Garden - Mixed Reality

Mixed reality (MR) is a combination of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). It not only lets users see virtual objects in the real world, but also allows for virtual objects and the real environment to interact with each other. Our experience, Garden, does this by doing both stereoscopic rendering and 3D scanning using Google Project Tango, a tablet with motion tracking and depth sensing capabilities. We scan the environment in real time and build a virtual voxel world from it. Using this, we spawn virtual objects in the virtual world and render it stereoscopically. The tablet is then mounted on on the user’s head using the Durovis Dive 7 headset so that the user can see the world in VR. We allow for simple hand and leg interactions with the virtual objects as well. All this is done in 60FPS for user comfort. With this approach, we have created a fully immersive, untethered experience where users can freely walk around large spaces in the real world and avoid obstacles while interacting with a virtual environment. It is like jumping into another world.

We are Gotan, the creator of 'Garden'. Our system detects players’ hands and allows players to use their hands to complete puzzles and progress through a simple game. Players explore a virtual garden to find wireframes of objects. They must then use their hands to fill in the frames and complete the puzzle to reveal a full-featured plant/tree. As players progress through the game, they are faced with worms that are attempting to destroy the garden which they must kill. Finally, a big worm appears, killing which players are rewarded with a beautiful garden with a number of plants and trees. Gotan provides a completely untethered VR experience that works over large spaces, unlocking new possibilities in long range VR.

Website: http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/gotan/