"More Than Meets The Eye" Animated VR Experience

We may not know what problems businesses face but we can ask. What are your career goals? Who do you want to work with next? What do you want to learn?

Skype call with Simon Hayhoe  https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/simon-hayhoe  28 May 2019.  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4415-9828 Citing his papers and research. Interested in my project and sent more links and information.Willing to stay in regular contact throughout research.

Telephone call with David Johnson blind artist 31.05.19. No sight or light awareness.  Willing to be involved with my research. Ethics approval and consents next https://davidsartinsites.wordpress.com

Jon Urch - Crime cafe, Bright Club (stand up comedy final outcome of presentation training) Notes and follow up information taken from the NCCPE (National Co-Ordinating Centre for Public Engagement). Highlighted red for the relevant and applicable to this research. Blind engagement throughout project - not just as an output. Ideas - Draw in the Dark? Paint in the dark? Blind versus Sighted draw-off. Stickers. Interactive Augmented reality projected questionnaire or data findings. Dine in the Dark. Tiltbrush in the dark with sighted/blindfolded/blind participants. Draw and then describe to a partner (who cannot see the drawing) - so that they can replicate it. My drawing - too complicated to describe! My drawing partner's drawing and my interpretation of it - described with measurements and simple shapes. Public Engagement by definition is a two way process, with the goal of generating mutual benefit, structured in such as way to benefit the researcher. Quant

Notes from Unity training on 20th May 2019: Version 2018.4 f.0f1 LTS Creating a new project. Select   New project (name) Unity version (as above) Location (as per preferred location on desktop/cloud) Template (3D) Factory settings layout. Panel equivalents to Maya... Top left panel = outliner. Bottom left panel=project. Middle top = scene, inc camera and one light. Can delete from this scene and it remains in the project library. Middle bottom = library. Top right panel inspector = attributes editor,  Import objects - drag and drop or import .obj or .fbx Unity assets store or Turbosquid Can drag objects from the outliner (left panel) and it is located exactly in position. Alternatively check the attributes editor (inspector) to adjust co-ordinates Check substance painter for free student download. Done Apply material in Unity.  Create your materials in Substance painter (eg) inc texture (colour), ambient occlusion, metallic and smooth, normal maps.  Create new folder in

Simple white 'artist' gallery space, with test artist character... importing .obj into Unity UI and applying materials. Unity UI is a mix of Maya (Hypershade interface/outliner/controls/inspector similar to attributes editor); After Effects (panel and project panes, including the tabs to jump up and down the compositions, Nuke; A & B pipes when it comes to setting the command line for animation sequences

First attempt at importing .png materials onto a newly generated shader in Unity. Seeking help from Sean Yu, as the skin texture is looking transparent! Note: save as jpegs and the rendering mode to opaque not transparent!

Understanding the Unity interface - first test shot (model without textures) using the bobblehead created in Fuse, exported into Mixamo and now imported into Unity

Using Adobe CC Fuse to create a bobblehead 'artist' and then exporting into Mixamo, rigged automatically and pre-animated poses applied...

Appointments and contacts made with: Researchers in the field of blind/visual impairment/sensory/ Dr Alison Eardley - University of Westminster Dr Hannah Thompson - Royal Holloway University Dr John Ravenscroft - Edinburgh University Dr Simon Hayhoe - Bath University Blind Artists Aaron McPeake David Johnson Sally Booth Organisations RNIB Edinburgh Dundee Blind Society VocalEyes - London VR and 3D animation Sean Yu - Dundee Image ideas for 3D representation of the research network and contacts

https://www.guidedogs.org.uk/about-us/guide-dog-training-schools/ I met with Pamela Munro at the Forfar Guide Dog Training Centre in Forfar. Notes: Dog breeds include Labrador, Retriever, German Shepherd. Cross-breed of those breeds Dogs are trained to walk on the left of the person Stops and kerbs and steps. Sits to indicate (down) a step. Paws on kerb to indicated (up) Walks in straight lines and avoids obstacles The owner needs to know where they are going. The dog gets them there safely. If a person with a guide-dog is stopped and has placed the harness bar down, that indicates that they require help. Simply walk over to them and say "My name is ?. Do you require some help?" If yes, offer your right elbow and nudge them with it, so that they can grasp it easily and without accidentally making awkward physical contact. Do not make any contact with the dog Bins and cars on pavements are are real obstacle to guide dogs and pose a dangerous problem, as the dog

Unity training session scheduled (with coffee and doughnuts!) with Sean Yu on Monday 20th May. My idea, at present, is to create an animated interactive character - in Maya - and import it into Unity (VR software). The environment will be created in Unity and I'm not sure what it will look like yet. Here's a pic of my inspiration to date (VR game called 'Gloomy Eyes') and my environment will likely have a few rooms that the 'viewer' can teleport into. For now I would like to get to grips with the user interface (UI) and how to create lights and scenes, plus rendering... Donughts from Portland Oregon. Unfortunately too far to get for this meeting - but definitely recommend them if you're out that way!

Additional slides shown to Phil and Fraser (sent to Caroline Erolin) showing update of research and work undertaken since the EAD conference and my previous supervisory meeting. Includes upgrade document chapter structure, plus the beginnings of chapters written up from my presentation in March.

Appointment being arranged beginning of July 2019 with Dr Hannah Thompson  https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/hannah-thompson(267bcd37-e882-4fdb-b2c9-6dcddea88044).html , found through Dr Alison Eardley Research includes: Blind Creations Conference  http://blindcreations.blogspot.com/  Exploring the relationship between blind people and artistic creation Disabilities Quaterly  http://dsq-sds.org/issue/view/160 Blind Spot blog  https://hannah-thompson.blogspot.com/  looks at blindness in history, art, literature film Multi-sensory Museum https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hannah_Thompson45

Appointment scheduled for end of June/beginning of July with Matthew Cock at VocalEyes   https://vocaleyes.co.uk/about/team/  to discuss my project and potential leads to blind art practitioners. Graduated in Art History, Edinburgh and Fine Art, Glasgow British Museum, digital content manager Curatorial Assistant V&A Trustee of Jodi Mattes Trust

Appointment made on 12 June with the RNIB in Edinburgh  https://www.rnib.org.uk/scotland-contact-rnib-scotland/services-we-offer-edinburgh-and-lothians  to discuss my project and potential blind/partially sighted participants RNIB Edinburgh

https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/eardley-alison Appointment made for 2 July with Dr Alison Eardley at the University of Westminster; details found through the Research Associates section (visual impairment), on the Scottish Sensory Centre website. http://www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/research/members.html Research includes: Cognitive Neuroscience Neuroscience Memory Cognitive Psychology https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alison_Eardley

http://www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/ Appointment made 12 June 2019 with Professor JohnRavenscroft https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/john-ravenscroft(dfc10489-2902-42d5-b3c6-eab51472497e)/activities.html of the Scottish Sensory Centre in Edinburgh; to discuss my project and links to blind art practitioners in Scotland, plus possible future VR projects post PhD. Research includes: Psychology Childhood visual Impairment Sight loss Ontology of Inductive Systems