Eco-friendly Augmented Reality Souvenir

Developing The Concept

The concept for making this project comes from my VR/AR course at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where we learned about the contribution that the souvenir industry has on pollution, and how augmented reality cubes could not only reduce plastic waste, but also offer and engaging exerience you otherwise couldn't get from traditional souvenirs.
As a student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, I thought about what a souvenir for our campus using this technology would look like. So I decided that I wanted to take the pillars you would see when enering and leaving campus and make them into an interactive and animating AR souvenir project.

Project Overview

In the development of this AR project, I employed Unity and Vuforia to create a Merge Cube experience. Each face of the cube was scanned and linked to relevant information or objects. Using Maya, I meticulously modeled the key elements, including the campus pillar, books, and a graduation cap, which were later animated in Maya. These assets were then integrated into Unity, where I implemented scripts and animators. The result was an interactive experience where users could click the right arrow to flip pages, symbolizing the progression through four years of schooling, culminating in the falling animation of the graduation cap.

AR Cube Demo

Experience

Overall, my first experience working with augmented reality was both exciting and enlightening. Through this project, I gained valuable insights into the implementation of AR technology alongside my 3D objects and C# coding skills within Vuforia and the Unity environment. It opened my eyes to the creative possibilities and the potential for engaging user experiences in this emerging field. One aspect I'd like to explore further is building the project for mobile devices. Although I was limited by my Apple device during development, if I had an Android device I could have easily built it to be used on a mobile device. Overall, this project was a significant learning opportunity, and I'm eager to delve deeper into the world of augmented reality in future endeavors.