Project Idea
My project is going to be an Augmented Reality showcase of Formula 1 teams and Drivers. The idea is to showcase a team, their history, their season results, car livery, car statistics, and driver profiles/statistics.
Project Plan
This project is going to be difficult for a few reasons. The information on the teams and drivers is easily accessible through the Formula 1 website and the licensed video games. However, the real difficulty would come from the car models.
I looked at Fab for a model that I could use for the car and there aren’t any options available for free. There is a model I used for a previous assignment however I would still need to texture the model and that would be complicated. One option would be to hand texture each team livery in Adobe Substance Painter 3D but that would take a lot of time and likely wouldn’t be presented anywhere near what the teams actually look like. Another option would be to find out how I could photoscan the Formula 1 cars and then apply those images as textures in some software.
With all of that, the project could take some time to set up. I would follow an Agile development plan as the way they function would make sense for my project. The constant rinse and repeat project plan would work as I can develop everything for 1 team and then move onto the next, hopefully building up to all 10 teams and potentially a custom team should the time allow. Specifically a Scrum approach would be the best for my project.
The below chart is my project plan, mirroring the one above as a reference. It may not look similar to the one above, but it covers the essentials for my project plan and all that would need to be done is repeat the steps after every completion for each of the 10 teams.
As displayed in the diagram, I would collect all of the data and assets I would need for a single Formula 1 team and build everything for that team. This would be the car, the livery, the driver profiles, the statistics and the history. Through this part of development I will be finding out how to actually make everything and compile it together for the finished product.
After I finish the first team, I imagine it would be much easier to repeat the process for another team as I had figured out how I wanted the project to appear. As previously mentioned, the Agile development plan would be the best way of doing this and it would all be through time considerations as to how many teams I could complete. The first of the teams would take the longest time to put together as I will have to figure out how to get the livery together and tweak how I want everything displayed but every team after that would be much easier as a result.
The Gantt Chart below shows how I expect my project to go. The blue cells indicate the initial try-out and I expect to get the first teams graphic made in 3 Weeks. After that, I would follow the Agile development plan to get as many done as I possibly could before the deadline of January 6th (this is displayed in the green cells). The red cells within Week 8 indicate when I probably won’t be working on the project due to Christmas being that week.
Software
For the project I would likely be hosting the work on Zapworks. During the first few weeks of Emerging Technology, I experimented with Zapworks and really enjoyed using it. Out of all of the software I’ve been introduced to, I believe Zapworks to be the most efficient one for my project.
The use of Zapworks also means that I’ll be using Unity Engine as everything is set up in Unity. The past work I’ve done can be seen below with a Formula 1 car, all hosted through Zapworks.
The below image is a diagram of how the final product might look. It should show the Formula 1 car with the team specific livery, both drivers and statistics for them and some of the team history.
Part of my concept is to have the real driver ratings that are used in the licenced Formula 1 game, EA SPORTS F1 24. The below image is from F1 23, however it is very similar as it displays the driver name, nationality, overall rating and then specific ratings for Experience, Awareness, Pace and Race craft.
Another set of data I will be taking from is the real world results of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. From the website, I can see every result of the current season and seasons past. With this I will be adding to the driver information and team history to ensure that all the important details are present.
Target Audience
With my idea being wholly Formula 1 related, the target audience is the fans of the sport. Those looking to get more information about the sport or its teams and their drivers.
One way I imagine this would be put out to the public is through the F1 venues themselves. The way Zapworks functions would make it rather easy to put the QR code and connected graphic on things like visitor cards, event guides and at the team Fan Zones. The specific teams would be able to have their own information at their locations.
It would also be able to have on display at other F1 venues such as the Formula 1 Exhibition. There is already a lot of things on display and something like my proposed project would fit right in.
Problems in the Project
As I mentioned previously, the car model is one of my biggest problems with the project. With searching around online, I could not find a model for a 2024 specification Formula 1 car that was free. This is a really big concern for the project as I want the car on display so that the team has the same identity they have on track.
Alternative to a 2024 spec car, I do have a 2023 spec model from previous work that I could use. While not entirely the same, they are fairly similar so I could get away with it. Keen eyed Formula 1 fans may notice this but my project is focussed more on getting a showable product with accuracy in the data and design.
