Team bonding and Research
This week our team visited Phipps Botanical Garden for research purposes. We wanted to observe how the pathways and guides are designed to lead visitors through the space and create a seamless flow around the building. Walking through the gardens gave us valuable insights into how environmental design can subtly direct guest movement while also highlighting key moments along the journey.
We also took plenty of photos of the unique plants and the carefully crafted indoor landscapes. These human-made environments provided inspiration for how we might shape our own virtual world, blending natural beauty with thoughtful design.
Design
We finalized our poster and logo, and we also took our team photo at Phipps Botanical Garden together.
Art
Our artists continued building the opening scene models, laying the foundation for the project’s visual environment.
Tech
Added walking via the meta quest controller joysticks:
We zoom with Brilliant Sole this week and we came away with several key takeaways:
Hardware Insights: We learned how to properly attach the modules, which clip to the side of the shoe. The insoles themselves also provide valuable data, sensing not just foot pressure but also the pitch (up/down angle) of the shoes.
Unity Support: Although their website still only lists Unreal, they confirmed that Unity is fully supported. In fact, their Unreal SDK hasn’t been updated in a year, and their CTO Zack appears to prefer Unity. We’ll still test Unreal, but it’s reassuring to know that Unity is a reliable fallback option.
Gesture Recognition with Edge Impulse: Their system can integrate with a machine learning platform called Edge Impulse. By simply performing motions like walking, stomping, or running while using their trackers, the platform learns the corresponding data streams, making it possible to recognize these gestures without manually processing raw data.
