Soon after the launch of the Tilt Brush Artist in Residence program, fellow VR artist Steve Teeps and I were asked by the Google Research and Daydream Labs team to participate in some brand spankin new technology for mixed reality! It's best if you see it here, as explained by Tom Small and Avneesh Sud: Here's a visual breakdown of what all the different phases look like:
- Green Screen Video: this is what it looks like to ppl on the outside when I'm painting in VR.
- Virtual Environment: I can set the VR camera to show my painting and where I am in that space (the glowy Vive controllers), but still doesn't effectively depict what is going on.
- Traditional Mixed Reality Output: this shows my VR painting and me in the shot. But the VR headset is isolating and blocks the human connection aspects of this.
- Mixed Reality + Headset Removal: the Google Research team overlayed my eyes on top of the headset! You can SEE me again! :D
Here's a moving image example:
You can read all about this on Google's blog here:
Google Research and Daydream Labs: Seeing eye to eye in mixed reality
For more specifics of how Avneesh Sud and Christian Frueh pulled off this magic, read all about it on the Google Research Blog here: Headset “Removal” for Virtual and Mixed Reality (The above images and video originated from these Google blog posts.)
Thanks so much again, Google, for asking me to help out! I had a blast with the YouTube and Research teams! A few friends have joked that Teeps and I have literally become the face of the face of VR. hahaha
Behind the Scenes!
Sharing with my 96-year-old Grandma ^-^
Even more crazy is that my dad found me in the Chinese newspaper! I didn't believe him at first, thinking he was talking about the general 'you', perhaps speaking about any VR related stuff.
Nope. That's me! This was the moment my immigrant parents finally realized that what I'm doing is actual legitimate (because the Chinese newspaper is, like, the bible, amirite?). We showed my 96 year old grandma the newspaper article. This is also the moment when she realized that I'm doing something big, too.
Grandma is the sweetest. She smiles, cackles her signature laugh, and gives me a thumbs up. And what was the first thing she has to say after seeing all this in the newspaper?
"Oh, you didn't wear sleeves!"
<3