Motion XR
Design Research, Mixed Reality Design
2018.3 Group AR Project
Timeline: 2 months
Team: Jessica Escobedo, Justeen Lee
Tools: Unity3D, Rhino3D, Filming, Virtual Reality, Graphic
How might we socialize with shared experiences as immersive technologies advance?
MotionXR is a speculation on the implications of how we might mingle, interrupt, produce, and design shared experiences as technologies advance. This platform imagines a future that allows one to enter a virtual environment by synchronizing their body movement with the owner in any environment. In this project, I was responsible for AR design, filming, first prototype development, coding and one of the final scene design.
The hypothetic XR future we propose in this project
MotionXR imagines and speculates various future scenarios of cultural assimilation through of this motion-based social interaction. The future in these scenarios is a time when mass adoption and refinement of this technology exists. Extended reality (XR) currently refers to the merging of existing technologies including AR and VR. In this project, XR is an imagined construct based on the current trajectory of AR and VR technologies.
In this future, XR technology is massively adopted just like smartphone in current era. At that time, XR requires no headsets and body tracking is perfected.
Translate the natural body motions into “follow”
“Follow” is so popular and become a common function in almost every social media platform. It allows followers keep pace with the host on any social content. It can be image, video or anything.
From subscribe ESPN channel on TV to follow Zach King on TikTok, we wonder how “follow” will evolve in XR era.
The Rule of MotionXR: Enter a virtual environment by synchronizing other's body movement
Similar but also different profile world in this spatial social hypothesis
Just like how we create our on profile page on social media now, Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, in this XR future, the world you enjoy with your augmented content shows everyone personality. They are not a static page or world. Instead, in this new era profile world should have a brand new looks. We speculated three different profile worlds that present different personalities with different body motions.
Scene 1: underwater scene whose creator was chopping corals
Scene 2: urban scene whose creator was holding a giant cup to collect Chinese lucky money
Scene 3: desert scene whose creator was dusting to uncover treasure
Unexpected effects with new interactions might happen in public
From there several possibilities about the use and outcomes of MotionXR in an urban context were designed and tested:
Possibility 1: Unintentional Synchronization
A first person experience of standing on a sidewalk holding a cell phone and briefly synchronizing with other people holding cell phones that are passing by. The outcome: a flickering effect interrupting one’s experience via entering various scenes in a short time frame.
Possibility 2: Crowd Following
A third person view a virtual environment owner unknowingly being imitated and followed by a crowd of people down a sidewalk. The outcome: the virtual environment owner could lead to a viral effect and become a virtual celebrity with lots of ‘followers’ similar to that of influencers on social media.
Possibility 3: Unintentional Destination
A third person view of a follower that experiences disorientation and confusion after the virtual environment owner abruptly discontinues the movement and leaves the VR space. The outcome: unresolved effects of complete body and mind immersion.
Design Process Overview
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Rethink the meaning of “follow” in social media
“Follow” is so popular and become a common function in almost every social media platform. It allows followers keep pace with the host on any social content. It can be image, video or anything. From subscribe ESPN channel on TV to follow Zach King on TikTok, we wonder how “follow” will evolve in XR era.
XR emphasis more on body movement as input and physical space as display area. Is it a chance to bring the actual mimicking behavior back as a “follow” function in XR era? Inspired by the common scene that people bobbing head or shaking body with the same rhythm while listening music together, our team began to explore the possibilities of “mimic as follow” in XR.
1. Research process for possibilities of follow
2. Concept animation
Posture study for body motions as new input
We realized that there are unlimited number of posture or movement that can be chosen as a follow movement for anyone. We initialed a series study of posture to help us choose the best three for VR development and concept presentation.
The criteria of postures are distinguishable, concise and Intuitive. Due to the limitation of VR development, the postures we choose for prototype only contain one hand movement.
Three postures: low, medium and high postures
Iterate on VR prototype
Rhythmic sync
A set of scenarios that encapsulate the foundation of MotionXR were the foundation of this project. The first step entailed creating a functional prototype of detecting motion synchronization as a proof of concept. In first prototype specialize in basic follow functions. Although the limitations are present in the current VR technology (headset constraints and player visibility), the system still demonstrates the concept that a person is able to enter others' virtual environment by synchronizing their movements.
Scene
In XR era, the scene you enjoy in plays the same role as your profile page, like your home page of Instagram and TikTok. We tried couple ideas about what you want to share to others as your public page in cross reality era. Something can represent your current mood / style you want to be / idea you would like to advertise / …
All of prototypes of MotionXR are built with Unity3D engine combined HTC Vive hardware. By using 3D model software (Rhinoceros, C4D), we create 3 different digital scenes to demonstrate the possible experiences.
1. Prototype rhythmic sync in VR for 3 demo: reading, running and dancing
2. Second prototype on playful scene design
Filming as a prototype methods
The possible public phenomenons/implications of our design in future is the next thing that arouse our interests. What if everyone actually follow these rule in public.
Due to the limitation of current VR technology, we choose film as a media to demonstrate the possible situation in the future with MotionXR. We invited 10+ professional motion capture actors to participate the two rounds film shooting in downtown Los Angeles.
Compared to common people, motion capture actors have more experience on imagine and perform based on simple clues. The discussion between our team and them help generating many interesting ideas for this project.
Special thanks to actors:
Joanna Burke , Ian Coleman, Lianne O’Shea, Sarah Blandy, Tim Copacz, Brent Hortz, Jordan McIntyre, Dominic Lee, Jessica Troiani, Alex Bankier
Deliverables
Final deliverable includes VR simualtion, visual design, videos and a series of VR installation and talks.
