Immersive Archive

Principal Engineer
Mobile & Environmental Media Lab
June 2023 - Present

While Extended Reality (XR) is a rapidly expanding medium, it has a long and rich history that has yet to be preserved. Immersive Archive aims to preserve the history of XR by conducting extensive research, collecting artifacts, and developing digital simulations of seminal XR works in history on modern XR platforms such as Meta Quest headsets. As the principal engineer of this project, I developed several experiences as well as integrated the work of other developers and creatives on the team. My proudest achievement in this project is creating a Mesh-to-Line tool that can automatically convert 3D models into retro vector line graphics which can be used to performantly simulate the look of early VR headsets whilst seamlessly integrating into the modern 3D modeling workflows the art team uses. Check out the Immersive Archive website linked below.

Mesh-to-Line

Mesh-to-Line works by analyzing and extracting the silhouette and crease edges of a 3D model. It uses the Edge Buffer algorithm for silhouette edge detection and normal vector voting algorithm for crease edge detection. If you are interested in learning the technical details of this tool, please check out the technical paper linked below. Open-source release of Mesh-to-Line coming soon.

Awards

• Best in Show AWEsome AUGGIE Award at AWE 2024

Press

• Forbes SIGGRAPH 2023 Highlights

Accomplishments

• Developed several simulated VR experiences of the first-ever VR headset, the NASA VIEWLAB HMD, which was presented at AWE 2024
• Developed a digitized VR simulation of the Sensorama and Sutherland HMD which was presented at SIGGRAPH 2023 in the Immersive Pavilion
• Developed a webXR postcard that allows users to "take home" a digital twin of the Sensorama which can be placed in mobile AR

Tools Used

• Unity
• 8th Wall
• Blender