Week 1: Jan 16, 2024 – Jan 19, 2024
Welcome to AR Mixtory! We are a multidisciplinary ETC team working with Professor Anthony Rowe as our client from the Electrical and Computer Engineering department on main campus. Our faculty instructors are Professors Scott Stevens and Mike Christel.
Our goal for the semester is to build an XR experience that is historically significant, beautiful and compelling using ARENA (Augmented Reality Edge Network Architecture), a platform developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Wiselab. We will have access to high-end photogrammetry equipment to create digital artifacts of our own and we can use models from the Smithsonian Institution’s 3D Digitization Collections to make an immersive environment.
ARENA is unique for 2 main reasons:
- It is web-based, enabling us to build cross-platform 3D content for mobile devices and headsets
- Hybrid AR/VR environments provide seamless collaboration between users, who can interact in real-time. All objects in a scene are networked across platforms, meaning they can be seen by every user in that scene.
Whilst we are still figuring out our specific roles, the team is:
Zhiying Guan – Producer/Programmer
Penghua Zhu – 2D Designer/Producer
Anthony (Anton) Renouf – Designer/Producer
Jiahao (Marsh) He – 3D Artist
Zibo Ye – Programmer
Xinyu Li – 3D Artist
Our core hours are:
Monday – 11am-6pm
Tuesday – 11am-6pm
Wednesday – 11am-6pm
Friday – 11am-6pm
After some initial brainstorming, we came to learn about the Chinatown that existed in Pittsburgh in the 1910s and 20s. It was an extraordinary neighborhood full of interesting stories that was effectively demolished by the construction of the Boulevard of the Allies. We also learnt that a faculty member, Shirley Yee, is the daughter of the last unofficial Mayor of Chinatown Yuen Yee and is heavily involved in keeping its history alive today.
Having completed our Brainstorming Composition Box and Playtest to Explore seminar, we are excited about the possibility of bringing the story of this neighborhood to life with ARENA, especially as we get more hands on with the platform in workshops next week, have our first client meeting and interview Shirley to learn more about Pittsburgh’s Chinatown.
