User Response

My first set of user-testing in scientific visualization went well today - the system worked on the web page and I received some positive feedback.

Citique Notes, in short

The following project was mentioned with respect to my project:

Build your own shoe

This indicates the potential of a news event. Two different effects are at play in this project: voice and visualization. An element of spectacle is present. One way to improve the piece is to add location data to determine how the actors appear.

Phone number and URL

This is a demo that worked ok the last time I checked, press any key to navigate the particles.
You can download the web viewer from Virtools

It's hard to see depth in these particles, but the idea is that any particle emitter coordinate is
gettable at any point, or could be driven by IVR menus.


For I S L A N D demo

Call - 1 646 358 4368

http://www.dimitridarras.com/3D/demo13.htm

I S L A N D Screen shots

Here I've taken screen shots from two different actors' perspectives. This piece is predicated on multiple users navigating the system - an attempt to visualize John Donne's meditation XVII "no man is an island".

Visualization

Here is a screenshot of what the visual element will look like. I'm still working on the logic to get the camera to transition between the actors. Looking ahead, here is the technical to-do list:

-Vary the background with a slight alpha value
-Instantiate actors when they call the number
-Get a voice print if possible
-Decide if additional data feeds are necessary
-Test cross browser and platform
-Can anything interesting be done with the web data?
-Compose an original soundrack in Digital Performer that is spatially located within the piece
-Create redundant DB values on stage with a redundant .cmo

Camera Array

I'm making a camera array (by hand, not programmatic, yet) for the actors.

Pending:

Testing .vmo for performance
Scripting the transition camera to go between actors.

I'm scaling back on the input parameters from VXML for now - there are just too many options available, so for testing purposes I'm limiting them to just one.

NURBS to POLYGONS

This animated gif illustrates an interesting problem. Virtools only uses polygon models, but NURBS are the best choice for organic modeling. I'm noticing with this sketch that converting to polygons increases the triangle count, textures are uneven and soft edges become jagged.

Particles

I am using particles for their painterly effects. They are causing some problems however:

-Mac render crashes
-Using lots of emitters causes crashes
-Moving particles in 3D space is hard to visualize since they have no real 3D presence

Here is a screenshot of the navigation I have that unfortunately doesn't make sense for the interaction. The user scenario
I have in mind is for several participants - I'm unclear how the movement is going to animated though, through cameras, objects, or some combination thereof.

2 Actors

My goal is to figure out how to combine two users - in this conception as moveable particle systems:

Audio, .cmo, and test app. QA

I think I've solved the MP3 problem and am delaying the frame rate so that it doesn't loop within the conditional. The transition camera seems to break after a couple of minutes for some reason. The .vmo works fine once the MP3s are placed in the same dir. However, on the Mac, there is no audio (perhaps this has to do with the .wav BB).

I've asked three friends to test my work over the next couple of weeks - I believe they'll offer feedback on A) if it works and B) if the content therein is any good.

I've been thinking further about the interactivity and am happy to see that VIRTOOLS scales - this means that I could potentially get 15 feeds in at the same time on one phone line. Having a sound track to the .vmo has shed new light on where this project is going.

2 Feeds

I've established two feeds. On the to-do list:

-Create database tables for x amt. of feeds
-Switch between MP3 feed
-Find a reasonable way to route calls (initial menu linking to x amount of dynamic web pages)

Screenshots of basic working mechanism

Herewith the VoiceXML code and screenshots of my skyscraper with transitions up and down depeneding on what the phone user says. Here is a link to the web version:
http://www.dimitridarras.com/3D/demo01.htm

To interact, call 1 646 502 9002

Hit "1" at the prompt

Say "up" (2) or "down" (8)

Sound

I'm attempting to switch sounds based on the server value.

Files Retrieved

Seems like it's going to be OKAY. There was a disk error but my files are retrievable.

Server Crash

I've documented some of my work, getting the transition camera back along with the other BBs will take me into next week.

Polygonal head expression issues II

In VIRTOOLS, it seems like the best strategy to modify my head's facial expressions is to use Morphing. I will post examples of this shortly in my Virtools Blog.

Thesis Statement Expanded - Weekend Tasks

Splitting into groups two weeks ago was really helpful. It helped me expand on my thesis statements, what I'm trying to prove and disprove.

Thesis:

VoiceXML is a more intuitive interface to installations, architectural and data visualization than traditional point and click metaphors.

This just about covers the technial part. I have 8 weeks left to refine the content for this project, really, the heart of it.

This weekend, there are some pending issues in VIRTOOLS:

-Getting the (awesome) transition camera to well, transition, seamlessly on event handler.
-Figuring out IK handles in case I need them (this is part of the assignment for Scientific Visualization)
-Figuring out how to animate a MESH in VIRTOOLS (this is important if I'm going to do the Wizard-of-Oz head thing)
-Placing a taurus in a 3D grid and figuring out the Voice interface as to how to do this (it falls off of the page now till I tell it to go "up")
-Getting the web player to work with the VXML

Polygonal head expression issues

I'm trying out the polygon proxy to try to change the fixed expression and am running into some challenges. The way the model is built, the polygons stretch in an unnatural way. The smile is pinched, there are overlapping vertices, some N-sided polygons, and a seam on the rendered head. Here are some screen shots to illustrate what I'm referring to.

Server Issues II

Today all socket connections seem fine. For my thesis, I'd better have video back up in the event that my server and stage give problems.