NexusAR

Urban Nexus Collective is an AR platform added on lampposts for community to express their opinions by building an virtual world upon existence.

Timeline -

03/2023 - 05/2023

Role -

User Research
Concept development
UI Design
Animation & Video

Team -

Phil (Wean) Zhao
Ivy (Xinzhu) Wang
Selina (Xinyu) Guo

Tools -

Overview

It is a design challenge from employees @ Meta Reality Lab, Gensler, and Boston Chinatown. Lamp posts have been around for a very long time to serve the purpose of providing light. We are trying to add additional functions that metaphor a campfire where the community gathers around and interact and share their opinions and stories.

Urban Nexus Collective is a platform that aim to build a local community through AR interaction on Lamppost to enhance the overall shared opinions among "familiar strangers".

📱Main Features

It starts with a story...

Augmented Reality is possible

In 2030,
AR is now part of life...

The technology makes city infrastructures like lamp posts the communication interface between the physical environment and community members.

Virtual Ideas

Build upon existence

Nexus provides a user-friendly and inclusive environment for community members to contribute ideas. The VR interface offers various input methods, such as text, voice messages, sketches, icons, and pictures, catering to individual preferences and overcoming language barriers.

📱Research

Background

In the city of Providence, a diverse group of passionate residents united with a shared goal—to breathe new life into their beloved community. This dynamic ensemble consisted of college students from distant shores, dedicated long-time locals with bustling schedules, and resilient immigrants striving to find their place in this new land.

Inspired from some interesting public events on Tiktok, we installed checker board and poker cards around areas with busy pedestrian traffics such as park, playground, activity field, and bus stops. We found that:

People don’t tend to stay in one place

People are attracted by music, graphics, and large scale visuals

Simplicity encourages interaction

Social interaction reinforce affiliated tendencies

Discover - "Familiar Strangers"

By observing and analyzing the spectators and participants around lampposts, we found a perfect word to describe them ---- "Familiar Strangers".

Familiar strangers are individuals who share similar behavioral patterns or common interests with a person, even though they are not explicitly connected or familiar with each other.

Milgram specified that “the further removed familiar strangers were from their routine encounters, the more likely they would be to engage in interaction and break the familiar stranger relationship”

Problem

Engaging community members in the ideation process for community building can often be challenging due to limited accessibility and low levels of engagement.

Experiment 1 : Lamppost Engagement

We put QR codes that leads to a survey with one simple question: "Did you see this QR code?" on lamp posts in Providence to test out:
‍
Do people notice the information on the lamp posts?
‍
Do people stop and interact with the information when they walk by?

Experiment 2 : Potential Ways of Interaction

Goal:

1. Test out if people are willing to participate
2. Test out preferable ways for people to convey ideas

Form:

put out maps in the ID building and 15West, providing 2 sets of stickers for them to contribute ideas

Results:

Other than the stickers we provided, there are also comments on "other’s stickers", which proved that our familiar strangers are interacting with each other.

Experiment 3 : Effectiveness of AI

Considering accessibility, we decided to provide four addition types of input (text, voice, photo, drawing) to fulfill different scenarios.

Goal:

To test out the effectiveness of AI generated 3D models

Form:

Put people's response into AI and generate it into 3d models & see if people are satisfied with the results.

Results:

Here are the detailed testing results:

We also tried out few software that generate 3D model from images or text instructions (prompts) to understand the basic user journey of using AI to express fuzzy ideas.

Kaedim: Magically generate custom 3D models in minutes from 2d images.

Spline AI: Text instructions AI. Generate 3d objects and scenes by describing what you want to create. Modify objects, apply materials, add lighting, and more.

📱Define

Insights - Digital Cities as Interaction Machines

Lamp post projects a map of the surrounding area (a canvas) and some built-in infrastructures (hospital, house, park, trees, monster, ship, road, pets, etc.). Players can pick something and add it to the map. Different lamp posts will be placed in different districts, which allows citizens to move around and cooperate with people in different locations. Different decisions under different lamp posts will be synchronized to the final result.

