For this site visit we aimed to test the functionality of the geo location tracking as well as live testing the natural feature tracking at each of the three writers walk sculptures ( except Bill Manhire).
At Vincent O’Sullivan’s Sculpture we tested the NFT, with a small cube appearing at the bottom of the NFT marker to show it was working. It did take a while for the tracking to work however so we took another hi res image of the stingray to make into a better NFT marker image for tracking.
We then proceeded to Bill Manhire’s Sculpture to test the location tracking, this worked without any problems (the 3D object spun faster depending on how close we were to the sculpture).
Our next stop was Katherine Mansfield and the geo location tracking worked well with this sculpture too. The pop up that says augmented view is what the user will tap to initiate the AR views(360 and NFT).
The NFT AR also worked once initialize but this still needs work. so as before we have re taken some NFT Images to revisit and refine this tracking. Overall this Site Visit yielded some successful testing and has given us information to build on from this point onwards.
These Icons are being developed to give the user specific landmarks to orientate them on the map. After discussion Jeff and I decided that the 2D Flat look worked best out of the concepts I created as it suited the style of the map I have been developing best.
These are the first four out of about seven Icon that are being made.
11 Jan
These are the five finished Icons, They will be tested in the App and then refined depending on how they look.
Travel between the real world and the virtual world of Pokémon with Pokémon GO for iPhone and Android devices! With Pokémon GO, you’ll discover Pokémon in a whole new world—your own! Pokémon GO uses real location information to encourage players to search far and wide in the real world to discover Pokémon.
The Pokémon video game series has used real-world locations such as the Hokkaido and Kanto regions of Japan, New York, and Paris as inspiration for the fantasy settings in which its games take place. Now the real world is the setting!
The Pokémon video game series has always valued open and social experiences, such as connecting with other players to enjoy trading and battling Pokémon. Pokémon GO’s gameplay experience goes beyond what appears on screen, as players explore their neighbourhoods, communities, and the world they live in to discover Pokémon alongside friends and other players.
Pokémon GO is developed by Niantic, Inc. Originally founded by Google Earth co-creator John Hanke as a start-up within Google, Niantic is known for creating Ingress, the augmented reality mobile game that utilizes GPS technology to fuel a sci-fi story encompassing the entire world. Ingress currently has 12 million downloads worldwide.
Source: https://pkmngowiki.com/wiki/Main_Page
How it works from our perspective?
Way-finding
Way-finding works by using the phones location services to know the user position in space. A radar is then used to activate points of interest around a user, such as Poke Stops and Pokemon encounters. The player is represented through an avatar on the map itself.
AR View
In my opinion Pokemon go is not true AR. I uses the camera view with a UI Overlay that is positioned using a phones gyro / accelerometer. This creates the illusion of a virtual object in physical reality however this can be debunked by moving the phone around in space. When this is done virtual objects retain the same distance from the phone and move position in space, where as if they were true AR they would retain a “fixed”position in space.
Another thing to understand is that not many people use this view as it complicates the Pokemon catching Pokemon. Many just use the default 3D view that keep the Pokemon in view at all times.
What we will use
This precedent will be used as a basis and inspiration for way finding and the AR instance using the phones gyro sensor.
However for our map we are leaning towards a 2D style, opposed to the 3D style of Pokemon Go. We also need to be careful not to make the visuals too much like Pokemon Go as it is a well known application, but we can use it to inform the mechanics of the way finding as these are already well known.
The following were the points discussed in our second meeting
Choosing Writers
We chose the following three writers for development:
Katherine Mansfield, Bill Manhire and Vincent O’Sullivan
These writers were chosen for their locations on the walk and their ties to Victoria University.
Geo Location Augmented Reality
We created a basic 360 Ar Mobile Experience which can be triggered on a map using location services on a phone.
some of the points we discussed around this were:
giving the user a radar
creating a mini-map or using mini map mechanics to help design our way finding
Having a deep look at Pokemon go
Literary Atlas Map Design
We discussed how the map could look and we decided to create a few concepts to go over next meeting. Maps would be heavily text based and stylised to suit the Literary Atlas theme.
Testing the Natural Feature Tracking (NFT)
With the images we took during our site visits we created NFT Markers to create AR experiences based on the sculptures.
Note, this will be explained fully in another blog post linked here:
In this meeting we discussed how we needed to test this further as the inclusion of this would be of great benefit to the Application as a whole as it is something tangible to interact with. I knew this from previous projects such as Standing Ovation.
Our main problem was the 3D sculpture faces messing with the 2D tracking. We will solve this by;
Doing more testing with the sculptures themselves
Potentially Adjusting the camera settings but this may not work on all phones
Audio Playlist
An Idea we had was a Literary playlist based off the audio files we have access to. We could create this playlist which would play while the user is walking so they could listen to these texts as well as visualise them. Some precedents for this are;