In the Summer of 2013, I completed a nine week internship at the MIT Media Lab where I worked with Professor Hiroshi Ishii and a graduate student, Sheng Kai (Tony) Tang, on the Annoscape project. My research project involved developing a mobile platform that allowed users to collaboratively review 2D and 3D content on a 3D virtual workspace using mobile devices.
My work consisted of:
Developed an iOS application where users on a network can draw digital sketches and collaborate in a 3D virtual workspace in real-time. The iOS application was developed using openFrameworks iOS C++ library and OpenGL.
Programmed using the openFrameworks C++ toolkit to create a client-server network
Designed the remote collaboration system to be expandable to research new tangible interactions for better collaborative review. Future directions would include incorporating tangible tools to aid the perspective manipulation of digital sketches.
This project was a fusion of interdisciplinary knowledge, deep participation in a technology-arts research team, and a project was posed to challenge the contemporary convention of remote collaboration.
The interdisciplinary team comprised of me, who was the developer, graduate student Sheng Kai Tang, a designer with background in human computer interaction and architecture, and a faculty advisor Hirohsi Ishii, an expert in human computer interaction.
Working on the Annoscape project exposed me to the areas of software architecture, iOS development, user interface design, and interaction design. My contributions to the project were significant because I implemented the entire Annoscape system as an iOS application that functioned on two iPads, which communicated using Transmission Control Protocol on a client-server network.
In this project, we challenged the issues of remote collaboration systems. Sharing information over a distance is discontinuous to the physical workspace. This discontinuity limits professional designers, architects and engineers to utilizing basic skills such as sketching, using hand gestures, and collaborative feedback. y redesigning the AnnoScape system, the remote collaboration system can be expandable to research new tangible interactions for better collaborative review.
I feel that fusion of interdisciplinary knowledge, participating in technology-arts research team, and challenging areas of social significance, that this project is a reflection as me as an Emerging Media student.