Augmented Reality Interactive Sandbox

Free play mode Free play mode allows user to alter surface of the landscape.  Moon theme Moon theme replaces the surface of the earth with the surface of the moon. Flooding Stimulation  This function raises the sea level in the sandbox and stimulate the effect of flooding in the real world.

01/3/2019 This is week 5 and will be our last lab session. Everything is almost ready, we are testing the 3D printing component. We have created a simple GUI to allow the user to create a 3D file (STL) ready for printing. while we are waiting for the prototype to be printed out, we contemplate about the layout of the poster and how it can be informative and also aesthetically pleasing at the same time.  Printed product It is made in 1:10 ratio so it is as big as a chocolate bar, but we are going to have the model in a bigger size,1:4, so we can have a better look of the 3d model and view the details better. This 3D model took around 2 hours to print which is unexpected for the scale-down size of it. Side by side comparison The screenshot above shows the graphic user interface (GUI) of the 3d model program. The program is MATLAB and creates a friendly interface for the user first to preview what the sand surface may loo...

22/02//2019 This is week 4 of five-weeks long project. Last week, we requested a stand for the projector and kinect hence the mechanic came in and took the measurement of the sandbox. The new stand has arrived this week and we immediately equipped it with a new projector and Kinect . It has more flexibility than the tripod we had before. the Xbox Kinect is positioned right above the sandbox and centered so that it can detect every point in the box so it will prevent blind spot. We adjusted the position of the sandbox so the image the projector produce fills the entire sandbox. Measuring and getting the optimal distance between the sensor and the sandbox. The left image shows the process of calibration which is required to prepare an image (in our case a continuous live image capture) for subsequent data extraction and analysis, fixes tiny defects in the camera sensor or an optical system. Meanwhile, the projector is running some calibration test pattern...

15/02/2019 In this lab session, we have had lots of progress because the projector and sand we ordered online has arrived and we finally can fill the box with sand and test if it is anything we plan it to be. The first thing we did with the new projector is to turn it on and look at the differences compared to the one we are using at the moment. This new projector is capable of projecting images in a shorter distance than a traditional projector. In comparison, the new projector can project an image in a much shorter distance and has higher resolution .it is also capable of keystoning, which allows the projector, that is not positioned perpendicular to the horizontal centerline of the screen to skew the output image hence correcting the shape to rectangular.Keystone provides us with more flexibility of where we can position the short throw projector. we connected the new projector with the school computer, and the image it presents is...

07/02/2019 Today is the second session of the five-week-long project. In today's session, we continue to focus on installing the necessary drivers on the computer and making changes to the sandbox. In our last meeting, we decided using compressed air to relevel the sand is hazardous for the reason that as the compressed air could burst the pipes and potentially injure someone if not correctly implemented. Therefore we removed the pipes from the sandbox. we needed a computer and a display to interact with the Xbox Kinect and projector, so we have borrowed the display computer from the 4th floor and use it as our main computer and interface between users and the computer. we successfully ran the game on the computer with the projector and Xbox Kinect without running in problems. Our plan for next week is when the play sand and new projector we ordered arrived, we would be able to have a better look at the sandbox in its final stage a...

01/02/2019 Today We started the first lab session of our 5 weeks project. Our year two project is augmented reality interactive sandbox which recreates the topography surface with real sand and enables users to reshape the terrain with an integrated Xbox Kinect and short-throw projector. Our goal is to design a fun educational game along with the sandbox. The theory behind the sandbox is a projector is used to create a topical representation on top of the sand. By utilizing the depth camera, the height of the sand is recognized and any changes are instantaneously identified and reshaped. Then the projector will adjust to the changes accordingly.  The Augmented Reality Interactive Sandbox is a new way of engaging students in visual learning by providing an interactive platform. This project is a way of inspiring young engineers though not only interacting but building the sandbox,giving them hands-on experience to the typical classroom env...