Augmented Virtuality in Real Time for Pre-visualization in Film (AViRT)
Programmer / Writer - Unity
AViRT is a mobile pre-visualization system for indie filmmakers using Google's Project Tango's 3D mapping features to place actors into a virtual scene on a film set. The success of this project was its publication and presentation in the conference proceedings of IEEE 3DUI 2016.
My duties on this project included leading the team and programming the application, learning the basics of team management and Android app development. My greatest challenges included learning how to build an .apk without errors and writing a shader in GLSL, while at the same time building my first Unity project. This project had a short deadline due to the need to test real people in a green screen, so the program had to be done weeks before our deadline to fit in room for testing/analysis. Some shortfalls included the greater vision of the UI had a lot more features, but due to time constraints our team decided to settle on functionality over form in order to perform the testing.
Another great challenge was learning how to be a manager and deal with interpersonal issues in a team context. I had not intended on being the programmer on this project, and planned on being the role of administrator/paper writer. Just as group projects go, our team felt that one of the individuals was not contributing to the project as the rest of the team. We worked with our teammate to try and find out the reason for lack of motivation, and dealt with it as friends, as opposed to sending hostility and negativity. Unfortunately even this did not solve our issues, so due to needing to finish the project on time, I had to step up and learn how to program in Unity in a short time frame. Lucky my fellow teammates supported me by helping with 3D models, creating sprite assets, and helping me solve Android build issues by helping me research problems.
After the senior design aspect of the project was over, my teammates and I put together an application and wrote our paper in IEEE format. I did not think we had any shot, but we were encouraged by our professor and project mentor to take the risk. After a few months of no contact, I received a 'Conditional Acceptance', read the comments, and simply had to make a few more 'proper' changes to my format and wording to be accepted. After satisfying the syntax critics, I resent in the paper and had been formally accepted, to give a presentation at the conference in Greenville, SC the following spring. As an undergraduate student at the time, I severely felt impostor syndrome when presenting my work, but afterward acquired a newfound love and appreciation for XR and virtual technologies. The conference itself was an incredible learning experience. I really felt at home with fellow intellectuals on the forefront of virtual technologies, and getting to share that experience with those people was the greatest aspect of attending my first conference.
Built in Unity using C#, GLSL, AndroidSDK, and the Project Tango SDK.