FOURTH DIMENSION
There are always some moments in our lives that mean so much for us that we really want to go back to re-experience.
The Fourth Dimension allows its' users to preserve, share and re-live all the precious moments of their lives.
In order to achieve this time machine like experience, I created an experience that involves artificial intelligence and mixed reality hardware for users to access the experience.
A MODERN DAY TIME MACHINE
People are bonded by lots of different things, sharing their personal stories and learning others’ stories are some of the most powerful ways to build deeper connections and understanding with others.
However, many people have a hard time just conveying their thoughts even with supporting materials. And even with the best storytelling skills, there are still nuances lost between words, videos, and pictures. Furthermore, Many stories and precious memories were lost because of not being preserved authenticity or simply because it’s so hard to share that it weathered away with the person who owned it.
Therefore, the feeling of wanting to build deeper connections with people and preserve lost memories drove me to do this project.
Here is one of the problem scenarios.
THE PROBLEMS WERE...
UNABLE TO TRAVEL BACK IN TIME
UNABLE TO READ MIND
THEREFORE, THE OBJECTIVES WERE...
ENABLE PEOPLE TO
RE-EXPERIENCE THE PAST
ENABLE PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER BETTER
WHAT IS THE MOST SUITABLE HARDWARE FOR PEOPLE TO RE-EXPERIENCE THE PAST?
In order to re-experience the past, first, the "past" need to be recorded when it was happening. Assuming all of these solution concepts can record the moment by using 3D depth sensing filming, then how people re-experience the past is what will make the difference. When people are re-experiencing the past, it is better for the past to look realistic, in other words, 3 dimensionally.
Here are some possible hardware solutions.
AR/MR EYEWEAR SOLUTION
WEARABLE HOLOGRAPHIC PROJECTION
ALL AROUND HOLOGRAPHIC PROJECTION
- Technology is more tangible
- A private "past" experience
PROS
- Won't cover people's face.
- Easy to share the content with others.
- Easy to share the content with others
- People can get a very immersive experience
- Cover up a big portion of people's face
CONS
- People probably won't want to wear it
- Not a private "past" experience
- Not convenient to use.
- People still need to bring a filming device with them all the time to capture the "past".
Since the experience is about the "personal past", privacy became a very critical point and the urge of telling one's own story can happen at any time; therefore, I decided to develop the AR/ MR eyewear solution further.
I started the design by taking people and animals' faces for inspiration.
However, after several rounds of sketch model testings, the user experiences were just not comfortable enough, and too sci-fi looking.
With engineering concerns, the design constraints are...
Big enough to host all the parts.
Small enough so it is comfortable to wear.
It should be non-intrusive.
Because of the constraints, based on the current technology and the pure size factor, it can't be a safe every day looking glasses.
I decided to make it a statement piece but still has a traditional sunglasses look that is not too out of place.
I went into CAD after I have a better idea of how the eyewear should look.
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According to Retinal 3D: Augmented Reality Near-Eye Display Via Pupil-Tracked Light Field Projection on Retina (2017), there are some fundamental components that can't be eliminated, such as holographic image combiner and laser emitter, even the technology is extremely advanced.
Having tried several shapes, I was very pleased with this one, so I started the fitting process.
Feedbacks were collected for better fits. I kept on adjusting the width of the frame until it fit comfortably on all of my test participants.
MEET FOURTH DIMENSION'S ORIGIN
A fashionable mixed reality glasses that can easily be adjusted to fit for different people and comfortably secured on people's head.
Rotate the frame to adjust the distance between 2 temples.
Snap the tips of both temples to secure the glasses on the head.
We can see how secure the glasses are on the user's head from this video even when the user is dancing.
Several basic components for the Origin Glasses to capture the moment in a 3 dimensional way with sounds and the user's commend to the AI.
Microphone
Depth Sensor
Camera
LED Indicator
The Origin Glasses can be transformed into this mode to be fixed on things to capture moments from a 3rd person point of view.
Details were designed for reasons.
The top bar of the aluminum frame was designed to stabilize the connection between the 2 rims.
The reason why the lenses are circle is for the device to transform between modes, and the overall front shape was designed to fit all the sensors and cameras the best.
The end of the temples were rounded up to match the branding and the logo.
The bone line on the side views is there to accentuate and to mimic the cheekbone.
THE ORIGIN GLASSES PRODUCT VIDEO
PACKAGE DESIGN
PROTECTION & CHARGING CASE
Now I have introduced the Origin Glasses, it is time for the AI part.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE FOURTH DIMENSION
I have briefly mentioned the 3 main functions of this time machine like experience, now it is time to introduce it further.
CAPTURE
THE MOMENTS
With proper preference settings, artificial intelligence of Fourth Dimension will help its' user to 3D auto-film the moment.
RE- EXPERIENCE
THE MOMENTS
With all the filmed moments, users can actively choose to re-live the moments, or AI will help the users to re-live those moments at the right time and right place.
SHARE
THE MOMENTS
Users can share the moments they preserved to others actively or through the assistance of artificial intelligence while the users are just in a casual conversation.
HOW THE AI WORKS
As you can see, AI has the ability to take care of the entire process. The only question here is how does your AI know you as an individual person who has a unique preference?
The answer is a good PREFERENCE SETTING.
A good introduction for the AI to know the user.
AI will learn the user's user behavior to adjust the settings.
There are 3 basic preference settings to apply on each moment for this time machine experience.
PRIVACY SETTING
EMOTION STATE
FILMING
POSSIBILITY
PREFERENCE SET UP EXPERIENCE
There are 2 parts of designing this preference setting user experience. One is the user flow design, and the other is to visualize it and how people can interact with it.
Here are some IDEATION SKETCHES of how people will see it and how they will interact with it and 3 EXPERIENCE DESIGN GOALS.
SIMPLE & EASY TO UNDERSTAND
UTILIZE THE 3D ENVIRONMENT
THINGS CAN BE REACHED WITHIN FOREARM DISTANCE
The images below are the early wireframe like UI visualization.
Later on, I developed this early 3D user interface into even more of a 3-dimensional world of UI.
PREFERENCE SETTING USER FLOW
AI's job
User's job
My philosophy of designing a good user experience is to let the user do as little as possible; even for setting up preferences. As the user flow chart shows, AI is doing most of the job, the users only need to make simple decisions to set up the preference.
PREFERENCE SETTING DEMO VIDEO
FOURTH DIMENSION STORY
IF THE ORIGIN HAS A NEXT GENERATION...
The goal is to make the transition between the frame and the temple looks smoother and to make the entire eyewear more visually balanced, which is to make the frame looks lighter and the temple looks a bit heavier.
