For our project, we constructed “hologram” virtual reality glasses. Our concept is an imagined dystopian carnival of the future. After catastrophic events such as war, the terrible results of prolonged climate change, etc., the world is destroyed and nothing is left. The only way humans can escape this tragedy and sadness is through these virtual reality glasses. A chip is placed through the temples and into the brain. This allows the holographic glasses to project in front of the eyes and can be activated at any time. This specific user wants to experience the nostalgic carnival he once loved but is no longer in existence. Once the glasses are activated this user can enjoy what it’s like to be back at the carnival. The user can customize the glasses using filters. In this case, a holographic butterfly floats/flutters its wings in front of the glasses. This is meant to resemble a butterfly face painting one would see at a carnival. The user can take old scavenged things left on earth, and looking through the lenses, transform them into something beautiful. This shows that technology may seem like it is fixing the problem, giving the users a glimpse of utopia, but in actuality, it distracts its participants from the real world.
The glasses are made out of acrylic and are etched/ cut using a laser cutter. There is iridescent wrapping paper and a printed carnival picture layered on the inside. The butterfly is made out of iridescent and Bristol paper. For the presentation, an edited video is played. This video is a “sales pitch”, promoting our new product. It is an advertisement that shows the users the VR glasses: what it is and how it works. In the beginning, it introduces our brand (POV) and mission statement. It all seems so perfect as it opens the viewer’s eyes to a whole new world of exciting advanced technology. Eventually, the video starts to glitch, revealing reality. A demo of the product is performed: A video plays in the background. The user is seen participating in various games and activities at the carnival but in reality, is holding normal/ “scavenged” things. I designed and made the glasses, and my partner Phil edited the advertisement/ demo video that accompanied the presentations. My other partner Olivia worked on the props and the interactive component of the presentation.
Our Brand name is POV which is the initials of our first names put together (Phil, Olivia, Vivian) and it also stands for Point of View which perfectly encapsulates what we are trying to present with these VR Glasses.
Ideation:
First I made a web diagram listing everything that a carnival entails.
Carnival Web Diagram
I brainstormed some ideas and made a list of potential concepts to work with. I was thinking of themes relating to a futuristic carnival that reflects a societal problem.
I started sketching out some of the ideas I had on my list and I went on Pinterest to find inspiration.
I was inspired by this style of dress and I liked the idea of having something inside the bottom of the dress like a carousel.
Idea #1: An underwater carnival. All the land on Earth has sunk underwater. Humans have evolved into mermaids. It is a carnival for mermaids and it reflects the environmental problem of water pollution.
This is a mermaid wearing an opened soda can that resembles a jellyfish inspired by the picture I found on Pinterest. Attached to the bottom of the dress is a carousel made up of trash and seahorses. The bottom of the carousel is a plastic plate. The ruffles on the neck are made up of plastic soda can holders and string. The mermaid is holding an animal (jellyfish) balloon but in reality, is holding a used plastic bag that is tied to look like a jellyfish. The mermaid is wearing a mask that helps it breathe in the murky polluted waters. You can see the mermaid’s skeleton and its bottom fin is broken.
Idea #2: The world is destroyed, and humans have reached full capacity, The only thing left is to build up. A carnival in the sky only for the rich and elite. The poor live below and do not get to see the sunlight. Differing social economic classes are seen on a larger scale. Inspired by the film parasite.
This would be the dress that the rich/ elite would wear to the carnival in the sky. The dress is made out of “real” bird feathers/ wings. There is a bird carousel on the inside with doves as the horses. The dress floats on a giant cloud. This concept depicts a world in the sky; the main article of clothing that would be used is bird wings/ feathers.
Idea #3: A carnival hosted by Animals. Animals are the spectators. Humans now perform shows, races, etc. Animals rule the world and have gotten revenge on humans.
Idea Sketch #3: The Carnival for Animals
I again went with the dress with the base opened style. A lion/ human is wearing a dress- on the inside of the bottom is a cage with humans on the inside. The lion yells “tickets to see the human show!!”
We discussed as a group and we all had similar ideas of having a futuristic dystopian setting. We were leaning towards the idea of technology taking over the world (robots/ AI running the world.) We collectively agreed on the idea of virtual reality. The concept we went with was the idea that life on earth is destroyed and the only way to experience a carnival again is through virtual reality.
Idea #3: Virtual Reality Carnival. The world is destroyed. The only escape is through VR. No more social interactions. A perfect world/ society can only be achieved through a screen.
For this design. I wanted to make virtual reality glasses shaped like a butterfly across the eyes. I wanted the butterfly to resemble a face painting that would be seen at a carnival. I drew a wing-shaped earpiece attached to the glasses. I put ribbons on the arms and these sensory finger pads/strings on the hands. Those are the pads that send electrical impulses so that you can feel things. I thought it would be interesting to try and replicate a VR experience, so I thought of making a box that a person can step into and then project a 360 picture/ video on all four walls.
Exercise #1:
For our first exercise, we were randomly given a body part, a carnival game, and a theme. The goal is to create a body augmentation with these three things combined. Our group got an ear, a ring toss game, and got lost. We came up with a bunny earring toss game. We designed a headpiece with bunny ears attached to each side. The ring to toss onto the ear is a large hollow carrot.
Rabbit Ears:
Carrot Ring:
Final Product:
The bunny ears are made out of thick cardboard and pink felt. The two ears are attached to a headband made out of thick metal wire. The hollow carrot is made out of thick cardboard and it is covered in green and orange cardstock. We presented the game as a lost bunny trying to find its way home as the player tries to successfully toss the carrot ring onto the bunny ears.
Exercise 2:
For this exercise we used DALL-E Open AI to generate pictures that would help give us inspiration for our project.
I also wanted to explore virtual reality and 3D Spaces. I downloaded Unreal Engine 5 and experimented with 3D spaces. I learned how to import objects into space and manipulate the objects around them. To make the Ferris Wheel I took a regular small wheel and made it large and placed it on top of a pillar. Then I imported house balconies and put them on the wheel. For the carousel, I again took a wheel enlarged it and made it the base. I put fences underneath, lining the bottom of the wheel. For the top of the carousel, I placed house roofs together floating above the base. Finally, for the entrance, I put arches and pillars together.
Unreal Engine 5
Then I begin to work on the VR glass design.
First I roughly sketched out the shape and some of the designs on top of the glasses.
I wanted the shape of the glasses to be very sleek and minimalistic so I eliminated the side ear pieces. I took inspiration from Pinterest to make a futuristic design on the surface of the glasses.
VR Glass Sketch:
I wanted the glasses to look like its floating in front of the head/ eyes so I came up with a design to have the earpiece hooked onto the ear and then have a block attached to the earpiece extended outwards. The VR glasses are attached to the blocks making it look like it’s floating in front of the eyes and the sides of the head. I made space for changeable lenses so that different pictures can easily be inserted into the glasses. For the butterfly wings, I wanted to be attached to the front of the glasses. The butterfly wings resemble a butterfly face painting you would see at a carnival.
I took this design and put everything into Adobe Illustrator. I used these dimensions to make the glasses.
The initial plan was to have the rim of the glasses to be made out of Bristol paper. Both the back and the front of the glasses are connected. The dotted red lines are worn the paper would be folded which leaves a little space (the black dashed lines) for the changeable lens. I took this design and put it into the laser cutter.
Initial Design Laser Cut:
Clear PVC Sheet and Metallic Basket Gift Bag:
I traced the shape of the lenses onto the clear PVC sheet and on the clear holographic paper and taped it on the inside of the glasses. I wanted the glasses to look like it was a hologram floating in front of the face. Using this metallic paper material gave it a reflective rainbow glow and helped achieve the look I was going for.
Test #1 Glasses:
The Bristol was folded leaving a little space/ gap for changeable lenses. There are also flaps on the top to hold the lenses in place. The clear and holographic paper was glued onto the inside.
Final Outcome of Test #1:
In the beginning when I made the rough sketch of the glasses on regular paper; the paper was much thinner so it was bendable. It was able to bend without making any definite creases in the paper. With the double layering of the Bristol paper in addition to the space I left in between for the changeable lenses, it made it a lot harder to bend the same way as the regular paper did. The Bristol was making crease lines and it was hard to fold. I had to come up with a different format.
Then I tried to make a prototype of the floating glasses.
Glasses Outside View:
Glasses Inside View:
Glasses Inside/Top View:
Glasses Top View:
Glasses Top View:
Iteration and Production:
When I tried on the glasses I realized that there was no support to hold the glasses up so that it floats in front of the face. The glasses kept falling in front of the face because it was too heavy and off-balanced. Because of time constraints, I decided not to do the floating glasses and have the normal-shaped glasses with curves for the ears.
I got a real pair of glasses and I traced the ends (curved ear parts) and put it into Illustrator. I still kept the same design but added the ear curves to the ends. Instead of making space for the changeable lenses, I changed them to tabs to make them thinner and bendable. This time I decided to make it one layer instead of two layers.
I began to put in the design for the front frame and the front butterfly wings.
I wanted to print out a panoramic of a carnival and glue the two pictures back to back so you can see the carnival in the front and on the inside of the glasses.
I tried using a different material, something similar to matboard, to cut out the glasses. This material was much thicker and was able to fit on the face better. But using a mat board I was not able to have it bend the same way that paper did. The creases were inevitable, I could not get it to bend smoothly like in the shape of a half circle the way I did with the regular paper.
Matboard Material
As I was laser cutting the Bristol I realized that the designs on the lenses were way too small and they fell apart. Some of the pieces weren’t attached to the rim so some of the designs flew away in the cutting process. The Bristol was a very flimsy and not very stable material to work with.
Bristol Material
The Designs on the Front Lenses
Front Butterfly Design
My instructor Deb suggested that I use an acrylic material to make the glasses. First I lasered the design on the acrylic
Design Etched onto Acrylic
I re-lasered the glasses which includes both the design and the rim of the glasses. We then used a heat gun to melt the acrylic and slowly molded it into the shape of the glasses. Using this material helped solve a lot of problems I was running into. Using the Bristol paper, I could not etch anything because the lens of the glasses had to be clear/see-through. When I tried to cut out the designs; they were way too small and could not stay in place. The acrylic had much more stability than Bristol paper. With the acrylic, I was able to both etch and have see-through quality.
After I had the glasses made; I put the finishing touches on to make it look more like a hologram. I first taped the clear Metallic wrapping paper on the inside of the glasses. Then I printed out the panoramic pictures of the carnival and taped them on top of the metallic paper and also on the inside of the glasses.
Front View of the Glasses
Previous Butterfly Design
New Butterfly Design
The original butterfly design I had did not match the look of the glasses so I decided to change it. I took out the colored cardstock and replaced it with clear iridescent paper.
Final Butterfly Design
Inside the Glasses
Phil’s Video Presentation
For Phil’s section of the project; using Davinci Resolve, he edited the advertisement/ demo video that accompanied the presentation.
Through this project, I learned a lot of materials. Each material I experimented with had very different qualities and fit on the face. It took a lot of trial and error to determine what material would provide the most stability for the glasses while also achieving the look/ aesthetics I was going for. I learned a new technique of melting down acrylic and molding it into my desired shape. I liked how it turned out that in the end, I was able to etch onto the acrylic and still have that see-through effect. What I found mostfrustratingwas myidea ofthefloating glassesontheface didn’t work and due to timeconstraints,Iwent back to the regular fitting glass designfor our final product.
This was our first group project, so I learned a lot about working together as a team. The bestpartofthecollaborationwas brainstorming and coming upwith creative concepts. I liked how we got to bounce ideas off of each other. All my group members had great ideas and our ideas were building off of each other. The mostvaluable tool in this collaboration was that each person had different strengths so it was easy to divide up the work and determine what each person would focus on in the project. I think that each person’s strengths were well showcased in the outcome. Thereweren’tmany challengingparts duringthis collaboration. We were on the same page most of the whole time. Maybelittledisagreementson ideas hereandthere but we compromisedand workedthrough themtogether.
