XR Design and prototyping
Mixed Reality Astrolabe Prototype
An XR Prototype made in Bezi
Overview
My design concept is an MR prototype of an Astrolabe, a historical astronomical instrument used for many purposes and throughout many different generations of people and groups of people.
For the Mixed Reality prototype, the user is in a scenario where they are instructed to calculate the height/angle of a digital sun. This is the first part in the main task of calculating the time during daytime.
This was a project made in 1 day
- Learned Bezi, created a physical prototype, and developed a functioning mixed reality prototype in 1 day.
- Recorded a "bodystorming" (brainstorming but through physical prototyping) video.
- Recorded a prototype scenario video.
I started with physical prototyping using all kinds of items including cardboards to create a scaled up replica of an astrolabe and the MR scenario. I experimented with space, distance and time, through learning by doing, with real lightning, real shadows and physical perspective, where I gained many insights.
For example, one of the challenges was how do you show the final/perfect alignment? The sun beam and shadows, how do you visually show 2 virtual/digital shadows?
This was one of the microinteractions I chose to explore.
