclined to visit than Croft alley. In the window between 5:30 and 6:30 it was possible to get a set of 130 photographs to attempt to process a 3d model. Agisoft emerged as the prefered software for processing the images to 3d model. Once The model had been created a low poly mesh creation had to be implemented to create an environment that would allow for responsive real time rendering. This process utilized Maya, and industry standard with poly modeling in the asset creation, with the guidance of an well renowned industry professional Michael Cox. From advanced Uv mapping techniques were implemented for the projected texture information to be stored. Modeling from static imagery emerged a integral technique in the creation of missing data. This is the process of creating physically correct cameras inside of the chosen poly modeling software, maya in this instance and used to wire frame recreate a physically correct scene. The file output by Agisoft Photoscan Pro was less than perfect in my instance and this technique allowed to fill in the gaps. It was also useful for correcting bad texture project using the images to repaint images of bad projection in the original scan model.

MATERIAL

SELECTION

ON:hover

SEND

This interface was created to be versitile so that it could be used in a vairety of environments and not look out of place. Ideally this will be made with three dimensional widgets in Unreal engine four or with Gui elements placed with in the world context in Unity.

This website was created to show the potential to have multiple exhibition spaces embeded online. This would allow for an exciting platform for people to freely exhibit. Also this opens the possibility for generative exhibitions due to the access of databases and big data in the future.

The above graphics shows a secondary prototype of the a website as resolved platfrom that incorporates both individual product viewing alongside the proposed Virtual exhibitions. It embodies features from Gumroad, Sketchfab and Grabcad to create the most functional website possible.

REFLECTION It has been very insightful reflecting on the chosen approaches used to define the proposed field of design and its representative industry. The direction, opportunities and problems that are in view of being developed are relevant and could have potential to create disruption in the furniture industry. I found the field to be an interesting area of research as it embodies an industry that has remained stagnant and unchanged for many years with a demographic that is in a state of transition. Interviews The development towards defining the problem areas and their potential solutions appear relevant and are set to upset the industry for the better. Interviews with Linda Buttle, showed that there is serious room for improvement in regards to viewing and experimenting with a large collection of furniture when trying to decide on an interior design. As well as the annoyance of having to imagine what furniture may look like in your own home all the way from a furniture distributors and the difficulty

to easily get a broad sense of what is available. Shane a professional in the virtual reality gaming industry working with a company called PlaysideVR confirmed many of my speculations as well as made clear how he thinks the prevalence of software such as Unity to create VR environments will be strong in the future. He also commented that he thought it will have a large impact on architectural visualisation and mentioned a Melbourne based company called Scann3d, that use the same technology as Sothebys to scan and show architectural visualisations. Shane thought it was also likely to impact similar industries such as furniture exhibition. I feel like this feedback has validated the direction and defined the relevant problem areas that I am addressing. Personal Immersion Personal immersion also took place in exhibitions overseas such as Mason and Objet. This highlighted many of the problem areas involved in furniture exhibition, these range from environmental

issues all the way to issues of being able to promote emerging designers work due to the large costs of financing these exhibitions. This research has provided the opportunity to cross reference the issues of the current demographic occupying the industry against my insights to improve/revolutionise the industry for the demographics to occupy it in the future. Emerging Tech Research In view of developing the project to create disruption, research was then directed on how to contextualise these areas of opportunity inside of emerging technology that has the potential to create change. Also my project was compared to previous projects that have created similar disruption using journey maps and service analysis. This information was crucial as it helped to create a more defined view on how to precisely achieve disruption in the furniture industry. From these maps a web application framework that appeared as being a useful tool that was commonly used in disruptive companies was Ruby on Rails. It has been used to create advanced websites such as Gumroad and Airbnb and was essential to their service offering. From this I have begun to learn it and map how it could be useful in relation to my project.

I found keeping in mind the views of successful entrepreneurs such as Peter Theil very useful as it helped me keep and open minded perspective in relation to the direction of the project. The idea of pivoting was very relevant as it helps solve the important problems and insure the relevance of the design. This means the product has the potential to be the same as the proposed direction or alternatively, be a very different service proposition than was originally assumed. In light of this direction, the necessary plans have be made to test and cross reference minimum viable products and to iterate towards a final product that is most probable to achieve success. The steps that have been followed show the creation of an accurate and progressive model in which the project can develop and define itself in the most effective way. In view of the current direction, the project seems to be presenting itself in appropriate and logical manner in which disruption is a likely outcome. I am hopeful for the next semester and excited to see the project evolve into a more tangible outcome.

Meetups

Bibiliographty

[1] (2015). The new middlemen: the eCommerce model - TradeGecko. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from https://www.tradegecko.com/blog/the-new-middlemen-ecommerce-model. [2] (2015). Sotheby’s real estate agents are using VR to sell homes in ... - Fortune. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from http://fortune.com/2015/09/09/virtual-reality-real-estate/. [3] (2015). Order - Matterport. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from https://buy.matterport.com/. [4] (2016). VR Gave Me Free Floor Seats To March Madness - UploadVR. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from http://uploadvr.com/vr-floor-seat-march-madness/. [5] (2014). Archilogic - 3D models and Virtual Reality. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from https://about. archilogic.com/. [6] (2015). Shapespark: Real-time architectural visualizations in a browser. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from https://www.shapespark.com/. [7] (2016). IKEA Launches Pilot Virtual Reality (VR) Kitchen Experience for HTC ... Retrieved May 26, 2016, from http://www.ikea.com/us/en/about_ikea/newsitem/040516_Virtual-Reality. [8] UploadVR. 2016. Facebook’s Jaw-Dropping Social VR Demo Really Is The Future - UploadVR. [ONLINE] Available at: http://uploadvr.com/you-facebooks-jaw-dropping-social-vr-demo/. [Accessed 26 October 2016]. [8] “Ivan Sutherland - Spotlight | National Inventors Hall of Fame.” 2015. 17 Oct. vent.org/inductees/sutherland-ivan/>

