Solar Secrets

Inspiration

Inspired by our solar system. Often remembered as My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Us Nachos. It is a common and old mnemonic that is no doubt effective but does not do justice to the constant dance that our planets are involved in every single moment. 3d space then becomes the perfect place to visualize this dance and in doing so, inspires learning visually, interactively, and through spaced repetition.

What it does

Solar secrets makes learning about the solar system fun, allowing learners to not only visualize planets in 3d but also interact with them by throwing a virtual dart towards a planet. Successfully doing so reveals a planetary fact! The AI-enabled version allows for fresh facts generated through OpenAI.

How we built it (via Lens Studio)

Solar Secrets uses Throwlab as a foundation for the dart-throwing interaction. The Solar System Pack is used to create the planets and the Remote Service Gateway allows for the use of AI to obtain planetary facts. On top of these are custom scripts that serve as the foundation for the motion, presentation, and collider interaction.

Challenges we ran into

Ideas

There are so many possible combinations of meaningful interactions, subjects, and learning opportunities. It was a challenge to find ideas that fit the scope of the challenge and the time limit while factoring in technical challenges. Our idea continued to require adjustment due to limitations in time.

Dart Direction

The dart from throwlab flies towards one direction, allowing the users to look around before throwing the dart was the first significant challenge we encountered.

Planet Sizing

It was impossible to scale planets proportionate to each other without making the dart-throwing hard or causing planets to obstruct others for significant amounts of time.

Collider

The collider involved some troubleshooting on how to make the dart stick to the planet instead of simply bouncing off and ensuring the collision triggers the fact display.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were able to create an AR experience that allows others to enjoy the process of learning! Apart form this, we are proud to have been able to integrate AI into it. But to be honest, we're proud to even have gotten this far into our desired project - see 'what we learned.'

What we learned

To manager our time

3 weeks goes by fast. Life in NYC has been hectic especially as 4 teammates working full-time with other added obligations. It was a patchy start not only trying to bridge the gap between skill and idea but even just building the skill and shaping the idea themselves with everything going on - like the Knicks winning the NBA.

To iterate

Iteration allowed us to explore more interactions than a single person alone would. This led us to gain more proficiency in using Lens Studio but also introduced us to the possible interactions, inputs, and outputs.

To start small

There's a reason we all get started with 'Hello World.' It is important to start with a foundation or a proof of concept and not get too ambitious too early. This not only helps with the debugging process but ensures all the components set are able to work together as intended. It also leaves room to iterate, adapt, and adjust when necessary.

New Technologies and Languages

LensStudio x Snap Spectacles
Typescript

What's next for Solar Secrets

An improved gaming incentive would be a great addition to Solar Secrets. This might include something like a punch card for unlocking facts about each planet, that way no planet gets left behind. The challenge will lie in unlocking facts from the planets that lie further from the user (I'm looking at you, Neptune).

Increased accuracy in planetary representations would be a good addition that allows for us to create more detailed descriptions that possibly let the users look at planets more up-close. If hardware integration is possible, a rudimentary replication of some experiences in the planet would be fun, but that would be a much further stretch goal.

The same concept can also be pivoted towards other astronomy or geography-related pursuits – like navigating star systems or continents. If location is integrated, it could also serve as a guide towards illustrating nearby astronomical events or travel opportunities and prompts!