Lecture 1: Introduction

Course code: DES643

Course name: Design for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

Dr Amar Behera
Email: amarkb@iitk.ac.in
Extension: 2401

Design Studio 605H-A

Diamond Jubilee Academic Complex
Dr Amar Behera
PhD, FHEA, PGCHET, MIMechE, CEng, BTech, MTech, MS, Minor
April 2022 issue, Materials
World, IOM3 magazine
Aims of this module

• To provide a broad understanding of

virtual reality (VR) and augmented
reality (AR)
• To introduce you to design tools for
AR/VR
• To evaluate AR/VR environments as an
user
Learning Outcomes

• Understand the fundamental principles of how AR and VR work

• Learn to build a good AR/VR experience with digital and immersive authoring tools
• Critique new and existing AR/VR experiences from an ethical standpoint
• Create storyboards and physical prototypes of new AR/VR experiences
• Infer technical requirements for implementing your AR/VR prototypes
Content
 Assessment

• Coursework/ Practical Project

• 50% weightage
• Exam(s)
• 40% weightage
• Attendance
• 10% weightage
• Formative assessments towards
exam and practical activities
• Feel comfortable asking questions
Any questions on the course overview and logistics?
Teaching structure
• Term 2 only
• Weekly lectures
• Tuesday and Thursday: 17:15 to 18:30 hrs
• Location: L19
• Labs
• Location: DJ 204 (Exact dates will be confirmed during the lecture class, on
email and Hello IITK)
• 12 hours per week of independent study expected
• Office hours
• Friday: 16:00 hrs
• Prior appointment on email expected
Your ICT systems checklist
• Attendance Protocol (Biometric)
• Using the Hello IITK portal
https://hello.iitk.ac.in/index.php/course/des643sem22324
• Logging in to your email
• Using Hello IITK to access course content
• Using Hello IITK to engage with course activities
• Our policy on plagiarism
• Install the Socrative app
• Contacting me
Let’s unpick Go to: https://www.menti.com/

the course title Use the code 6811 6713

• What does the word “Design”

mean to you?
Let’s unpick the course
title
• What do you know about Virtual
Reality already?
Let’s unpick the course title
• What do you know about Augmented
Reality already?
What do you
understand by the
word “Design”?
• Look around – what objects around you
are “designed”?
• Smartphone & its user interface
• Desk
• Chair
• Clothes
• Laser pointer
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• PC casing
• Projector
So, what is “design”?

• Design is a creative thinking and planning process that

• Solves problems in the real world
• Leads to useful products and systems
• Leads to measurable human interaction
• Design has different connotations in different fields
• Think about what design means in the context of
• engineering
• pottery
• management
• coding
• Gaming!
 What does it mean “to design”?
Dictionary definition

The Design Squiggle by Damien Newman

• To design is to plan how a product or a service will look and function.

• A design process follows a process of exploration of a problem,
finding solutions to this problem and then executing on the adequate
solution.
The “ice-cream scoop” problem
What does it mean “to design”?
What is not design?
• Design is not art!
• The boundary between art and design is often confused
• Art is about creating something that conveys or expresses
emotions, ideas, or feelings of the author.
• Art is subject to the interpretation of the viewer.
• It conveys a different message to different people depending
on many factors, for instance, their mood.
• A perfect example to illustrate this is the fabled painting ‘Mona
Lisa’ by Leonardo da Vinci.
• Some think she is frowning, while some argue that she is
smiling.
 Scott Kim’s
Inversions –
Art or Design?

https://scottkim.com/
What is not design?
• Engineers deal with predictable factors, like a concrete beam
• They know how a conrete beam will behave under specific forces
• Engineers integrate different parts of the product to work together.
• Designers deal with unpredictable factors like HUMANS and their
emotions.
• They make the interaction between the product and humans better.
• That doesn’t mean a designer cannot code nor does that mean an
engineer can’t design.
• But when a designer codes for production, he no longer will be
designing. He will be coding. And vice-versa.
What is design then?
• The process of creating the general
arrangement of the different parts of
something that is made
• The process of explicitly deciding
how something will look like, how it
will work, and how it can be used
• Thinking about communicating the
design and presenting for others to
understand.
The design process
The design process: Double Diamond
The Design
Process as a
flowchart