People can use their phone to see this virtual city, use MR glasses, or AR holograms that build on the actual city. The game will reset bi-weekly and the city will grow based on how citizens participate. Since the information is public, the community can see it, and business owners and government can do what they want based off the information. This will foster a cooperative community and give citizens a greater impact on the growth of their city.

Under this scenario, lamp posts are used as an anonymous opinion board that pays attention to everyone’s voice no matter their identity. It is a way to diversify space. The interaction here means citizens’ decisions affect each other in a community and form a contactless way of cooperation in the physical world.

Why Lamppost?

We want to add value for local community, utilize these existing everywhere infrastructure, and create a useful hub for shared information

Why AR?

The Urban Nexus Collective turns city lampposts into a more sustainable resource, and AR technology can deliver immersive and harmless experiences with changing lifespans.

This initiative allows residents to benefit from contactless community interaction.

A Virtual World, A Service System

Because this is an idea for the future, it is critical to understand how this platform will fit into the existing community. We must also identify the types of contributors and stakeholders who will bring value to this platform, assisting in the realization of Nexus' mission.

Value Proposition

📱Design

Ways of input

We eager to embark on a revitalization project to shape the city around us. Our greatest challenge lay in bridging the gap of accessibility. The absence of a central hub where their voices could resonate promptly, a lack of multilingual support, and a lack of creative avenues for expressing ideas threatened to dim their collective enthusiasm.

Voice & Text

Allows clear and detailed explanations on concepts.
Voice inputs also helps people with low-literacy.

Icons

Offers a concise and universally recognizable way for community members to express ideas.

Sketch

Community members can illustrate their ideas visually. It provides a more freeform and expressive approach to ideation.

Picture

Offers a way to provide specific visual information. It helps community members to transfer ideas that they have seen before.

Process Flow

From all the tests above, we created this information architecture to make the user experience as seamless and intuitive as possible. We are trying to organize information in a way that is easy to understand, providing clear and concise instructions, and minimizing any potential barriers or roadblocks that could hinder the user's progress.

UI System

Scenario

A specific want

1. Visit a new place

2. Find sth. interesting

3. Back home

4. Walk to the AR platform

5. Upload photo

6. Generate 3D model

7. Place it on the map

8. See it on the street

A random play

1. Discover the AR platform

2. Find an interesting sticker

3. Try it on the map

4. Take the model with phone

5. Play with the model

6. Try different places

7. Decide where to put

📱Conclusion

Future Opportunities

Each city could adapt the VR interface to suit its unique community needs and development goals. This would allow for widespread adoption and engagement across different communities.

It could be integrated with existing community platforms, such as city websites or mobile apps to allow community members to access the VR interface through familiar platforms they are already using.

The lamp post VR interface aligns with the concept of smart cities, where technology is used to improve urban living.

The product can collaborate with urban planning departments to incorporate the lamp post VR interface into their decision-making processes by directly engaging with community ideas.

The product could incorporate feedback mechanisms to gather insights and suggestions from users, allowing for continuous improvement and refinement.

Key Takeaways

Collaboration and Ciritiques from Different Professionals

Thanks for guest critiques from Boston Chinatown, Meta Reality Lab, Gensler Architecture, etc.

Engaging with a diverse group of professionals, including designers, urban planners, and architects, has been instrumental in shaping the AR platform project. Their varied perspectives and expertise have contributed to a holistic approach that considers technical feasibility, aesthetic appeal, urban integration, and cultural relevance.

Validation for Concept Design

Under the guidance of our wondeful professor Andy Law, the AR platform project has leveraged physical simulation experiments to validate virtual designs, providing invaluable insights into user behavior and interaction patterns. By transforming virtual concepts into tangible experiences, we have been able to analyze user engagement, navigation preferences, and feedback, which have informed iterative improvements and refinements to the platform.

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