A prototype viewer that allows users to explore car models virtually.
The objective of the asset is to expand the AR Interactive Car Manual capabilities. One proposed use case was visualiser for engineers from the car company opening up a 3D model of the customer’s car in AR to conduct a real time survey of the car- replicating the concept of how Disney’s Marvel Iron Man conduct his diagnosis via Jarvis’s projection.
Also see AR Interactive Car Manual.
Project date: Aug 2018
Taking inspiration from sci fi movies such as Iron Man, I wanted to push the limits and see how far we could take this to consumer market. As many people in the world now owns a smartphone, it is easier to incorporate AR technology into consumer’s everyday lives. AR is currently used mostly by social media giants such as SnapChat and Tiktok. It is also tried and tested by Art & Science museums. And as I see it, it won’t be long before it hits normal consumer market. 2D projections will be a thing of the past, and presentations for education, marketing and ideating solutions will take a 3-dimensional and more interactive form, thus enhancing the way we take in and consume information.
As the team I led is fairly small (2 engineers and myself), I took on more than just a role of a designer. I was a product manager and a project manager as well. While my experience with augmented reality is pretty green, I had just came from the gaming industry and working with familiar tools such as Autodesk Maya and Unity. Thus, the team had sufficient skill set to experiment and build a prototype that can demonstrate the solution’s potential and value.
With high interest and success of the AR Interaction Car Manual, I decided to push the exploration and capabilities further by introducing a visualiser. The visualiser is currently decoupled from the AR Interactive Car Manual and marketed as its own solution. For this prototype, we decided to use ARkit’s ground planar mapping- that way it doesn’t require a marker and can project the 3D model on any flat plane. We implemented several lean touch functions that allows user interactivity rather than having only UI buttons for interactions.
Although this protoype may be simple, it can be customised to retrofit any industry’s needs. It’s purpose is to enhance user experience through augmented reality by displaying information in an interactive manner. This experience can help users take in and learn information better than 2D projections as it gives a more realistic expectation of how the product will be.
Also see AR Interactive Car Manual.
