“Expand Realities” – this is the leitmotif of this interdisciplinary project of the study course. In this project, students are familiarized with the aesthetic and technological implications related to the creation of interactive experiences and/or applications in an expanded environment (e.g. augmented reality).
This project focuses on the development of a working prototype at the design and technical level for a defined target group and platform. The students are encouraged to integrate industrial standard production methods and practices. They will acquire and apply advanced skills in problem solving and quality assurance, budgeting, and project management in order to conceive and produce a marketable product. Based on scientific methods, they establish branding and marketing objectives. They will explore and apply advanced methodical tools of analysis and evaluation with regard to audience/user-centred design. They will be exposed to advanced media technologies like platforms, distribution channels, and input devices. By creating a product for a defined platform and user group, the students learn to generate ideas, concepts, and solutions in response to identified market, industrial, and scientific needs.
Indicative Module Content
- Introduction to financing and funding of expanded realities products
- Legal aspects of production and distribution
- Ideation and creative methods (e.g. Design Thinking)
- Creating, documenting, and presenting design concepts
- Basics of visual branding, intellectual property, and visual communication for expanded realities
- Immergence, presence and agency in expanded realities
- Environment and world design, digital scenography
- Interaction design for expanded realities, introduction to concepts and methods of user-centered design
- Storytelling and dramaturgy for linear and non-linear formats in expanded realities
- Game design (level design, game balancing, game mechanics)
- Design methods: iteration, prototyping, and pre-visualization, implementation)
- Basics of sound design, music, and dialogue writing for animations and games
- Intermediate game mechanics and game engine-based computer graphics, animation, simulation, and lighting techniques.
- Advanced software architectures and principles in state-of-the-art game engines (also cross-platform and mobile applications)
- Introduction to artificial intelligence for expanded realities
- Intermediate physics programming in game engines
- Introduction to user interfaces for expanded realities
- Advanced tools and technologies for prototyping and pre-visualisation
- Testing and usability analysis
- Introduction to frameworks (SDK, API) for expanded realities (e.g. augmented and mixed reality) experiences and applications.
- Introduction to technology for expanded /mixed reality applications, like (e.g. HMDs, glasses)
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, the student will be able to:
1_Knowledge & Understanding:
- Show a profound understanding of the user as the recipient in an Extended Reality experience.
2_Intellectual skills:
- Develop a detailed and targeted design concept, which answers a creative brief and envisions a defined user/audience.
- Demonstrate standard techniques and methods of an iterative design process.
3_Competences and Practical & Professional skills:
- Demonstrate the use of appropriate research and presentation methods in the development and implementation of a project.
- Apply an appropriate range of specialised software and hardware tools in the execution and completion of a project.
- Develop and demonstrate the use of state-of-the-art technology for expanded/mixed reality devices for experiences and applications.
- Apply modern techniques and methods of software development.
Prerequsites
You should have experience in programming and with game engines (e.g., Unity).
Literature
Ralf Doerner, Wolfgang Broll, Paul Grimm, Bernhard Jung: Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) - Foundations and Methods of Extended Realities (XR), Springer, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79062-2, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-79062-2
Further literature to be announced at the beginning of the lecture period.