In addition to the car model being a concern, the team livery itself is a potential problem. Each team has their own expertly designed livery and it would be extremely difficult to replicate. It is because of this that I would find a way to put the liveries onto the models without having to texture them myself. This would be some research to do in the first week of my project as displayed in my Gantt Chart.
One way I could potentially do this is by using PolyCam. PolyCam is a 3D scanner that can take any environment or object from real life and make it into a 3D model. If I were to scan a Formula 1 car with this, the livery would apply itself. The app is also compatible with software such as Maya and Unity meaning I could import the assets where I would need them in the project. The only complication with this is I would need a Formula 1 car to scan. As stated in my Gantt Chart, this will all be figured out in the first week of development to ensure the project is possible.
How its been done before
After some research online, I discovered that my project had been made to some extent before in 2018. Immersiv.io had produced an Augmented Reality project that would display the current running of a Formula 1 race.
As you can see in the video below, their project displays a track map of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka from 2017 on their coffee table. You can see a graphic of the cars going around the track and which driver is piloting which car.
It is said that the user could also interact with the cars to display the car itself and then the drivers statistics.
Seeing this filled me with some confidence as it shows that my project can be made. I won’t be producing this to quite the level the team made in their project, however I expect that I’ll be able to produce a high level product regardless. After all, technology has moved on from where it was situated in 2018 and much more can be done in a much simpler fashion.
Ethics & Considerations
Within Emerging Technology, there are a lot of considerations to take into account. One of the biggest being user safety. In the past there have been large concerns with AR applications such as Pokémon Go when people would play while walking and not paying attention to the surrounding world. There have been cases of when this has caused accidents due to lack of concentration. In an article by the National Library of Medicine, “American research extrapolating from data available through social media suggested 113 993 incidents involving distraction of a driver, passenger or pedestrian by Pokémon Go in a 10-day period” (2018).
For my product, these safety concerns aren’t really taken into account. The project will be run from 2 screens: a computer and a mobile device. The mobile will run the QR code produced in Zapworks and the computer will display the image that will load all of the content to make the AR models. The user shouldn’t be at any danger when using it as it would be in their own environment and not out in public spaces.
Another consideration about Emerging Technology is the device compatibility and performance. Being Augmented Reality, Zapworks is brilliant in its optimisation, making it possible to run all of the AR things produced on some very basic smartphones. This makes me not worry about the devices people have as opposed to other Emerging Tech requiring things like a VR headset.
Zapworks has a list of the minimum requirements for its WebAR browsers that would be used on the mobile device to show the product which can be found here.
Another one of my concerns about using Zapworks to host my project is the fact of it using marker based AR. Marker based AR requires a tether of sorts, an anchor for the visuals to be attached to so that they can be displayed. Formula 1 events are known for being very busy and as such will probably have people getting in the way of the markers making it so people cannot see the graphics.
Its a concern as in congested areas (like F1 hospitality at a circuit or museums) many people probably won’t be able to see the experience. One idea I had to avoid this would be to use Adobe Aero instead of Zapworks. Aero doesn’t require the same anchors to scan like Zapworks. All that would have to be done is to scan a QR code and that would display all of the assets. However the problems that would arise with using Adobe Aero raises questions as to if it is better. The previously mentioned concerns about distractions while walking around would come into play and with something like this, minimal risk is a priority.
Accessibility is also something I am considering throughout development as I want people to be able to see the product. I would test different sizes and styles of font to make all of the text readable. This is something I would want to do as there isn’t much point in developing a graphical product which people cannot see.
How I could take the project further
Upon finishing my original plan, I wanted to think on how I could take my project further and potentially give more to the user than I’ve originally pitched.
One way I thought of doing this was looking back into a teams specific seasons that were famous because of driver merit or the team performance.
I thought of displaying information about Mercedes Petronas F1 team with their 8 consecutive Constructors Championship or the infamous 2016 season aptly known as the silver war.
Other things like the dominance of Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull, the ‘£1 Formula 1 team” Brawn GP in the 2009 championship or the brilliant championship fight in 2021 between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. All of these things could be showcased in a specific history segment that would make sense to include in the Formula 1 Museum as it can show the esteemed history of the sport.
Another way I’ve considered taking my project further is by adding animations to the graphics on the cars and to accessing certain information segments. I think it would make the product look more polished and hopefully add a nice layer of interactivity to the graphics.
References
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