Personal · 2018
Overview
What if we could view information about an object in real time, in physical space? This project explored how AR and MR technology could be used to surface the cultural and personal value that a physical object holds — making the invisible visible, layered right on top of the things we interact with every day.
Curiosity
Objects carry three kinds of information. Technical information — what it is, how it works, who made it. Cultural information — its history, significance, the context in which it exists. And personal information — the memories, meaning, and stories it holds for the people who own it. Most of this is invisible. AR changes that.
Exploration
The early design process explored different ways of visualizing each type of information. How do you show cultural context without overwhelming the object itself? How do you represent personal memory? I sketched dozens of approaches — from typographic overlays to spatial data structures — before finding a visual language that felt appropriate.
Prototyping
I prototyped the experience using Unity with ARKit 2.0, pulling live data via Twitter and Instagram APIs to populate the personal and cultural information layers in real time. The prototype demonstrated the concept on real physical objects, showing how digital information could be anchored to and displayed around them in space.
Experience
The final prototype demonstrated four states of the experience — approaching an object, scanning it, exploring its information layers, and dismissing the overlay. Gestures were kept minimal and natural, designed to feel like a genuine extension of how we already interact with objects in space.
Reflection
This project was an early exploration of something I still find compelling: the idea that the physical world is full of information we can't yet see. As AR and MR mature, the challenge isn't just technical — it's about designing information layers that add meaning without adding noise. The objects we live with deserve a richer interface than we currently give them.