Extrasensory elements in viz

[Eliot Blenkarne]

Hi all,

 

I'm about to begin my final year of my MArch (prof), and am in the process of selecting my thesis topic. I have been discussing the potential of this being focused on the inclusion of more than simply a visual approach to virtual space with my professor.

 

Specifically, I'd like to pursue how to embed the likes of sound, heat, texture/haptics and tactility. However, I am having a little trouble with finding existing academic work that has dealt with this already - our school is focused on disciplinary involvement, adding to existing knowledge and understanding that it's extremely unlikely you have a totally original idea.

 

 

Has anyone worked in this field before? Anyone got some tips on resources? While I'd prefer anything with an architectural leaning, I'll take anything at this stage

 

 

Have looked through SIGGRAPH, HITLab and Cumincad. Some good stuff there but thought I'd come to the the source of the current trends in depicting virtual space!

 

Thanks in advance.

[Devin Johnston]

What your describing sounds more like a game environment than traditional visualization, all of the top game engines like Unreal can give you those things right now so it's not theoretical.

[Scott Schroeder]

Agree with Devin. You are going to be better off searching things like SIGGRAPH white papers for what you want.

 

I highly doubt architecture will have much of what you want to find. Plus you really don't need it to be architecture leaning to begin with. If you find research that someone has done with, say fire+heat effects in a video game. You can easily apply that to architecture and say interacting with a fireplace.

 

Anyone remember smell-o-vision?

[Eliot Blenkarne]

Yeah was aware of the crossover with game engines - I've been using Unity at uni for awhile, which is what brought me to my current thread of investigation. Was just hoping there may be some particular stand out examples, potentially with an architectural basis, but ultimately anything that has been done really well.

 

Like you say Scott, the application at this stage can be from any field given the relative infancy of the topic - I'm interested in how to shift it to an abstracted digital architectural in a reasonably accessible way.

 

Thanks

[Justin Hunt]

First thought is that sort of thing would be great for competition presentations where the actualdetail of the building isn't important but the atmosphere is. Abstraction to the next level.

 

I like the idea, how it would work in a production environment is another matter

[Eliot Blenkarne]

You nailed exactly what I was thinking. Have just been trawling through videos of ultrasound haptics - not really applicable, but amazing. Traditional "rumble packs" that infer environmental stress are where I'm heading, but including other environmental aspects like heat would be amazing too. Trying to get some of the more ephemeral qualities of space into the virtual representation of it at the early stage of design, which wouldn't compete with more traditional visualisation, which would be further down the line I imagine.

[notamondayfan]

Surely something like this is much more than just visual effects?

 

It sounds to me like you need the user / viewer to be able to feel, rather than just see. Taking this literally it could mean if you visualise a walk-in freezer, the ambient temperture drops and it feels cold?

 

Maybe when you step out of a door, you feel the wind, or the sun shine on your face?

 

 

The Void may be a good place to look for the VR side of things?

 

Dean

[Eliot Blenkarne]

That's a great example, thanks a lot!

 

I'm not sure if it would be possible to include multiple senses (it's only a year of study) - I'd prefer to do one aspect and do it well, plus my supervisor is quite keen on haptics at this stage, as am I. With that said, I think some other students are looking at sensory activation so tying in with them would be the plan.

[Rich O]

Sounds like a gaming/VR topic more than strictly "viz".

 

Many of the middleware game engines support VR.

If you were to tie AR/VR into some sort of haptic feedback system, so that the user for example gets physical feedback when they interact with an object in VR space.

 

Are you actually intending to build a working system of some sort? Furthering what Dean said, I am now envisaging someone walking around a VR space wearing haptic gloves with a hairdryer and two heat lamps attached to them which go on and off when triggered by particular events.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Richard7666

[RyderSK]

I would browse through some of the things from past Architectural Bienalles (in Venice). Esp. the year 2012, which was super-experimentative (as opposed to practical's Koolhas' 2014, which was much more to my tastes).

I remember VR, Augmented reality, sound/light focused pavilions, lot's of really weird video screenings that were reactive to your movement in the room, etc..

While most of these didn't like actively portray architecture directly, some did and most of all represented architectural topics.