the iDeas

Test with GVR plugin at Unity, use of crosshair will show flight information by hovering the flight in the scene. After discussion with supervisors, there can be a few adjustments after testing with VR.

1) watching the flight status with head turning around isn’t easy, possibly miss the other flights behind you. 

2) try to create another version from different perspective to compare with the existing one ( suggest frontal view or look up only)

3) Scales of plane is still a problem

4) The scene is too dark

5) What other colour options can be used?

6) Under a VR view, we can see the elevation of the flight, but how can we tell if there’s a collision ?

Basis setup at Unity3D with radar map projection on plane and a few planes departing and arriving.

It is quite hard to see the degree reading in 3D perspective, scales of planes and radar will need to adjust as the plane size is quite small the moment.

Tried using KML file from Openflights website integrated with Google Earth.   Google Earth read the GPS location correctly and the plotted lines are based on departure and destination information, when hover the location, it shows flights and airport details.

I started with using existing data in csv format provided by http://openflights.org/data.html .  The data is fairly simple, it has airport locations and names, geo information and airport elevation.

My first phase is to look at 2D data visualisation, so I decided to use Excel with VBA programming and export to 3D Maps function to see the first result after rearranged the data in separate sheets.

Raw Data from openflights with around 40,000+ data entries.

Here is the first Data visualisation I did in Excel.

We had a meeting with Craig Smith, staff from ATC.  Craig explained the roles in ATC that we don’t usually know. Topics covered:

1) Radars specifications     -radar covered 250 miles distance

2) LCD display size     - 26.4 x 25.9 inch

This one year project is to evaluate whether VR data visualisation technologies have the potential to positively transform the way humans interact with data in an immersive environment. The study compares VR data visualisation and more traditional 2D data visualisation to determine whether immersive data visualisation brings better understanding to humans than non-immersive data visualisation.

My chosen topic is to look at air traffic data visualisation. The aim of this study is to investigate approaches for combining VR technologies with data visualisation and to discover their influence on the process of understanding data. This will be undertaken using a specific case study relating to air traffic control data.

And here is the timeline for this one year project.

After adjusting the curve in graph editor, fade to game playing mode in Unity3D, and I looking at stock images of hands with ipad that will fit into the game experience ( first player perspective) footage.

http://gizmodo.com/youtubes-ready-to-blow-your-mind-with-360-degree-videos-1690989402

http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2013/02/how-do-users-really-hold-mobile-devices.php

“How do users really hold  Mobile Devices? “ By Steven Hoober

I found that article quite interesting, as I always concern about how will the player hold the phone to play the app we are making.  Since we have changed game mechanics to using both hands, walking in the scene and tap on a button to take picture of the crypsis. I think this is more interesting, but I wonder will that make the player too hard to operate the phone. I can imagine if the player will drop the phone possibly? So, UX does matter, here’s some interesting facts about the user’s practice.

The users touching their phone’s screens or buttons held their phones in three basic ways: 

one handed—49% cradled—36% two handed—15% - 

One-handed use—with the right thumb on the screen—67% left thumb on the screen—33% 

Cradling—with a thumb on the screen—72% finger on the screen—28% 

We decided to change the game mechanism again, now the player can walk around the scene and find the crypsis then capture photo from it. So I need to add more details in the landscape, so that the player can explore more in the game and the crypsis can be positioned within more objects.

Early landscape

Development stage

The Godus game trailer has inspired me a lot, the lightings, the animations with the little figures and rendering made the app very attractive, but after I downloaded the app, it looks something different, the rendering does not look the same, but i think the marketing strategy of this trailer works well, it did attract people to download it.