Henry's Journal

Journal self-evaluation- 2/12 homework

Journal activities are explicitly and clearly related to course deliverables- 5

Most of my journal entries in the beginning few weeks of class was tailored towards familiarizing myself with the class, VR setup, and the Meta Quest. I have stated, albeit sometime more briefly than other times, the work I have performed, which was mainly completing homework and starting on my first project this week.

deliverables are described and attributed in wiki- 3

I have identified which deliverables to do- I will have a wiki page on "Applications of VR", in a section dedicated to "Perception of sense of scale and distance", which is the main premise of my first project. I will include my user survey results, as well as my own findings of how utilizing a 3D visualization space helps users visualize hard-to-grasp object scales better. Otherwise, I aim to do a separate wiki page on either "VR visualization software" or "VR modeling software", under the Unity section, focusing more on the multi layered approach of using multiple environments and seamlessly traversing through them. I am more uncertain on the final design/contents of this second wiki page, so I gave myself a 3 for this criteria.

report states total amount of time -5

total time is appropriate -5

I am on pace, and the number of hours will only start increasing from now as I start progressing in my projects.

revised project plan- 2/10 homework

Project description: Use Unity to build a VR environment where users can seamlessly compare extremely small and extremely large objects (e.g., molecules, cells, humans, buildings, planets) to study how VR affects intuition about scale compared to 2D representations.

The proposed project clearly identifies deliverable additions to our VR Software Wiki-5- aiming to expand on Unity capabilities and add onto techniques to enable seamless transition between multiple layers/environments

Involves passthrough or “augmented” in VR-5- aims to start users within the classroom, showing scales of objects

The proposed project involves large scientific data visualization along the lines of the "Scientific Data" wiki page and identifies the specific data type and software that it will use-5- using Unity and Blender if necessary to build objects- technique used is multi-scale layered environment rendering

The proposed project has a realistic schedule with explicit and measurable milestones at least each week and mostly every class-5- attainable goals, so far meeting timeline

The proposed project explicitly evaluates VR software, preferably in comparison to related software-5- project is aimed to compare VR adn 2D visualization on its capabilities of showing a sense of scale

The proposed project includes an in-class activity, which can be formative (early in the project) or evaluative (later in the project)- 5- includes an in class survey evaluating visualization techniques between VR and 2D visualization

The proposed project has resources available with sufficient documentation- 5- lots of documentation on Unity and layered environments

project plan- 2/5 homework

Project: Use Unity to build a VR environment where users can seamlessly compare extremely small and extremely large objects (e.g., molecules, cells, humans, buildings, planets) to study how VR affects intuition about scale compared to 2D representations.

Plan:

2/10: Find software to build 3D models and allow users to magnify/shrink environment by multiple factors of ten

2/12: Find equivalent website that showcases this in a 2D level

2/19: Start developing the 3D visualization, and start thinking of survey questions for activity participants

2/24: Finalize survey; work on finding ways to overlay classroom objects onto the visual

2/26: Continue finishing up the visualization; maybe add a ruler app to showcase the size of objects in quantifiable measures

3/03: I am aiming to provide an in-class activity around this time, once the visual is done, and aim to ask a survey of how the 2D-3D visuals help users grasp scales of objects

3/05: Work on wiki tab on software usage and visualization of large scale objects using VR

google earth web- 2/3 class activity

Screen Recording 2026-02-03 at 11.03.08 AM.mov

google earth vr- 2/3 class activity

ceb8b16de755470a930b3a5082fcea8d.mov

Google earth & dinovr setup- 2/03 homework

Shown on top of journal

Google earth & dinovr setup- 2/03 homework

Project 1: Find and download real-scale objects and build software that lets users render objects of varying magnitudes. Insert a ruler/sizer that allows users to calculate length/size of objects present within the clasroom, then comparing those sizes with other objects in the visualization. Conduct surveys asking if users can mentally grasp large/small sizes better after the visualization, which also ties in with the class activity. A few sample deliverables can indlue a tutorial on the rendering software used, or a study with user accounts on how much better humans can perceive size using VR.

Project 2: Find papers/2D interactive maps that show glacier loss data. At the same time, find softwares that can show glacier loss on a globe, as well as a separate scaled cube of water that represents the volume of melted ice. Also, outline the parts of the map that has submerged due to seawater rise. Users can interact with this map to infer the progression of glacier loss and its effects on seawater rise. The main deliverable for this project can be a detail on using arcgis to make interactive maps, as well as overlaying simulations over the 3D map.

Project 3: Find simulations that best show the 3D magnetic field projected on a 2D monitor. Develop user interactive virtual magnets that users can move around, to see the magnetic field shifts. This project can allow users to manipulate the magnetic objects within their simulations and see real time shifts of the magnetic field. There can also be a collaborative aspect, as long as the simulation can be connected real time with other users that are simulateously experiencing the project. The main deliverable for this project can be the visualization of physics and simulating physics movements in a VR space.

