Substituting Reality - Mixed Reality Course '24 - VU703371
Mixed Reality technology allows for the seamless blending of real and virtual elements, offering endless possibilities to change how we interact with our environment. The first iteration of the Master course in Mixed Reality at UIBK took this idea and evolved novel MR experiences around the theme "Substituting Reality," specifically transferring existing physical assets to the virtual world while improving their functionality. Students worked in teams to develop immersive Mixed Reality prototypes in a 4-day hackathon.
Throughout the course, students created innovative prototypes, including virtual toolkits for DIY enthusiasts, interactive gaming experiences that enhance physical coordination, and collaborative virtual whiteboards for brainstorming sessions. They also explored virtualized traditional games, innovative educational tools for hands-on learning, and augmented reality manuals for complex building tasks.
These projects allowed students to gain a deep understanding of MR's potential in various fields. The course provided them with an invaluable skill set and experiences in this exciting and rapidly evolving technology.
Digital Handyman
With Digital Handyman, we aim to improve and simplify the process of DIY ("do-it-yourself") projects by implementing a variety of virtual planning tools that are always and literally right at your fingertips. These tools offer significant enhancements over conventional tools when it comes to convenience and physical limitations. Our toolbox includes a 3D Pen, which is easily erasable without leaving any marks on physical surfaces; a measuring Tape/Spirit Level, capable of measuring around corners and expanding to any size; and a virtual Laser pointer/plane, which enables precise alignment in 3D space. With these augmented tools, users will have all the necessary planning equipment to realize their DIY projects. This virtual toolbox simplifies the entire DIY process, not only by saving time, space and money, but also by improving accuracy and precision, ensuring every project is completed to the highest standard.
by Sebastian Pellizzari, Fabian Aster, and Elias Dellago
ARafting
The mixed reality (MR) project addresses the need to combine MR gaming with physical activity to improve coordination and reaction time in a playful manner. It aims to make training more exciting for board sport enthusiasts and advanced users by introducing a new way of interacting with a ”balance board controller.” In the game, players first set a portal on a wall where the virtual world spawns. They then navigate a small boat on a virtual jungle river ”emerging from the wall” using a balance board equipped with gyroscopic sensors. Players collect coins by maneuvering the boat left or right by shifting their weight and must avoid sharks, as hitting them costs a life. Touching the ground with the balance board results in a gradual loss of life. Two balance boards are available, offering different levels of difficulty. Currently, the game primarily benefits board sport enthusiasts by providing fun and balance training. It has the potential to be adapted for medical environments to aid in balance rehabilitation for elderly individuals or those with injuries in the future.
by Florian Neururer, Timmy, and Julian Rotter
MindSpace XR
Collaborative planning and brainstorming sessions are important for product development and other scenarios. However, it can often get chaotic and overcrowded when using a simple whiteboard. Mindspace XR offers a solution by virtualising the whiteboard interaction. In Mindspace XR the users can create multiple shared whiteboards in a colocation environment and interact with them using virtual pens. The goal of the application is to maximise user comfort to be as intuitive as possible. Therefore, the whole application can be interacted with either the controllers or the user’s hands. The pens can be gripped, and the whiteboards created using hand gestures. A simple and clean UI allows the user to instantly clear or delete a whiteboard. The players are notified when others join and can use integrated voice chat to communicate. We expect Mindspace XR to simplify collaborative planning.
by Florian Niederhauser, Lukas Hofbauer, Mathis Roos, and René Erler
dARt Game
We created an MR Dart Game with little to no additional items required. No real dart game set is required, only a room that is large enough. Darts and Dartboard are Virtual, so there is no risk of injuring other people by accidentally throwing darts at them. Furthermore, the dartboard is projected to the wall at which the controller points. It can be locked in place at any height with the press of a button. Additionally, there is no need to collect the darts after they are thrown. They can be picked up from a table and reset onto the table by pressing a button. Compared to a traditional dart game, we can provide more exciting feedback to the user by incorporating both visual and sound effects in our demonstration. A comprehensive scoreboard is provided, which lets you compete against your family and friends.
by Jacob Hoeck, Stefan Zischg, and Lukas Eder
Virtual Lego Instruction Manual
This project consists of a virtual Lego instruction manual, that can be used in augmented reality during the building process. For the application to be an actual enhancement for the user, the following key features were implemented: Interactable 3D-animations, intuitive manipulation of the models, hand-anchored menu, gesture control, voice commands. When starting up the app, the user is presented with a choice of three instruction manuals. Upon entering one of them, a 3D-animation of the manual is rendered. For navigation, the user can choose between using the hand-anchored menu, pinching gestures with their hands for skipping to the next or previous step of the manual. For even more ease of use, a speech recognition feature is implemented to trigger every menu option by voice command. The user can pinch and move the 3D-Animation freely in space and resize the model by pinching with both hands. The main goal of enhancing the user experience by building a smooth UI and well-rendered animations was achieved and runs flawlessly.
by Dennis Barnes, Anna-Lena Hetzenauer, Gabriel Mitterrutzner, and Maximilian Hammen
MR Education
Physical experiments are costly, require significant space, and sometimes may be dangerous. Due to these constraints students are usually required to work in groups, preventing individual hands-on experience. We propose a mixed reality solution that attempts to address these issues, enhance the experience of conducting physical experiments and other classes, and provide schools with an effortless way to immerse students in the subject while staying up to date. Our platform allows students to interact with lasers and prisms or experience the solar system to scale. Currently, HoloLens 2 is being used, but more affordable options like Google Cardboard with simple phones could further reduce costs, thus allowing each individual student to experience and play with the experiments themselves. While physics was chosen as a proof of concept, the platform is easily expandable to other subjects as well.
by Markus Bauer, Martin Schnöller, Thiemo Haller, and Simon Schwienbacher