I’ve been working more with augmented and virtual reality headsets, lately. I’ve been using the HTC VIve Pro, Valve Index, Oculus Quest 2, and Hololens 2 on various prototypes I’ve been creating for my team at D-Ford. I’ve worked with Unity for the majority of my AR/VR development and Enklu for quick AR concepts. I find Enklu to be a very useful tool to compliment the Hololens 2.
I’ve been experimenting with various software as well to help quickly mock up interactive stories for users to immerse themselves in, typically for research or just more ideation. Some of my latest projects include in-vehicle experiences fashioned by cardboard with augmented reality headsets to help give a sense of what the future technologies may help us achieve.
The cardboard here is used mostly for occlusion surfaces for Augmented reality scans so that I was able to setup a virtual HUD display on my dashboard. The cardboard surfaces are also a nice touch when adding the virtual cockpit overlayed on top of the physical BUC. It tends to give a better sense of immersion. I often create scenarios in AR/VR to help illustrate a point or story to concept out ideas and find more questions that I wasn’t asking.
Augmented Reality Prototypes
The following videos show a few of the prototypes I developed for a few dynamic HUD interface ideas. These are quick 1-2 day prototypes created to capture more ideas and brainstorm what was missing.
The sense of immersion AR and VR give to help prototype out situations really offers a competitive edge over manually or physically creating something that will likely have to change. AR and VR prototyping doesn’t always solve for every problem, but it does quickly reveal solutions and discovers more unforeseen questions. The following is a quick 2 day augmented reality interface prototype created for helping delivery drivers with AR headsets efficiently deliver their packages.
Virtual Reality Prototypes
I’ve also been building interactive VR experiences with Unity as well. It’s fun to create an immersive environments with colliders that trigger animations in the scenes. I enjoy making quick prototypes with 3D environments where your imagination is the only thing that can limit you.