Sciencebuddies.org
The key design principles
• Put people first. Start with an understanding of the people
using a service, their needs, strengths and aspirations.
• Communicate visually and inclusively. Help people gain a
shared understanding of the problem and ideas.
• Collaborate and co-create. Work together and get inspired by
what others are doing.
• Iterate, iterate, iterate. Do this to spot errors early, avoid risk
and build confidence in your ideas.
Who uses the design process?
• Architects
• Engineers
• Scientists
• Designers – e.g. Graphic Designers, Product Designers, Industrial Designers
• Process Engineers (Chemical, Industrial, Manufacturing)
• User Experience Designers
• Software Specialists (Computer Science, Cybernetics)
• Social Scientists
• Entrepreneurs
• Inventors, Innovators, & Technologists
So much so about design, but what is VR?
• VR tech has been evolving rapidly
• Hence, it is hard to define VR using specific devices
• Current VR devices may be obsolete in a year
• First, look at the word ‘virtual’ in Virtual Reality
• Now, consider the word ‘reality’
That’s a contradiction, so
how do we define VR?

• The term virtual reality dates back to German

philosopher Immanuel Kant, although its use did not
involve technology
• Kant introduced the term to refer to the “reality” that
exists in someone’s mind, as differentiated from the
external physical world, which is also a reality
• The modern use the VR term was popularized by Jaron
Lanier in the 1980s
• The term ‘virtuality’ can rectify the contradiction,
however, VR is in vogue, so we will use that in this
course
 • Having bowed down to thy father (Veda Vyasa), that (wise and high-souled) son of Parasara,

Let’s take a step through whose grace, I have obtained excellent and celestial apprehension, sight beyond the
range of the visual sense, and hearing, O king, from great distance, knowledge of other people's
hearts and also of the past and the future, a knowledge also of the origin of all persons
transgressing the ordinances, the delightful power of coursing through the skies, and

back into the past untouchableness by weapons in battles, listen to me in detail as I recite the romantic and highly
wonderful battle that happened between the Bharatas, a battle that makes one's hair stand on
end"

-- Mahabharata 6.15
Definition of VR

Inducing targeted behavior in an organism by using artificial sensory

stimulation, while the organism has little or no awareness of the interference
VR Definition: Key terms
Targeted behavior:
• The organism is having an “experience” that
was designed by the creator.
• Examples include
• Flying
• Walking
• Exploring
• Watching a movie
• Socializing with other organisms
Courtesy: Zurich University of the Arts
Targeted behavior for cows!

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e3Vvvk-rjY
VR Definition:
Key terms
Organism:
• This could be:
• You
• Someone else or
• Another life form such
as a cow, fruit fly,
cockroach, fish, rodent,
or monkey

Source:
Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Munich
VR Definition: Key
terms

Artificial sensory stimulation:

Through the power of engineering, one or
more senses of the organism become co-
opted, at least partly, and their ordinary
inputs are replaced or enhanced by
artificial stimulation

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/08/vr-goggles-for-mice-create-immersive-scenarios-for-brain-research
VR Definition: Key terms

Awareness:
• While having the experience,
the organism seems unaware
of the interference, thereby
being “fooled” into feeling
present in a virtual world.
• This unawareness leads to a
sense of presence in an altered
or alternative world.
• It is accepted as being natural.
Source: Vox
 Go to:
https://www.menti.com/

So, a key to creating a Use the code 6811 6713

good VR environment
is immersion
• And many modern computer
games do just that…
• How many of you have ever
played a computer game?
• And, how many of you have
played in a multi-player online
game?
• A key feature of most of these
games is immersion
• An example from my lockdown
days as a Twitch streamer of COD
Talking of games, if
you are fascinated by
VR and games, head
on to …
• https://store.steampowered.com/
and try out some of those fab VR
games!
References/Bibliography
• Framework for Innovation: Design Council's evolved Double Diamond,
https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/
• V Mamtani, The power of collaboration in design, https://uxdesign.cc/
• Karl T Ulrich & Steven D Eppinger, Product Design and Development, McGraw-
Hill, ISBN 007-123273-7, 3rd Edition
• G Boothroyd, P Dewhurst & W Knight, Product Design for Manufacturing and
Assembly, Marcel Dekker, ISBN: 0-8247-9176-2
• Isabel Casanova Ledesma, An introduction to design and the design process
• The Process of Design Squiggle by Damien Newman, thedesignsquiggle.com
Design.(1989).In Oxford English dictionary online(2nd ed.)
• scottkim.com
• Steven Lavalle, Virtual Reality, Cambridge University Press
Before the next class…

• Find five applications of virtual reality from the

internet that interest you the most and share
on the HelloIITK forum created for Lecture 1
• Post 1 video link on AR/VR applications and
share what its about
• Comment on atleast 1 post from a fellow
classmate
• Download one AR/VR paper using Google
Scholar and post a citation to it explaining in
less than 5 sentences the key findings from the
research