[U36] - WonderWall

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  Wonderwall demo

Turn your bedroom wall into a creative studio—with WonderWall.

Use the combined power of MetaQuest 3 and the Logitech Ink MR Stylus to create a virtual workspace that breaks free from the confines of the screen.

WonderWall harnesses the power of mixed reality to bring you the flexibility of the virtual world into the physical realm.

• Engage your body and mind to free your creativity.
• Visualize large projects at a glance to understand the bigger picture.
• Annotate projects using the Logitech MX Stylus.
• Harness spatial and visual learning to realize your potential.
• Enjoy the sheer fun of drawing on your wall.

Bring unused space to life and make your dreams a reality with WonderWall—your own personal memory palace.

Inspiration

WonderWall draws inspiration from various sources: the iconic scene in A Beautiful Mind, investigation boards in cop procedurals, and the Renaissance 'Memory Palace'—a technique for spatializing the processes of thought and memory.

WonderWall also reflects the rise of standing desks, the limitations of screen-bound planning and brainstorming tools, the constraints of urban living, and lived experience of producing large projects, working in the publishing, theatre and higher education professions, and observing the negative impact of online learning on student performance. These insights highlighted the need for physical or spatial tools to aid memory and maintain focus on the 'bigger picture'.

What it does

WonderWall turns your wall into a virtual studio where you can brainstorm, lay out large projects, or lay out class notes to revise for exams. It leverages the benefits of spatial learning and thinking to help you access the full power of your memory and creativity as well as engaging the body by reaching, squatting, and stretching to access different wall areas, as well as physical mini-games.

How we built it

We utilized the Meta Presence Platform to implement Scene Understanding and Passthrough capabilities of the Quest 3. The Logitech MX Pen was integrated into the app to provide a natural drawing and writing experience, leveraging the 1:1 mapping of Meta controllers. We also incorporated Photon Network and some of its asset templates to enhance the drawing functionalities. Our focus was on demonstrating the core use case of the application and creating a strong foundation for future development, which includes integration with other applications for project imports.

Challenges we ran into

One of our initial challenges was ideating and scoping a concept that naturally fit mixed reality—combining the strengths of both physical and virtual spaces. We explored numerous ideas before settling on one that met these criteria.

As the hackathon progressed, we encountered difficulties in aligning our vision with newer team members. The founding duo had spent considerable time pre-hackathon refining our direction to focus on a specific, impactful concept. Given the constraints of the hack and that we had only a single technical developer on the team, we made the decision to continue the project independently. This allowed us to maintain momentum and stay focused on delivering a strong proof of concept. Given these challenges, we were hugely grateful the guidance of mentors from Meta, Photon, and Unity, who helped us navigate technical challenges and adapt quickly to new tools and techniques.

Another challenge involved integrating three different SDKs—Meta Interactions, Mixed Reality Utility Kit, and Photon Network. We resolved this by focusing on single-player use of Photon to hone the core mechanics of drawing, placing, and moving objects. One area for future development would be enabling the combination of controller use with hand-tracking, which would create an even more natural user experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We distilled hundreds of ideas into an impactful concept that we believe addresses real-world problems on multiple levels—from aiding dyslexic learners to helping creatives gain perspective on large projects— with the potential for a wide user-base. It uniquely leverages MR, the Meta Presence Platform, and the brand new Logitech MX Ink Stylus, introducing innovative features like 3D drawing on flat surfaces, changing pen colors, and object manipulation.

What we learned

This experience was invaluable in deepening our understanding of how to create ideas and applications that feel native to mixed reality by combining real-world problem-solving with the focus, fun and magic of XR. We’re particularly excited by how mixed reality allows us to blend technology with physical presence, contributing to a movement towards a re-embodiment culture that counters the negative health impacts of screen-based interaction. Developing multiplayer networking for VR with the team from Photon gave us a clear roadmap for the next steps required to evolve the hack into a fully-fledged app.

What's next for WonderWall

• Add spatial anchors that allow a virtual texture to dock with the physical wall space.
• Create a textured collider that acts as a UI 'home' and guides the user experience.
• Develop assets to fully showcase the app’s potential for large projects.
• Finish mini-games that let users set fire to, screw up, and bin-toss abandoned ideas and projects, making the most of MR's satisfying physical experiences.
• Produce a new demo video that properly showcases the app's envisioned use cases.
• Create a save system allowing projects to persist.
• Add import functionality and integrations with other applications and file types.
• Implement multiplayer and virtual modes for collaboration in shared spaces.

Built With

• interaction
• logitech
• meta
• photon
• presence
• unity