Learning Goals

After this course students will be able to:

1. articulate AR/VR visualization software tool goals, requirements, and capabilities;

2. construct meaningful evaluation strategies for software libraries, frameworks, and applications; strategies include surveys, interviews, comparative use, case studies, and web research;

3. execute tool evaluation strategies;

4. build visualization software packages;

5. comparatively analyze software tools based on evaluation;

6. be familiar with a number of AR/VR software tools and hardware;

7. think critically about software;

8. communicate ideas more clearly;

before after
----  ----
  1   | 5 | Goal 0: example goal showing "novice" score before and "expert mentor" after
  1   |   | Goal 1: Articulate AR/VR visualization software tool goals, requirements, and capabilities
  1   |   | Goal 2: construct meaningful evaluation strategies for software libraries, frameworks, and applications; strategies include surveys, interviews, comparative use, case studies, and web research;

1 |   | Goal 3: execute tool evaluation strategies;

      1 |   | Goal 4:build visualization software packages;

      2 |   | Goal 5: comparatively analyze software tools based on evaluation;

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

      4 |   | Goal 7: think critically about software;

      4 |   | Goal 8: communicate ideas more clearly;
      2 |   | Goal 9: present complex ideas with confidence.

Proposal Ideas

1. Real-Life Guitar Hero

• Wearing the headset while playing the bass. Instead of reading sheet music, colored "notes" fly from the virtual distance toward the fretboard.

2. Immersive Stock Market Topology

• Instead of staring at 2D candlestick charts, you build a VR experience where the stock market is visualized as a 3D landscape. The X/Y axes could represent sectors and time, while elevation could be volatility or volume. Then, hand tracking would grab a specific stock cluster. 

3. NBA Jam

• A pure hype filter for basketball practice. If you hit 3 in a row, your ball gets a glowing "On Fire" trail (like the classic video game).

4. Virtual Lighting Studio

• Before you drag out heavy lights for a photoshoot, you use AR to place virtual softboxes and LED panels in your real room. You can see exactly how the shadows will fall on your subject (or a virtual mannequin) without setting up a single piece of gear.

Proposal Project Plan -- Immersive Stock Market 

Sprint 1: The Foundation of Data

Dates: Feb 10 – Feb 23 

Goal: Go from a blank screen to a static 3D mountain range generated by data.

• Mon 2/10 (Milestone): Tech Stack & Data Structure

  • Deliverable: Project Plan & Data Dictionary (e.g., Row 1 = Ticker, Row 2 = Price, Row 3 = Volume or X/Y/Z).

  • Activity: Select the engine (Unity/Unreal) and find a clean CSV dataset (starting with historical data).

• Wed 2/12 (Milestone): The Data Parser

  • Deliverable: A script that reads the CSV and logs it to the console for verification.

  • Activity: Write the loop that parses the data. Extract variables ($Price, $Volume) for a single stock.

• Wed 2/19 (Milestone): The "Greybox" Landscape

  • Deliverable: Procedural Generation Script.

  • Activity: Instantiate cubes/bars based on the data.

  • Success Metric: You see a "city" of blocks where height = price or volatility. It doesn't need to look pretty, just correct.

Sprint 2: Interaction & The MVP (Beta)

Dates: Feb 24 – Mar 09 Goal: Make it playable. The user needs to be able to touch the data and understand it.

• Mon 2/24 (Milestone): Hand Tracking / Input

  • Deliverable: Working VR Player Controller.

  • Activity: Implement "Ray Interactors" (laser pointers) or "Direct Touch" (hands).

  • Key Depth Feature: Add a "Hover State" (blocks change color when you point at them) so users know what they are targeting.

• Wed 2/26 (Milestone): The Information Layer (UI)

  • Deliverable: World-Space UI Canvases.

  • Activity: When a user selects a block, spawn a floating window with text: "AAPL: +2.4% Volatility: High."

• Mon 3/03 (Milestone): Bug Fixes & Optimization

  • Deliverable: A stable build running at 72fps+ (essential to prevent motion sickness).

  • Activity: Merge meshes if the frame rate is low. Fix text readability issues.

