EnVisible City

Team Name

Live+Smart Lab

Team Members

Project Description

The problem:

How to engage communities and citizens to experience quantitative and qualitative data on the tangible and sensory aspects of a city during different times?

What makes a city a great place in which to live, work and relax? Sophisticated metrics have been developed on the component parts such as patterns of use, transport infrastructure and climate; these and a wide range of other data underpin our understanding of liveability. Such indices can be supplemented with text, photography to illustrate some qualitative aspects of place, however many of the intangible and sensory are very difficult to visualise and communicate.
Our solution:

The increasing ubiquity of virtual and augmented reality provide new opportunities to explore the multi-sensory and temporal aspects of urban place. We take government data of various aspects, which are placed as 3D models, vegetations, spatially distinct sound emitters that combine to generate a dynamic experience as the user moves through the scene. We also foreground the temporal character of urban place, with the intent of enabling the end user to ‘dial up’ different time and dates of the development and environmental conditions of the place.

Data Story

Prototype application:

A prototype application has been developed that can be simultaneously broadcast to screen and surround sound systems, to allow individual and small group evaluation of city scenes. The application uses a haptic interface (oculus touch), which enables the user to hold a virtual smartphone as the interface. The menu includes a handheld map with hotspots to allow teleporting around the site, as well as free movement within the scene. User can also ‘dial up’ the time and dates, access videos that capture typical movement paths through the site, select and hold supplementary drawings and photographs. Datasets such as energy consumption can be viewed on the virtual map as well. Projected developments and events are developed in the VR space, and an interface enables the user to switch between and experience the proposed interventions.

Future applications:

The prototype demonstrates proof-of-concept and informal feedback from participants and observers; there is much potential to develop the approach to enable the qualitative aspects place to be used to engage with communities, business and industry during the early stages of urban design.