Here are a few experiences we have put together to highlight a few aspects of what VR is really like, with a focus on working with text. If you have not already done so, please have a look at the basic Setup Guide here.
Globe
The first experience is simply our earth in space. Simple, but imagine what kind of visualisations we could potentially enable here…
Library with Large Card & Taxonomy Mural
In this simple experience you will enter a room with a large view of a physical, scanned, Linneaus slip, his taxonomy scanned on the left and part of a taxonomy created in Author on the right.
To enter: Click the link above and wait for Mozilla Hubs to load. Once this is done you can choose to ‘Join Room’, then ‘Enter’ when you see your audio options.
To exit: Pinch your pointing finger and thumb, or click the ‘Oculus button’ (O) on your right controller, then choose ‘Exit’, which will put you back in the browser. You can then click the left arrow (top left of the window) to return to this page.
Interactions: This is a static scene and designed to simply illustrate the usefulness of large screens on a wall in a workroom.
Development: Imagine, however, being able to swipe on the huge Linnean slip to see another one and another one. A stack of them are indicated by a small slip on the left and right.
Imagine also being able to tap on different texts to see connections to other information in the room, as well as being able to choose from a menu to draw forth more information.
Alternative View: There is also a test room with floating displays and a single floating connective line, to help us feel what kinds of displays work best. Objects, rather than flat text, will of course be more visible, as would 3D text but it would also take more space, so this is being experimented with. Click to launch room with floating text and lines or click to launch as a test Knowledge Room with wrap around Concept Map.
Mural
In this room there is just a mural of Carl Linnaeus’s Taxonomy.
To enter: Click on the link above, wait for the scene to load (a mural against a black background) then click ‘View in VR’, put your controllers down and use your hands to interact.
To exit: Click the ‘O’ button on your right controller.
Interactions: You can pinch your fingers (you need to hold your hand our in front of you so that your headset can ‘see’ your hand) and pull and push, to move the mural closer or further away.
This simple interaction makes it clear how this a VR view is more useful than simply having a large screen. Also with ability to fold
Constellation
This is a Map from an Author document showing how Defined Glossary Terms relate.
To enter: Click on the link above, wait for the scene to load (a mural against a black background) then click ‘View in VR’, put your controllers down and use your hands to interact.
To exit: Pinch your pointing finger and thumb, or click the ‘Oculus button’ (O) on your right controller, then choose ‘Exit’, which will put you back in the browser.
Interactions: This is a static map, you cannot move the elements about (yet) but you can pinch select text to see their relationships. Depending on settings, this display might be ‘on your head’ so if you don’t see it well, please move back a bit (weird bug)/
Exploratory room on the Future of Text Lab with manipulable cards
This room features 3 Carl Linnaeus card, a round table and a shelf.
To enter: Click the link above and wait for Mozilla Hubs to load. Once this is done you can choose to ‘Join Room’, then ‘Enter’ when you see your audio options.
To exit: Pinch your pointing finger and thumb, or click the ‘Oculus button’ (O) on your right controller, then choose ‘Exit’, which will put you back in the browser. You can then click the left arrow (top left of the window) to return to this page.
Interactions: Like other Hubs room the most essential interaction is social. Namely you can go in the virtual space and invite others. The main value being in a shared space focus on a specific topic, e.g Linnaeus’ taxonomy, and nothing else. Artefacts are present to enhance the conversation. Here 2 modes of interactions are illustrated. The first is the most constrained one, namely picking a card among (which clones it) then placing it on the wall. While getting closer transparent cubes will appear. They are snapping position, fixed placements where the card will be perfectly aligned. This provides the fredom to organize in space yet a pre-defined structure. One can imagine any structure, from a grid here to a tree to a graph. On the other side the round table supports entirely free interactions. One can take a card and put it there, as-is. Alternatively one can enable physics and give the card weight. The card can then be tossed, shuffled or rather delicately put on the side of another. One can imagine a back and forth between a structured and free process.
Development: Imagine being able to transform the selected structure, e.g a grid or graph with cards, to showcase it to others or even to apply the proposed selection to filter data.