Building the future of wearable and sensory technologies
Xtension is a Unity-based XR experience that explores the use of wearble and sensory technologies to extend the player’s senses to control a virtual spaceship in a hostile environment.
Project Overview:
- Project Goal: Design, build, and deliver a location-based experience utilizing various wearable technology for a live audience at the Entertainment Technology Center’s 2024 Annual Fall Festival.
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Role: Producer, Experience Designer
- Time: 14 Weeks
- Project Goal: Design, build, and deliver a location-based experience utilizing various wearable technology for a live audience at the Entertainment Technology Center’s 2024 Annual Fall Festival.
- Role: Producer, Experience Designer
- Time: 14 Weeks
Contributions:
- Managed a team of 5 in developing a Unity based XR experience utilizing smart fabrics, computer vision and haptic vests to extend users’ senses to control a virtual spaceship
- Managed R&D for both internally developed wearable prototypes and 3rd-party wearable products with resource constraints
- Managed pivots and scope changes to successfully deliver a complete 10-minute-experience for a live festival in 14 weeks
- Facilitated team meetings and external communications to support technical challenges in working with 3rd-party products
Contributions:
- Managed a team of 5 in developing a Unity based XR experience utilizing smart fabrics, computer vision and haptic vests to extend users’ senses to control a virtual spaceship
- Managed R&D for both internally developed wearable prototypes and 3rd-party wearable products with resource constraints
- Managed pivots and scope changes to successfully deliver a complete 10-minute-experience for a live festival in 14 weeks
- Facilitated team meetings and external communications to support technical challenges in working with 3rd-party products
My reflection on Xtension
Development Process
We undertook parallel development process for the game development and room setup, giving ample time for integration at the end of the project.
Using agile methods for project management, I set 1 week sprints for our game development to make rapid iterations given the tight time constraint we had.
Prototyping
Prototypes were developed internally to understand various existing input and output methods. This exercise established a shared understanding of compelling interactions with wearable technologies within the team, allowing us to develop more refined interactions and experiences.
The prototyping phase taught us valuable lessons into what type of interactions were the most intuitive and felt natural to our body’s movements. It also taught us the difficulty of developing a robust wearable device that will have to be put on and off multiple guests with varying body types.
This led us to seeking off-the-shelf products that are readily available for us to manipulate while taking advantage of its build quality.
We were able to reach Dr. George Sun of Nextiles, who graciously lended us their support in manipulating the sensors embedded in their products. This gave us the freedom to design the usage of the products as we would have if we had developed our own prototype devices.
Playtesting
Playtesting was a critical component to our develoment and iteration process. We were able to test with diverse body types, and iterated our onboarding process with considerations for both left-handed and right-handed guests.
Evolution of Space
I also set on creating a space that would complement the ficition that we created around the experience. In close consultation with the team, I was able to draft out the layout of the room. The idea was to have a smaller “room” within a room, which will allow us to move around the perimeter of the inner room to troubleshoot any technical issues should it arise.
Week 4 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11
(Onboarding section on the left) Week 12 Week 15, Final
(Onboarding section on the left)
On week 15, we finalized our experience for the annual ETC Festival, and hosted 80+ guests coming in to engage in and spectate.
Reflection on the project
Project Website