{"id":193,"date":"2025-01-24T17:00:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/?p=193"},"modified":"2025-04-18T09:11:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T09:11:26","slug":"week02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/week02\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 2 &#8211; January 24"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Field Trip: National Road Museum<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Historical AR Research<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Niantic SDK Experimentation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Storyboards<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Challenges<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Next Week&#8217;s Goals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Field Trip: National Road Museum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This week began with an exciting field trip across state lines to the National Road &amp; Zane Grey Museum in Ohio! There, we got a crash course on the history of the National Road and the evolution of transportation in the United States from the very knowledgeable Betsy Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The museum has a very impressive diorama spanning over 100 feet long which represents over 700 miles of road across more than a century of growth and change. The dioramas\u2014all hand-painted and sculpted\u2014tell a compelling story of who was traveling across the road over the years and the types of buildings and towns that emerged to support commerce and traffic. Supplementing the dioramas are real examples of the vehicles used to traverse the road, including the iconic Conestoga wagon, along with early automobiles and bicycles before the invention of the bike chain. The charm of the dioramas and the surprise of witnessing the true scale of the real historical artifacts are emotions we want to capture with our project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-id=\"285\" src=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/P1143904-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/P1143904-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/P1143904-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/P1143904-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/P1143904-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/P1143904-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-id=\"284\" src=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/P1143832-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/P1143832-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/P1143832-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/P1143832-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/P1143832-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/P1143832-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Conestoga wagon frame<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>On the way to and from the museum, we also got to briefly stop by an S-bridge, which is a type of structure built to connect segments of the road that were not fully aligned on either side of a river\u2014these were common since the National Road was built in small, disjoint portions rather than as one continuous stretch. We also saw sections of National Route 40, the modern legacy of this history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Historical AR Research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We began researching existing augmented reality applications, particularly ones that had historical premises or otherwise were part of educational projects. One experience recommended to us by our project instructor, Mike, is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.battlefields.org\/visit\/mobile-apps\/gettysburg-ar-experience\">Gettysburg AR Experience<\/a> which displays notable scenes from the Civil War (like the Battle of Gettysburg and Lincoln\u2019s Gettysburg Address) in life-scale AR. We want to take inspiration from the immersive nature of rendering large artifacts right in front of a player, which they can interact with through their screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"461\" src=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot_20250117_4of4_Gettysburg-AR-Experience-1024x461.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot_20250117_4of4_Gettysburg-AR-Experience-1024x461.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot_20250117_4of4_Gettysburg-AR-Experience-300x135.jpg 300w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot_20250117_4of4_Gettysburg-AR-Experience-768x346.jpg 768w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot_20250117_4of4_Gettysburg-AR-Experience-1536x691.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot_20250117_4of4_Gettysburg-AR-Experience-2048x922.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>We also found our own examples and evaluated what features made AR a unique medium which we should try to incorporate into our design. A lot of historical examples that we looked at either opted to render\u2014or project a rendering onto\u2014one artifact at a time, which players could walk around and see from many angles. Alternatively, some experiences were very heavily tied to a specific location. With our design, we wanted to try something unique from these examples that we found because we want to give users more freedom to experience our app from many locations while still seeing some artifacts, like wagons and buildings, that are very large in life-scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/AR-functions-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-573\" srcset=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/AR-functions-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/AR-functions-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/AR-functions-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/AR-functions-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/AR-functions.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Slide-16_9-6-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-574\" srcset=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Slide-16_9-6-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Slide-16_9-6-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Slide-16_9-6-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Slide-16_9-6-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Slide-16_9-6.png 1921w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Niantic SDK Experimentation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The team got access to 4 Android phones that we could use to test and run our builds, and we began experimenting with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lightship.dev\/docs\/ardk\/\">Niantic SDK<\/a> to see what it was capable of. The main feature we were most interested in was the semantic layer detection, so that we can render life-scale objects based on where the road or ground is that a player is standing on. We found that Niantic supports both highlighting the semantic layers on UI canvases and also generating mesh objects that can be textured to look like a road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-1 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"471\" src=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-04-17-155636-1-1024x471.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-566\" srcset=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-04-17-155636-1-1024x471.png 1024w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-04-17-155636-1-300x138.png 300w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-04-17-155636-1-768x353.png 768w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-04-17-155636-1-1536x706.png 1536w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-04-17-155636-1-2048x942.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ground semantic layer detection on a Unity canvas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"465\" src=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-04-17-155727-1-1024x465.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-567\" srcset=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-04-17-155727-1-1024x465.png 1024w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-04-17-155727-1-300x136.png 300w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-04-17-155727-1-768x349.png 768w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-04-17-155727-1-1536x697.png 1536w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-04-17-155727-1-2048x930.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ground semantic layer detection with mesh generation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Storyboards<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We met with Jesse Schell last Friday to discuss storyboarding and get his advice for designing virtual reality and augmented reality experiences. This week, we pursued his advice in brainstorming, and we separately listed out a lot of possible learning and\/or transformational outcomes, interesting experiences, and cool features of AR as a launching-off point for us to pick the elements that we are most interested in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"854\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-5-854x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-569\" style=\"width:550px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-5-854x1024.png 854w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-5-250x300.png 250w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-5-768x921.png 768w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-5-1281x1536.png 1281w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-5.png 1369w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 854px) 100vw, 854px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on our visit to the museum and our brainstorming process, we created a storyboard of an experience with 4 stages, the first three dedicated to showing short segments of the National Road\u2019s progression while being constructed, and the final one being longer and showing a developed town along the road. We came up with interactions and achievements that would progress the levels, such as cutting down trees to clear a path for the road, building an S-bridge to cross a river, and building a tollhouse once the road\u2019s construction was nearly finished. We will continue refining this design, so that we can receive feedback from faculty at Quarters next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"479\" src=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-6-1024x479.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-570\" srcset=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-6-1024x479.png 1024w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-6-300x140.png 300w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-6-768x359.png 768w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-6-1536x719.png 1536w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-6-2048x959.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Challenges<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The main challenge of this week was simultaneously researching the history of the National Road and the capabilities of AR technology and then combining all of our findings into a design that matches our project goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Next Week&#8217;s Goals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Preparing for Quarters presentation on Wednesday<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Synthesize Quarters feedback and decide on a solid direction to begin prototyping<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prepare to attend Transformational Design Workshop<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reach out to Portals Project to request relevant their 3D models from scans<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Begin working on fast sprints for prototyping to see what works<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/20250121_151112-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-289\" style=\"width:762px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/20250121_151112-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/20250121_151112-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/20250121_151112-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/20250121_151112-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/20250121_151112-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview Field Trip: National Road Museum This week began with an exciting field trip across state lines to the National Road &amp; Zane Grey Museum in Ohio! There, we got a crash course on the history of the National Road and the evolution of transportation in the United States from the very knowledgeable Betsy Taylor. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dev-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":579,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/towards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}