Disposition of Microsoft HoloLenses for a Pop-Up Reality Shop to demonstrate the progress of a research project
Associate Professor Uwe Rieger, School of Architecture and Planning.
The research team is working closely with Datacom NZ on new hybrid retail concepts, combining physical and online shopping. The project is embedded in the research at the Lab for Digital Spatial Operations [arc/sec] at the University of Auckland.
A team of four Architectural postgraduate students, Anita Chin, Linus Goh, Ricky Tung and Bevin Liang are working on a one-year project to investigate how we can merge physical properties with digital information to form a responsive architecture. The team looks to utilise AR headset tools to actively link physical touchable matter with digital materiality, to create a unique user experience in a haptic digital space.
Application
These devices allow us to simultaneously reinvent and reimagine the future of interactive space, going beyond our traditional understanding of both architecture and technology, towards a collaborative and experimental mode of practice.
The research direction for Pop-Up Reality Shop is to test new tangible interactions and conditions that could occur within the context of a retail experience.
This is executed by the use of a physical structure that is designed to be flexible and becomes a framework that acts as an external input device to control and instruct our digital designs with the utilisation of the augmented reality headset HoloLens.
The Pop-up Reality Shop is situated in Auckland’s first and leading innovation hub for augmented reality and virtual reality technologies; the ‘AR VR Garage’.
Microsoft HoloLens
The HoloLens and its initial development kit has been a pivotal technological tool for this investigation. The HoloLens will be used in conjunction with other existing tools such as Optitrack Motion Capture and Unity3D in order to create performative physical environments that embody programmable virtual characteristics. It is the flexible and highly manoeuvrable nature of the HoloLens which makes it a great asset for Pop-up Realities; being able to experience a space untethered from a computer makes the architectural experience much more seamless, immersive and naturalised. Looking ahead, the arc/sec Lab will explore the use of two HoloLenses for extended streaming purposes as well as improved user interaction between multiple users. Thanks for the advice and technology demonstration by the specialist from the Centre for eResearch which proven to be highly valuable for the progress of the project. We expect to show first results at the ACADIA Conference at MIT in Boston in November 2017.
