This final exam is a 'take
home' exam. You are expected to work on it completely by
yourself. It is due at 3:30pm on 12/8. By then you should have
set up a web page with your solution and emailed the location of
that web page to Andy. At that time we will meet in class and
you will have 5 minutes to briefly describe your solution to the
class. We wont have time for a question/answer period.
This final is designed to have you think about all of the things
we have talked about, read about, and worked on in class to
solve a problem. The problem is this:
You are approached by the curator of The Big Museum who wants to
use virtual reality as part of an exhibit on <insert
historical/archeological site here>. Now here virtual reality
can be thought of in a general sense including augmented
reality, haptics, head and/or hand tracking, head mounted
displays, projection displays, audio etc.
You get a room that is 15 yards (or meters) by 15 yards (or
meters) and a ceiling as high as you want it to be (though you
only get one floor).
You get to pick a historical/archeological site that you think
would benefit from VR. Pick something you are familiar with or
something you are interested in. Feel free to do research on the
web. Here 'historical' should mean at least 50 years ago, though
preferably much more. Details are important here. What you want
to view will affect what devices you employ. Make sure I
understand why you choose what you choose. Why is this the right
way for viewers to experience this site. There may be several
different things that you can view on a single display. Make
sure you describe at least one of them in sufficient detail that
I can see how it would work with a series of similar things that
you list.
You get to pick the display or combination of displays that
would best suit the situation. Note that there should be no bias
towards or against displays that have been developed here. You
should also talk about the hardware needed to drive these
displays and give a rough cost for the whole setup.
You get to describe the experience of the users. Drawings may be
useful here.
There probably will also be physical things as part of the
exhibit, but that�s not mandatory, especially if such objects
don't exist or are extremely rare.
The curator would like to move 250 people through this room
every hour. These people may come as individuals or small groups
of friends and families or school classes of 25 people. You
should be able to support all those different types effectively
and make sure your experiences allow people to flow through the
space at this rate.
You should give a rough idea of the staffing involved in running
these displays as well as maintaining them behind the scenes.
Your write-up should be well thought out and organized. You get
time to do this, so it should not be a stream of consciousness
answer. I would suggest thinking about it, making some sketches,
writing some notes, then organizing them, do a first draft, let
it sit for a day or two, then come back and read it critically
looking for holes that you need to fill.
One big question is how long should this be, and that�s a hard
one to answer. You are not graded on quantity. You are graded on
quality and comprehensiveness but also succinctness. Quality vs
Quantity looks like a bell curve in this case. I would think
something about the size of a typical research paper would be
about right including images.