12 February 2018

SensiLab summer students

Each year SensiLab hosts summer scholarship students. Elnaz Mansouri has written about her experiences this year.

New challenges always push me to keep learning, that’s why I always search for projects in my area of interest, Virtual Reality and Immersive Visualisation.

The aim of my summer research project at SensiLab was to capture live motion for a VR environment. This included tracking the movement of objects and people, and streaming the data in real-time into a 3D scene with precision.

In order to do this markers were placed on a set of 3D glasses, which were tracked using a motion capture system. Using this system, the 3D position and orientation of the glasses could be tracked in space. This was then used to track the viewers’ head within a virtual environment that was developed using the Unity game engine.

In order to correctly and consistently place the markers on the glasses a rigid frame was needed. This frame was designed and modelled in 3D CAD software and 3D printed. Infrared reflective tape was applied to serve as the final marker material.

Elnaz shows the rigid frame developed for the 3D glasses

A game was designed to demonstrate how an object could be controlled within the virtual environment using this data and movement tracking.

Working on this summer research VR project at SensiLab gave me one of my best experiences at Monash. I have learnt so much and I’m thankful for the professional and personal development presented to me during my time here, and enjoyed working with such a supportive and dynamic team.