Enigma Virtual Reality Project

Creative Director, 3D Scanner and Photogrammetry Specialist
Virginia Tech, Summer 2017 – present
Funded by Facebook

The Facebook-funded collaborative research project, “Virtual Replicas of Real Places: Experimental Investigations,” addresses the recent emergence of social VR experiences, such as Facebook Spaces, Oculus Rooms, and Oculus Venues.

Under my supervision and creative direction, five SOVA Creative Technologies graduate students laser-scanned three staged rooms and photogrammetried all the objects in the room, a process of using photographs to measure and recreate three dimensional objects or space. They then processed the collected data and created 3D forms, which they retopologized and textured to be realistic and game-ready. I then led our students, in collaboration with a team of PhD students from the Virginia Tech Computer Science department, to create a virtual reality set for conducting simulated tests for Facebook research.

Our data is being used by the Facebook team to identify what scene characteristics influence perceived realism (specifically coherence) and to develop measurements that can quantify the perceived realism of a virtual scene.

Collaborators: Joe Gabbard, Doug Bowman, and Todd Ogle