simonbertrand

Overflown

a mixed reality experience

Context

With two other students (Corentin Fatus & Vincent Lorant) we decided to create a mixed reality experience on our free time.

This project was created for the Virtual Fantasy competition, which is part of the Laval Virtual exhibition in Laval, France. Our goal was to create a pleasant experience, where the player explores a dreamlike world.

Concept

Overflown is an experiment that gives the user the power to control wind. This is a mixed reality experience that associates a dreamlike world with tangible elements. The user affects the strength and the direction of the wind with his movements. Therefore, he can control the trajectory of a virtual soap bubble to avoid obstacles standing on its way. The goal is to help the bubble reach the end of its journey without making it pop.

How it works

Kinect

A Kinect camera captures the movements of the user's hand and sends the data to the computer.

Video projector

A video projector displays a visual feedback of the experience on a large white screen.

Propellers

Propellers are made of paper and rotate using small motors connected to an Arduino board.

Arduino board

An Arduino board controls the propellers and the bubble machine.

Computer

The entire experience is controlled by a computer. It is the brain of the operation.

Bubbles machine

A bubble machine is connected to the Arduino board. It mechanically creates dozens of tangible bubbles around the user.

My mission

There was no predefined role, we all worked on every aspect of the project. However I specifically worked on:

• Creating some 3D assets (modeling & texturing)
• Creating the environment in Unity
• Creating texture for the soap bubble
• Integrating 3D assets in the environment
• Creating all environment related behavior such as change on the weather

First award

Overflown was initially made for the Virtual Fantasy competition at the Laval Virtual exhibition, where it received the award for the best graphics.

Thanks to all the user feedback that we got at Laval Virtual, we were able to make a lot of improvement in the user experience of this project. We had the opportunity to test these improvements at two other exhibits:

• the Web2day conferences in Nantes in April 2014
• the Digital Week in September 2014.

Tokyo

In October 2014, we presented Overflown at the IVRC (International collegiate Virtual Reality Contest) - which was part of the Digital Content Expo, in Tokyo - and it won the Special Recognition Award.