2023–24 Projects:
Several years ago, one of my comps teams developed an augmented reality app for iPhone. With their app, you could walk around campus, point your iPhone's camera at a building, and see information about that building hovering next to it. The data system accessed by the app was organized so as to allow users to select different sources of information for display on the app. Want the class schedule info for the English department? Activate the class schedule "layer" and point your phone at Laird. Hungry? Activate the food layer and point your phone at Sayles to see if the snack bar is open. Their project was flexible enough to accommodate non-Carleton sources of data, too, so you could wander around Northfield or anywhere, really, seeing geo-tagged Wikipedia or Yelp data hovering on screen.
One thing you couldn't do, however, was create new data. Imagine being able to take geo-tagged notes as you wander around, and being able to revisit them whenever you return to a place. Or just look at a building or a tree or a road intersection and see what notes other people have left there.
But why just notes? What if you had the tools to create virtual objects that would only appear if you viewed a particular location through your augmented reality system? Walk around the east side of Weitz to see the shape of the proposed new concert hall. Drive into town on highway 19 and see colossal figures of Steve Poskanzer and Friedrich Schiller with giant "Welcome Carleton Students" letters floating by the entrance to St. Olaf. Switch your app to "Reading Days Scavenger Hunt" to hunt down virtual clues and win fabulous prizes. View and create virtual art and graffiti all over Northfield, or all over the world.
For this project, you will develop an augmented reality system with a specific focus on the creation and display of 3D virtual objects. Specifically, your project will include: