Grace Nelson
August 2021

[Link to Capstone Presentation]

The Augmented Space Library (ASL) was developed by students in the Cross Reality Collaboration Sandbox (CRCS) research group to allow users on Augmented Reality (AR) enabled mobile phones and Computers to connect and interact in the same cross reality space where virtual and physical worlds are integrated. This research is an exploration into how that functionality could be applied to more complex applications and to discover where ASL needs more development.

“A Scaled Adventure” was created centered around the ASL library’s existing functionalities. These functionalities include networked connections, moving, adding, removing, and changing objects through both the PC and AR clients. This served to identify areas where the ASL library excels as well as any additional functionalities that should be added or improved to both facilitate development and to expand the kinds of development that are possible.

The core function of “A Scaled Adventure” is comparable to that of a mini game. The PC person is spawned as a small avatar on a plane in the real world and runs around trying to collect mushrooms. The AR person is the eye in the sky, destroying obstacles and marking where the mushrooms are. The PC person cannot see the mushrooms, so communication and collaboration are crucial to beat the game with a fast time. The AR person can also damage or kill the PC player, build bridges, and clear the way depending on the kind of game play the users desire.

Developing this application helped clearly outline the strengths and weaknesses of the ASL library. While the ASL library can clearly be used to create interactive applications there are still a few areas that could be improved. For Example: Currently there are only a limited number of actions that can be performed on a network shared object (Transforms, Rotations, Float Arrays, etc.) this means that Unity physics and other object attributes must be set in creative ways. Using this research, the CRSC can make these improvements and develop ASL into an even more expansive AR development tool. This application also stands as a shining example of the kinds of AR apps that students can create using the ASL library and aims to inspire some to brave this kind of development themselves.