Course learning goals- 1/29 homework

before after

---- ----

1 | 3 | Goal 1: articulate AR/VR visualization software tool goals, requirements, and capabilities

1 | 3 | Goal 2: construct meaningful evaluation strategies for software libraries, frameworks, and applications; strategies include surveys, interviews, comparative use, case studies, and web research

3 | 4 | Goal 3: execute tool evaluation strategies

2 | 4 | Goal 4: build visualization software packages

3 | 4 | Goal 5: comparatively analyze software tools based on evaluation

1 | 3 | Goal 6: be familiar with a number of AR/VR software tools and hardware

3 | 4 | Goal 7: think critically about software

4 | 5 | Goal 8: communicate ideas more clearly

1 | 3 | Goal 9: grow a habit of routinely journaling my work

Project ideas- 1/29 homework

Proposal 1- Use Unity to build a VR environment where users can seamlessly compare extremely small and extremely large objects (e.g., molecules, cells, humans, buildings, planets) to study how VR affects intuition about scale compared to 2D representations. This directly addresses a human's limitation of perceiving objects outside the scope of everyday objects. Can also use blender to render these objects.

Proposal 2- Create a VR visualization that maps glacier loss within the arctic circle so users can intuitively grasp magnitude and rate of change. Similarly to proposal 1, can use Unity as the main VR rendering software.

Proposal 3- Visualizing invisible physical fields, such as magnetic fields, as users can interact with it using virtual magnets. This allows us to visualize fields in 3D space, which gives a comparable information advantage compared to traditional 2D simulations. I can use Paraview for vector field processing.

PROPOSALS

Project 1 Proposal <ADD LINK>

Presentation for Project 1 Proposal <ADD LINK>

End Presentation for Project 1 <ADD LINK>

Project 2 Proposal <ADD LINK>

Presentation for Project 2 Proposal <ADD LINK>

Poster <ADD LINK>

In-class Activity <ADD LINK>

Public Demo <ADD LINK>

ALL OTHER WIKI CONTRIBUTIONS

Homework 1 Assignment:

10 minute changes:

Link SideQuest download page/guide to Immersion Analytics Installation and Setup page
Add link to ShapesXR within the VR Modeling Software page
Remove 2021 VR@Brown page link, as it currently shows a 404 not found error

1 hour changes:

Review and add more papers on the related VR research page
Add additional applications of VR in economics- particularly on the visualization of hard to comprehend macroeconomics trends
Add/populate new 2025 student research page within the VR Research page

10 hour changes:

Write up reflection on main VR visualization tool used for one of two main projects
Write up a page on the comparison of the two main VR tools used for the two main projects
Add section on the use of vr software to visualize monte carlo simulation

CONTRIBUTION 1 [Added link to SideQuest download in Immersion Analytics Installation and Setup page

] https://www.vrwiki.cs.brown.edu/vr-visualization-software/immersion-analytics/immersion-analytics-installation-and-setup

CONTRIBUTION 2 [short description] <ADD LINK>

.....

CONTRIBUTION N [short description] <ADD LINK>

HOURS SUMMARY

Total: 5 hours

HOURS journal

1/25/26 - 2 Hours

Finishing up homework 1 content

1/25/26 - 3 Hours

Reading papers on collaborative AR

1/28/26 - 1 Hours

Set up Meta quest and explored basic functionalities

1/28/26 - 2 Hours

Finished journal entries for homework 2

2/2/26 - 2 Hours

Finished previous lab (ShapesXR) and all necessary setups for tomorrow's class

2/2/26 - 2 Hours

Finished journal entries for homework 3

2/4/26 - 2 Hours

Finished journal entries for 2/5 homework; starting finding 2D websites that most closely resemble the work I am aiming to compare to

2/9/26 - 6 Hours

Finished journal entries for 2/10 homework; solidified software and techniques used for project, started reading related documents to get used to multi-layered environments. Finished visualizing the 3D environment and started compiling a list of objects and their relative sizes. Finished working on short presentation of my project deliverable.

2/10/26 - 4 Hours

Finished journal entries for 2/12 homework; as I did the journal self reflection I realized I should include more in my journal entries so I intend to explain my contents of work in more detail here. This journal will also be treated as an intermediary notes page for me to log the progress of my projects, as well as keep any relevant pieces of information for me to come back later.

I was able to find a 2D webstie that does exactly what I'm looking for: https://htwins.net/scale2/#google_vignette. This seems to be the most updated version of this website, and it scales the entire universe, from the smallest measurable length, Planck length, to the size of the observable universe. Because of the limited time, I tend to do a smaller range of objects, from an Angstrom of length(10^-10m) to around the size of a galxy. The invidiual environments will likely show obejcts 100x in relative magtidue. For example, the first environment will be overlayered using AR onto the classroom and will have objects ranging from 0.1-10m.

For the zoom technique, I will make it so that the user themselves change in size, so the relative pieces of objects will be fixed. This might make the user interaction limited.

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