2016<http://in-

[9] Beier, KP. “Design - University of Michigan.” 2014. <http://www.umich.edu/~vrl/beier/Papers/ compit2000/WebBasedVR.htm> [10] “WWW Book - History.” 17 Oct. 2016 <http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/TimBook-old/History. html> [11] “UM-VRL: Virtual Prototyping of a Sailing Yacht.” 17 Oct. 2016 <http://www.umich.edu/~vrl/ project/yacht/> [12] “Khronos Releases Final WebGL 1.0 Specification - Khronos Group ...” 2013. 17 Oct. 2016 <https://www.khronos.org/news/press/khronos-releases-final-webgl-1.0-specification> [13] “Why you should learn WebGL - Pluralsight.” 2016. 17 Oct. 2016 <https://www.pluralsight. com/blog/software-development/webgl-basics>

[14] “From VRML to WebGL: Part IV | Babel X3d.” 2015. 17 Oct. 2016 <http://portal.babelx3d.net/ content/vrml-webgl-part-iv> [15] “Three.js and Babylon.js: a Comparison of WebGL Frameworks.” 2014. 17 Oct. 2016 <https:// www.sitepoint.com/three-js-babylon-js-comparison-webgl-frameworks/>

[16] “Case Study: ‘Inspirit’ Creator Breaks Down Responsive Web VR Design.” 2015. 17 Oct. 2016 <http://www.roadtovr.com/case-study-inspirit-creator-breaks-down-responsive-web-vr-de[17] (2015). Do Boomers still buy most often? | Furniture Today. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from http://www.furnituretoday.com/blogpost/13665-do-boomers-still-buy-most-often. [18] (2011). Baby boomers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers. [19] (2013). IKEA catalog uses augmented reality to give a virtual ... - Gizmag. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from http://www.gizmag.com/ikea-augmented-reality-catalog-app/28703/.

Bibiliographty

[20] (2015). Model the ‘Puppy-Dog Close’ Technique - Creating ... - Entrepreneur. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/205640. [21] (2015). Positive homeownership indicators | Furniture Today. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from http://www.furnituretoday.com/blogpost/13591-positive-homeownership-indicators. [22] (2016). Housing costs in Australia second only to Hong Kong - ABC News ... Retrieved May 26, 2016, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-25/housing-costs-in-australia-second-only-tohong-kong/7111490. [23] (2015). Oculus Rift’s PC Requirements Are Virtual Reality’s Achilles’ Heel ... Retrieved May 26, 2016, from http://www.fastcompany.com/3046376/tech-forecast/oculus-rifts-pc-requirements-are-virtual-realitys-achilles-heel. [24] (2015). Unity 5.3 WebGL Updates – Unity Blog. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from http://blogs. unity3d.com/2015/12/07/unity-5-3-webgl-updates/. [25] “Laser Scanner FARO Focus3D - Overview - 3D Surveying.” 2013. 18 Oct. 2016 <http://www. faro.com/en-us/products/3d-surveying/faro-focus3d/overview> [26] “fxguidetv #165: Scott Metzger on MARI and HDR | fxguide.” 2013. 18 Oct. 2016 <https://www. fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-165-scott-metzger-on-mari-and-hdr/> [27] “How to Create Your Own Silent Hill in Blender and ... - Creative Shrimp.” 2015. 18 Oct. 2016 <http://www.creativeshrimp.com/how-to-create-your-own-silent-hill-in-blender-and-photoscan. html> [28] Ries, Eric. The Lean Startup. New York: Crown Business, 2011. Print. [29] Theil,Masters, P.T,B.M, 2014. Zero to One. 1st ed. United States: Crown Business. [30] (2014). Ethnographic Interview - Design Practice Methods. Retrieved May 26, 2016, from http://www.designpracticemethods.rmit.edu.au/human-centred-methods/ethnographic-interview/. [31] “Ruby on Rails | Wiki & Review | Everipedia, the encyclopedia of ...” 2016. 19 Oct. 2016 <http:// www.everipedia.com/Ruby_on_Rails/> [32] “Ruby on Rails.” 2004. 19 Oct. 2016 <http://rubyonrails.org/> [34] Eric reis five whys [35] “fxguidetv #165: Scott Metzger on MARI and HDR | fxguide.” 2013. 18 Oct. 2016 <https://www. fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-165-scott-metzger-on-mari-and-hdr/> [35] GE Reports. 2016. Jet Engine Bracket from Indonesia Wins 3D Printing Challenge - GE Reports. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.gereports.com/post/77131235083/jet-engine-bracketfrom-indonesia-wins-3d-printing/. [Accessed 26 October 2016]. [36] Basecamp 3: Manage projects, groups, and client work.. 2016. Basecamp 3: Manage projects, groups, and client work.. [ONLINE] Available at: https://basecamp.com. [Accessed 27 October 2016]. [37] Intermediate Rails: Understanding Models, Views and Controllers – BetterExplained. 2016. Intermediate Rails: Understanding Models, Views and Controllers – BetterExplained. [ONLINE] [38] Lessons Learned: Five Whys. 2016. Lessons Learned: Five Whys. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/11/five-whys.html. [Accessed 27 October 2016]. [39] Vimeo. 2016. VR Interface Design Manifesto on Vimeo. [ONLINE] Available at: https://vimeo. com/116101132. [Accessed 27 October 2016]. [40] Nurulize. 2016. Rise VR - Tech Demo — Nurulize. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nurulize. com/rise-vr-tech-demo/. [Accessed 27 October 2016].