Objective of the Week:
This week was all about preparing for our Halves presentation while continuing our sensory-driven prototyping. As we reflected on our progress, we realized how much we had accomplished in exploring haptics, sound, and immersive design. We also conducted critical playtests for Rite of Passage and developed an early VR prototype for echolocation, refining how floor haptics and environmental storytelling shape user perception.
Challenges of the Week:
- Structuring our presentation to effectively showcase our research and experimentation.
- Balancing preparation for Halves with ongoing playtesting and development.
- Ensuring that our newly explored haptic and audio interactions align with our long-term experience goals.
- Improving the echolocation prototype to rely more on audio feedback rather than visuals.
What We Accomplished:
- Wireless Body Haptics Workshop: We collaborated with SMEs Vivian Shen and Dave Purta to explore wearable haptic devices, including a concept for simulating whale echolocation through jaw vibrations and a vibrating staff that responds to environmental cues like a stampede or water currents.
- Playtesting Rite of Passage Scenarios:
- Stampede Experience: Playtesters, even without context, accurately perceived a stampede, emphasizing the effectiveness of our floor haptics and spatial audio. They desired additional sensory inputs, particularly wind and smell, to enhance immersion. Some wanted to explore, while others preferred to observe.
- Pacing Panther Experience: Participants instinctively understood the presence of circling animals. While most remained still, a few moved hesitantly. Many sought guidance through audio cues, and several noted the absence of smell and ground texture as key missing elements.
- VR Echolocation Prototype: We created a VR build that challenged players to navigate in darkness using echolocation. While the system worked, it relied too heavily on visual feedback rather than sound cues. An interesting observation was that as we gradually darkened the scene and removed visual support—except for echolocation feedback—navigation became significantly harder, revealing a strong dependency on visual cues rather than true auditory navigation. Our next steps involve integrating better audio feedback to shift the reliance away from visuals.
- Presentation Preparation: We structured our Halves presentation to highlight our exploration process, findings, and next steps. The key discussion point for faculty feedback was how to transition from exploration into a cohesive final experience.
With Halves behind us, our next focus is integrating our discoveries into a unified design. How do we merge wearable haptics, floor interactions, and spatial audio into a singular immersive journey? That’s our challenge for the weeks ahead. Stay tuned!