Developer of immersive collaborative experiences for entertainment, and education
Research focus intersects HCI and learning science for intuitive 3D UIs in immersive environments
Goal is to help define the next-gen computer system interface of AR/VR technology
Here is some documentation for my recent work at Snap involving the World Mesh, Custom Locations, and the Custom Location Creator Lens:
9/20/23: live stream I hosted on World Mesh 2.0 release
9/13/23: blog post on tech releases I worked on for World Mesh and Custom Locations
7/18/23: live stream I cohosted on City Scale Location AR technology in Lens Studio
6/13/23: live stream I hosted on Custom Location AR technology in Lens Studio
1/24/23: live stream I hosted on best practices for location AR in Lens Studio
Video walkthrough of the Creator Lens is available on this documentation page
UX research case study on Creator Lens
Ph.D. Dissertation Thesis: UX Research of AR/VR Learning Environments - 2019/2020
Learning Science Paper | AR Design Doc | VR Design Doc | Making of Book | App Book | Dev Blog | Code | News Article
Oculus Quest and mobile AR prototype of a computer science educational application currently focusing on binary math, next iteration will be on bubble sort. The experience is designed around free moving abilities of the new Oculus Quest platform, which is completely untethered to any wires or computers, making it and excellent case study for learning environments involving physical activity within VR.
5/28/19 - Completed first prototype iteration
6/08/19 - Completed user testing on 50 middle school students
6/14/19 - Learning assessments confirm VR experience is as effective as an instructor led lesson following csunplugged.org
6/28/19 - Finish refining core interactions, UX/UI, and learning goals before moving on to graphics, narrative and audio
9/24/19 - Completed refinement of binary math level and presented demo at Oculus Connect 6 Educational Summit
10/5/19 - Finished cleaning scripts after OC6 demo
10/27/19 - Starting low fidelity prototype of VR bubble sort level
11/22/19 & 3/12/20 - User testing of VR bubble sort level
HERE is the current apk file of the high fidelity prototype of the binary math level of CSpresso. You have to sideload it onto the Quest, and use your thumb controller to move the stations closer to you if you are not in a 20’ x 20’ playable area.
Binary Math VR Experience - Development process and user testing
Binary Math AR Experience - Development process and user testing
Bubble Sort VR Experience - Development process and user testing
Social VR Research - 2019
Learning Science Paper | Usability Paper | Usability Study | Logistics | Curriculum
Learning communities are groups of people who meet semi-regularly over shared academic goals. These groups are documented to provide positive impact on the participants’ academic performance. VR has the potential to expand existing learning communities, and create new ones where not previously possible. We ran a VR collaboration study that resulted in a followup usability study for object contextualization for VR users with the design idea of a card catalog.
VR Eye Tracking Therapy Game - 2017
Haunted Seas is a VR vision therapy game, designed to enhance patient compliance in young patients when undergoing therapy for a condition called Convergence Insufficiency Syndrome. I designed the requirements for implementing the analog vision therapy into a VR vision therapy game, developed the application with C# in Unity, and conducted user testing for iterative sprint development. The game mechanics were designed to use eye tracking in VR using the Fove headset, and was designed to engage the patient with repeated eye rotations. The VR therapy was tested at the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital and was proven to be effective in improving both the therapy experience and recover rate for patients. It has recently won the European Auggie Award for “Most Innovative Breakthrough” at the 2018 AWE (Augmented World Expo) EU conference.
High School AR/VR Computer Science Curriculum - 2019
Overview | Part 1: 3D Dev | Part 2: VR Dev | Part 3: EdTech Design
Pre-college AR/VR Educational Research Paper | Undergrad AR/VR Collab Studio Paper
We are currently funded by NJ Department of Education for development of high school VR curriculum for public release. Curriculum is being developed in collaboration with Oculus Education, Unity Education, Seattle WA and Elizabeth NJ school systems. We have recently finished part 1 of the curriculum, Introduction to 3D Development, and tested it in our undergraduate program before handing the material to the high school curriculum developers for refinement. We expect to complete part 2 of the curriculum, Introduction to VR Development on 6/20.
VR User Experience (UX) Investigation Tool - 2018
Design Document | Unity Documentation | Code
A reasonably self-contained, extensible Unity package that can be brought into Unity-developed, Android-deployed virtual reality applications for the purposes of investigating Human Computer Interaction through time-stamped records of user activity, visually recorded samples of the interaction and audio recordings of any comments the user may have made during the application usage. Meant to solve the following problem:
When users attempt to examine our virtual reality applications, they are limited by the inherent constraints of virtual reality, and the difficulty of gathering time-sensitive perceptions. Within the controlled environment of the lab there are techniques and technologies which can catch these perceptions, but in the field, it is not possible to gather the depth of information required to examine the user experience at a later time. Additionally, it can be difficult to determine what analytics ultimately need to be accounted for (and therefore which records need to be retained) during the virtual reality application experience.
Integrating VR into Secondary STEM Education Study - 2017
Learning Science Paper | Usability UX Paper | Personalization UX Paper
While the next generation of educational technologies, such as monitor-based and VR applications, are still in their infancy, they do show promise for improving education. In this study, we compared monitor-based and VR educational technologies as alternative supplemental learning environments to traditional classroom instruction using lectures, textbooks, and physical labs. We conducted the study in four high school chemistry classes, as chemistry education is well-suited for visually enhanced explanations for learning abstract concepts, and provides a solid testing situation for current and extended reality educational technologies. Ultimately, this research project serves as a foundation to determine whether educational technologies have the potential to engage high school students in their STEM classes. Successful integration of educational technologies into the public school system curricula may be a viable solution to engage students in STEM education.
Mobile VR Open House Demo - 2018
Code | WebGL | APK | Builds ETA end of 6/20
GearVR experience for NJIT College of Computing open houses. Its meant to demonstrate aspects of programmatic thinking to prospective programming students and their parents in a gamified manner. Experience is 3 levels of controlling a space exploration vessel through the solar system to Mars.
Mobile VR Emulation Environment - 2018
Unity editor emulation environment I built for students in my mobile VR development classes. Its meant for developers to test out mobile VR experiences quickly on editor play mode without having to use a desktop VR headset or build to the phone to try out the controller interactions, which are emulated with mouse controls. Its an early work in progress. Goal is to decouple the scripts from Oculus SDK to make it a plug and play Unity package enabling easy build process for both Mobile VR applications and WebGL demos.
VR 3D UI Prototyping - 2016
Prototyped 3D UI/UX concepts communicating product team wireframes to development team at YouVisit LLC
Developed interactive VR experiences with C# in Unity for Daydream, GearVR, and Cardboard
Designed 3D content for mixing CG and video content into interactive VR experiences