The Inspiriation was when in the opening ceremony we saw Ashton Eaton's cruthes, and realized how innaccesible things are in life. We wanted to make something to revolutionize fan engagement, and also be helpful in making practices, engagement and other sessions more accessible.
What it doesThis project is made with Oculus, Amazon Echo and Leap Motion integration with live Twitter API and SportRadar API, and our goal is to provide customized fan experience paralleled to live events.
How we built itWe built this using Oculus, Amazon Echo and Leap Motion integration with live Twitter API and SportRadar API. We used Unity software to be able to create this environment. In order to get the room look, we used existing 3D models from the FREE section of the Unity plugin store. I highly recommend getting the "standard assets" in the free section. It should be the #1 most downloaded plugin! In order to get the video screens to work in VR, we coded up some scripts and attached them to blank planes. We downloaded short videos from youtube and imported them into the Unity environment. From there all you do is drag and drop onto the planes to create a video screen. In order to get leap motion capabilities to work in this environment, we downloaded Leap Motion's Orion software (beta) and imported a custom package into our environment. We used one of their third person controllers and placed it in front of our main camera in order to get the desired "realistic" hand functionality. For Alexa, we used Javascript, AWS, and a Node.js back end to create an app that worked with a Sportsradar API service to give the sports fan a more enhanced experience - listing facts about athletes and having ticket purchasing functionality.
Challenges we ran intoThe main challenge we ran into was making virtual reality a possibility with this project. In order to work with Oculus Rift, we had to make sure we get a Desktop computer from the MLH Lab, since the Oculus is now only "develop-able" with the desktop.
Accomplishments that we're proud ofWe are proud to successfully integrate the Amazon Echo and Oculus rift to provide entertainment and engagement with voice!
What I learnedI learned a lot about Unity developing VR environment and how awesome it is!
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