• Wed 3/05 (Milestone): The "Beta" Build (MVP)

  • Deliverable: A build ready for the classroom.

  • Activity: Code Freeze. Stop adding features. Focus solely on ensuring the app doesn't crash during the demo.

• Before 3/13: The In-Class Activity (User Testing)

  • Event: Let classmates try the headset.

  • Data Gathering: Watch them play. Do they know how to grab a stock? Do they understand that height = price? (Write down every struggle they have).

Sprint 3: Complexity & Time (Feature Expansion)

Dates: Mar 10 – Mar 23 Goal: Add the "4th Dimension" (Time).

• Feedback Integration:

  • Take the notes from the In-Class Activity and fix the UI/UX friction points.

• New Feature: Time Scrubbing

  • Instead of a static snapshot, implement a "Timeline Slider" or "Scrub Bar" that allows the user to watch the landscape shift and grow over a year.

  • Depth Check: This requires animating the height of the bars smoothly (Lerp) between data points.

Sprint 4: Immersion (Audio & Visuals)

Dates: Mar 24 – Apr 06 Goal: Transform it from a "3D Graph" to a "Cyberpunk World."

• Visual Polish:

  • Replace standard cubes with custom meshes (glowing pillars, holographic textures).

  • Implement Shaders: Make the stocks pulse if they have high volume.

• Spatial Audio:

  • Attach sound sources to specific volatile sectors.

  • Experience: If the Tech sector is crashing, the user should hear a low rumble coming from that direction (spatialized sound).

Sprint 5: Advanced Data or Live Connectivity

Dates: Apr 07 – Apr 20 Goal: Technical Depth.

• Choice Point:

  • Option A (Live Data): Connect an API (like Alpha Vantage) to make the market update in real-time.

  • Option B (Deep Analysis): Add analytical tools (e.g., a "flashlight" tool that highlights all stocks with P/E ratios under 15).

• Documentation: Start writing your technical documentation or "How To" guide for the final submission.

Sprint 6: Final Polish & Packaging

Dates: Apr 21 – May [Final Date] Goal: Perfecting the user journey.

• The "Lobby": Create a starting room/tutorial area where the user learns the controls before entering the data map.

• Optimization Pass: Final profiler check to ensure smooth performance.

• Final Build: Build the standalone .APK (if Quest) or .EXE.

PROPOSAL 

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

CONTRIBUTION 1 [short description] <ADD LINK>

CONTRIBUTION 2 [short description] <ADD LINK>

.....

CONTRIBUTION N [short description] <ADD LINK>

HOURS journal

2/3/26 - 4 Hours

• Read through 5 papers in the VR Research papers tab to get a sense of the space

1. Investigating the Impact of Virtual Element Misalignment in Collaborative Augmented Reality Experiences

• What stuck out to me: The differences in how individuals experience AR can line up despite looking at the same thing. It made the idea of everything being in the same place at the same time in an AR experience feel very intentional, unlocking real collaboration between people if they are working in the same setting. 

2. Design Patterns for Situated Visualization in Augmented Reality

• Gave me a bunch of project ideas, highlighting the idea of displaying data that lives in the real world and being able to experience it, rather than just displaying it as a computer would. One of the examples that was really cool was the display of a temperature graph directly on a machine part rather than a separate screen for that information. 

3. SpatialTouch: Exploring Spatial Data Visualizations in Cross-Reality

• What was really interesting was the collaboration between different systems; in this case, it was what someone was seeing in a VR headset being able to be interacted with by a flat touch screen. 

4. FIESTA: A Free Roaming Collaborative Immersive Analytics System

• FIESTA was a prototype that allowed people to share data visualizations in a massive space, rather than tethering people to a screen or small circle. 

5. CoVAR: a collaborative virtual and augmented reality system for remote collaboration

• This was really cool to read because it described AR and VR systems working together between two different people. It almost gave me the impression that, for example, a mechanic could virtually stand next to me, guiding me through fixing something in my car if there was an emergency. 

• Be sure to always include the amount of hours you've worked. 

1/27/21 - 2 Hours

• Another example entry.

• Descriptions of what you did.

• Feel free to add pictures as well!