Night at the Museum (Project #5, Udacity VR Developer Nanodegree )
INTRODUCTION
“Night at the Museum” is a very educational project, the purpose of which is to research how industries and companies are impacted by VR/AR. It also informs people who are not very familiar with the new technology. It might be surprising for them to discover how VR/AR enhances our perceived reality, and increases potential in many areas using virtual space. This technology can highly increase people’s current capabilities and create breakthroughs in almost all aspects of society.
I chose an education field because I am interested how it changed over the course of the 20th century, and the changes taking place today. VR and AR contribute to education in a revolutionary way, as demonstrated by the materials displayed in the “Night at the Museum” project.
To liven up the project, another scene was created containing a virtual university taking the form of a holographic sphere. Theoretically, it has the ability to provide education in many knowledge faculties, from medicine and engineering, to history and linguistics. Because a virtual world has no physical boundaries, you can simply press a button and teleport right into your auditorium. Currently, in this project, only the Museum of Education is fully developed. This museum and its scenes will be discussed further in the below documentation.

DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Concept (topic/main focus of the museum) → Architecture and design of buildings (particularly museum) → Search for the materials (video, pictures) → Implementation of the scenes → User testing → Making changes to the scenes → Document
SKETCH

USER TESTING
Test 1. Scaling
The height of the player is 1.75m. The height of doors and ceiling feels realistic.


Test 2. User Interface
At this stage a few changes had to be made. In particular, the distance between the player and the UI panels. In fact, objects feel much closer when using Google cardboard.


This panel had to be re-positioned due to a waypoint accidentally triggering the button. Like in previous scenes the panel was also located too close to the player.


This panel did not need changes. The distance between the player and the panel was adequate.

Test 3. Movement
From the previous project, I learned that movement speed should not be high. For this reason, I have set the time it takes to enter the university to 4 seconds. The movement is smooth, even though the player is flying, and doesn’t cause simulated sickness.
BREAKDOWN OF FINAL PIECE
First scene. Entrance.


Inside the building. The panel displays available faculties. Only the museum of education has been developed for this project. By pressing this button, the player will be teleported to it.


Second scene — Museum. UI panel explains how to behave in the building.


Room of engineering. All of the rooms share a common theme : the left hand side displays the faculty in the 20th and early 21st century. The right hand side displays the current impact of VR/AR technology.



Room of medicine. As seen right on the entrance, there is a big contrast between anatomy classes in 20th and 21st century, because of VR/AR technology.



The room of chemistry, architecture, and education are seen from this point.

The end of the museum. An exit sign shows the player the way out. The UI panel outside gives the (only at this moment) option to go back to the main building which is the university in the first scene.


CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS
“Night at the Museum” is a great project to foster interest in researching the latest technology. Personally, the most enjoyable aspects of the project was that it can interest people in the technological impact on society, even if they lack a technical understanding of the programming behind it.
This project has endless possibilities in terms of developing ideas and bringing them to the reality (virtual reality). Many industries are already impacted by VR/AR today, and they will continue to grow in number.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
