We’re on our Thanksgiving break, but still hard at work!

We’ve been getting content ready for the VR demo and getting more written documentation out of the way.

Soft opening is on Monday. Can’t stop now!

This has been a particularly busy week for us. We’ve been kicking production into high gear, as well as engaging in a lot of new meetings and discussions!

We started the week off by attending a workshop hosted by Second Story. They are now officially working with CMU on the new media installations, and they’re just launching into their own brainstorming phase. We got to talk to their team and watch how a professional group goes through this process. The workshop was also a great place to hear what the other interested parties were hoping to achieve with the welcome center. We heard a lot of familiar ideas, so we know we are on the right track!

We have also been working on our VR demo. We have our new media wall design implemented and are adding people to the space. The content is all placeholder for now. We should be adding actual sample content of our own creation at the beginning of next week.

The example content is coming along nicely as well. Smaller pop-up interfaces for guests to interact with are being designed for the wings. The interface will appear at eye-level for each guest who approaches the wall. For the central grid, we are creating larger visuals that will make use of the moving sections in interesting ways.

This week, we settled on a new hardware design so we can move forward on our deliverables and content.

For a while, we were moving towards a completely new idea: smaller digital screens made to look like picture frames, like an art gallery or museum. However, we were concerned that this would greatly restrict the types of content the installation could be used for. It also doesn’t have the right advanced technology and “wow factor” impact we are going for.

We re-thought our design once again. Our new concept uses our original moving grid, with curved, immersive, touchable “wings”.

The new “wings” will be possible with flexible OLED displays or similar technology. They will extend content to the ends of the display for the benefit of people approaching the wall from the side, as they will undoubtedly do so down this long hallway. They also create a central area that is somewhat more surrounded by the wall, making it more immersive. We can also use this area as our target-area for directed sound. We also feel that this new shape to the wall gives it a much more futuristic, high tech feeling, and it will still look interesting even if the displays are turned off.

We can also take advantage of the space behind the wings to add additional lighting effects.

We would like to use our art frame gallery idea from earlier today as part of our proposed content for the grid area. The depth control would allow for actual physical presence to be given to digitally created “frames”, thus enhancing the content. Sticking with this more standard wall as opposed to separate, individual frames also keeps the display versatile and re-usable for different forms of content for years to come. This was something our client was concerned about.

We are looking towards removing the table kiosks entirely and moving that content to the touchable wings. These kiosks so far have felt very secondary to the experience, and we believe consolidating the components will make it feel more cohesive. It will also allow us to give the wall itself a lot more consideration since our focus will be less divided. We would still like to include sitting areas within the space. We’re playing with the idea of enabling this standard furniture so that it can interact with the nighttime projections.

This week we’ve been focusing on finding new ways to push our designs even further.

Our design for this installation won’t be implemented for a number of years still. In that time, technology will be growing, changing, and evolving. We can’t just sit satisfied with the now. We have to think big and push the boundaries of what’s possible now to consider what will be possible then.

Some technologies we’ve been looking at will be smaller changes as far as the design goes, but bigger in terms of our hardware recommendations. For instance, we’ve been looking at OLED displays as a way to make our project more energy efficient, to give it a thinner profile, and even use their flexibility to enhance our media wall with more interesting shapes. This would also help the installation to still look interesting even if the displays are down.

Other technologies will add newer dimensions to what we’ve developed so far. We’ve been looking at new areas of research including touch sensitive fabric (possibly for sitting areas?) and 3D hologram-like displays (possibly for synthetic interviews with Andrew Carnegie and others?).

We’ve also been re-considering the use of sound in our experience. Part of what we love about the nighttime display is the potential to immerse the guest. Through the use of sound, we can immerse people further even during the day. Since it is a large public area, and generally persistent sounds would quickly become a nuisance to the people who work there on a regular basis, we’re trying to incorporate localized directional audio alongside our touchable panels and other specific components. A marked out region on the floor would naturally indicate a space for a guest to stand while interacting with content that would allow them to hear the sound.

Additional work done this week has included fleshing out our personas and polishing our VR building space. The project videos we’ll be needing to turn in at the end of the semester are also on our minds, so we’ve set up some time next week to tape some interviews with our client Lisa and other members of the committee.

In other news, CMU has finalized their contract with Second Story, and design meetings will take place in a few weeks. We’ll be attending to hear what they have to say and to present our own work so far.